Took a trip from Washington DC south to the Hampton Roads area recently. My trip took me down 95 south, to I-64 East into the Norfolk area.

In short, the GPS Navigation was dead on, even with no VSS wire connected. (My "learning" screen shows left turn, right turn, and distance all at approx 50% learning). It even stayed fully on target/tracked/clicked down the miles while traveling underwater inside the Monitor/Merrimac Tunnel. (how did it accomplish that, with no VSS??)

XM Navtraffic worked a bit in the Northern VA area, as well as the Hampton roads area. Coverage is still VERY spotty. If this doesnt improve in the next 12 months, assuming there is no merger, Im cancelling XM and going with the NFL and Stern on Sirius. If Sirius gets a D3 compatible Navtraffic that WORKS well in the DC Metro area, Im switching regardless.

The XM worked fairly well, but through the Williamsburg/Newport News sections of 64 (tall trees on both sides of the highway), the XM cut out a number of times, and was quite annoying. Dont have this problem in the DC area. My XM antenna is mounted on my dash, far forward into the passenger side corner of the windshield.

your xm will work much better with the ant outside

Glad to hear of the positive review of the navigation routing. This is one of the biggest concerns I have of the D3.

your xm will work much better with the ant outside

Thanks for the suggestion. I was afraid of that, though. I was really hoping to have no external clues to any internal audio mods. Guess I will go the route of moving the antenna to the trunk lid.

Glad to hear of the positive review of the navigation routing. This is one of the biggest concerns I have of the D3.

My passengers (one who owns a 2001 740I Sport with factory BMW Navigation) were duly impressed at the unit overall, but particularly with the Navi portion. The detail of the instructions ("turn slight right onto exit...22b..then slight left..onto I-664") combined with the preciseness of when she gave the instructions..combined with the graphic view, was excellent. The unit also does VERY well with automatic re-routing. On the way back, we got off route, and hit a gas station/7-eleven in a downtown area. The D3 re-routed us back to the interstate, but via a shortcut through a neighborhood that I wasn't aware of..and I grew up in that city! The time to arrival estimates were very accurate throughout the entire trip. In the Hampton Roads area, the highway sign/construction icon overlays were accurate, pointing out construction areas with precision.

But again..the weakest link by far, is the Xm Navtraffic portion. I'm fairly certain it's not Navtraffic itself, but the lack of consistent and comprehensive data being supplied to XM's Navtraffic system via the reporting agencies.

The XM worked fairly well, but through the Williamsburg/Newport News sections of 64 (tall trees on both sides of the highway), the XM cut out a number of times, and was quite annoying. Dont have this problem in the DC area.

DC is XM's headquarters, and such has excellemnt terrestrial repeater coverage. Whenever I travel through the Ft McHenry tunnel in Maryland, I never lose an XM signal thanks to repeaters.

Coverage is still VERY spotty. If this doesnt improve in the next 12 months, assuming there is no merger, Im cancelling XM and going with the NFL and Stern on Sirius.

If you have poor reception with XM satellite (not terrestrial reception) in certain areas, good luck with Sirius' geosynchronous orbits Even more dropouts. XM's geostationairy orbit provides much better signal. Sirius' next satellite launch will actually be geostationary also.

Thanks for the info.

I did notice that when I was heading back on I-64 West (return trip), I had minimal XM dropouts in the same spots where I had MAJOR dropouts heading I-64East. Im guessing XM's sat's were "behind" me on the way down, and having the antenna on the dash allowed the roof of the car to block the signal.

Since I was "facing" the sats on the return trip, this problem didnt occur.

Just a hypothesis

I did notice that when I was heading back on I-64 West (return trip), I had minimal XM dropouts in the same spots where I had MAJOR dropouts heading I-64East. Im guessing XM's sat's were "behind" me on the way down, and having the antenna on the dash allowed the roof of the car to block the signal.