Thinking of fitting Columbus navigation

[Stoofa]

The thing is - would he have got negative feedback?

Most people install and forget - it's not until people come to try and do a firmware upgrade they discover they have a dodgy unit.

Also if you're about to pay £600 for a £1300 factory option then of course you're not going to ask where it came from!

I bought a Columbus for my current car, a seller in Ireland.

I've got no idea of it's history.

It came with a very official looking VW Code Card, but the code is only 4 digits long.

Agreed, it's "your hard earned cash" but at the same time it's also the poor sod who has his stolen hard earnt cash too.

At best he has a claim on his insurance which will increase his premiums.

If I could find a seller that could guarantee that I was being a legit, non-stolen unit then I'd have no worries.

As it is, I'm currently seriously considering having one factory fitted on my new car as I will then know it's history - of course that also gives me a 3yr warranty on it too.

[fluffmeister]

Look Gents.

As i said earlier its your money so do with it as you wish. If you want to pick holes in something then fine do so, however to sit their and blatantly says "ALL MFD3 on eBay are from dodgy sources" is just plain stupid.

You all have a brain, you can all use a computer so it's quite straight forwards. You do the research, ask for advice, take everyone's advice with a pinch of salt (including mine) and then make your own decision using balanced judgement and one that you will ultimately be happy with. At the end of the day it's your hard earned cash

It's getting very tiresome on this forum with members spouting off about about laws, morals etc. Everytime some posts a thread it just gets picked at. Have you lot nothing else to do? If some of you actually look at the eBay link properly and click on the images to display full size you will see it is appears to be a proper code card (I have seen the genuine ones) & it's not rough cut. Yes the number may also be on a sticker on the top but have you never considered that he may have more than one unit and so needs to know which card goes with which nav. Or is that concrete proof it's dodgy? The seller has 100% positive rating. I'm quite sure that by now if he were selling dubious units someone would have given negative feedback.

By all means offer an opinion but do it in a balanced way.

Give up mate, you are just trying to offer advice on an upgrade and give the OP a helping hand and it's backfiring, just go find a wall and bang your head against it Carl, it would be more rewarding

[Gadget6014]

hi guys thanks for all the advice,

I think I'm going to go to the guy who also fits them so i can see the unit and card before he fits it. It'll also be good to know where he is and what sort of out fit he's running.

Thanks Again Just going to be very careful before parting with my cash

[mackie]

I've been emailing the OEM Retrofits guy and apparently they get them direct from a refurbisher in Germany. I too wondered how they were so many cheap ones available. I guess they stop working, get replaced and the faulty ones go somewhere to be fixed and resold at a cheaper price. Maybe they're just unreliable? Anyone had any problems not related to brick-making firmware updates?

[Nick P]

Did he mention what the refurbisher in Germany are called? Is it Siemens VDO or someone else?

I wonder why VAG would have dealers send faulty units back to them to pass on to a refurbisher who then sells them on to oem retrofits (not vat registered) and random eBay sellers. Seems like an odd process for VAG / Siemens.

[Hauptmann]

Did he mention what the refurbisher in Germany are called? Is it Siemens VDO or someone else?

I wonder why VAG would have dealers send faulty units back to them to pass on to a refurbisher who then sells them on to oem retrofits (not vat registered) and random eBay sellers. Seems like an odd process for VAG / Siemens.

IIRC the Columbus is made by Continental Corp, in the Czech Republic (Frenstat?).

[fluffmeister]

Whats the relevance of VAT registration? They only need it if turning over £70k PA. If these OEM Retrofit boys can prove the authenticity of the unit, I can't see the problem. No way I would pay the premium price demanded for a Columbus to be put in as a factory order, I would be shopping around afterwards as the OP is, and as I did when I had my MFD2 in my previous Octy's.

[Lou_O]

IIRC the Columbus is made by Continental Corp, in the Czech Republic (Frenstat?).

Continental, at least in this context, is part of the unfathomable corporation that is VDO Siemens.

Edited 23 February, 2011 by Lou_O

[Nick P]

If these OEM Retrofit boys can prove the authenticity of the unit, I can't see the problem.

Me neither

[Stoofa]

Me neither

But the thing is they can't

Drop them a line explaining what it is you want.

The answers become extremely "wooley" once you start talking about where the units have come from.

Sure they offer a "warranty" - but that's mainly because they seem to rarely go wrong and what does go wrong can be repaired easily.

Just playing Devil's Advocate really.

Seems everyone is happy to buy without asking questions, but can imagine what the post would be like if their own Columbus was stolen

[mackie]

Playing devil's advocate for a moment and having a wife who runs a business and has gone to a lot of effort to secure supplies at low prices I'm not surprised they wouldn't want to pass on details of where they get their units from as it's could weaken their business if they do so. They aren't a faceless eBay seller, people have dealt with them face to face and had these units fitted. Pretty risky if you're knowlingly dealing in moody goods.

On the flip side I would be interested in knowing how many faulty RNS-510s do get replaced across Europe and what official VAG agents do with them. There will be a supply of legit recon units but it will only be related to a small percentage of VAG sales. Then again how many vehicles do VW, Seat and Skoda sell every year in Europe? A million? Even with conservative estimates of how many sat nav units are ordered and then how many require replacement that's still in the order of hundreds of potential recon units coming back onto the market. Sure some are nicked and some are fakes but a good proportion will be geniune recon units. If only there was a simple way to prove authenticity.

[Nick P]

Whats the relevance of VAT registration?

Because I find it difficult to believe that either VDO or a mysterious "refurbisher" (who's location has at various times been suggested vaguely as Lithuania or Germany) contracted by VDO or VAG would supply individuals or a small non-VAT registered business with premium OEM sat navs. Why would VAG want them to? You're talking about big European businesses with huge complex supplier frameworks with everything controlled by a system like SAP. This mythical channel of disposing of "refurbed" sat navs just doesn't fit in with that.

[peanut18]

Also consider that a lot of the refurb units will never become available to the general public because VAG will use them as warranty swap-outs. After 3 months (I think) VAG will no longer be obliged to swap a broken unit that is under warranty with a new unit, they will instead swap for a refurb unit. I work in the electronics industry and I can categorically say that NONE of our refurb units ever get into the hands of anyone other than our authorised retail partners or our own workshop where they are used as warranty swap outs. If they are un-economic to repair they taken apart for spares or crushed. We are a tiny company compared to VAG so I can't believe that VAG's processes would be any less stringent than ours.

[fluffmeister]

Ok

So my question is this. The OP asked for advice on fitting a columbus, so in relation to his question WTF has VAT registration, or any of this other *******s that is being discussed have to do with the original posters question?

Only Carl has offered any relevant advice to the OP, and it's been shot down. It's all totally irrelevant to the OP's question, and the thread.

[vRS Carl]

hi guys thanks for all the advice,

I think I'm going to go to the guy who also fits them so i can see the unit and card before he fits it. It'll also be good to know where he is and what sort of out fit he's running.

Thanks Again Just going to be very careful before parting with my cash

As i said just make sure it has the code card and also check the security seals. Inspect them carefully as i have seen some that have come with cut down address labels over the top trying to replicate the seal.

[vRS Carl]

Ok

So my question is this. The OP asked for advice on fitting a columbus, so in relation to his question WTF has VAT registration, or any of this other *******s that is being discussed have to do with the original posters question?

Only Carl has offered any relevant advice to the OP, and it's been shot down. It's all totally irrelevant to the OP's question, and the thread.

At last a sensible post :yes:

Gents

This thread is starting to descend in to chaos now and it is really not helping the OP or anyone else who might genuinely be after information.

If you all honestly believe that a manufacturer can completely control where their products go you are sadly mistaken. Even a small minor company can not sit their and say "NONE of our refurb units get into the hands of anyone other than our authorised retail partners". Are you so naive to think that someone out of those "Authorised Retail Partners" might be providing them to someone else?

I wonder how many people on here who have iPhone 4's went and returned them after the factory where they were being made was exposed to be conducting illegal practices, resulting in the suicide of some employees?

Can we please stop posting utter rubbish and keep the thread on the topic it was meant to be. Offer advice & opinons as this is what makes the forum good for the new & inexperienced. But don't sit and flame everyone who has a difference of opinion. Just as i don't force my opinion on anyone i don't expect people to try and force theirs on me. It's highly embarrassing for the forum (especially when an Administrator is involved aswell!!) and makes us look like a bunch of pre-pubescent teenagers.

Have a nice day

[Hauptmann]

Continental, at least in this context, is part of the unfathomable corporation that is VDO Siemens.

Continental bought VDO-Siemens a couple of years back. The Columbus pre-dates that take-over and is Continental product.

[Stoofa]

Ok

So my question is this. The OP asked for advice on fitting a columbus, so in relation to his question WTF has VAT registration, or any of this other *******s that is being discussed have to do with the original posters question?

Only Carl has offered any relevant advice to the OP, and it's been shot down. It's all totally irrelevant to the OP's question, and the thread.

I just believe it is extremely prudent to make the OP fully aware of the situation.

If he really doesn't care where a potential purchase is coming from - like so many people who "buy off a mate in the pub" then that is fine.

If you ask no questions no lies can be told and the OP is a happy person.

As I said in another post, those looking to buy pirate DVD's or Pirate Software really don't care about the history of the product they are buying.

[mackie]

Another one went for just over £300 on eBay. That is too cheap IMO.

[Lou_O]

Another one went for just over £300 on eBay. That is too cheap IMO.

Surely any item, especially when sold by auction, will only sell for what a buyer is prepared to pay.

Personally I think the factory-fit price of Columbus is too high; especially when you consider that the Bolero would have some cost which isn't deducted when specifying Colombus.

OTOH I was quite happy to buy a used car with Colombus, there was no appreciable price difference to those without.

[Guest Tim31]

£600 supplied and fitted from theses guys!

V 7.1 maps

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

Edited 23 February, 2011 by Tim31

[fluffmeister]

Surely any item, especially when sold by auction, will only sell for what a buyer is prepared to pay.

Personally I think the factory-fit price of Columbus is too high; especially when you consider that the Bolero would have some cost which isn't deducted when specifying Colombus.

OTOH I was quite happy to buy a used car with Colombus, there was no appreciable price difference to those without.

The Columbus is overpriced, without a doubt but so is most factory fit SatNav. I think Skoda could be missing a trick here by not including it as standard with say elegance spec and above. Take my Avensis TR for example, For MY 2011 Toyota fitted a full screen factory fit nav unit over the old MP3 compatible head unit, but the cost of the car is the same. So it's standard fit on what is the equivalent of the Elegance / Sport spec in the Octavia, it features USB / SD Card / iPod / iPhone integration, has Bluetooth phone/ media streaming and voice control, so a superior feature set to the columbus and added to the car at no extra cost. Where Toyota lose browny points is by charging you for annual map updates, where I think they may be supplied FOC by Skoda for the columbus?

Even with that said, I love the integration you get with a factory fit unit, but the actual navigation functionality is very poor when compared to a TomTom with live or a Garmin with NuLink.

No relevance to the original thread title but Skoda could be missing a trick on this imho.

Edited 23 February, 2011 by fluffmeister

[No Waiting]

With appologies to those who feel this is off-topic....

I was quite happy to buy a used car with Colombus

now that open's a whole new kettle of fish... Was that car's unit factory fitted unit, genuine Skoda accessory, or a unit from eBay et la with an unknown pedigree

[mackie]

Yes they are overpriced on the options list. However to allow it to sell for so little (since you can set a reserve or a buy it now price) implies that it was obtained for very little outlay and since "official" sellers (i.e. not eBay sellers but companies like OEM Retrofits) are charging at least £600 the price would seem off. So it's either nicked or the seller managed to buy it from a scrappy for £150 somehow. Who knows?

[Lou_O]

With appologies to those who feel this is off-topic....

now that open's a whole new kettle of fish... Was that car's unit factory fitted unit, genuine Skoda accessory, or a unit from eBay et la with an unknown pedigree

Factory-ft as far as I can know, though not having seen the original invoice I can't be certain.

It had no problem accepting a firmware update.