I wondered if anyone has had experience of any of the Columbus sellers on Ebay?

Yeah, prison food

I cannot believe that all of them are knock off and yes I have trawled through old threads.

At risk of having myself condemned to the outer reaches of this forum, I bought one from Navi-and-BMW-parts on eBay and, apart from it being sent through with Eastern Europe maps (the seller sent a disk with Western Europe maps when I emailed him), everything has been fine.

I have updated the firmware (without bricking it) and the maps and also removed the DVD in motion (VIM) with an CD update.

Only thing I have not been able to confirm is whether it is a LED screen as opposed to the LCD ones. It should be the former, but I do not know how to check.

The fascia needed to be changed, but this cost just over £4 from the dealer (standard colour for standard car).

HTH

Yes from the Irish based seller, very good service. I just emailed him what car I had (06 VRS) and he sorted out a unit that had the correct firmware on there to get around the battery drain issue (No CAN Gateway upgrade needed) V7 maps, 7 Digit Postcode, LED screen and Video in Motion activated. All for a great price considering what it does.

Edited 12 April, 201214 yr by vrs777

Thanks all for responses!

Vrs, Do you have the website address for this seller please? does the name include VIP?

Yes from the Irish based seller, very good service. I just emailed him what car I had (06 VRS) and he sorted out a unit that had the correct firmware on there to get around the battery drain issue (No CAN Gateway upgrade needed) V7 maps, 7 Digit Postcode, LED screen and Video in Motion activated. All for a great price considering what it does.

I'll second the naviandbmwparts guy, really good comms and next day delivery from Lithuania for 28 quid-cant moan about that!! I've had no dramas with the unit and compared it to a friends LCD version and can confirm my screen is loads better so I'd go out on a limb and say it is the led version.

The problem OP is that you "don't want to hear" what is almost certainly the truth in 99%+ of cases.

If you can tell me how you can take a £1500 factory option and then sell it yourself for £350 and still make profit then I'd love to know - as there are loads of things I'd love to be able to do that with.

Will it work OK? Yup, certainly will.

Will it get bricked at firmware upgrade time? Possibly yes, possibly no

Are you almost certainly buying a unit that was ripped out of someone's pride and joy and by purchasing said unit yourself you are buying a stolen unit and perpetuating the crime further by helping to create the demand for stolen units and thus further increasing the number of units stolen - yup, almost certainly.

I sell VW RNS510 units which are new, they are weeks old since they left the factory. Do I question where my supplier gets them from?...No

because I can trace my payment to him, he has a shop. Hardly the set up for someone dealing in stolen units.

The units are totally new, no screw marks. Totally factory fresh.

Look at the for sale section as I have 1x Columbus

Well if you've got any theories behind everything I'm all ears and willing to be proved wrong

If you're selling at £350 that means you have to be buying in at £300 to make anything worthwhile. In turn you're not buying directly from Skoda, so the "guy" you're buying them from must be paying around the £250 mark max for a unit or once again it's just not worth it for the small profit.

So, at source these units are selling for around £250. £250 for a unit that is £1500 as a factory option.

It doesn't take Carol Vorderman to see that the maths simply doesn't work. These units cannot possibly be coming from a legit source.

And as for "not the action of an illegal company". There are numerous firms, one up in London that'll fit you a unit for next to nothing. The idea these are all legit firms selling legit units is just laughable.

Stoofa: your assumption is that Skoda are paying close to £1500 for the unit. I suspect that the actual cost to Skoda isn't anything more than a couple of hundred at best.

Example: list price for cruise control is £230. We all know that you can fit it yourself for less than half that.

Take your own concept of PROFIT MAKING. The £1500 Skoda charge would also include the roof mounted aerial for GPS/radio and also a second aerial in the rear window (somewhere).

Oh, and fitting all of the above.

In a 'normal' world a suppliers mark up on items is 50%+. So Skoda buy at less than £750 for all parts.

The manufacturer also makes a profit so they sell at £750 for all parts. If their profit is also 50%+ then it costs £375 to manufacture all parts (Columbus, aerial, cables, etc)

That doesn't include the deductions for fitting.

Lets assume that I could buy from the manufacturer (that's the real question) then I could sell at £400 and still be making some profit on a NEW unit.

With the exception of Eddie_NL's one, we are talking about USED units. Eddies brand new unit at £650 - I would as he is a genuine, knowledgeable and honest member of this forum. Yes, he'll be making a profit (and a good one I hope), but it does show that Skoda don't pay £1500 for a Columbus.

I cannot condone theft in any form, but taking your 'profit' logic can be seen to work in theory (although lacking in hard figures and evidence).

The Colombus units are made by continental automotive. I suspect they sub manufacture in Asia. You can source them new fitted here starting at £600... http://www.oemretrofits.co.uk/satnav-skoda.shtm

There is also the equivalent Kenwood unit, the latest one has DAB and allows video camera feeds etc. this retails for between £900-1050 ... http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/59894/kenwood-dnx521dab

So as you can see they are available new from legitimate sources for a lot less than £1500.

Cheers

Steve

The Colombus units are made by continental automotive. I suspect they sub manufacture in Asia. You can source them new fitted here starting at £600... http://www.oemretrof...tnav-skoda.shtm

So as you can see they are available new from legitimate sources for a lot less than £1500.

Cheers

Steve

First thanks for the information and a shame I live in sunny Devon as would cost a fortune for a mobile fit but the £670.00 was just about in my price range.

Just noticed though that the units are on sale are not actually new though the information I found under FAQ section.

Q. Are your sat nav units brand new?

A. Although our units are 2nd user, we could lie to you and tell you they were as they're all in an almost 'as-new' condition... but we're not like that, we'll tell you that they aren't brand new when other installers probably would as once they're fitted you'd be hard pressed to tell otherwise.

I would love a Columbus in my car and the wife even gave me the go ahead until I told her the price LOL so back to the drawing board and internet search for something at a reasonable price.

One of these maybe?.......

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221157550703?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Columbus DAB version now available

Columbus DAB version now available

Link? I'm after one if the price isn't silly.