Big Blooper with BMW "Mayday" Cell Phone System

[DGuyton@xxxxxxx]

If you're in the market (as I was recently) for a new Bimmer (any of the 3, 
5, or 7 series), then if your dealer is worth talking to they have no doubt 
mentioned BMW's new "Mayday" cellular phone system.

The brochures, paperwork, and up-training hit BMW dealerships about 8 weeks 
ago here in the States.  

What is the "Mayday" system?  It's a combination cellular phone (still the 
old analog system unfortunately) and GPS navigation system.  If you're 
safety-conscious this is a great play for any luxury or near luxury car 
manufacturer.

Essentially, what happens is that under any of several circumstances, your 
Bimmer automatically transmits your vehicle's longitude and lattitude to 
BMW's central monitoring station.  

The circumstances or scenarios I'm talking about include: upon any deployment 
of an airbag (i.e. something more than a fender-bender), someone breaks into 
your Bimmer and sets the alarm off, someone manages to steal the bimmer 
(towing, hot-wiring, etc.) -- note in this case the "Mayday" system also 
transmits your vehicle's direction of travel, and if your Bimmer breaks down 
or you need directions (via BMW Roadside Assistance), the Bimmer folks know 
where you are so getting assistance is a snap -- especially if you're 
travelling in unfamiliar territory.  :) 


Now, here's the catch which I want to inform everyone of.  As far as I know, 
my experience was the catalyst that brought this problem to the attention of 
BMW AG (i.e. it's not a purposeful mess-up, it's a very poor undersight on 
someone's part).

The catch is that this system will only work properly on vehicles equipped 
without the DSP upgraded stereo system (i.e. with the standard stereo).

Now, that might not sound like that big a deal until you consider who is 
buying these cars (brand new ones), and what would be one of the first things 
you think about adding if you are custom ordering a vehicle or if you are a 
dealer ordering a fleet of new cars?

For instance, all of the dealers in my area always order all of their 7 
series models with the DSP.  And have you ever seen a 540i without it?  After 
all, if you're going to spend 50 - 95k on a new car, don't you want a stereo 
that rocks to go with it??

Personally, this is a ridiculous and inexcusable oversight on someone's part. 
 I can't believe that BMW would release a product that will no doubt be 
unusable on at least 90% of the customers it's targeted at.

Who is going to spend $1400 or more on this "Mayday" system without first 
adding other options?  You're not likely to buy this if you are purchasing a 
318 with the standard stereo and only heated seats as an option.  But if 
you're in the market for a 740 or 750, then why not throw this in there?  
Since you are already out at least 75k, what's another $1500 or so?

Don't take this thread the wrong way...  I bought my 5 series a few days ago, 
and I love it.  It's by far the smoothest vechicle I've ever owned.   I'm 
simply stunned at the lack of thoroughness from a company with such an 
excellent reputation for research and dev, build quality, and customer 
service.

- -Dave Guyton
DGuyton@domain.elided

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