Couple of questions for new 2011 owner

[mjposner]

feel free to bitch first about not searching. That said:

I just acquired a May 2010 build M3 and have the following questions:

1. I have the original nav installed, is the 2013 upgrade worth the big bucks.

2. Is the combobox upgrade worth the cost (about 850.00 installed)

3. Do I have the old software (240)?

4. 9231088, 9231090 or 9231092. How can I tell what version.

Thanks

[THE TECH]

I would always upgrade the nav, just personal preference.

I think the combox is more than worth it. Streaming music is great!

240 is the newest software.

[swartzentruber]

Originally Posted by mjposner

1. I have the original nav installed, is the 2013 upgrade worth the big bucks.Thanks

I had the 2011 software, not sure if it's much different than the 2010. I just did the 2013 upgrade (or 2012, whatever the latest is), and it's definitely not worth it at dealer prices. In fact, I think some of the routing is a little worse, and it still is missing a lot of POIs. You can search the A/V section of the forum and find the thread describing what I did, which was to download the software from a helpful forum member who hosts the full NAV update (about 25GB) onto a 32GB flash drive, then buy a code from some guy in Eastern Europe that you need for every NAV upgrade (may sound sketchy, but he's done this for a lot of forum members). His pricing ended up a little over $50 in USD (though he wants payment in Paypal in Euros), and at that price the upgrade seems marginal to me; anything more and I wouldn't consider it.

As far as the Combobox, I have it, and I think the main value is running apps. If so, I don't find the usefulness all that compelling, and I wouldn't update for that price. It would probably be more useful to someone using Pandora, but I listen mostly to Sirius. The main BMW app is kind of lame. I think the most interesting feature is being able to see exactly how much gas is left in the tank to the tenth of a gallon. I keep thinking at some point they'll release some compelling app making me really glad I got it, but so far not so much. If they ever get emails from the iPhone working, that might do it -- you can get text messages right now, but not emails. I'm sure you can get a better answer in the forum specific to this, where you can find out exactly what you get with this upgrade, and then decide if it's worth it.