Floor mats thrown in by dealer as compensation for HD radio in new BMW

[KB1OKL]

Talk about an astute lawyer, at least now we know of one BMW buyer who was less than impressed with his HD radio:


Keefe Bartels, the law firm that's looking into whether consumers are unhappy with their new HD Radio car receivers, is hearing lots of stories. Whether legal action will result remains unclear.

/snip/

Keefe became interested in the technology when he bought a new BMW a couple of years ago. He says the dealer told him HD Radio wouldn't work but that it was built into the cost of the car, because the receiver was part of a package. He says the dealer threw in a set of floor mats to compensate.

Read more at http://www.rwonline.com/article/106152

 

[radioskeptic]

At least floor mats are useful. That's more than you can say for Huge Debacle Radio!

 

[KB1OKL]

Can you imagine something so bad that... EVAN A CAR SALESMAN IS AFRAID TO LIE ABOUT IT?

"This car was only driven on Sundays to church by a little old lady, but umm..errr. it has HD radio....
wait a minute, I'll throw you in some brandy new car mats."

 

[TSL2]

"Keefe told me he heard the AM signal blending between digital and analog and back again in a demo. He called it "bumping," which sounded like upcutting speech, as that happened."

Sounds similar to HD/FM where analog switches between HD, plus the echo as the signals sync.
I know it's the fault of an engineer who can't twist the right buttons.

Is this the best RADIO CAN DO? So it took an unhappy consumer advocate lawyer to finally investigate what we've all been saying.

 

[landtuna]

Paging Edwardo, BMW for 1.

 

[mmnassour]

What? BMWs don't come with mats, even at $70k+? ;D

 

[davideduardo]

What? BMWs don't come with mats, even at $70k+? ;D

The whole story sounds phony, so why should the mat part be true?

They come with mats, even the 3 series which starts below half the price you mention.

 

[mmnassour]

What? BMWs don't come with mats, even at $70k+? ;D

The whole story sounds phony, so why should the mat part be true?

They come with mats, even the 3 series which starts below half the price you mention.

Somehow, after reading the article, I don't think the lawyer in question was buying a bottom of the line 3 Series! ;D

But cars aside, it'll be interesting to see if this goes anywhere. Frankly. I'd be that HD Radio is so far off the radar of the buyers of these cars that even those who have been annoyed by it probably won't take the time to fool with it.

 

[TSL2]

What? BMWs don't come with mats, even at $70k+? ;D

The whole story sounds phony, so why should the mat part be true?

They come with mats, even the 3 series which starts below half the price you mention.

Somehow, after reading the article, I don't think the lawyer in question was buying a bottom of the line 3 Series! ;D

But cars aside, it'll be interesting to see if this goes anywhere. Frankly. I'd be that HD Radio is so far off the radar of the buyers of these cars that even those who have been annoyed by it probably won't take the time to fool with it.

You can't turn HD off, there's no switch for analog only.

It makes radio an annoyance, or at least happy BMW owners very unhappy with the brand. Not good!

 

[audioguy]

Agreed, all HD radios should be equipped with a defeat switch. Perhaps someone will suggest that a law be passed to make this mandatory.

Which begs the question: if people defeat HD reception at the receiver, why bother transmitting it?

 

[davideduardo]

Agreed, all HD radios should be equipped with a defeat switch. Perhaps someone will suggest that a law be passed to make this mandatory.

The BMW, since the first HD usage in '07, has an on/ off position in the radio "setup" screen.

Which begs the question: if people defeat HD reception at the receiver, why bother transmitting it?

The advantage of having an on-off option would be if a person lives in an are with marginal HD signals and does not want to have the fold-back happening often... or if a favorite AM has not mastered processing for digital and there are dueling codecs.

 

[davideduardo]

You can't turn HD off, there's no switch for analog only.

Nearly all "switches" in a BMW are via software controlled by the iDrive, and you can disable the HD capability with about 4 clicks from the main screen.

Wrong, again.

 

[KB1OKL]

The advantage of having an on-off option would be if a person lives in an are with marginal HD signals and does not want to have the fold-back happening often...

OR IN OTHER WORDS 99.9% OF THE UNLUCKY FEW WHO GOT STUCK WITH IT?

or if a favorite AM has not mastered processing for digital and there are dueling codecs.

 

[KB1OKL]

Agreed, all HD radios should be equipped with a defeat switch. Perhaps someone will suggest that a law be passed to make this mandatory.

Which begs the question: if people defeat HD reception at the receiver, why bother transmitting it?

For IBOC the missing defeat switch should be called a "kill switch"

 

[mmnassour]

Nearly all "switches" in a BMW are via software controlled by the iDrive, and you can disable the HD capability with about 4 clicks from the main screen.

Oh well, that should be easy to find given the inherent simplicity and user-friendliness of iDrive! :

And you thought HD Radio was a mess! ;D ;D ;D

 

[TVradioguru]

Oh well, that should be easy to find given the inherent simplicity and user-friendliness of iDrive! :

And you thought HD Radio was a mess! ;D ;D ;D

Really! Do you own a BMW? If so, then please explain how difficult you find the iDrive to use.

 

[davideduardo]

Oh well, that should be easy to find given the inherent simplicity and user-friendliness of iDrive! :

a. Did I miss it, or were there actually no class action suits about the iDrive? Hint: there is a message here.
b. It takes all of about 2 minutes to learn the basics of the iDrive. After many years of BMW ownership, I still find the knob and button air conditioning adjustments harder to remember than the iDrive ever was.

 

[mmnassour]

Oh well, that should be easy to find given the inherent simplicity and user-friendliness of iDrive! :

And you thought HD Radio was a mess! ;D ;D ;D

Really! Do you own a BMW? If so, then please explain how difficult you find the iDrive to use.

I had my brother in law's 7 series up in Colorado three years ago. Whereas in an "ordinary" car one would have to slide a switch to change the temperature of the air conditioning or press a button to change a station on the radio, the (first generation) iDrive required delving into several menus to do what would have taken a simple motion on a...normal...car. Doing either of these normal motions while the car was being driven was simply dangerous. At that point I wrote BMW off of my list of possibles.

I've had German cars before, Audis and such. While its performance was outstanding, the love of over-engineered technology places the BMW in its own realm. If you like that kind of thing, fine. But for me, the best engineering can sometimes be the simplest.

Hence...my feelings for HD Radio. I hope it and BMW will be very happy together.

 

[davideduardo]

I've had German cars before, Audis and such. While its performance was outstanding, the love of over-engineered technology places the BMW in its own realm.

Of course, I forgot that the easiest way to do many things on most BMWs is to push one button and tell it what to do.

 

[nd2023]

Sorry we can't force the HD radio to analog only or replace your radio but enjoy these floor mats!