My Elegance estate is due for replacement soon and my company has decided that we must have sat navs fitted.

Can someone please tell me what the full spec for the Columbus system is as I cant seem to find it on the Skoda site.

Is it hard drive based or DVD?

Is it possible to get speed camera warnings on it? - and other points of interest.

How up to date are the maps?

Are the maps for the UK only or full Europe?

Does it incorporate a bluetooth phone system?

Whats it like in actual use compared with say a TomTom?

Any other good features?

Thanks for any help

Loads of info on here, search is your friend.

30GB HD

Full Europe map,

Maps read from HD and updated via DVD.

Touch screen,

Speed cameras, possible but complicated

Bluetooth, nope thats another extra on top

Easy to use, yes and I find it easier than a tomtom.

Can copy mp3 files to HD and play from there, can play DVDs with surround sound (DTS, dolby digital), can play mp3 from SD card.

search for mfd3 or rns 510 or columbus for pics of installs.

Thanks mannyo

When you say the speed cameras are complicated what exactly is involved?

I guess it involves loading files onto the hard drive somehow.

Try this link for info about speed cameras http://briskoda.net/octavia-ii/columbus-mfd3-rns-510-custom-poi-tool-available/109775/

Adds about 2 grand to the price if you want Sat Nav and Bluetooth. Personally i'd rather have a tom tom for a tenth of the price.

Thanks for the link chriskite, looks a real pain if you do it every month. Takes about 2-3minutes on the pda.

I agree luke but its now my company policy to have in car satnavs. Ive been using satnav for years, firstly a Psion 5 and then a pda with various programs like TomTom and IGo. Dead easy to load the speed cams and other POIs so this is a backward step as far as Im concerned.

Id much rather have the £2k and get a VRS or a Scout.

Id much rather have the £2k and get a VRS or a Scout.

Suggest it to them then, makes no sense to me to spend the same to have a lower spec car with a inferior satnav. Don't get me wrong, I like the look of them, but £1700 is stupid money for a satnav.

Suggest it to them then, makes no sense to me to spend the same to have a lower spec car with a inferior satnav. Don't get me wrong, I like the look of them, but £1700 is stupid money for a satnav.

Dont forget it's not just a satnav. It's also a DVD Player (something no tomtom or garmin can do) , Radio & Stereo. It intergrates with Maxidot on the dash which again tomtom or garmin cant do and in my personal experience of a tomtom720 and MFD3 the MFD3 is far better at route selection and changes far faster with traffic than the tomtom. I cant comment on the x30 or x40 series tomtom's but the MFD3 is definately a very very good piece of equipment IMHO

HTH

Carl:thumbup:

Well I cant imagine why I would want a DVD player in the car.

Cant watch it while driving and I dont sleep overnight in the car so to be honest I fail to see the point of it. I can see the point of having a DVD unit with screens on the back of the front seats for kids to watch but not this.

Not having seen how the sat nav performs I cant comment except to say that IGo on the PDA beats TomTom Hands down.

For me the cameras and POIs is an issue as I virtually live in the car for work.

I have tried suggesting to the powers at work that the money could be better spent elsewhere but its fallen on deaf ears. Health and Safety, Duty of Care and all that.

Since I put the columbus nav into my octy, the old tomtom has sat in a draw unloved. I prefer the nav of the columbus to an external system any day. The cabin is tidy, no trailing wires and as mentioned the columbus fully integrates into the car. When navigating the route is shown on the columbus screen, and if you have maxidot the turn by turn steps are displayed on the maxidot in your line of site with lane guidance on the main screen. The speed camera thing doesnt bother me at all, no matter where I drive. You wouldnt need to update them frequently anyway, the cameras I pass on the way to work have not moved or changed for years.

mannyo

I can see the advantages of no trailing wires etc but the camera thing is a personal issue.

I drive all over the north of the country and the cameras do change fairly regularly.

I dont speed as a matter of course and always take care in built up areas but I challenge anyone to say they have never inadvertantly gone over the limit.

The Columbus system does sound a lot better than a lot of the incar systems that I have had in hire cars though. Some of which have been absolutely useless. Ill get round to a dealer in the near future and get a demo. Looks like I will be getting it anyway now.

Been and had a very quick look at the dealers today.

Must admit it looks neat but according to the dealer it does not accept postcodes.

I cant believe this is the case as my PDA programs have been able to do this for years.

Also seems the maps are not very up to date.

This was fitted in a new Superb in the showroom so I can only assume that it is the latest unit available.

No post codes, no speed cameras and POI input.

Can anyone confirm or otherwise about the postcodes please.

I have a Columbus retro-fitted to my Dec 96 vRS.

Once the maps have been updated to V3 (released around May/June 2008) you do indeed have postcode entry.

However it is limited to 5 characters.

If the Columbus you've seen doesn't support postcode entry it will either be running V1 or V2 of the maps.

Upgrades to V3 are available via the likes of EBay for around £50 - however if this was a new car purchase I would demand the dealer supplied the latest maps.

Some dealers don't know that you enter postcodes in the bit that says "Town/P.cd" sadly.

Make sure they install the v3 maps and you'd be more than happy. I had a TomTom for years but hate them with a passion now. The new Skoda kits are very capable and less likely to get nicked.

Thanks guys.

Set my mind at rest now.

Looks like the dealer is a bit out of date.

If it only takes 5 digits, that'd be absolutely useless for anyone trying to find a rural address. My house needs 7 figures. The first 5 would get me within an area with a diameter of about 5 miles. Is that very useful?

Or are we saying that, in fact, its a little known secret that you can input the whole lot?

Could someone clarify please?

Thanks

dill

Rumour has it that there is a V4 nav disk floating around VW, that has the same maps but full postcode entry. I have no idea if this is correct, or if its possible to load these maps onto the skoda columbus.

What's the timeline on the v1-3 releases? Any chance there's a reasonable prediction as to when v4 is likely to appear?

If the V3 disk was anything to go by, somewere around April.

Get the standard car and get a pioneer unit fitted at half the cost Halfords do them then get the surround from a dealer

Then you will have everything you need

Edited 13 January, 200917 yr by skippy41

My Ford 2009 blaupunkt disk allows for 7 digit postcode entry.

Not sure how this translates to Skoda/VAG releases from blaupunkt

Think the RNS510 is a Siemens unit, pretty sure it's not Blaupunkt any more.

Pioneer AVIC-F900BT - Sat Nav & Audio System

Kenwood DNX-5220BT Double DIN DVD/Sat Nav CD Radio

Both of these will meet your need and they come with free camera updates

Ref postcode entry, I'd never enter a full postcode in a rural area anyway. A 7-digit code could cover an area of several miles. A good example of this is inputting the postcode for the Cat & Fiddle pub on the A537 (a fairly regular Briskoda meet point) - you end up 1.5 miles down the road! Much better to enter a number and road name, or much preferably for rural locations a set of co-ordindates.

I'm firmly a TomTom user and a fan of the units. But given the opportunity I'd probably go for the Columbus. Even with a current TomTom, I have a separate speed camera detector (Talex). So I'd recommend to the OP to consider a separate unit for camera locations/blackspots and hard-wire it neatly by the driver's pillar.

Steve

The new Vauxhall insignia has a system that tells you the speed for the road on its maxi dot, and you can set it up to keep giving you warnings,

sorry for swearing lol