SD Sat Nav

[Richo08]

Could somebody please tell me that I am right in thinking that the New A3 comes with Sat Nav hardware already installed regardless of if you take the Sat Nav extra?

If this is the case, if you choose to get the Sat Nav at a later date, does this just basically mean you are paying £500 for the SD card with the required maps and software?

If so, does anybody know any good websites where you can download the software and maps? Surely you can just copy this to an SD card, pop it into the slot and away you go???

 

[frazzeld]

The Sd maps are protected and the system has to be activated by Audi

 

[Richo08]

Oh ok. Didn't think it would be as simple as that

 

[mjcourtney]

Yep, someone tried copying a maps card on here a few months back and it didn't work. Part of the fee you pay to buy the SD card and maps from Audi includes the license and activation to enable the feature in the car. Prices seem to be in the region of £500 to £650 to have it retro-fitted.

 

[Richo08]

Seems expensive when you consider it probably takes Audi 5 minutes to set up. I'll stick to my Tom Tom

 

[glamic26]

Has anybody heard of anyone trying to root a version of android onto the Audi System, potentially allowing things like Google Navigation or Waze, as well as improving the phone and music playing features and the surprisingly poor standard Audi system?

 

[Gordo77]

The SD card system is very good, and main advantage is that its all integrated with the car. You also get nav info on the DIS.

 

[sebtomato]

The SD card sat nav system is mediocre at best. Any Tomtom live device worth £150 beats it quite easily, in term of clarity of navigation, 3D directions, live traffic information (a lot more granular, up-to-date and precise than TMC information, relying on a two-way mobile 3G connection rather than one-way radio information), speed cameras (fixed and mobile), voice messages, speed restrictions and other features such as live/internet searches.

A nice feature for instance is, when driving on a motorway with an average speed restriction (road work for instance), the Tomtom displays the current average speed you are driving at for that section...

And yes, I have compared the two while commuting back from work in heavy traffic. Using the direction from the built-in sat nav would have made the journey at least 45 minutes longer.

 

[Gordo77]

Seems expensive when you consider it probably takes Audi 5 minutes to set up. I'll stick to my Tom Tom

I negotiated it for free when I bought, so it definitely was a bargain for me!

 

[sebtomato]

I negotiated it for free when I bought, so it definitely was a bargain for me!

You mean you got £500 off (or rather £100 considering Audi's real cost) a £28,000 car? A real bargain indeed...

On my last Audi A3, the leasing company got 17% off...

 

[A3sportbackMark]

I have been a TomTom user for a couple of years now, but on the good feedback around April time from this forum, I added it to my options. I do like TomTom, however I have learnt to use it with caution. Once I did a 150 mile journey, which normally takes 3 hours, but I trusted the TomTom to divert me when I came to a jam. It kept diverting me through towns I'd never been to before, and put me in another jam! The total journey took 5 hours!
The reason I went for built in sat nav is the convenience of using it. The TomTom never sticks to the screen and often falls onto the floor.
it has a lot of features, that while you are driving you never actually use, can't be doing prodding it all the time when driving.
Time will tell if the SD sat nav is better for me, but I'm optimistic.

 

[Gordo77]

You mean you got £500 off (or rather £100 considering Audi's real cost) a £28,000 car? A real bargain indeed...

On my last Audi A3, the leasing company got 17% off...

Yes, I was quite pleased!

 

[97catalunya]

I have been a TomTom user for a couple of years now, but on the good feedback around April time from this forum, I added it to my options. I do like TomTom, however I have learnt to use it with caution. Once I did a 150 mile journey, which normally takes 3 hours, but I trusted the TomTom to divert me when I came to a jam. It kept diverting me through towns I'd never been to before, and put me in another jam! The total journey took 5 hours!
The reason I went for built in sat nav is the convenience of using it. The TomTom never sticks to the screen and often falls onto the floor.
it has a lot of features, that while you are driving you never actually use, can't be doing prodding it all the time when driving.
Time will tell if the SD sat nav is better for me, but I'm optimistic.

I am with you on this. I have TomTom now but I am looking forward to having it built in, after spending this much on a car I don't want to stick a sat nav on the screen and have trailing wires.
Also I think if you don't spend the money on it now your likely to lose the £500 or more when it comes to selling as most people when looking for a car of this quality will expect sat nav so will prob over look the car without and buy the one with it.

 

[hittchy]

You mean you got £500 off (or rather £100 considering Audi's real cost) a £28,000 car? A real bargain indeed...

On my last Audi A3, the leasing company got 17% off...

Well done on your leasing company. Surely it's what you (or the company) pays is what matters though. The lease company is in the business of making money so this bears little resemblance to what you end up paying.

If you're talking about the 8P, that's hardly surprising. They were throwing money at them mid-cycle. I've often beaten the lease company's pricing so I swing between leasing and buying on each new car. In fact, lease companies couldn't get discounts on S3s when I bought in 2008 as they were in limited supply. However, I still managed to secure close to the discount I got on the A3 8V. If I'd ordered a 'cooking' A3 I could probably have doubled the discount.

Be interesting to see if they'll get 17% on an 8V at the moment! All the companies I tried couldn't touch my own deal.

I guess it doesn't really matter what the poster paid for their car - just as long as they were happy with the deal. Some posters on here plan to keep their cars long-term where the initial discount doesn't have as much of an impact as it would if you were changing after 2-3 years.

 

[hittchy]

Also I think if you don't spend the money on it now your likely to lose the £500 or more when it comes to selling as most people when looking for a car of this quality will expect sat nav so will prob over look the car without and buy the one with it.

There is a growing trend for buyers to demand factory fitted sat nav on the used car market. I'm not expecting the full £500 uplift, but it'll probably be worth £250 to £300 more than a non-nav equipped car and make it more desirable.

 

[sebtomato]

Well done on your leasing company. Surely it's what you (or the company) pays is what matters though. The lease company is in the business of making money so this bears little resemblance to what you end up paying.

Wrong: in my case, it was a company car purchased through a lease company. My company was contributing to a 0% deposit of £5000 on the car, and then the lease cost was the difference between the price purchased and depreciated cost over three years, plus maintenance and insurance. Therefore, it did matter to me that they got a good discount. BTW, the car was ordered just when the 8P was released (none on the road), so I was surprised to see how much discount they could get on a new model.

 

[sebtomato]

There is a growing trend for buyers to demand factory fitted sat nav on the used car market. I'm not expecting the full £500 uplift, but it'll probably be worth £250 to £300 more than a non-nav equipped car and make it more desirable.

Most lease company would consider that all optional equipments are depreciated at 100% over three or four years. Therefore, the residual value of a sat nav would be not much, and it would in effect cost the original buyer around £12 a month (and the tech pack about £40 a month!)

 

[hittchy]

Most lease company would consider that all optional equipments are depreciated at 100% over three or four years. Therefore, the residual value of a sat nav would be not much, and it would in effect cost the original buyer around £12 a month (and the tech pack about £40 a month!)

True... but I'm not leasing this one. When you're selling or trading in, the sat nav will be worth a few hundred extra. On the used market people still like built in sat nav.

Everyone's purchasing decisions will be different. However I'd still rather pay £12 a month if I did decide to lease the next car than have a TomTom hanging off the windscreen!

 

[hittchy]

Wrong: in my case, it was a company car purchased through a lease company. My company was contributing to a 0% deposit of £5000 on the car, and then the lease cost was the difference between the price purchased and depreciated cost over three years, plus maintenance and insurance. Therefore, it did matter to me that they got a good discount. BTW, the car was ordered just when the 8P was released (none on the road), so I was surprised to see how much discount they could get on a new model.

What... in 2004? That's when the 8P was released. I'm pretty sure in a previous thread you said it was a mid-cycle facelift model in 2008. If that was the case, it wasn't a new model... merely a facelift to 'boost sales'.

You still miss my point here. It's what you end up paying that's important rather than discount or trade in price etc. Poor finance deals can easily eat up any discount.

BTW what you describe sounds more like a PCP to me. I'm not sure I understand you - contributing to a 0% deposit of £5000? Business lease finance in my experience is usually quoted as a fixed monthly figure and the deposit is based on this (i.e. 3+36, 6+24).

 

[STERLING VOID]

I did not go for the sat nav as an extra, so if I were to purchase this SD card, will it work straight away? is the GPS module already built into the MMI?

 

[RossR]

I did not go for the sat nav as an extra, so if I were to purchase this SD card, will it work straight away? is the GPS module already built into the MMI?

No other hardware is needed. However it does need "activating" which can only be done by an Audi dealership. Expect to pay a bit more than if you'd had it factory fitted.

 

[STERLING VOID]

That is Bull**** . I was hoping to pick up a card on Ebay

 

[RJMahieu]

Don't you also need the shark fin on your roof? Based on what my dealer told me, that's the GPS antenna and only comes on cars with built-in satnav.

 

[RossR]

Sorry but that's how it is. All the hardware is fitted as standard. It's listed in the SE spec as preparation for SD card based satellite navigation. To pay for that they charge over the odds for the SD card and try to stop people buying them from third parties. If you do manage to install a dodgy eBay card then don't be surprised if it stops working when you next go for a service.

 

[mjcourtney]

Just to clarify, the sat nav hardware is included as standard only on UK cars. Other countries can have a lower spec without the 'connectivity package' and therefore can't have the satnav retro-fitted without all the additional antennas and cables being fitted too.

The UK A3s can therefore be upgraded to SD nav just by inserting a map card and upgrading the software at an Audi dealer.

 

[Schizophonic]

Audi are restricting their customers to custom fit items at a later date but also stops dodgy copies being sold on ebay. I want to see if I can retro fit certain optional extras like xenon but the only reason I didn't go through at time of purchase was to keep cost down when paying the car and when funds allow to fit later.

As for your original question, built in sat nav is good however being use to TomTom I can't select street name after post code. Anyone able to do this?