Big estate advice - Merc vs BMW?

[TW]Fox said:
You can spec it via the Connected Drive store I think? It's about £230.
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I may be wrong as all the information I have is only what I read online but I think that’s only possible if the car came with enhanced Bluetooth or wireless charging. Bog standard pro navy with no options = no CarPlay possible

it’s annoying how unclear it all is though and all these so called posh manufacturers should really spec it as standard as boggo hatchbacks mall come with it enabled by default
 
chanjy said:
Briefly. It’s based on an extremely old platform though so I pretty much ruled it out
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Fair enough, they are at the top of my list, very nice car in opinion. There certainly isn’t a massive choice when it comes to large estate car these day. You looked at the XF? I am not a fan of the later ones myself. They are also not quite in the same league either.
 
inflames said:
Fair enough, they are at the top of my list, very nice car in opinion. There certainly isn’t a massive choice when it comes to large estate car these day. You looked at the XF? I am not a fan of the later ones myself. They are also not quite in the same league either.
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Not considered the XF but it appears to be a huge amount of car for the money. Maybe worth thinking about!
 
[TW]Fox said:
You can spec it via the Connected Drive store I think? It's about £230.
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Don't forget that you must have the Enhanced bluetooth/wireless charging/wifi hotspot option in order to enable it. You can retrofit the wifi antenna (the bit you really need) easily though.
Mine came with carplay factory, I don't use it since I have an android phone but I used it today on her iphone thinking I would try google maps. The standard split screen arrangement kind of sucks, I found it highly frustrating having such a small screen view compared to the idrive nav. If I were to use it I would 100% get it aftermarket coded with fullscreen rather than the standard option from BMW.
 
I've never personally seen the value of car play if the factory system is good. The only time I've been glad to have it is when using a car without nav.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I've never personally seen the value of car play if the factory system is good. The only time I've been glad to have it is when using a car without nav.
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Benefit for me isn't really the nav, it's the ability to switch between podcasts and spotify without touchign the phone when driving. It's also great at reading whatsapp messages out to you and being able to reply, not just texts.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I've never personally seen the value of car play if the factory system is good. The only time I've been glad to have it is when using a car without nav.
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Factory system is merely ok though. Today you really expect to have live map updates, accurate and up to date info on roadworks/closures/traffic/speed cameras none of which the idrive system has. It is kind of obselete already and with carplay that will never happen. You really do need full screen though, looking at a tiny screen way over on the passenger side is unacceptable compared to glancing the instructions on the HUD. Neither solution is perfect.
 
Clarkey said:
accurate and up to date info on roadworks/closures/traffic/speed cameras none of which the idrive system has
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It certainly does in every G30 I've ever driven (Speed cameras are available now too but only for iDrive 7 I think).

The early system in yours isn't as good as the newer one which has Integrated Spotify etc as well but it's better than the one in my car which I find absolutely acceptable.

We could be here all day arguing the merits of Google Traffic v BMW RTTI and there are fans of both who are convinced the other is terrible but in my experience they both have pros and cons and are, on balance, about as good as each other.

chanjy said:
It's also great at reading whatsapp messages out to you and being able to reply, not just texts.
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Not a fan of messaging when driving irrespective of how hands free it may be, so not a function I either miss or would want :D
 
[TW]Fox said:
It certainly does in every G30 I've ever driven (Speed cameras are available now too but only for iDrive 7 I think).

The early system in yours isn't as good as the newer one which has Integrated Spotify etc as well but it's better than the one in my car which I find absolutely acceptable.

We could be here all day arguing the merits of Google Traffic v BMW RTTI and there are fans of both who are convinced the other is terrible but in my experience they both have pros and cons and are, on balance, about as good as each other.
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It has them in the form of RTTI but that is woefully inaccurate in my experience, gmaps/Waze is a million times better. Mine does have Spotify, but it doesn't work on Android any more.
 
Clarkey said:
Mine does have Spotify, but it doesn't work on Android any more.
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From IDrive 7 onwards Spotify is part of iDrive - it doesn't use your phone. It's really good - sign into your account by scanning a QR code and it just works. Probably the biggest improvement I've noticed in an iDrive version :D
 
If you are using Idrive internal spotify app, doesn't that restrict you to lower quality spotify music 128Kb/s, and you have to pay anually for their sim ? (which you would need to do for nav anyway) , but, if you use AA/CP this allows you to access 192Kb/s service, within the Bluetooth sound bandwidth limitations.
I find it annoying that inbuilt sound apps (like Polestar too) don't give you access to best quality streaming service options.

OP Is the pretty Arteon break out ?, for £25K you'd probably be restricted to petrol 200bhp though.
 
I watch these threads with amazement.
It’s a different world to the one I live in.
I would be interested to know what sort of salaries you IT guys are earning.

(nothing wrong with this one in general).
 
SkodaMart said:
I watch these threads with amazement.
It’s a different world to the one I live in.
I would be interested to know what sort of salaries you IT guys are earning.

(nothing wrong with this one in general).
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It’s really not an expensive car in the grand scheme of things! Compared to some of the cars we see in motors :D

We’re talking new VW Golf kind of money here so hardly extravagant
 
chanjy said:
It’s really not an expensive car in the grand scheme of things! Compared to some of the cars we see in motors :D

We’re talking new VW Golf kind of money here so hardly extravagant
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It’s more the need for top of the range prestige cars.
 
Housey said:
Nothing about need for most.
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Want? They feel the ‘need’ to want a prestige car?
To impress others or?

I mean how the hell do people manage with the wrong sized touch screen or version of idrive?
It must be truly horrific to live like that.
 
[TW]Fox said:
From IDrive 7 onwards Spotify is part of iDrive - it doesn't use your phone. It's really good - sign into your account by scanning a QR code and it just works. Probably the biggest improvement I've noticed in an iDrive version :D
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Sounds like a big improvement then, the one I have is a little disappointing tbh. Be great t have Android auto too. I couldn't justify the upgrade cost of an LCI just for a better infotainment system though.
 
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