Just come across worrying statistics for OEM sat nav theft from audi/vw/skoda cars in the Leeds area where I live. Apparently this is the worst place in britain for this type of theft.

 

Apparently nearly all the second hand sat nav units which fit the cars on ebay will have been stolen and the installation code cracked so they can be resold. Anyone buying a secondhand unit is probably helping to encourage further theft.

 

Whilst I did not really need the built in sat nav as I think my TomTom works better, it was part of the car specification.

 

I was under the impression that rather than having a code to use when installing, and readily available for a small fee, they are now coded to the vehicle they are in and will not work in another one? Is this the case, and has it since been overcome by the thieves so these units can be sold on?

If still secure has word got around that its not worth stealing from cars after a certain date.

 

Out of interest I had a quick look on ebay and sites selling the unlock codes exclude sat navs with a specific number in a certain position in the unit code, do these represent the units coded to vehicles?

move to nowdays, tryout online systems as Waze, Google Map, Here etc.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WazeGPS1

29 minutes ago, MartiniB said:

move to nowdays, tryout online systems as Waze, Google Map, Here etc.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WazeGPS1

Is Waze any good? I downloaded it to my work phone but haven't yet used it. Is it just for UK. I tried it in Germany and got nothing, although the GPS picked me up. Is it data hungry? I don't want a massive bill after just one journey.

It does use some data yes 

But in exchange you get the latest real-time mapping and route calculation 

 

If data is an issue I suggest you download Google maps to your device and it iuses very little data to update traffic etc

 

And op as regards stolen factory navigation systems 

 

I suspect that refers to Amundsen Columbus from Skoda RNS 510 and 310 from the be group plus whatever seats nav range is called as you only need a torx bit for the bolts and are very easily stolon 

 

I doubt at the minute it's possible to steal navs from say a new fabia and for to a non navigation model fabia due to component protection and also the screen in the dash is just that a screen the guts of the unit are behind the dash 

 

That's not to say in the future these won't also be cracked and then sold on eBay 

Component protection on MIB and MIBII has already been broken.

 

Whenever there is a market, it doesn't take long for someone to break whatever protection is used...

1 hour ago, malcster said:

If data is an issue I suggest you download Google maps to your device and it iuses very little data to update traffic etc

Or install CoPilot, which has locally stored maps so the only data usage is for ActiveTraffic traffic updates (which is an option anyway).

 

I've got Europe & US maps (we have family in the US) which take approx 4GB and 3GB respectively. And map updates are free.

1 hour ago, Bignij said:

Is Waze any good? I downloaded it to my work phone but haven't yet used it.

for daily roads i use Waze, for abroad trips Waze in parallel with Google Map

mobile data amount can be hugely reduced by call way points under WiFi coverage before start trip,

then mobile data spends about 150Mb/month for online traffic info only

 

1 hour ago, Bignij said:

although the GPS picked m

GPS doesn't eat data - signal comes one way, from huge count of satellites around our planet.

 

BUT, GPS signal can be limited by Heated Windscreen:

 

1 hour ago, MartiniB said:

GPS doesn't eat data - signal comes one way, from huge count of satellites around our planet.

bignij was asking about the data usage of the Waze app, not GPS 

All a bit off my original topic regarding theft risk as the Yeti came with standard fitted sat nav. I could gave happily carried on with my Tomtom which fitted neatly in the dash top box on my previous two Yeti's.

My £90 tomtom with speed camera alerts, lifetime map updates, and live traffic through my phone works great and I would not have paid the big premium for sat nav as an option.