GPS Database of BMW Dealerships

[PhilSpace]

After my last trip in search of a tire with the old list of BMW dealers, which is sorta crusty, I decided to make up a new one. I currently have 101 dealers on the list and am open to any ideas on ones that I might have missed or are out of business now.

As a first cut, I named the waypoints with the name of the city the dealership is in. I'm not sure how accurate some of them are and have put a ? at the end of the ones I'm not sure off.

If anybody else has any ideas, or would like to proof it and see if it's cool, PM me with your email address and I will send it to you. Once it is deemed realatively clean I will ask the mods/Baldy about maybe putting it up on the list in both a Garmin and flat file format for people.

Make sense?

[Steverino]

Is it uploadable or do we need to enter the location?

Pardon my ignorance.

[PhilSpace]

I currently have it in Garmin format, you could open it and then copy/paste the waypoints into one of your routes on the PC and then download them so you would be able to find the nearest dealer quickly if you have a problem on the road.

About half of the dealers are in City Nav 5, but you can't tell who is cars, bikes or both and searching can be clunky - this just gives you 101 waypoints that you can download onto your GPS and take with you if you need them.

I was thinking about long haul riding, like Ouray.

[Lobby]

Wow, this would be very nice. I'm all choked up that someone would go to this effort.

Seriously, thank you very much.

[PhilSpace]

Not good hearted, just looking for some folks in different parts of the country to sanity check for their area and make sure they waypoints are right and that none were missed.

Once it looks solid I will put it up for download.

[Marc]

Phil,

I've got a link to a file maintained by Gaylord McCurdy over at MRN - he is constantaly maintaining and updating said database. I've been using it for a while now and really think it's valuable.

It's here:

http://gmccurdy1.home.att.net/Dealers/Dealers.zip

When you open the Zip file, you'll see lots of different files - most of which are duplicates in different form. In the "What's New.doc" file (updated 5/13/2004), the last entry reads:

5-13-2004
New dealer:
Cape Fear BMW, 7211 Market Street. Wilmington, North Carolina 28411.
1-910-202-0269 (New gps waypoint identifier name: BMW WLMING).

Looks to me like it's what you're looking for! It's got Canada covered, too. I wish I had better contact information for Gaylord - I remember him to be a really good guy.

Marc

[PhilSpace]

Cool, I will take a look. I had an older one that was similar, but only about 70 waypoints and nothing was accurate. The one I built from the IBMWR list of dealers only has 101 actual dealers that appear to be still in business. His looks much better than mine.

You would think that BMW would put something like this out given they sell the SPIII and 2610 as well

[PhilSpace]

Originally Posted by Marc

Phil,

I've got a link to a file maintained by Gaylord McCurdy over at MRN - he is constantaly maintaining and updating said database. I've been using it for a while now and really think it's valuable.

It's here:

http://gmccurdy1.home.att.net/Dealers/Dealers.zip

When you open the Zip file, you'll see lots of different files - most of which are duplicates in different form. In the "What's New.doc" file (updated 5/13/2004), the last entry reads:



Looks to me like it's what you're looking for! It's got Canada covered, too. I wish I had better contact information for Gaylord - I remember him to be a really good guy.

Marc

This one does rock, I officially quit - he has 140 and had the new on in NC, that I hadn't put in yet.

[Marc]

One additional thing. The new beta Mapsource software allows waypoint categorization. Unfortunately, there is no way that I've found to allow for "bulk categorization" and it's a one-by-one process. However, once you do this, organization is a breeze. I have one category for family, one for BMW Dealers, one for Restaurants, one for Great Rides, and so on.

Phil, I'm sorry to be the turd in your punchbowl here. I just didn't want you to have to duplicate something that's already been done. I, for one, really appreciate your efforts to give something back.

Marc

[Voltar]

Strange, but I am doing the same thing. About 80% done.

I used (and suggest you use) the EasyGPS software to store the files. Why? Because it is free and supports almost every GPS.

[PhilSpace]

Originally Posted by Voltar

Strange, but I am doing the same thing. About 80% done.

I used (and suggest you use) the EasyGPS software to store the files. Why? Because it is free and supports almost every GPS.

Thanks, but I quit - Marc's link rocks - if anything I might build on it, but it's real good.

[Voltar]

Originally Posted by PhilSpace

Thanks, but I quit - Marc's link rocks - if anything I might build on it, but it's real good.

I'm agree. However, I get a load error on the EASYGPS file (the .LOC file). Has anybody got this one to load into EasyGPS?

[Marc]

I just loaded the database into the Garmin Mapsource program and everything imported perfectly. I don't have EasyGPS... sorry.

Marc

[Voltar]

Originally Posted by Marc

I just loaded the database into the Garmin Mapsource program and everything imported perfectly. I don't have EasyGPS... sorry

Marc:

I have MapSource v3.02. When I try to load the file it tells me 'version not compatable'. Does your Mapsource has a "Save as..." option that let's you save the file in a v3.02 format?

[PhilSpace]

Originally Posted by Voltar

Marc:

I have MapSource v3.02. When I try to load the file it tells me 'version not compatable'. Does your Mapsource has a "Save as..." option that let's you save the file in a v3.02 format?

3.2 is very back level - it's up to 5 with a newer version 6 in beta. Go to the Garmin website and download the current non-BETA version and it will work like a champ. The newer versions also talk to your GPS much better.