Looking at older model Superbs, there seems to be an issue with reliability of these units - on Honest John one of the few negative things they say about the car is the "Columbus navigation is prone to failure after about four years" - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/skoda/superb-2008/ - and there's some nightmare stories of Skoda quoting over £2k for replacement systems when a car has just gone out of warranty.  Some people think it's because it's a HDD based system, which wouldn't be so much of an issue if they've changed to solid state drives more recently, but I can't find any information on this.  Does anyone have any idea if the reliability has improved?

The mib2 columbus uses a SSD.

Even on the old units it was not difficult to replace the mechanical hard drive as it's a standard laptop 2½" drive, you just had to make sure you got a decent drive that wasn't overly susceptible to vibration. £50 versus £2000? 

The mib2 columbus uses a SSD.

Even on the old units it was not difficult to replace the mechanical hard drive as it's a standard laptop 2½" drive, you just had to make sure you got a decent drive that wasn't overly susceptible to vibration. £50 versus £2000? 

An SSD drive would make more sense...

Thanks for this, really helpful

I have the older Columbus (RNS 510) in my current Superb 2 FL and before that in my Passat CC, never had a problem with it, and most people with VW group company cars where I work have never had a problem so that's quite a few.

 

Due to the nature of this forum you always get to hear about problem units, the majority were and still are absolutely fine.

 

However I've never had one for more than three years!!!.

 

The Skoda replacement cost has always been very high, you can get new units supply and fitted for half the price from other outlets such as Hazzy Dayz

http://hazzydayz.com/vw-rns-510-with-dab-sat-nav-dvd-player-supply--fit-brand-new-773-p.asp

I have had my 510 for over three and half years and there have two problems.

One where the software would not shut down the unit correctly there would be a current draw which would flatten the battery, fixed under warranty eventually. Not dealer fault just fences that Skoda uk made them jump through.

Second the TVs would occasionally freeze for no reason,new Columbus and tv unit some £3000 plus under warranty and still happens.