Hello

Just ordered a 63 plate octavia vrs (it was a cancelled order so lucky to get hold of a new one) and unfortunately it didn't come with the Columbus sat nav which I wanted. The dealer offered the kenwood one as an alternative.

He said it would work as the standard balero unit would, the only thing would be that I wouldn't be able to answer the calls using the touch screen and I would have to use the steering wheel/stalk instead.

Firstly is this true or will the touch screen work when answering calls. Secondly will everything else be as is for the balero I.e will I be able to stream music from my phone to it via blue tooth and will all the screen functions work as the balero too? Lastly will the unit functions work with the trip computer screen too?

My only concern that is if the kenwood unit sacrifices any of the functions just to have a trick sat nav unit wouldn't be worth it for me.

Having no previous experience of the previous octy or the kenwood unit there's an awful lot that seems to be accessed only through the head unit.

Maxidot settings/auto lights/auto wipers/general settings/car info etc etc. not to mention the driver profile stuff.

Will all these work too?

They did say it would all be compatible yeah. Just wondering if it is the case.

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/vw/DNX521DAB/

It's made for Skoda/VW so nearly everything works. Some bits need additional cables/modules but I would have thought Skoda supply them if you get it through them. I have considered it for mine as I've just gone for the Belero and it's a cheaper upgrade than going for the Columbus. The manual is also on that link so tells you everything that works.

Cost involved?i could be interested in doing the same thing

Does it actually fit the mkIII though?

 

Dimensions (WxHxD)182 x 112 x 163mm

 

The bolero is just a screen, whereas that Kenwood is 163mm deep....... is there that much space behind the bolero?

Costing £1200 all in for the unit and what ever else goes into fitting it including wiring and facia.

Said its a straight fit and is virtually identical in how it looks.

I'll find out next week how it goes. From what I've seen on youtube the visual a/c and rest of interface commands and options are the same.

That is probably a fair price.  I did a quick Google and found the unit for sale at £899 and various leads etc will be extra.

Yep! there is plenty of room for a normal 2-din unit.

HKP had his out here:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/288090-retrofit-new-columbus/?hl=%20retro%20%20columbus

 

That said, I'm still very curious to see this finished! Haven't read that manual (yet), but I find it hard to believe they've got the 'car' settings ported. AND I dont think the facia plate for an old octavia will fit. It sounds to be like the dealer hasn't done his homework on this front!

Just had a call off the dealer. Seems the kenwood isn't fully comparable and won't work.

The Columbus will be a huge amount more because of the hole new parts and the price of the nav it's self. Just waiting to hear back on the Amundsen.

I don't want to loose any functionality for the sake of nav which I can use my phone for on the odd occasion I use it.

Will update in due course

I would have been very interested in how they proposed to get the cables that terminate in the glovebox area to connect to a head unit mounted in the centre of the dash!

 

As far as I am aware at the moment you can't even swap a Bolero/Amundsen/Columbus over because of Component Protection.

I would have been very interested in how they proposed to get the cables that terminate in the glovebox area to connect to a head unit mounted in the centre of the dash!

As far as I am aware at the moment you can't even swap a Bolero/Amundsen/Columbus over because of Component Protection.

All other VAG simply have a cable that plugs those items into the back of the head unit. I expect the Octavia to be exactly the same

Ended up settling with the standard radio. Quoted in excess of £2300 to retrofit an Amundsen and the figure exceeded £3300 for the Columbus. Isn't a straight swap unfortunately and the highly inflated man hours as a result of all the work make it very much a crazy decision to make.

Replacing the screen and brains is a piece of piddle, the equipment itself can also be found at acceptable cost on the net. Its the coding that proving problematic at the moment.

The new platforms electronic system has adopted an Audi like component protection system.....in order to prevent retrofits such as this i suspect without going through the dealer network. Main problem is that the dealer techs in general still dont know huge amounts about how to code the cars and VAS only does so much. Ross Tech are also playing catch up.

I am sure in time people will figure it out and start doing it as per the older cars but ive not heard of anyone on here being successful in retrofitting Amundsen or Columbus to a MK3 yet. One guy did buy and retrofit columbus to his vRS but no one managed to code it so he gave up and got a refund.

All other VAG simply have a cable that plugs those items into the back of the head unit. I expect the Octavia to be exactly the same

I think you missed my point, all the quadlock connections, aerial etc now terminate in the glovebox. Getting all of those cables through to the rear of a standard head unit would be a challenge.

Sent from my phone so please excuse brevity and spelling

I think you missed my point, all the quadlock connections, aerial etc now terminate in the glovebox. Getting all of those cables through to the rear of a standard head unit would be a challenge.

Sent from my phone so please excuse brevity and spelling

 

Actually glovebox and the slot for a 2din headunit is right next to each other, so I think its just a question of cutting a couple of cable ties.

 

That said, there's a couple of links for retro fit systems on the danish forums. They are boxes that you mount to the existing Bolero. A long press on Media activates the Navigation.

 

Example:

http://www.cars-equipment.com/www/en/shop/navigation-parts/navigation-head-unit-dynavin-for-skoda/

 

There is a unit from Zenec as well, but I can't find the link at the moment.

Suppose it depends which A-pillar all of the aerial cables run up - there is very little slack on those cables

Suppose it depends which A-pillar all of the aerial cables run up - there is very little slack on those cables

 

Yep, the cable aren't going to be any longer than they need to be to go where they are designed to, I fitted an MDI to my mkII and that was a bitch!