VW SatNav - East European Maps

[BillyCasper]

I'm after a bit of advice.

I'm planning to head in to East Europe this summer. I have the installed VW SatNav, a TomTom and Waze on my iphone.

Is there any benefit to adding the map set for East Europe to the inbuilt SatNav? Waste of money if I already have a TomTom and Waze? Benefit by decluttering, ease of use, extra features?

 

[Moakesy]

Without knowing the cost of the additional download, even updating the standard European maps can be a pain. It took me many attempts before I got it to work, and I consider myself tech savvy and this should have been a simple task. In the end I had to ignore the recommended process and use a workaround instead.

Personally I would use your Tom Tom or the phone (assuming there were no roaming charges for the countries you are visiting). I get that that inbuilt system gives a cleaner interface, but it always feels more clunky and a lesser experience to me.

 

[Jester]

I'm after a bit of advice.

I'm planning to head in to East Europe this summer. I have the installed VW SatNav, a TomTom and Waze on my iphone.

Is there any benefit to adding the map set for East Europe to the inbuilt SatNav? Waste of money if I already have a TomTom and Waze? Benefit by decluttering, ease of use, extra features?

Personally I find the incar satnave easy to read and convenient, down loading is fairly easy, and free,the attached video should help from Cali Chris.

 

[Amarillo]

Where in Eastern Europe. We had no problem with the default maps in the Balkans, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltic States. Untested in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

 

[BillyCasper]

Where in Eastern Europe. We had no problem with the default maps in the Balkans, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltic States. Untested in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Mmmmm, interesting when I went though the Baltics I definitely didn't have coverage. Poland? I can't remember.

Otherwise, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia.

 

[TripleBee]

You have a T5, probably a RNS510? You can not have the free map updates like the T6 have. You will need to find a DVD with the data you need. At VW it will be €250 or something like that. Don't know if there are other possibilities?

 

[BillyCasper]

You have a T5, probably a RNS510? You can not have the free map updates like the T6 have. You will need to find a DVD with the data you need. At VW it will be €250 or something like that. Don't know if there are other possibilities?

Yes RNS 510.

Delivery part number 7F0035686A
HW Version H27
SW-Version 6276
Map Version HDD 8048

I guess it needs updating. The question is DIY with an Ebay sourced disk or dealer?

East Europe? Perhaps I''ll take my TomTom.

Whilst I'm here, thanks to WelshGas for his DB of campsites which I've downloaded and added to my SatNav.

 

[WelshGas]

Yes RNS 510.

Delivery part number 7F0035686A
HW Version H27
SW-Version 6276
Map Version HDD 8048

I guess it needs updating. The question is DIY with an Ebay sourced disk or dealer?

East Europe? Perhaps I''ll take my TomTom.

Whilst I'm here, thanks to WelshGas for his DB of campsites which I've downloaded and added to my SatNav.

I have used a genuine Update Disk from VW, about £99 and an eBay offering. But if you want the latest I would go with VW.

 

[TripleBee]

The problem is, when you buy from elsewhere, there is always a chance, if it's not original, that there might occur some update error, in worst case damaging your RNS. At VW you pay the highest price, but this won't damage your unit (under normal circumstances).
If you would only go to Eastern Europe for one time, I think it is useless to buy a DVD for your RNS. Then you'd better use your phone or TomTom.

 

[Ting Tong]

Be warned that If you rely on waze or another GPS app on your phone, that you need a good 4G signal and we found to our cost that many areas of Germany for instance don’t have 4G.

We’re away at the moment and I had to use Waze to find a Stellplatz in Saarburg because I’d done the wrong map update on our VW Discover Media GPS before we came away and the whole of Eastern Europe was missing. However as soon as we left the A8, our phones went to 3G and weren’t able to locate us on Waze or google maps. We eventually found someone that knew where it was after we’d driven around in circles for an hour.

Luckily a nice technician at Autohaus Rapp VW car dealership in Dachau updated our SD card for the price of a drink when he overheard the parts dept trying to sell me an sd card for €350.

 

[clarinetbcn]

Be warned that If you rely on waze or another GPS app on your phone, that you need a good 4G signal and we found to our cost that many areas of Germany for instance don’t have 4G.

We’re away at the moment and I had to use Waze to find a Stellplatz in Saarburg because I’d done the wrong map update on our VW Discover Media GPS before we came away and the whole of Eastern Europe was missing. However as soon as we left the A8, our phones went to 3G and weren’t able to locate us on Waze or google maps. We eventually found someone that knew where it was after we’d driven around in circles for an hour.

Luckily a nice technician at Autohaus Rapp VW car dealership in Dachau updated our SD card for the price of a drink when he overheard the parts dept trying to sell me an sd card for €350.

If you plan ahead, you can download Google Maps on your phone to use for navigation and route changes offline, so you don't need a connection. It has worked for us for everywhere from Kosovo to Scotland. The maps are pre-configured to last a month and then erase, unless you update them online before. Some people don't realize that even in airplane mode GPS is fully functioning...I use it that way for hiking to save battery.

Edit: Google maps offline only works for car navigation, not walking, biking or public transit. I use other apps for that.

 

[AndyWT]

Had 2 cars with integrated Satnav had enough no thanks... have a Garmin 51 Drive full Europe map, with lifetime updates, plug it in the Mac open Garmin Express, update job done.

The main advantage is I can take it out and use in another vehical and add maps at will, have used it in OZ, NZ, India, all over Southeast Asia.

If you don’t want to buy maps there’s Open Street maps free to down load, which I have on my older Garmin with free topo data and can share with my handheld Garmin.

This may seem a bit extreme but we travel a lot.

But the most important advantage is, you can buy an updated version anytime, which is very expensive for an integrated GPS.

My 2 cents worth