telephone quick dial on the steering wheel

[westminsterbmw]

Just bought a new BMW 528, and went through the manual tonight, wasn’t quite impressed with the concise nature of the manual. There are a lot of things the manual doesn’t cover and I have to sit in the car and search through the idrive owner’s manual to get answers.

Is there a complete owner’s manual available for download somewhere online?

Also there’s still a question I can’t quite figure out: every time when I press the telephone button on the right lower corner of the steering wheel, I get a list of recent dialed numbers and I can scroll through them and find the name/number I’d like to dial back. I notice however, it doesn’t allow me to dial when I press the telephone button unless it’s a numerical number only. It allows the dialing of voicemail number, but doesn’t allow dial of any names with number associated with them.

[Titanflux]

You can get the US version of the manual at http://cache.bmwusa.com/pdf_adf7a410-585f-4f63-81d5-3901406002f5.arox however it's really no different yo the big thick one that comes with your car anyway.

If you don't have full voice control (normally people only have it if the full professional multimedia nav pack was ordered) then you need to record names to certain numbers for the car to recognise - this is the Voice Phone Book section of the Communication part of the owner's manual.

If you do have full voice control then your car uses full voice recognition to dial people's numbers instead of a specific voice phone book as far as I can tell - you are right the manual is useless for working that out. There are a few ways to do this via voice control, but you can press the voice control button (not the phone button) and then saying 'Contacts' or 'Select name' then saying the name of the contact, the confirming you wish to call that contact.
(http://cache.bmwusa.com/pdf_adf7a410-585f-4f63-81d5-3901406002f5.arox)

[westminsterbmw]

thanks for the reply. i've figured out voice dial on the steering wheel. really, right now i'm just confused about the telephone dial on the steering wheel. when i press it, i can see a list of names/numbers from most recently dialed. naturally, i'd like to dial one of these numbers by pressing the telephone button. however, it only allows me to dial if the entry is actually a number or my voicemail. anything else with a name doesn't work.

[Titanflux]

thanks for the reply. i've figured out voice dial on the steering wheel. really, right now i'm just confused about the telephone dial on the steering wheel. when i press it, i can see a list of names/numbers from most recently dialed. naturally, i'd like to dial one of these numbers by pressing the telephone button. however, it only allows me to dial if the entry is actually a number or my voicemail. anything else with a name doesn't work.

I use the right-hand thumb-wheel and push it in to call. Always seems to work for me I think. I don't press the phone button to initiate the call itself.

[westminsterbmw]

yes, i press telephone button to bring up the list, then i scroll through the list with the right-hand thumb wheel on the steering wheel, but when i press the thumb wheel to make the call, it doesn't work, except when the entry is actually a phone number or my voice mail. if it's a name, it doesn't dial.

odd?

[Titanflux]

Doesn't seem right to me ..what phone?

[LuvMyE92]

You can get the US version of the manual at http://cache.bmwusa.com/pdf_adf7a410-585f-4f63-81d5-3901406002f5.arox however it's really no different yo the big thick one that comes with your car anyway.


Actually... no, at least not in my case. The manual delivered with the car in the USA is about 50 pages, versus the 80,410 pages in the actual full version as in the pdf that you referenced.

I guess BMW is trying to be green, save a tree, etc. Or maybe just save some money. The i-drive "help" screens are fairly useless IMHO.

[Titanflux]

Actually... no, at least not in my case. The manual delivered with the car in the USA is about 50 pages, versus the 80,410 pages in the actual full version as in the pdf that you referenced.

I guess BMW is trying to be green, save a tree, etc. Or maybe just save some money. The i-drive "help" screens are fairly useless IMHO.

The PDF contains only 276 pages - it's the pre-March changes version I think.

My paper copy for week 9 onwards cars for the UK/Australia/New Zealand has 280+ and also came with a basic guide of about 20 pages with a section in the back for including new info not in the full manual - which was blank - I guess blank because there is nothing new as the manual is a fresh release.

Your dealer should give you a proper manual surely?