I was talking to someone over the weekend the TL's HFL came up. I was describing how it works with me new V600. He said his old BMW 3 series had the same thing. The car was a 2000 325. I thought the TL was the first car to have this feature. Or is the TL the only one to use bluetooth, while others have had a comparable feature using other technology? I've searched around but could not come up with a definitive answer. Thanks.

I read that Audi will be putting a bluetooth connection in some of their cars starting in '05. Hopefully this will start to make its way into more and more vehicles. I think it's very convenient and a great safety feature.

 

Well I had a 2000 323CI. The only option was to install a BMW phone kit. The kit would take out the cup holders and a add a hard wired cable. Then you needed to buy a BMW/ Verizon (or what ever else the offered, I had verizon so that was what I looked for) Phone. The kit and phone were about $1500 (crazy to me just for hands free!!!). You needed to plug in the phone every time you got in the car. But once you did you had TL like controls, they were on the steering wheel. Never got it way to much money. Don’t know if it had voice dial or not. Just know it was Pre wired (BMW term meaning "going to cost more money").

P.S The TL BLOWS that away !!!!!

The Bolt

 

BMW does not and did not have bluetooth yet....

 

hmmm ... I would ask him which bluetooth phone did he use. I'm not sure there were any commercially phones available in 2000.

Here's some recent BMW/Bluetooth news.
http://www.blueserker.com/html/modul...rder=0&thold=0

 

I was under the impression that the 2005 BMW M3 now offers bluetooth!

 

About time they caught up!

 

Thanks. That's what I thought. I figured it was something like the phone kit described. It wasn't worth arguing over. I didn't think there were and Bluetooth phones around back in 2000.

 

Your statement is incorrect.

BMW DEFINITELY offers Bluetooth and started doing so in 2003.

Addiitonally, it is backwards compatible to an extent. A friend of mine has it in his 2002 M3 coupe.

I think it does not work on anything older than 2001, but that may not be entirely true.

 

BMW offers bluetooth in the 3 series for sure, but the cost is tremendous -- last time i looked 1,300- 1,500 dollars for the kit installation. Doesn't really surprise me -- BMW accessories are all priced higher than cheech marin.

 

The only thing Acura did first re:bluetooth was make it standard. BMW has had it as an option first. It does not cost $1500. It is more like $500 but depends on the application. The 5 series has it standard for 2005 and putting it in a 2004 costs between $200 and $500.

The interface is pretty similar between the 5 series bluetooth and the TL. I think that the TL's interface is a bit better that the 3 series.

From the complaints listed here, I think that the BMW version is a bit more reliable than the TL and I've heard that sound is better in the BMW. Mine always pairs, call waiting works fine etc. We don't get battery strength though. The germans actually did something electrical right here...