Firmware and Nav updates on '15

[Endless Summer]

Have a '15 M5 comp.

My Indy is offering to update firmware and nav to newer / newish (I think he said '21 software update)

I'm new to Beemer land (but lifelong car guy).

Couple questions:
- are there meaningful firmware updates I could expect?

Note: my car has a stage 1 tune (it's a 7 year old tune, custom and not overly powerful) so I'm not super inclined to wipe that out - unless you guys say the firmware update would be a game changer (I've been considering BM3).

Next - Navi / Maps seems obvious. Any downside?

Quoting $180 firm and $150 maps.

Appreciate any insights.

[JTG1]

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Endless Summer

Have a '15 M5 comp.

My Indy is offering to update firmware and nav to newer / newish (I think he said '21 software update)

I'm new to Beemer land (but lifelong car guy).

Couple questions:
- are there meaningful firmware updates I could expect?

Note: my car has a stage 1 tune (it's a 7 year old tune, custom and not overly powerful) so I'm not super inclined to wipe that out - unless you guys say the firmware update would be a game changer (I've been considering BM3).

Next - Navi / Maps seems obvious. Any downside?

Quoting $180 firm and $150 maps.

Appreciate any insights.

There are definitely others who know this stuff better than I do. But I can tell you that I just bought a 2014 M5, and I updated the Navi maps (which had not been updated since the car was new) myself for the cost of a $15 USB drive from Best Buy and a $9 FSC code on eBay. Pretty easy once I figured out the process.

I also updated some of the software on the car myself by downloading an update from BMW.com/update. Also very simple. But perhaps there are other updates that you can't do yourself, not sure.

Happy to point you to some threads on the Navi update where you can download the right maps for your particular vehicle, if you want to give it a shot. Enjoy the M5!

[crazyinp]

As JTG1 said Maps are easy and you can do it yourself way cheaper. I would ask what other firmware he is talking about. Flashing the car to the latest took me 5hrs. If he really going to do that for $180, totally worth. But I highly doubt he is talking about refreshing the whole car.

[tnetrider]

Map updates can be done by yourself for free... just Google for the instructions... Don't require any special tools other than the USB stick.

Good luck!