CarNet at £70 a year seems expensive?

[Aidy P]

My Ocean is now over 3 years old and the free CarNet service has expired. I’ve looked online at VW and it is £70 for one year subscription or £120 for two years.

I’ve only found CarNet useful for finding cheaper fuel on holiday and at times the listings aren’t accurate. The rest of the services seem pretty pointless.

Am I missing something with CarNet because £70 a year seems a lot for something I can just Google? It still requires a mobile connection that you have to pay for.

 

[T6 CFO]

No way I would pay for it.



Mike

 

[Amarillo]

My Ocean is now over 3 years old and the free CarNet service has expired. I’ve looked online at VW and it is £70 for one year subscription or £120 for two years.

I’ve only found CarNet useful for finding cheaper fuel on holiday and at times the listings aren’t accurate. The rest of the services seem pretty pointless.

Am I missing something with CarNet because £70 a year seems a lot for something I can just Google? It still requires a mobile connection that you have to pay for.

The traffic information is useful. I like the way it gives green/orange/red lines along trunk roads to indicate traffic flow.

But it’s probably not worth £5 per month for two years. Being the mug that I am, I’ll probably pay it!!!

 

[blondebier]

Have you got App Connect? Services like Google Maps or Waze (even better IMO) and spotify are free to use.

Get the vehicle info through the MFD. I can't see that there is much to miss.

It's not that good and certainly not worth paying an ongoing subscription for.

I think they should include it FOC if you extend your roadside assistance.

 

[El Greco]

On the way to Slimbridge, the satnav declared that the M4 was closed for 3 junctions and produced an alternative route. Traffic news on the radio made no mention of it and Google Maps had no trace of any problems. We ignored the closure info and stayed on the M4. There were absolutely NO problems.

I am dubious as to the value of the traffic info. My free trial ends at the end of this month. I haven't seen a request to subscribe yet but I won't bother.

 

[Aidy P]

I’ve got app connect. The only thing I can’t seem to find is a decent app or website that has up to date fuel station prices. We’ve often gone off piste to pick up cheap fuel and that does integrate with the satnav.

Can you get google to show fuel prices?

 

[Aidy P]

Have you got App Connect? Services like Google Maps or Waze (even better IMO) and spotify are free to use.

Get the vehicle info through the MFD. I can't see that there is much to miss.

It's not that good and certainly not worth paying an ongoing subscription for.

I think they should include it FOC if you extend your roadside assistance.

Is Waze accurate for fuel prices?

 

[blondebier]

Is Waze accurate for fuel prices?

Not in my experience. It's all down to the data it gets fed. I'm guessing the Waze community are lazy buggers and just want to get back on the road.

 

[Aidy P]

I wonder where VW buy the fuel data from? There must be apps that get the same.

 

[motacyclist]

£70 will get you a tankful of fuel (almost!).

Not worth it for the California, you get very little from the app (except 6 months free Apple Music when you first register).

Different if you have a hybrid or electric VW, you need it to set the heating to come on, defrost the windows, set charging times etc. Had to pay it for our GTE hybrid, otherwise you have to sit in the car while the windows clear on frosty mornings. You don’t need it for a diesel or petrol VW.

 

[T6 CFO]

Reminder that Car Net is 70 squid per year 120 for two years once it’s expired after 3years.
Just reminding myself how it all worked and had almost forgotten that they charged.
I quite liked the nerdy ability to send destinations but that’s it for me.
VW shouldn’t be charging for this service. Certainly not £70



Mike

 

[Amarillo]

Reminder that Car Net is 70 squid per year 120 for two years once it’s expired after 3years.
Just reminding myself how it all worked and had almost forgotten that they charged.
I quite liked the nerdy ability to send destinations but that’s it for me.
VW shouldn’t be charging for this service. Certainly not £70



Mike

Is it CarNet that gives you live traffic flow information?

I know some free traffic information comes through the radio signal, but I’m asking about the traffic flow showing up as green, orange or red lines alongside major highways across Europe.

 

[T6 CFO]

Is it CarNet that gives you live traffic flow information?

I know some free traffic information comes through the radio signal, but I’m asking about the traffic flow showing up as green, orange or red lines alongside major highways across Europe.

Sadly I don’t know as I’ve not used the system since mine expired.

Edit:- I suspect you don’t need it for the traffic information but I’ll need to do some testing.



Mike

 

[Amarillo]

Sadly I don’t know as I’ve not used the system since mine expired.

Edit:- I suspect you don’t need it for the traffic information but I’ll need to do some testing.



Mike

I think that it might be the traffic flow data:

=====

We Connect Plus features

Compatible with Discover Navigation infotainment system.
Online Traffic Information
Save yourself time and stress: With ‘Online Traffic Information’ you can keep a constant eye on the current traffic situation and thus avoid traffic jams in good time.

=====

Car-Net Guide & Inform | Volkswagen online services

Let Volkswagen's Car-Net Guide & Inform take the stress out of your day. Receive the latest updates on traffic, POI, parking spaces & Map import as you drive.

www.volkswagen.co.uk

I will need to confirm, and I cannot recall seeing the traffic flow since February when I guess our “guide and inform” contract expired. But I’ve had nothing from VW suggesting a renewal.

I do find traffic flow useful but not £70 worth of value for a year.

The rest of the car-net services are not used by us.

 

[T6 CFO]

I think that it might be the traffic flow data:

=====

We Connect Plus features

Compatible with Discover Navigation infotainment system.
Online Traffic Information
Save yourself time and stress: With ‘Online Traffic Information’ you can keep a constant eye on the current traffic situation and thus avoid traffic jams in good time.

=====

Car-Net Guide & Inform | Volkswagen online services

Let Volkswagen's Car-Net Guide & Inform take the stress out of your day. Receive the latest updates on traffic, POI, parking spaces & Map import as you drive.

www.volkswagen.co.uk

I will need to confirm, and I cannot recall seeing the traffic flow since February when I guess our “guide and inform” contract expired. But I’ve had nothing from VW suggesting a renewal.

I do find traffic flow useful but not £70 worth of value for a year.

The rest of the car-net services are not used by us.

In that case your probably right.


I’ll give mine a try sometime and also see if it makes any difference with a WiFi connection.

I’ll post my findings, could be a while.


Mike

 

[Amarillo]

Does anyone recall how the CarNet subscription works?

I have very recently changed our MiFi dongle’s sim from Vodafone to BT and have a temporary phone number for the dongle until BT get my old number transferred from VF.

I can connect my phone to the dongle but get nothing from CarNet. Is this because the subscription is for the phone number and the issue will resolve on Monday once the old number is transferred to the new sim?

 

[Aidy P]

Does anyone recall how the CarNet subscription works?

I have very recently changed our MiFi dongle’s sim from Vodafone to BT and have a temporary phone number for the dongle until BT get my old number transferred from VF.

I can connect my phone to the dongle but get nothing from CarNet. Is this because the subscription is for the phone number and the issue will resolve on Monday once the old number is transferred to the new sim?

I think you log in to the WV website

 

[Amarillo]

I think you log in to the WV website

The dongle creates a WiFi hotspot which the car connects with. The car then asks the dongle to access the traffic information from VW or the source VW subscribe to. Somehow that subscription service must know that there is an active subscription in place. It could do this from the phone number of the dongle or the car transmitting some ID via the dongle.

For some reason I’m not getting the CarNet data with the new sim and I don’t know why.

But in the shockingly awful VW CarNet portal I’ve found this clue:

So perhaps the issue will resolve itself on Monday when the VF sim phone number is transferred to my new BT sim.