OT(?) Brain dead car manufacturers

Probably only by buying bootleg copies of the updates from eBay (assuming they come on a CD/DVD). It's what I did for my jag.

Tim

How much extra cash do you have to contribute for that C4 Grand Picasso?

Cheap! When I bought my Citroen C5 estate two & a bit years ago, I was quoted £177 for the annual upgrade on top of the already outrageous price for the satnav. Instead, I went to Aldi and got a Garmin Camper model which caters for my caravan for £199.99 and with lifetime updates. I would have liked the built in one because I then would also have had the option of the reversing camera but not at those exorbitant prices. I suspect they get away with charging what they like because most of the cars are bought by fleet buyers who probably get better deals.

John M

Jethro_uk scribbled

My brother has coughed up a small fortune for Skoda satnav. £100 extra to put in a box to connect to his mobile phone. All because he didn't want a separate satnav screen on the top of his dash. The app updated over Xmas and stopped working. Made I laff.

I don't think I'd pay extra for a built-in Satnav - I'd rather have a stand-alone one which I can update (or not) as I choose.

My 11-year-old TomTom Go is still going strong, but if starting from scratch I'd buy a current model with lifelong map updates included.

The Here ap is quite good if you just want to use a phone for navigation. Don't know how long it will remain free now that Nokia have sold it to a consortium of German car makers.

Built in ones, as on my Mazda, can be updated. There's an SD card normally plugged into the car which I can remove and plug into my computer for upgrading.

and - I don't have a dashboard mounted display which nearly led to my wife's car failing its MOT.

My built-in sat-nav came with updates free for the first three years.

Not that I find the updates are particularly necessary. I used a previous car for seven years using the original data disks (those were £120 each and you needed one per country, as opposed to the pan-European data in the current one). I rarely found it thought I was off road and, when that did happen, it was always a well-signposted major road improvement, such as the Millau viaduct.

That's good. I hadn't realised Motability would cover so much of that cost.

Looking for something to take your Mother on a day out:-)

ARW scribbled

They've got a lot of bathroom showrooms to visit.

Not really. She's too old to qualify for Motability but thank you for asking.

They should just fit an Android tablet in the dash, and provide an app for car-specific functions. Then you can add whatever satnav you like.

Yes, mustn't obscure any part of the windcrseen cleared by the wipers. In several countries, they aren't allowed to obscure any part of the windscreen, and/or aren't allowed to be attached to the windscreen.

But is that *just* satnav or does it bring along other things like DVD player, 5.1 sound, DAB, USB, analogue, bluetooth audio input, bluetooth phone, voice command, and the best part of half a kilowatt of amplification? That's what going from the "standard" satnav screen to the 7" one broadly does in my car (and you can add even more speakers and power...)

But is that *just* satnav or does it bring along other things like DVD player, 5.1 sound, DAB, USB, analogue, bluetooth audio input, bluetooth phone, voice command, and the best part of half a kilowatt of amplification? That's what going from the "standard" satnav screen to the 7" one broadly does in my car (and you can add even more speakers and power...)

Does a car REALLY need all that bollocks? The average motorist cannot use indicators and mirrors so why the f*ck do they need all that s**te to mess with?

But then they couldn't charge you a grotesque amount of money for satnav upgrades (e.g. £450 for an Audi)

Not a bad law, given that I've seen people with them stuck to the windscreen immediately in front of the driver in their line-of-sight. I usually position mine so the only thing it obscures is the bonnet.

Back to basics. You won't get any problems with FM reception on this:

Both apple and Google are making moves into the pace with effectively specific car version of iOS and Android (for car makers to use). out the makers own version in time unless the makers get their s*it together. The interfaces they build seem to be invariably crap.

The build in satnavs I've used seem to be inferior to my phone anyway.

I find the screens to far away from my line of site as well really.

I know I've never understood the stick in the middle of the windscreen mounting. I have mine mounted just above the top of the dash board where it isn't in the way, but easily glanced to and accessed. (with a side window mount in the Galaxy, windscreen mount in the old Mondeo

The ones they fit to new vauxhalls include a mobile wifi hotspot so you can stream video, etc.