I've talked to people on here about this a couple of times, there are peiople that can fit it and program it all fine, if you buy the parts yourself.

Now, I'm lazy, is there anyone or any company that will buy the columbus navigation unit, the Maxidot instrument pod and optionally the steering wheel controls and bluetooth kit, and fit them all for a set price?

I wouldn't touch the Columbus as I can't say I trust the sources of the units, but the rest of it I'd do no problem.

I can fit it all... you can buy maxidot, columbus etc. on ebay or here www.skodateile.cz or auto.asp2.cz

On skodaforum.nl it is a general complaint that Columbus and Amundsen-units are very much appreciated by thieves. Buying an second hand unit on ebay and alikes for any price is dangerous, as a consequence. And owing one could be a short experience. Saw some photo's of how cars are wrecked to get hold of such a unit... (One owner even had "thank you for the 2nd time" scratched on his car...)

Strangely the UK does not seem to have the same issues with regards to thefts of the Columbus headunit. Mines been in for more than a year now, and I have left my car in some dodgy places overnight and the car has never broken into. The thefts seem to happen in NL and B only, as I have driven across europe (France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy) using the columbus and never had a problem leaving the car parked on the street.

One trick is to use different screws to fit your Amundsen/Columbus. But than you might no longer recognize the interior of your car!

Hope you can see the pictures, but this once couldn't get the satnav out, so he decided to ruin the car:

Indeed, that's the one - couldn't copy/paste it in the message! (is it not possible to do that, BTW?)

No, I'm afraid not. It would require pretty sophisticated software that runs this forum to also have the facility to automatically upload a picture you paste from elsewhere into your post onto the server here.

To display an image on this forum you need to host it somewhere else, such as Imageshack, record the url of the image (not the page it's on but that of the picture itself which you can obtain by right-clicking on the picture once on Imageshack and then left-clicking on Properties. In there you will find the URL (path) of the photo, and that is what you need to post here between the tags [/img].

Strangely the UK does not seem to have the same issues with regards to thefts of the Columbus headunit.

and let's hope it stays that way...

Aye, true. So if getting a columbus from places like ebay is dodgy as they're probably nicked, where is the place I should be getting one from?

skodateile.cz, auto.asp2.cz

ooo now they're more expensive than on ebay, a columbus for £1000+ when they go for £500 on ebay.

Makes you think if they note down your address, sell you the sat nav, then come by and nick it a month later, lol

Think I'll put this plan on hold for a while. Thanks for the info guys

Simbo99, here's an attempt (I couldn't follow Willum on his explanation!). The satnav was fixed with special screws, so when they couldn't get it out, they wrecked it.

Look at this link, too. Blijf met je poten... | Weblog - AutoWeek.nl

All "special screws" will do is to delay the removal of the unit slightly and cause additional damage.

Anyway, it should be obvious that buying a columbus for half the money, there's "a smell" about it! You can even buy them from China, so I've read.

my thoughts exactly