BMW - Unfair policy

Billxx

BMW have changed the structure of their connected drive services.  You can no longer purchase single services such as Nav Map updates, you now have to buy a package of several services bundled together.  This would be fine but in my case I have two services expiring now, and one in May.  The choice they have given me is to buy the package now and lose 3 months of one service without a refund, or wait until May in which case I have two services that don't work until I renew in May.

Poor show BMW.

Any comments or help gratefully received.

Kind Regards,

Bill

MX5huggy

If the car does not have Apple car play / android Auto investigate installing a 3 rd party box that enables it. Then you won’t need the BMW subscription. 

Iceweasel

It depends on which package you choose of course - but in almost all instances the new packages are considerable cheaper than the situation in previous years when the services were purchased separately.

We are now faced with a choice of 4 packages - Small, Medium, Large, and Xtra Large - most owners on the BMW Owners forums are finding this an improvement and a money saving change.

I purchased the Medium package in November for £69 which was a lot cheaper than in previous years when the 3 services cost £49 each.

Losing 3 months shouldn't be a huge loss in the greater scheme of things and from now on all your services will renew at the same time.

Billxx

Out of the blue BMW have offered to extend the two services that have expired to May, so all three will expire at the same time and therefore I can apply the package.

Fair play to them.

Belenus

Billxx, what do you use the Connected Drive for?

We have a 7 year old BMW Series1 and we have never bothered to find out about it or use it.

We normally listen to the built in DAB radio or play CDs in the built in player. We can connect our mobile phones via Bluetooth for hands free use although we very rarely use them.

What else might we be missing out on?

Thanks

shiraz99

Belenus said:

Billxx, what do you use the Connected Drive for?

We have a 7 year old BMW Series1 and we have never bothered to find out about it or use it.

We normally listen to the built in DAB radio or play CDs in the built in player. We can connect our mobile phones via Bluetooth for hands free use although we very rarely use them.

What else might we be missing out on?

Thanks

Nav map updates.

Belenus

shiraz99 said:

Belenus said:

Billxx, what do you use the Connected Drive for?

We have a 7 year old BMW Series1 and we have never bothered to find out about it or use it.

We normally listen to the built in DAB radio or play CDs in the built in player. We can connect our mobile phones via Bluetooth for hands free use although we very rarely use them.

What else might we be missing out on?

Thanks

Nav map updates.

Thanks.

Our car does not have built in SatNav.

I rarely need SatNav. I have an old Microsoft Lumia mobile phone with Here Drive installed that I use on the rare occasions when I need directions. I update that at home.

Now I think about it, I last used it about 8 months ago so I should update it now.

Billxx

Belenus said:

Billxx, what do you use the Connected Drive for?

We have a 7 year old BMW Series1 and we have never bothered to find out about it or use it.

We normally listen to the built in DAB radio or play CDs in the built in player. We can connect our mobile phones via Bluetooth for hands free use although we very rarely use them.

What else might we be missing out on?

Thanks

Real time traffic information, excellent if you do a lot of miles.  It detects issues on the road and re-routes you round traffic jams and so on.

Belenus

Billxx said:

Belenus said:

Billxx, what do you use the Connected Drive for?

We have a 7 year old BMW Series1 and we have never bothered to find out about it or use it.

We normally listen to the built in DAB radio or play CDs in the built in player. We can connect our mobile phones via Bluetooth for hands free use although we very rarely use them.

What else might we be missing out on?

Thanks

Real time traffic information, excellent if you do a lot of miles.  It detects issues on the road and re-routes you round traffic jams and so on.

Thanks Bill.

We are retired and our days of doing a lot of miles are long gone. We used to do about 5,000 miles a year until Covid when that reduced to about 2,000 miles a year and most of that is very local.

I will however look into Connected Drive and see if it might be worth getting it.

Scot_Rob

I am confused by their new structure - and had somewhat contradictory response from their support team.

I took out Connected Package XL in February which I assumed included map updates. I have now had an email to say that my map updates are expiring and need to pay a further £79 for them.

On questioning this I received the following response...
"We've recently changed our product structure which means the ConnectedDrive services can no longer be purchased individually but instead as part of one of the Connected Packages."

and then went on to say

"I can confirm that the package structure has now changed which means that the Map Updates is now part of a stand alone service which has to be purchased by its self."

Which seems contradictory and increasingly expensive for add on services.

Think I will be sticking to Google Maps from now on!

Biketrials08

A while to wait but there is a 20% discount every year on Black Friday.