Satnav confusion and frustration

[Minimoke]

You will have to pay for map updates once the car is 3 years old. They won't have even thought about pricing yet!

I presumed they would be chargeable. Skoda may not have fixed the price yet, but they have expectations. If you believe the Auto Express investigation into the cost of sat nav upgrades then Skoda might conceivably have a figure of circa £192 per year in their mind. However I agree this amount is purely speculative at present.

Just as well that my old Tom Tom has map updates for life as I can see it coming back into use in future.

Edited 6 July, 2014 by Minimoke

[JungleJames]

http://www.skoda-auto.pl/documents/models/nowa-octavia/nowa_octavia%20_akcesoria_201306.pdf

 

and the same in this one on page 5

Youve been searching every countries 'accesories' catalogue havent you?

I reckon you have them all piled up in the loft

 

Serious question though. Why do some countries receive one type of Amundsen unit, and other countries receive another type?

[JungleJames]

I presumed they would be chargeable. Skoda may not have fixed the price yet, but they have expectations. If you believe the Auto Express investigation into the cost of sat nav upgrades then Skoda might conceivably have a figure of circa £192 per year in their mind. However I agree this amount is purely speculative at present.

Just as well that my old Tom Tom has map updates for life as I can see it coming back into use in future.

Id never pay for map upgrades. Not if my last free upgrade was anything to go by.

Ive already come across a couple of errors (namely roundabouts not on the SatNav) since i did the update. Plus, no, they didnt look like they were new roundabouts.

[Arragonis]

IRT to being stupid - I'm happy to be a banana on this one as this is all new to me - personally I wanted Mrs A to buy something else but she loves the car - and having had an afternoon with it I like it too

 

So *(strokes chin) the card we got might not be suitable for the car we bought - very interesting.

 

I feel a conversation with the salesman is in order.

 

And I'll report back.

 

EDIT - and built in sat nav remains a crap idea...

Edited 6 July, 2014 by Arragonis

[Yogi-Bear]

Very true, but Skoda UK have never given me a straight answer about what is going to happen when the 3 years is up.

I would be interested if anybody has a definitive answer to that question, but perhaps this is best deferred until 2016 and I can have a fresh rant then!!!!

 

Simples... trade the car in for a new one that comes with another 3 years of free map updates 

[Miz]

 and built in sat nav remains a crap idea...

 

One way or another you need to have big pockets, either to buy the built in sat nav, or to carry around your TomTom / Garmin / other sat nav.

[Arragonis]

One way or another you need to have big pockets, either to buy the built in sat nav, or to carry around your TomTom / Garmin / other sat nav.

Tom tom for life is cheaper, maps for Android with GPS is free. All it needs is power and a mount.

 

I have an older Audi A6 which uses a DVD for sat nav and it is much crapper than my previous Aygo Go which came with a Tom Tom.

[andyvee]

Yep, I agree

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[andyvee]

Youve been searching every countries 'accesories' catalogue havent you?

I reckon you have them all piled up in the loft

Serious question though. Why do some countries receive one type of Amundsen unit, and other countries receive another type?

Just googled the part number and then the alarm bells started ringing as every mention of that part number was in conjunction with amundsen+.

Who knows why Skoda do what they do!

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[JungleJames]

Just googled the part number and then the alarm bells started ringing as every mention of that part number was in conjunction with amundsen+.

Who knows why Skoda do what they do!

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Thats no fun! There was me imagining a loft full of Skoda Brochures from all round the world!

[andyvee]

Lol my loft has enough craps in it already. I keep them in the garage

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[JungleJames]

That makes sense. Who'd put a car in the garage. Just use it for the car's accessory brochures instead!!!

[ords]

Hi all - apologies, I don't monitor this too closely. Thanks for all of the replies and help - I didn't mean to confuse so from the top full story.

 

Bought the car from a Nissan dealer next door to a Skoda dealer! Car is Octavia current model, 13 plate with 2,600 miles on the clock. Didn't see the SatNav working before we bought it, assumed it would just do so as the car is literally brand new - still smells new inside.

 

Collected the car last Monday and was handed the glovebox pack - instructions and the sat nav card in a DVD style case. Case says "Navigation SD card Europe" with "Octavia 5E" in the bottom, right corner. On the back is says it is for the Amundsen unit - apologies, I looked at a picture online of the other one and thought it was that,

 

This is the Mrs' car and she loves it so much I haven't even driven it yet

 

The case looks genuine comparing it to ones on ebay - same colours, printing is good (not a photocopy) card has sticker on it.

 

The at the Nissan place guy paired the phone etc. for Mrs A but didn't setup the card. He told us slot 2 and just to make sure I checked the instructions myself later at home and put the card into slot 2 - no joy. No joy in slot 1 either.

 

Inserted a card with some music and it played first time - either slot.

 

I checked the SD card contents - it has a file called Dbinfo.txt on it and a folder called markets. The markets folder has 879 files in 600 folders the total size is 4,873,638,849 bytes. It is formatted as Fat32 with an allocation size of 32 Kilobytes - nothing special about it at all - no hidden partitions I can find (in Windows and Linux).

 

I followed the instructions on the maps updating website using another card - a posting here

 

http://www.yetiownersclub.co.uk/forum/amundsen-sat-nav_topic877_page5.html#.U7lDMbEQG9I

 

suggests you don't need a special card. And the suggestion in this thread (this one here, not the link above ) about swapping them between us to see if they work suggests there is no "locking" to a specific unit. Given the card must be locked as read-only in the instructions I can't see how the unit would be able to update the card to "lock it" anyway.

 

The new card is an 8GB Transend SDHC Class 6 formatted as FAT32 with 32K allocation size as per the original. I downloaded the 7z file (P40_N60S3MIBS2_EU_NT_Q3.13) and unzipped it. The file is located on this page :

 

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/Navteq-NavteqEurope-Site/en_GB/-/GBP/View-Promo?&cwt=application/ApplicationFrame_campaign_light&&Page=Skoda-Landing-Page-MIB-Amundsen&&NewDomainName=Navteq-NavteqEurope-Site&

 

I downloaded the FULL file from there overnight not the split up version.

 

It has the same files in the root folder (DbInfo.txt and markets folder) and 7,039 files in 1,524 folders and is 7,073,655,601 bytes which is very different! I put the files onto the new card.

 

The instructions (in the manual and the helpful photocopy the Skoda dealer has provided - this is all they have done so far...) say format the disk and extract the files onto the card - I have extracted them to my PC disk first and copied them, and also extracted them directly to the SD card after formatting again. The response is the same as before.

 

I tried the software update just to see if it would make any difference.

 

This is the contents of the DbInfo.txt file on the original card :

 

 

and this is the updated file :

 

 

I tested if the car won't read my card at all by putting music on it and it works every time. 

 

Given the original card is probably goosed I'm going to repeat it the process using that card and see what happens, and if that fails try the split files download and repeat. If not I'll try a new one off ebay.

 

The dealers should sort it but it means going to an invonvenient location repeatedly to get them into action.

 

If I'm doing something obviously wrong please let me know before I send the Mrs to Glasgow without a clue on where to go tomorrow... :peek:

 

Make sure, when you format it, that you choose the "default allocation size" option

[Keith64]

I'm hoping to test this out with a work colleague then next time we meet up as we both have the same cars, we are going to swap cards and see what happens..should be interesting !!

 

 

That would be excellent and it would be good to get a definitive answer to this. I have been trawling other forums over this issue as £230 to replace a card is ludicrous. The consensus seems to be that they dont work in other units other than the original but I could not find anyone who could say that with 100% confidence.

This is a sore subject with me as I ran into trouble trying to get a damaged card replaced under warranty. Owners may run into difficulty if the map upgrade goes awry. Skoda can claim that the problem has been caused by user error and therefore not covered.

 

 

Right, met up with my work colleague today..swapped his SD Card into my car and all worked fine...swapped it back to his car and again all worked fine. So you can move them from vehicle to vehicle !

[Minimoke]

Right, met up with my work colleague today..swapped his SD Card into my car and all worked fine...swapped it back to his car and again all worked fine. So you can move them from vehicle to vehicle !

Keith - thats great news and useful information! Thanks for doing that, it suggests to me that the card is not being written by the unit in order to "pair" it with the car. That implies that a second hand card (with the right part number!!!!) could be the way to go if I have ever have to replace the card again.

Edited 7 July, 2014 by Minimoke

[Keith64]

No data written to the card as they were locked. Looks like the vital requirement is the v2 part number for the card.

Glad I could help with the info.

[Arragonis]

Hi all,

 

Again thanks for the patience    and further info.

 

Firstly problem is solved - due to the dilligent and attentive service offered by my local Skoda dealer - NOT!

 

Firstly the promised phone call to "discuss" it never materialised, and when we finally chased them they suggested Friday was the earliest they could take a look, and the car would have to be with them all day (why ?) and no, a loan car was not available. Interestingly we discovered they sold the car originally, to one "Gordon Brown" based in Dunfirmline - maybe, just maybe ?

 

Original selling dealer has gone quiet, I will deal with them over the next few weeks.

 

Anyway as Mrs A travels for work (in sales, this is not a Minicab  ) so she needs satnav, so in the face of her, er, disappointment I did what all good men do - opened a beer  :cocktail:  and turned to ebay.

 

I found a V2 marked card available - looked the same as mine except V2, got the seller to confirm in writing that it worked in his car and bought it. He sent it super quick, and card met car this afternoon.

 

After a stomach churning 2 minutes of "Reading Card" we have mappage! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO :clap:

 

I'll be approaching the selling dealer for the cost of the card, plus something for aggro over the next few weeks - done this before so no sweat there.

 

As for the Skoda dealer - A local independent we have used and trusted for years will be doing my servicing from now on, they will not get their mitts on this thing again.

 

Cheers all and thanks again for your help.

 

A.

 

EDIT : must update my profile, I sold the Fabia in 2011.

Edited 8 July, 2014 by Arragonis

[andyvee]

Your local independent may struggle with resetting the service interval though ..............

 

Glad you got it sorted and it was the wrong card after all that!

 

You need to get the supplying dealer to cough up now

[Minimoke]

I'm glad you're sorted.

The fact that you got a card off ebay (with the correct part number) and it works will, I'm sure, be really useful infornation for your fellow Briskodians.