Alternative SatNav to Columbus

[Ecosse_VRs]

I have been somewhat spoiled in that my last 2 cars have had factory fitted SatNav units (Saab & MG) but I am afraid I can't justify the £1500 for a Columbus. So any suggestions to a decent aftermarket unit? I regularly travel to France so it HAS to have European mapping. I guess postcode searching is also a must and I'd likely prefer something that I can actually see so a wide screen unit would probably be best. Any recommendations from you guys?

Cheers.

[Nick P]

I have been somewhat spoiled in that my last 2 cars have had factory fitted SatNav units (Saab & MG) but I am afraid I can't justify the £1500 for a Columbus. So any suggestions to a decent aftermarket unit? I regularly travel to France so it HAS to have European mapping. I guess postcode searching is also a must and I'd likely prefer something that I can actually see so a wide screen unit would probably be best. Any recommendations from you guys?

Cheers.

I keep fancying one of these myself http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/vw/DNX520VBT/

£899 from http://www.amsparts.co.uk/product/Kenwood_Multi_-_Media_Unit_DNX_520VBT_ZGB000035520

[VRS-R]

I have been somewhat spoiled in that my last 2 cars have had factory fitted SatNav units (Saab & MG) but I am afraid I can't justify the £1500 for a Columbus. So any suggestions to a decent aftermarket unit? I regularly travel to France so it HAS to have European mapping. I guess postcode searching is also a must and I'd likely prefer something that I can actually see so a wide screen unit would probably be best. Any recommendations from you guys?

Cheers.

I bought a Navman S80 early last year in the January sales for £120. My wife & I went to South of France and I used the Navman in the rental car to find our way to where we needed to go really easy!. The Navman S80 also has a large screen and when you slow down it zooms in. It's very easy to use and you can do multi destinations all at once. It also has live trafic updates via an areal lead. It also shows you where speed cameras are and you can set an alert noise on when you go over a specific speed, such as 70mph! Also if you drive somewhere unknown to you and you're low on fuel, you can find the nearest petrol station anywhere you are! Also When you get to a specific location and you want to find your way home, you just press one button 'Home'

I can't recommend this Satnav enough and I highly reccomend it to anyone. For £120 this thing is a bargain, I don't see the point in splashing out £1000 odd pounds on something that does the same thing for £120. TomTom are also very good and you should have no problem finding a very good one from Halfords which is where I bought mine from. If you have any questions about Satnav's or you want to know about any Satnav's your not sure about please e-mail me, I'll be glad to help

[slick123]

Zenec ZE-MC5600 main unit: 499 EUR

Zenec ZE-NA2000N navi unit: 299 EUR

Total: 798 EUR (approx £670)

Check here.

[CEPi]

Giving 900 quid for a after market Nav is silly. That model has been discussed here and it has many missing features & integrations from Columbus. If you have that amount of money to spend of aftermarket, go all the way and get Columbus integrated.

Otherwise you have some good reviews here: http://www.trustedreviews.com/car-tech/

Personally i would stick with TomTom based on years of usage and easy operation, thought Garmin is up there too.

Also run away from any unknown wannabe Navi makers from Ebay/China as a few people on the forum got burned badly.

Edited 7 December, 2010 by CEPi

[Nick P]

Giving 900 quid for a after market Nav is silly.

How come?

That model has been discussed here and it has many missing features & integrations from Columbus.

Which features are missing?

[CEPi]

How come?

Which features are missing?

It just comes out of financial/beauty logic. If it was 500 quid sure, but 900 is only 600 quid less then Columbus so for me it is not worth it to have this Kenwood ugly duck on my car, and for what features are missing see the link below.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/176380-vwkenwood-columbus-alternative/page__p__2153186__hl__kenwood__fromsearch__1entry2153186

Just my 0.02.

Edited 7 December, 2010 by CEPi

[ccs-digital]

£350...

7" capacitive touch screen. Sat nav with full European mappping, Live Traffic, Weather, Speed Cams, Junction View, Full postcode, Google search.

Plus music & video player, email, SMS, phone, web browser, WIFI, bluetooth, uSDHC slot, YouTube, Games, Word/Excel/Powerpoint compatible office suite, 2 x cameras, camcorder, Skype & Instant Messenger services and thousands of other Android apps...

[ccs-digital]

I bought a Navman S80 early last year...

I can't recommend this Satnav enough and I highly reccomend it to anyone. For £120 this thing is a bargain,....

+1

Agree the Navman S80 is a great satnav, unfortunately now discontinued and latest 'Mio-Navman' aren't as good or well featured

[pixor]

Be careful if you buy a 'second-hand' Columbus. Unless you know the person who bought it new, you stand a chance of getting a stolen one that has been hacked to defeat the security. You then have a unit which cannot be upgraded, as well as all the moral implications.

I speak from bitter experience, and am having to go through the small claims court!

Edited 8 December, 2010 by pixor

[darrenw]

Save the cash and get a TomTom and an update subscription I also have CoPilot on my iPhone.

It may not look as nice but the saved cash more than makes up for it.

[peanut18]

I have a Pioneer AVIC-F310BT (now replaced by the AVIC-F320BT). It is a fantastic unit, it is guaranteed legitimate, unlike a lot of the Columbus units on eBay, it came with a warranty, the iPod flying lead cost £20 and the double din conversion kit cost about £40. It has Parrot bluetooth integrated into the unit, interfaces brilliantly with an iPod, works with the iPhone, has a removable fascia for security, does 7 digit postcodes, has speed camera alerts, sounds good and looks pretty good too. Downsides, it doesn't look OEM, but for me that is a small price to pay for the far better out of the box functionality that it offers over Columbus.

[rob_e]

£350...

7" capacitive touch screen. Sat nav with full European mappping, Live Traffic, Weather, Speed Cams, Junction View, Full postcode, Google search.

Plus music & video player, email, SMS, phone, web browser, WIFI, bluetooth, uSDHC slot, YouTube, Games, Word/Excel/Powerpoint compatible office suite, 2 x cameras, camcorder, Skype & Instant Messenger services and thousands of other Android apps...

er.. you did everything in that post other than say what the device is..!

anyone?

[rob_e]

I keep fancying one of these myself http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/vw/DNX520VBT/

£899 from http://www.amsparts.co.uk/product/Kenwood_Multi_-_Media_Unit_DNX_520VBT_ZGB000035520

The only thing i don't like about that unit is the IPOD Integration appears to be via USB in the FRONT of the unit - ie you'd have wires trailing and an ipod on display somewhere in the cabin. I have a bolero with mdi and its great to just leave the ipod in the glove box all the time - no visibility to the robbing ******s.

[Simon Cobb]

er.. you did everything in that post other than say what the device is..!

anyone?

Looks very much like one of these to me (certainly has identical buttons):

which is a Viewsonic 7" tablet running Android 2.2. See here for more details.

Of course I could be barking completely up the wrong tree...

[ccs-digital]

Looks very much like one of these to me (certainly has identical buttons):

which is a Viewsonic 7" tablet running Android 2.2. See here for more details.

Of course I could be barking completely up the wrong tree...

Sorry folks, didn't mean to be a tease!

Simon is half right, it's actually a Commtiva N700 which is identical to the Viewsonic but around £100 cheaper...

Commtiva N700

It includes a 30 day trial of CoPilot Live v8 which can be licensed for £25 (UK & Ireland) or £50 (Europe). Fitted in the car with a mount for the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which is pretty much the same size). I will post a pic of it in-situ when I get a chance.

Only downside for me currently is that my Audience HU doesn't have an AUX in to connect the audio output from the tablet. Those with later model Octy's wouldn't have this issue of course.

[Stuart_J]

We have cars with built in sat nav which I dont use prefering Tom Tom. you can update it regularly without buying a disk from the dealer, add on "safety cameras" etc, loads of other things, if you love V Power you can add shell garages. You can link it through your mobile to get live traffic info which it uses to calculate the route, easily save favourites etc etc.

Other definate plusses I have found

Our car broke down in Avignon, if you dont know its a sizeable city in France & would be with the dealer for a week, saved the garage as a favourite, took the sat nav into the renter, carried on touring & found the garage a week later with no hassle.

Ive also used it once walking in london when I had to park some way from a meeting I was going to & was totally lost, probably looked odd but I wasnt late !!

IMo built in sat nav is somewhat overpriced. It certainly wont add a massive amount to resale

[Bassa]

No experience of these people personally but several on here have used them - Columbus refurbs. with warranty.

http://www.oemretrofits.co.uk/satnav-skoda.shtm

[peanut18]

I once asked OEM Retrofits where they got the units from and they couldn't give me a straight answer - hence my purchase of the Pioneer. My iPod flying lead plugs into the back of the unit and I have routed it into the dashtop storage box, so all wires are hidden. If I do say so myself it looks like a very professional retrofit and it only took me a couple of hours - I am no auto electrician, but I found it a doddle.

[Dodgy]

Sorry folks, didn't mean to be a tease!

Simon is half right, it's actually a Commtiva N700 which is identical to the Viewsonic but around £100 cheaper...

Commtiva N700

It includes a 30 day trial of CoPilot Live v8 which can be licensed for £25 (UK & Ireland) or £50 (Europe). Fitted in the car with a mount for the Samsung Galaxy Tab (which is pretty much the same size). I will post a pic of it in-situ when I get a chance.

Only downside for me currently is that my Audience HU doesn't have an AUX in to connect the audio output from the tablet. Those with later model Octy's wouldn't have this issue of course.

I'd very much appreciate some pictures, sounds interesting.

Edited 8 December, 2010 by Dodgy

[Dodgy]

Any pics?

[Dodgy]

No pics then?

[Forum User]

What about the VW RNS 510, you can get them new for £600 from the vw forums! They look the same from the outside but will have a vw startup screen, you could possibly flash skoda columbus firmware onto it to eradicate this.

[Forum User]

The Columbus is based on the RNS510 btw

[ccs-digital]

No pics then?

Patience is a virtue...I did say when I get the chance, and I haven't had the chance yet!