We ‘ve covered ConnectedDrive extensively on BF and even spoken with the engineers behind it all. But we haven ‘t heard from readers and owners about their day to day use of the product. While we expect most have had good experiences thus far, we have heard of a few less than stellar stories when it comes to dealerships having a full command of the functionality of the system. This latest comes from Greg and is a good example of some of the issues we ‘re seeing.

>I recently traded in my 2008 135i for a 2011 328i xDrive and I ordered it with the BMW Apps package and have the Connected Drive app on my iPhone. Problem is, it seems that I know far more about what the App and CD can do than anyone at the Chicago dealership and a majority of the functionality is not working.Having emails or texts read to me.Bluetooth iPod play.All “office functions ” and probably an issue or two more if I thought about it.My dealer simply said to schedule a loaner and they ‘ll figure it out, the sales men told me that ‘s how they guys learn the new stuff. However I really don ‘t want my car to be the designated guinea pig.

>So my question is two fold:

>1. Have all the functions “as advertised ” on the BMWUSA web site fully functional today, or are some not ready yet and will be coming in software updates?

>2. If indeed everything, or even most of it is FULLY FUNCTIONAL, any idea who to call to assist?Even when I contacted BMW corporate, they simply told me to go to different BMW dealers until I found one that knew what they were doing.

>This is rather disturbing on a $47,000+ car and I am especially surprised at the response I received from BMW Corporate to be perfectly honest.

While BMW ‘s ConnectedDrive site certainly can help it ‘s not quite the personal help that Greg probably needs. So let ‘s go through line by line and talk about the issues:

1. Emails and texts read to me

Based on what we ‘ve heard this is something only support by Blackberry phones at this time

2. Bluetooth iPod play

Bluetooth audio streaming should work but it ‘s something you have to set on your iPhone as well (similar to Airplay)

3. Office functionality

Blackberry is the only platform that currently has APIs for office connectivity that BMW supports.

Hope that helps! And as always if you the reader have better answers let us know in the comment section below.