Hi Folks. Back to the stealers lately with a recall (hose) and seen that a lot of new octavias including the current vrs have a sat nav unit( not sure if it was columbus or admunsen model) fitted as standard.

When I asked the dealer he said that it would be a major undertaking to retro fit one of these units into my 2011 car, as it would entail fitting a new roof arial and taking off the roof inner lining.

Any ideas. I would like one of these units if I got it at the right price. At the moment I have the Balero unit in place and I live in the Emerald Isle

Folk on here have done it, but I think they just used a generic GPS aerial tucked away behind the dash rather than drop the roof lining and repalcing the roof aerial.

He's talking out of his chuff. Loads of people on here have done it (including me) and you don't need to put an antenna on the roof - mine lives behind the unit under the dash and it's fine.

This is just as easy for an Octavia

The reason the dealers say that is because thats the proscribed method. If you don't utilise a roof mounted antenna you get an error on the canbus which isn't an issue. All aftermarket installs will utilise a GPS "puck" antenna which sits on the steel crossmenber up unrt the dash above the radio cavity. Fitting is simply removal of your exisiting radio and swap with a Columbus. You will need to code the car with VCDS if you have Maxidot and want repeating of the detail o there or have MFSW and wish to utilise the controls but if not, the unit will work "standalone" until you can find a friendly Briskoda person to assist.

Don't bother asking dealer for coding assistance - they generally don't know and VAS isn't as flexible as VCDS.

Unless you get an Admunsen very cheap, go for the more advanced features and bigger screen of the Columbus.

Make sure you pick a late model to avoid having to update firmware and th risks that entails.....

Good luck, you won't regret it!

Takes 10mins, I also added Freeview to mine and mounted the GPS under the windscreen. I only got GSP error when the little puck was not plugged in!

Thanks lads, a wealth of info as always. Now for the shopping for a bargain to begin!!

If you would be in Romania I would sell you a Columbus