Is Mini sat nav the worst fitted to a modern car?

[philcray]

Had our Mini Clubman Cooper S for a couple of years now and it is a very nice car, comfortable and practical with a good spec. However the sat nav has a number of design issues and has to be the most difficult to follow that I have come across.

The main problem is that the road you are due to follow is not distinctively identified relative to all the other roads on the screen, eg it looks to be faintly highlighted in yellow/green but then so are lots of the other surrounding roads? I may be missing something so if anyone knows how to make the actual route more visible, that would be appreciated. It also took me a while to work out how to control the volume as it does not mute the radio, which seems to be something of a basic design fault (I can't be the only person to be frantically trying to turn the radio down via the steering wheel controls, so I can hear satnav woman, not realising that in doing so I am actually turning her volume down. I have worked that out now but it is still a bit of a fiddly process).

The other annoyance is that it keep zooming out automatically when you zoom in to try try and focus on the nearby roads.

I have an "ancient" Garmin sat nav I bought about 10 years ago and this is a great example of simple functional design, no unnecessary info and the route is clearly highlighted. Kept up to date with regular downloads.

Any thoughts or tweaks to improve Mini sat nav welcome.....

[Challo]

philcray said:

Had our Mini Clubman Cooper S for a couple of years now and it is a very nice car, comfortable and practical with a good spec. However the sat nav has a number of design issues and has to be the most difficult to follow that I have come across.

The main problem is that the road you are due to follow is not distinctively identified relative to all the other roads on the screen, eg it looks to be faintly highlighted in yellow/green but then so are lots of the other surrounding roads? I may be missing something so if anyone knows how to make the actual route more visible, that would be appreciated. It also took me a while to work out how to control the volume as it does not mute the radio, which seems to be something of a basic design fault (I can't be the only person to be frantically trying to turn the radio down via the steering wheel controls, so I can hear satnav woman, not realising that in doing so I am actually turning her volume down. I have worked that out now but it is still a bit of a fiddly process).

The other annoyance is that it keep zooming out automatically when you zoom in to try try and focus on the nearby roads.

I have an "ancient" Garmin sat nav I bought about 10 years ago and this is a great example of simple functional design, no unnecessary info and the route is clearly highlighted. Kept up to date with regular downloads.

Any thoughts or tweaks to improve Mini sat nav welcome.....

GF works for BMW so had a number of these cars and never had issue with the sat nav. Do you have heads up display? The volume piece is a little odd as you can only turn down the sat nav voice when she is speaking.

The zoom in / out can be switched to manual in the menu. I think the default is auto zoom which I agree is annoying.

[TimmyMallett]

I've never had a car that has satnav that is simple and intuitive to use (recently VW and RangeRover). I just use Google Maps. Even on cars that have AndroidAuto and Satnav, I'll fire up Google maps via AA.

[Sheepshanks]

I thought they were all pretty crap - the VAG ones (we have in a VW and a SEAT) are legendary awful. The one in my 2004 Merc is fairly simple and just works (it's got pretty recent maps bought off eBay) although it goes a bit mental trying to reroute in busy areas.

[lj04]

I couldn't stand the map not turning for direction of travel, it can if you look in the menu. I just changed to the simple arrow and distance display.

[Zato]

Recently sold my 2017 Mini for a new VW. If you think Mini is crap try a VW. Paper maps are easier to use.

[Blib]

The sat nav in my 2006 Maserati Quattroporte would only accept the first three digits of any postcode.

So, it could guide you to the general location. But, after that, you were on your own.......

[Sim75]

BMW Nav is one of the best out there.
VW system is woeful.

Your route should be highlighted in white.

The roads also change colour depending on how busy they are in real time - and it's spookily accurate.
Red is a jam, amber slow moving etc. Almost acurate to the metre. Those colours run either side of your white line (journey).

Sometimes that can be a bit distracting depending on where you are (eg: in the middle of a city), but there are enough options to tailor it to what you feel most comfortable with.

Real time traffic can be turned off - that will take away all the colours but also the accuracy of your journey.
Automatic zoom can also be tunrned off - that is annoying so i've never activated it.

Edited by Sim75 on Tuesday 7th September 10:12

[highway]

I sold my 2015 MCS recently. The nav with heads up was excellent. I replaced with 2017 Gti. It’s awful in comparison. Unintuitive and unwieldy

[Alfa Pete]

Until 2 weeks ago I had a 2018 Clubman. I found the sat nav very easy to use and a much better system than that of the Golf that proceeded it.
I now have a Mazda 3 which is also pretty good and probably the equal of the system in the Mini for ease of use.

[esuuv]

My GF disliked the satnav in her 2016 MINI - last year I fitted a box that gives it carplay and android auto - so can use google or Waze which she much prefers.

Was about £200 and a couple of hours to fit - most of which was getting the dash apart without damaging it.

[blue al]

Blib said:

The sat nav in my 2006 Maserati Quattroporte would only accept the first three digits of any postcode.

So, it could guide you to the general location. But, after that, you were on your own.......

Perhaps that car thought it would never go the distance anyway…

[blue al]

Is your sat nav setup as north to south or direction of travel ?
I have a 2014 F56 and very happy, perhaps having the big screen helps, which also allows split screen
So close up and zoomed out for overview.

Edited by blue al on Tuesday 28th September 19:20

[fatboy b]

I’d say that most built in satnav issues are resolvable by rtfm

[CoolHands]

Mine is like this. White is my route, purple is (I think) the main A roads nearby. This is on a 2013 R-series car but I presume you are on a later F-series

Edited by CoolHands on Tuesday 19th October 21:52

[philcray]

CoolHands said:

Mine is like this. White is my route, purple is (I think) the main A roads nearby. This is on a 2013 R-series car but I presume you are on a later F-series

Edited by CoolHands on Tuesday 19th October 21:52

Mine is the later version, it is not as clear as yours unfortunately....

[Petrol Only]

philcray said:

CoolHands said:

Mine is like this. White is my route, purple is (I think) the main A roads nearby. This is on a 2013 R-series car but I presume you are on a later F-series

Edited by CoolHands on Tuesday 19th October 21:52

Mine is the later version, it is not as clear as yours unfortunately....

Jesus and that's clear? Doesn't the mini have carplay android auto?

The TomTom built in satnav is pretty good on my E class but I still prefer to use waze on Android Auto

[philcray]

That's clear to me, I use a 10 year old Garmin in my LR and that works fine (just needs regular updating of the maps)

[CoolHands]

Apple CarPlay is available on the OPs later model I believe. Mine is an earlier model so no solution.

OP read https://www.minif56.com/threads/is-carplay-posible...
And maybe send sb2002 a pm you could perhaps update to carplay

[CoolHands]

I may have found your problem

Very bland in greyscale:



In colour:



To change it click the joggle stick right from within the map, & click on Settings:



Then untick Traffic Situation/ Grey map