Hello everyone

Having decided not to retrofit a Columbus for the time being, I invested in a new, larger Garmin to replace my very reliable but small Nuvi 2445.

Thanks to the alignment of a load of Halfords discounts, I was able to pick up a Garmin Nuvi 2569 LMT-D for £102. Better still, I had £15 of High Street Vouchers in my wallet (a gift from Renault for test driving a Dacia) so the cash cost was even less.

Anyway, as you may remember I've wires in a hidden 12v socket behind the dashboard, so first thing was to pop the side cover off the dash to get to it. I needed to remove the existing Garmin charger lead as the 2569 uses a different cable due to its integrated DAB traffic receiver - good news as it means there is no more ugly block and trailing FM aerial wire coming off the top of the cable any more.

With the cable plugged in, I have trailed it along the bottom of the windscreen and back again, with the end popping up at the side of the A pillar. This slightly odd layout for the charging lead is necessary as it is now the aerial for the DAB receiver.

I then marked out a position for my new Garmin dash mount (won't be using the suction mount and my NKMOS mount won't work due to the recessed circular mounting point on the back of the unit.

Having worked out the optimum location, I cleaned the area with an IPA wipe, dried it and proceeded to deploy the Garmin mount, which is held in place with an oval shaped sticky pad.

With the base stuck down, I added the removable ball joint arm and the circular retaining clip for the nav itself.

And here it is with the nav in place. All nice and tidy, with just a few inches of visible cable protruding from the A pillar.

I also had a go at fitting a metal Dashmount phone bracket at the side of my Swing radio - for those considering it, don't. Having used these particular brackets to great effect on my Rover 75, sadly the One for the Rapid was a terrible fit and ultimately was unusable. I'll post a separate thread with pics about that later.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I'm going to do the rear mudflaps (the ones that don't require any drilling or wheel removal) and will hopefully make a start on fitting my chrome kick plates.

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15 quid for driving a Dacia is nowhere near enough

15 quid for driving a Dacia is nowhere near enough

Nothing wrong with a Dacia - had it not been for the long lead time and my need for a replacement car urgently, I'd likely be driving a Dacia Logan MCV right now.

You will need a heat gun in this weather to make those sill plates stick.

Edited 29 December, 201411 yr by MickA

You will need a heat gun in this weather to make those sill plates stick.

I'm inclined to agree. Mudflaps will be the first order of business tomorrow, we'll have a look at stick on bits afterwards, but I suspect I'll end up leaving them for a few months before fitting at this rate.

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I'm inclined to agree. Mudflaps will be the first order of business tomorrow, we'll have a look at stick on bits afterwards, but I suspect I'll end up leaving them for a few months before fitting at this rate.

Sent from my iPad Mini with Retina using Tapatalk, please excuse any typos.

 

The front mudfalps have a strip of 3m fixing tape to hold them firm, the rears are just screw on, no tape.

 

 

It's not a messing with cars type of weather here at the momemt, still covered with snow and it's freezing. I took the Toledo out yesterday to go get some milk and an excuse to get the snow off the car and thawed out. It would have been easier to have walked, but I would have most likely fell on my ar$$

Edited 29 December, 201411 yr by MickA

Nothing wrong with a Dacia - had it not been for the long lead time and my need for a replacement car urgently, I'd likely be driving a Dacia Logan MCV right now.

Didn't you have a lucky escape then!!!

Didn't you have a lucky escape then!!!

Not at all - as previously said I rate the Dacia range - good value budget cars.

Given the problems I've had to deal with on the Rapid, I've had no lucky escape at all.

Moving back on topic - the cold weather did a right number on the new sat nav mount overnight - it fell off this morning.

Have removed the failed Garmin sticky pad from the base mount and replaced it with red No More Nails sticky pads. Will leave that for the next day or two to cure on to the nav mount. Later in the week (or when the temperature picks up a bit) I'll have another go at refitting it. No point doing it today in 1 degree cold, it'll just come unstuck again.

Many Dacia drivers have reported rust issues (at least on the Duster range) at panel joints under door rubbers etc. and on the inner wing sections, some only 6 months into ownership. Most likely due to non galvanised bodywork. Not sure a Dacia is a good idea personally.

 

As for sat nav mounts, the windscreen is really the only place I've had success with my Tomtom twist fix suction mount in the van, and even that falls off every couple of months.

Many Dacia drivers have reported rust issues (at least on the Duster range) at panel joints under door rubbers etc. and on the inner wing sections, some only 6 months into ownership. Most likely due to non galvanised bodywork. Not sure a Dacia is a good idea personally.

There were a (disturbingly high) number of rust issues on the first generation Duster (the ones built in India), which resulted from the poor way the shells were being painted prior to assembly and equally poor quality control. Since manufacturing was moved back to Europe the rust issues have stopped. The Logan was never affected by this issue as all the Logans are built in Romania. That said, Renault has been doing its best to duck responsibility for making good the affected cars. I certainly wouldn't touch a Duster any time soon.

As for sat nav mounts, the windscreen is really the only place I've had success with my Tomtom twist fix suction mount in the van, and even that falls off every couple of months.

That is exactly why I won't use the supplied suction mount (and also I don't like anything being on the windscreen). The Garmin mount I was using is designed to be attached to he dash with a sticky pad. It was so cold here in West London last night, and with the Rapid's well-discussed issues with cabin condensation, it didn't really stand a chance alas.

When it's a bit warmer, and thus also drier, I'll go again - only this time replacing the Garmin sticky pad with the much harder wearing No More Nails Red pads. These are currently under light pressure so they stick properly to the actual mount. By the looks of the weather forecast, Sunday might be my best bet for another run at sticking it to the actual dash.

I was actually able to reattach the mount yesterday, thanks to the brief easing up in the cold weather.

Now reattached using the red No More Nails pads and appears to be stuck solidly in place. I'm leaving it to cure until Monday before putting it under any strain (mounting the Nav on it) but I think we we are now in good shape again.

Still not had a chance to do my mudflaps though :(

Finally got to use my new Garmin properly for the first time today. First day back at work after Christmas, so did the commute from West London to Hook & back again. A good 70 miles in total to test the nav, the new DAB-based traffic alerts it receives, as well as make sure that damn mount is definitely stuck in place this time (it is).

The Garmin Nuvi 2569 is, I am pleased to report, a really nice piece of kit. The 5inch screen is a welcome boost over the 4.3inch screen of the Garmin Nuvi 2445 I have replaced. It is also a glass fronted capacitive screen like an iPhone (and also much more responsive and sharper than the resistive screen of the 2445).

The DAB traffic updates are a world apart from the FM-based traffic data the old Garmin used, which was supplied in the UK by Trafficmaster and lacked any useful context information. When the old Garmin did manage to receive FM traffic data from Trafficmaster, any traffic on the route would always be reported as "queuing traffic" regardless of whether it was an accident, roadworks, weight of traffic, swan on the motorway and so on. The DAB traffic data, who is now supplied by Inrix, is far more detailed, with proper context on why there is a delay. It updates more often, finds data far faster and managed to maintain traffic signal for pretty much the whole journey. It also picks up data on things like contraflows, average speed camera zones through roadworks and more.

All in all - highly recommended. If you don't have integrated nav and don't want to retrofit, this is a top notch alternative. As my previous posts have hopefully shown, it can be installed very neatly. It includes lifetime map updates as well. The 2569 has Western European maps, the 2599 has full European maps and voice control. Both have Bluetooth connectivity so can connect to your phone for additional data services and hands free phone (should you need it). I don't use the hands-free capabilities as the car's built in hands free phone system is preferable.

Glad you're enjoying it. Sounds a nice bit of kit [emoji106]

As you say great for someone who doesn't want to retro fit a head unit with Sat Nav [emoji4]

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I kind of get those very vague traffic announcements blurted out from my Amundsen. For instance yesterday there were temporary traffic lights at a road junction and all I got was something like, delays ahead. When I got there 2 cars waiting at the lights, well at least I got a warning. I've also had warnings like that and encountered nothing on the road ahead. It even blurts out info even though I've not got the navigation mode on, which I find useful as well.

The older FM RDS-based TMC traffic data service (of which TrafficMaster is the only remaining UK provider if my research is correct) suffers from a number of problems:

1) Limited bandwidth (though as previously mentioned, I don't buy this as a major challenge as I've had FM-RDS TMC alerts in France on the same hardware that have provided copious amounts of information - albeit in French - about traffic ahead)

2) Limited update cycles (data is refreshed on the broadcast network once every 30 mins at best)

3) Reduction in UK FM broadcast power (intended to help push people generally away from FM and towards DAB, but has had a knock-on effect on the ability of in-car nav systems - integrated and add-on - to receive coherent and stable RDS TMC data feeds on an on-going basis during a journey)

I was reading an interesting white paper over Christmas that discussed the challenge of how to maintain an FM-RDS TMC signal if the UK was to switch off FM and go entirely DAB, as there would be an expectation to maintain the functionality in cars for at least 5 years after switch-off. Various options are being explored by manufactures, the government and broadcasters including manufacturing in-car DAB-to-FM mini retransmitters that would convert the DAB traffic data carrier signal into an FM-RDS TMC compatible one and rebroadcast it as a low-power FM station that the sat nav could then receive, other options include keeping a small slither of the FM band open after swithc-off just to maintain a national FM TMC signal, and of course the nuclear option of doing nothing.

I'm on DAB.

I'm on DAB.

Unfortunately, the DAB-enabled Amundsen and Columbus head units still pull their traffic data from FM TMC, not from DAB. This is common for many DAB-capable integrated sat nav units at the moment, and is part of the reason why contingencies are being put in place to maintain service if and when analog radio gets switched off in the UK (which I doubt will be any time soon given that DAB radio sales are not picking up).