SPV E200 with BMW Bluetooth car kit

[Guest Mark T]

Has anybody managed to get an SPV E200 to work properly with a BMW factory-installed Bluetooth carkit? I've seen a few earlier posts on this site from people saying they can't get it to work at all.

I've actually managed to get it working partially. I even managed to transfer numbers from the E200's phonebook to the car (you have to beam them by Bluetooth one by one before you switch the ignition key back to the zero position on the car to complete the pairing). But the problem is that I can't get the phone to connect to the carkit as soon as I get into the car; the Bluetooth connection only seems to be initiated once I actually dial a number. And as it seems to take about 10-15 seconds to establish the Bluetooth connection, by the time I actually hear anything through the car's audio system, the other person has sometimes hung up, or if I'm checking my voicemail I've missed the first message.

While I'm actually on the phone, I can even see the phonebook entries on the car's display. But as soon as I hang up, the Bluetooth connection is broken and I lose the phonebook.

Does anybody have any hints?

Is there any way of changing the Bluetooth settings so that it will connect to the Bluetooth "headset" (ie. the car kit) continously, rather than only when I dial a number? I tried a Nokia 6310i, and that worked perfectly, automatically connecting as soon as I get in the car.