Sat Nav Quality

I believe that your complaint should be with the manufacturers of the maps as well as the car company. The whereis based maps have had updates for several years for other manufacturers available online for about $250. The VW ones were V2 for several years and they have recently been issuing V3 which i picked up today from the Skoda dealer FOC as it didn't come with the new car. The V3 is not alot different in my area to the V2 road wise.

That being said, I have a road near where I live, that I have complained about to whereis that you can turn right at the T intersection onto the main thoroughfare however when under navigation it states that you need to turn left go to the next intersection and then make a U turn to continue your journey. Now this has been on whereis books for over two years and I am yet to see the upgraded map.

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Originally Posted by coastie

I believe that your complaint should be with the manufacturers of the maps as well as the car company. The whereis based maps have had updates for several years for other manufacturers available online for about $250. The VW ones were V2 for several years and they have recently been issuing V3 which i picked up today from the Skoda dealer FOC as it didn't come with the new car. The V3 is not alot different in my area to the V2 road wise.

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+1
the v3 (version 16) map released by whereis only covers upto 2009.
they r yet to release a later version.
apparently there is not going to b a version 17 map update available for vw. The next update available will be Version 18 in late 2011/early 2012!!!
dats crap!!!

not much VwAG can do there.

Coastie, I suppose my main complaint is with the mapping company. They are just too far behind. But what is VAG doing dealing with them if they are so bad? The unit itself, as mentioned earlier, is good in all its other functions but will be better when installed with at least half decent maps. VAG should tell the mapping company to get its act together or they will be finding another supplier.

Because in Australia we have Sensis making the maps and that's it. Sydways/Melways have repeatedly missed the chance to provide the maps, and instead make stupid ads paying out GPS units like they will disappear tomorrow. Tomtoms map share is the best thing ever as Sensis take years to make corrections. And why wouldn't they, its not like anyone else is making competition for them.

I have had one now for 18 months now and you get used to it. TomTom certainly has more bells and whistles (and a groundspeed readout which I miss) but on the whole, the performance of the Columbus is satisfactory.

The directions seem to be OK. yes it does call the road numbers instead of the road name, but consider it a learning experience. Road numbers are predominantly used in the UK and Europe over road names so I suppose it's a hangover from that.

OEM GPS nav systems in general seem to be a cash cow for lazy manufacturers. The one in my wife's Mazda is even worse and the screen is tiny.

The best thing I like about the Columbus Nav is the full integration into the car. The MFD display is great which tells you what road you are currently on. My bluetooth and rear view camera integrate seamlessly. The compass heading turns in 25 degree increments which isn't that accurate though.

I hate dash mounted nav devices with wires and power leads everywhere. I used to have a TomTom on an HP PDA and dimming the screen was a 20 button marathon if you couldn't get the stylus out and tap the screen in the right spot.

Screen dimming seems to be a problem with a lot of dash mounted systems judging by the bright screens you see on other car's dashboards at night. No problem there with the Columbus.

Only 18 months to go and I hand the car back to the lease company so I'm not going to lose any sleep over minor issues.

I'll start looking for a new car in 12 months and it will probably be a Skoda, probably one with a Columbus Nav.

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Originally Posted by CanberravRS

Skoda updates are free dude... read your manual

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You got a page reference? Last time I checked with the dealer it was going to cost $1500

.....unless I missed the sarcastic smiley in your post......

My understanding was there was a charge too, there were plenty of discussions about it. Unless they have scrapped that with these now getting included standard.

it would b nice to know for sure exactly how much it will cost for a map upgrade for the columbus system.
free would b good, but i ain't counting on that being the case.
$1500 would b way off!!!
from whereismaps, u can purchase it (v16 = vw v3 dvd) for $199.
i'd go with $200-500 by the time vw wrap their fingers around it and sell it through the dealers.

I was told by a dealer that the Audi map discs were approx $800 and that the Skoda ones would likely be a bit less but there is no part number listed for them.

Last time I checked (last service) there were no new maps for Skoda. The $1500 price I got from Jarvin's when I picked the car up. It may have been a throw away line by a car salesman, so it could be an exaggeration.