other than the obviously larger screen, are there any really fundamental differences between the two? I can't face going through both instruction manuals (neither of which amazingly mentions postcodes) line by line. Someone is sure to know. There is some stuff in the brochure about gigabytes of memory and 3D mapping in selected cities. But am I going to need that I ask myself? It's another £800 which isn't to be sneezed at.

Also can Canton be ordered with Amundsen?

thanks in advance. just finalising my order. Salesman (very nice chap) tried to persuade me I didn't need the 2 litre CR; the 1.6 is fine. It did seem okay....and its cheaper of course. Ultimately, though, will it be that much more economical in give and take driving? Will the extra economy make up for the lack of grunt? I wonder.

Decisions, decisions

Dill

Canton can be ordered with the Amundsen or Columbus. I tried too late to order the Canton HiFi for my car, but I find the standard set up pretty good, so I am not that disappointed to be honest. Regarding the Columbus, you get more detailed maps together with a better navigation and the bigger display of course. Yes, Columbus is a very classy system, no doubt about it, but whether or not it is worth paying £800 for is up to the individual. Money no object I would have probably gone for it, I did consider it, but I spend far too much on cars, so I had to draw the line somewhere! Both Amundsen and Columbus have the facility for full 7 digit postcode entry, by the way.

I would be very surprised if the 1.6 diesel is much more economical than the 2.0, despite what the misleading official figures might indicate (my 2.0 is returning 62.5 mpg ) it has to work harder and you've only got 5 gears rather than six (assuming you are opting for the manual 'box) so it spends more time out of the torque band and is higher revving than the 2.0 at motorway cruising speeds. The 1.6 has been criticised by nearly all the road tests as well in all the VW group models it is fitted to. Autocar's road test on the latest Octavia 1.6D remarked that this engine turns the car into "a bit of a plodder". The greater torque of the 2.0 makes overtaking effortless and very seldom need to change down for hills.

The only advantages I can think of for the 1.6, apart from the lower purchase price, is £0 annual tax disc (rather than £20), slightly cheaper insurance and if you are having a company car a lower BiK tax rate.

If it was me I'd stick with the Amundsen and put the £800 towards the 2.0. It makes for a superbly relaxing driving experience. But that's just my opinion, others here may well disagree!

Edited 9 July, 201312 yr by Timoctav

2.0 all the way - I had this dilemma and totally agree with the majority view here. Best option of all imo

I've got a 1.6 and love it. ....... but given the choice i think I'd go for the 2.0 for that extra grunt and hardly any (if at all in the real world) economy drawback

Thank you for all these really helpful replies.

£800 towards the 2 litre engine. Now that makes complete sense.

Dill

Back on topic (though I have to echo the 2.0D all the way sentiment    ).
Deep breath.  Here is my rationale for going for Columbus (though pretty much unique to me, I have to admit).
In my old car, I listened to a lot of podcasts on an SD card and had a load of music on a hard drive in the glovebox ("Audi Music Interface").
An Octavia gives you 2x SD card slots whether you go for Aminsen or Columbus.  The trouble with Amundsen is that the maps live on one of the SD cards, so that leaves one free.  Podcasts or musinc?  No, doesn't work for me.
With the Columbus, the maps are on the built-in hard drive, leaving both SD card slots free. As a bonus, the Columbus also allows you to store 12GB of music on the internal hard drive.  I plugged mu old portable hard drive into the USB slot in the lower dash and "imported" all of the music from it onto the car's internal hard drive.  Pleasantly surprised that it hade the power to drive the HDD.  So now I have podcasts on an SD card, music on a hard drive and a spare SD slot so my 14 year old daughter can introduce me to new music (I wouldn't have got to like The Vaccines without her!).
I told you it was a unique set of requirements!
Oh, and the huge screen with twice the resolution is gorgeous.  

Yes, I could have streamed music from a phone, but I would prefer to preserve battery life and not have to plug in to a charger all the time).  Or I could have used CDs.  You remember - Compact Discs.

 

PS - I think the music player is fine without Canton too.

On topic - never had integrated sat nav before, so armudsen screen is bigger than my Tom Tom.

With regards to the sd cards, I have a 32gb card and that is sufficient. I like choice, but never listen to all my music anyway.

I have a 1.6 dsg, and I can honestly say, it doesn't have the power my old 2.0 octyII had, however I have found my driving is much calmer.

As it is dsg, I have 7 speed and if I need harsh acceleration I chuck it into sport, but if I had not wanted a quick delivery I would have waited for the 2.0.

Most of my driving is motorway, and in 1400 miles. I have not had an issue overtaking.

Whatever you chose you will not be unhappy.

Canton is the best option on my car ... :-)

Back on topic (though I have to echo the 2.0D all the way sentiment    ).

Deep breath.  Here is my rationale for going for Columbus (though pretty much unique to me, I have to admit).

In my old car, I listened to a lot of podcasts on an SD card and had a load of music on a hard drive in the glovebox ("Audi Music Interface").

An Octavia gives you 2x SD card slots whether you go for Aminsen or Columbus.  The trouble with Amundsen is that the maps live on one of the SD cards, so that leaves one free.  Podcasts or musinc?  No, doesn't work for me.

With the Columbus, the maps are on the built-in hard drive, leaving both SD card slots free. As a bonus, the Columbus also allows you to store 12GB of music on the internal hard drive.  I plugged mu old portable hard drive into the USB slot in the lower dash and "imported" all of the music from it onto the car's internal hard drive.  Pleasantly surprised that it hade the power to drive the HDD.  So now I have podcasts on an SD card, music on a hard drive and a spare SD slot so my 14 year old daughter can introduce me to new music (I wouldn't have got to like The Vaccines without her!).

I told you it was a unique set of requirements!

Oh, and the huge screen with twice the resolution is gorgeous.  

Yes, I could have streamed music from a phone, but I would prefer to preserve battery life and not have to plug in to a charger all the time).  Or I could have used CDs.  You remember - Compact Discs.

 

PS - I think the music player is fine without Canton too.

I think I can cope with blue toothing my iPod or my telephone to the Amundsen. I listen to podcasts too but mostly to books on CD. So they're now going to have to go on to SD cards. Bit of a fag after being able to put 6 CDs onto the Bolero but there we are - that's progress (of a sort)!

I'm enjoying this post.

Dill

I've got a 1.6 and love it. ....... but given the choice i think I'd go for the 2.0 for that extra grunt and hardly any (if at all in the real world) economy drawback

Comparing my Fuelly stats with matt-k918 and you get an idea for the manual, currently 54.7 for the 150CR vs 53.7 for the 105CR. I am also due to fill up tomorrow and this tank will breakthrough the 500 mile barrier so should see my average jump up after the last tank suffered due to a stinker of a 2 hour delay on the M67/A57 Mottram bottleneck the other week!

I think I can cope with blue toothing my iPod or my telephone to the Amundsen. I listen to podcasts too but mostly to books on CD. So they're now going to have to go on to SD cards. Bit of a fag after being able to put 6 CDs onto the Bolero but there we are - that's progress (of a sort)!

I'm enjoying this post.

Dill

For the sake of £100, well worth having the Mitsumi connection if you use an iPod, you then get full controllability of the player and it recharges as well. You still retain an SD card slot in the glove box.

I think I can cope with blue toothing my iPod or my telephone to the Amundsen. I listen to podcasts too but mostly to books on CD. So they're now going to have to go on to SD cards. Bit of a fag after being able to put 6 CDs onto the Bolero but there we are - that's progress (of a sort)!

I'm enjoying this post.

Dill

Another option is to spend a bit of time in the house ripping your audio books to mp3 and them put multiples onto an SD card (or even to a CD as data files).  Avoids the need to keep changing single CDs while you are driving.

Good 

Another option is to spend a bit of time in the house ripping your audio books to mp3 and them put multiples onto an SD card (or even to a CD as data files).  Avoids the need to keep changing single CDs while you are driving.

Good 

MP3's are ok if the bitrate is high (mine are generally all 320kb) but Im more excited by the lossless formats that the new units support ie FLAC (which is what my entire home library is stored in!) - a noticeable difference Id say, even more so with the Canton system installed. Im a big fan of the current Columbus and think the new one is leagues ahead of what I have now so it'll definetely be ticked on my options list.  

I think I can cope with blue toothing my iPod or my telephone to the Amundsen. I listen to podcasts too but mostly to books on CD. So they're now going to have to go on to SD cards. Bit of a fag after being able to put 6 CDs onto the Bolero but there we are - that's progress (of a sort)!

I'm enjoying this post.

Dill

 

you can use the sdxc  cards on Amazon a 64 gig  will set you back £35  and most of my music for car is at 240 bit rate   hols around  850 cd's worth of music

you can get the  sdxc cards up to 256 gig  but these are still a bit pricy

Does it supports dvd audio/SACD discs?

Does it supports dvd audio/SACD discs?

  http://ws.skoda-auto.com/OwnersManualService/Data/en/Octavia_5E/11-2012/Navigation/Amundsen/A7_Octavia_Amundsen_InfotainmentNavigation.pdf

 

this is the instruction manual it tells you what you can use  but I don't think i saw  DVD on it

Amundsen system is a CD based system, so no DVD or SACD playback. Columbus will play DVD-Audio discs, but only the standard DVD version of the audio as opposed to the high bitrate version.

Amundsen system is a CD based system, so no DVD or SACD playback. Columbus will play DVD-Audio discs, but only the standard DVD version of the audio as opposed to the high bitrate version.

..and will also present the sound in proper encoded 5.1 Audio if the Canton speaker upgrade is optioned also.

Does it do video DVD

Does it do video DVD

Yes, and in 5.1 surround sound when combined with the Canton system.

Has anybody managed to put their own POI's or speed cams on the Amunsden?

Both Amundsen and Columbus have the facility for full 7 digit postcode entry, by the way.

 

Really ? WTF is that hidden then ?

 

Seriously Tim, SWMBO thinks the whole car (& the rest of the VAG) is POS just because she can't a postcode in the SatNav.

Really ? WTF is that hidden then ?

 

Seriously Tim, SWMBO thinks the whole car (& the rest of the VAG) is POS just because she can't a postcode in the SatNav.

When navigating to a new destination press 'Town' then in the bottom corner is a 'Postcode' (or a shortened version) button, then you have to switch from the numeric to the alpha keyboard as for some mad (European) reason it presents you with a numeric keypad.

Thanks Andy, great stuff, no doubt she'll whinge still about no house numbers then ! Can't live with them, can't live without them

We have just bought the 1.6 Diesel & it's only done 300 miles so the engine is still tight. So far I have got 56.5 mpg & that includes a fair bit of around town & a 200 mile motorway trip that we did crawling along because of roadworks and two accidents.

We have got the Amundsen and it's good but not as good as the Tom Tom we had in our old Car. The Tom Tom was easier to navigate and use, whilst the Amundsen is quite clunky. That said I'm glad we got the Sat Nav and would deffo spec it if we were ordering all over again, when ordering I asked the salesman about whether the Columbus was worth the extra money and he said it was a great high quality system but not worth the extra cash when you compare the extra features it offered. As I said if we were to order afresh I would deffo spec the Amundsen.

We are being gentle with our new Car so not at all put her through her paces. But the Demo we tried was a Diesel and I gave that a little bit of Wellie to see how it went. I was satisfied with the grunt of the 1.6 but it didn't wow me, but neither me or my partner are fast drivers so Oomph is not a big consideration for us. Again if we were to order afresh I would stick with the 1.6 TDI because it does and offers everything we need.

One last thing we both LOVE our Octavia and our chuffed with it.

Edited 28 May, 201412 yr by fatbelly33