advertisement


Volkswagen SatNav, not good...

PhilofCas

PhilofCas

pfm Member
In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s shite.

Journey home just now, why the hell does it want to send me round York’s outer ring road past Clifton Moor etc, it was saying 6 mile of queuing traffic, yet still wanted me to go that way, the A64 was much clearer.

Anyone else use it and find it poor?
 
In terms of that sort of criticism, I will point out what I have before to people raising the issue.

It is very unlikely to be anything to do with the sat' nav', as such. If you are using local traffic information input, it is working with what maps etc. that it has and that local information. The sat' nav' is a dumb bit of electronics, not a clairvoyant in a box.

For very local, minor-road problems, I suspect that ALL sat' nav's are probably rubbish. Local traffic reports are probably never going to carry alerts about totally routine hold-ups and slow-moving traffic if it happens like clockwork every day/weekday, for instance.
 
In car?

I have used or been driven in a car with, about 5 different ones - all total rubbish compared to one that you stick to the windscreen, that includes Audi and BMW. How much an Audi, a Ford, a VW unit varies with model, I have no idea.
 
I had one in a 67 plate golf which was ok. To be honest I didn’t use it much but I did like when the low fuel warning light came on the sat nav automatically displayed local petrol stations.

I never looked but are you sure there aren’t any settings you can change in the menu to set priorities like fastest / shortest route etc
 
All the satnavs I know take me to the west side of York, and it's bloody miserable. I use it regularly netween my parents' place to the N of York and my home in Leeds. I know very well that the A64 back to Leeds is far quicker in either direction. Except going there on sunny Saturday and Sunday mornings in the school holidays, in which case the top of York (Specifically the roundabout at the Scarboro road) is to be avoided at all costs even if you have to parachute into the northern half of York from low orbit.
 
IME it depends on how new the car is. Current Porsche one is excellent and connects very well to Google maps for additional information. Previous generations like I have on my car are less good. Mine is ok, and makes a reasonable attempt at getting my round traffic.
 
I have the Citroën sat nav which is OK if you want to avoid all the new by-passes, ring roads and one way system changes which don't seem to exist on it.

Neither dealer nor Citroën have been forthcoming in providing updates.

I'd need a degree in IT before I find my way out of here. Hold on I think I've got a map I just paid £1.99 for and it's up to date. Wow!
 
Are you using native satnav or App Connect? The former is pretty superfluous if you have the latter, which stays up to date and is a far better solution. Allows you to run whatever maps you like (google, Apple, waze etc) and is pretty much future proof.
 
A lot of how you get on with a sat' nav' is down to what you are used to.
None of the several that I have seen fitted to cars are even remotely user-friendly as none have used a simple method of interacting with it, such as simple menus on a touch-screen.
I have navigated using a cheap TomTom alongside an iPhone app (not at all sure which one, my 'phone is a Nokia and my mobile bill about £4-5-6 per year...……..), and the TomTom was light years better - simpler instructions, better portrayal of maps, earlier instructions before a junction etc.
 
Vinny said:
In terms of that sort of criticism, I will point out what I have before to people raising the issue.

It is very unlikely to be anything to do with the sat' nav', as such. If you are using local traffic information input, it is working with what maps etc. that it has and that local information. The sat' nav' is a dumb bit of electronics, not a clairvoyant in a box.

For very local, minor-road problems, I suspect that ALL sat' nav's are probably rubbish. Local traffic reports are probably never going to carry alerts about totally routine hold-ups and slow-moving traffic if it happens like clockwork every day/weekday, for instance.
Click to expand...

I had a Mini, so BMW, this was far better, dealt with traffic much slicker
 
wow&flutter said:
I had one in a 67 plate golf which was ok. To be honest I didn’t use it much but I did like when the low fuel warning light came on the sat nav automatically displayed local petrol stations.

I never looked but are you sure there aren’t any settings you can change in the menu to set priorities like fastest / shortest route etc
Click to expand...

the petrol station thing is good, yes, can confirm all settings fine.
 
gintonic said:
IME it depends on how new the car is. Current Porsche one is excellent and connects very well to Google maps for additional information. Previous generations like I have on my car are less good. Mine is ok, and makes a reasonable attempt at getting my round traffic.
Click to expand...

2018, top spec Golf.
 
stevec67 said:
All the satnavs I know take me to the west side of York, and it's bloody miserable. I use it regularly netween my parents' place to the N of York and my home in Leeds. I know very well that the A64 back to Leeds is far quicker in either direction. Except going there on sunny Saturday and Sunday mornings in the school holidays, in which case the top of York (Specifically the roundabout at the Scarboro road) is to be avoided at all costs even if you have to parachute into the northern half of York from low orbit.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, on a morning I choose ‘fastest’, it try’s to take me off round the west ring road, I ignore it, then it try’s to do A19 Fulford, then it try’s one more time at the Brid/Uni turn off, by that time it says my journey time is something like 5 minutes longer, then when past this last turn off, it recalcs and goes back to 5 min less, crap really. Mini was much more ‘intelligent’.
 
Ponty said:
Are you using native satnav or App Connect? The former is pretty superfluous if you have the latter, which stays up to date and is a far better solution. Allows you to run whatever maps you like (google, Apple, waze etc) and is pretty much future proof.
Click to expand...

I’d agree, the Apple CarPlay system, using Google maps is better than VW’s attempt.
 
Last edited:
I agree with BMW satnavs as being excellent. To the question on advantages vs Waze or phone based for me it is the ability to use and tweak your instructions whilst driving, the zoom function or voice commands and getting traffic info read out. The searching is excellent as well, as long as the destination is a business or public place a simple voice command, "Drive to Hatfield House" or wherever will input the destination and set off. Also he screen size is considerably easier to read than a phone screen
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top