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Old 20.03.2010, 08:44
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Re: bringing my USA BMW to CH?

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FriendlyKiwi already gave you great info, but I'll add my two cents. Although the frequency bands can vary by country, a U.S. FM receiver will work fine in Europe. I brought my 3 series from the U.S. two years ago, I have driven it in four countries here and the radio works fine not that I use it much.
So basically, all you need to do is buy the new NAV maps and you'll be fine.
NO!

BMW USA radios tune in 200kHz increments, as is standard in the USA
They stop on odd numbered radio stations, ie 101.1, 101.3, 101.5 etc

Here in Zurich this means you cannot tune to Radio 24 on 102.8 and 102.0

If you are in a town where by luck the radio is on an odd numbered channel eg 101.1, then you can receive it. But certainly you will have great dificulty receiving FM radio in Switzerland especially when the RDS tries to automatically change frequencies to those that cannot be received. So driving around and listening to DRS3 will be really frustrating.

I have a friend who had a USA BMW that wasn't reprogrammed to ECE.
He got so frustrated with the radio, and the other USA differences, eventually he sold the car and bought a ECE model.
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