RS sat nav upgrade

[Damo105]

My MY11 RS had it's 30,000km service today. When I booked it in, I asked if there were any map or system upgrades for the Columbus system, and the dealer said they check for upgrades as a matter of course, and if there are any upgrades they'll be performed free of charge as part of the service. This is consistent with what the salesman said when I ordered the car.

So then when speaking to them today after dropping off the car, the service guy told me that there are upgrades available (didn't say if it's map or firmware or whatever) but that Skoda Aust has changed the game, and dealers now have to pay for the disk and licence for each vehicle, which he quoted at $1550! He then went on to say something like "it's not a big deal, you could just get a TomTom if you want updated maps."

Apart from the idiocy of his last comment, does anyone know what the deal is? Is this BS, or is Skoda Aust genuinely trying to shaft its customers?

[Transporter]

Have a look in Audio section, you can update the Columbus yourself for free.

[dArK5HaD0w]

as Transporter said, have a look in the Audio section here.
i've performed 2x map upgrades, free of charge, since i picked my car up in nov 2011.

if u want to be legit about it, go to the sensis website and buy the v18 map upgrades for vw. cost is $199.

$1550 for a map upgrade is a load of bu115h1t!!!! no surprises there from vw aus.

[woofy]

Or they have changed what they said they would. I'm guessing this is richmond, it was always that price but for some reason they kept saying it was free. I'd hold them to account personally, I'd say they were wrong all along.

[Damo105]

Or they have changed what they said they would. I'm guessing this is richmond, it was always that price but for some reason they kept saying it was free. I'd hold them to account personally, I'd say they were wrong all along.

It was Richmond. I still don't know if the price was for a map upgrade, a firmware upgrade, or if they're packaged together. The dealer service centre was no help at all. I'll call Skoda Australia to suss out what the situation is, and then I'll email the dealer principal and ask for an explanation. I've been a huge advocate of Skoda, but if this is the best they can do (as distributor and dealer), then they've lost me forever.

[woofy]

That policy only appeared once Zagame took over Richmond, each time I have drilled them on it when they mention it, but so far you are the first that has mentioned the reality. It's very strange they "only" just found out when you asked them about it as most cars sold would have the columbus unit in them, so surely it would have come up many times. My guess is that they haven't been updating anything, or whoever told you that yesterday wasn't in on the devious workaround they have been using. Something is suss there.

To be fair all car dealers still think its acceptable to charge huge dollars for map updates but then again Sensis have complete control over pricing so are to blame there.

[MarksVRS]

Seems to be a legal issue here to consider: If the price of the car included free updates to maps, then I do not see how they can avoid honoring the agreement, unless it was purely a "verbal" offering.

If all else fails I would make a quick call to Dept Fair Trading. That is a lot of money for something that was promised for free!

[woofy]

I'm betting its just verbal. LIke when they told me I would always get a free courtesy car (which has happened without me asking) and can also have them pickup my car from Hawthorn and leave me the courtesy car and vice versa without having to head into the dealer.

That happened once in the early days but its not so hard to drive there so never bothered since. Betting they wouldn't do it now.

[Damo105]

It was purely a verbal offering. The thing is, it wasn't just a fast talking salesman who said it. Even when I booked the car in for service a few weeks ago, and enquired about map upgrades, they said they do it for free as a matter of course. It was only after they had the car, that they told me of this supposed new situation where they have to charge, and the cost is $1550.

I put a complaint on the Skoda Aust Facebook page to elicit a response. Which it did. They've asked me for more details.

I'm just trying to establish what the facts are. There are two issues at play, the first being whether the dealership lied to me about free upgrades, and the second issue of whether an upgrade really does cost $1550.

I accept that software isn't free, and that Skoda has to pay for the map data from sensis, and I get that if they develop new versions of firmware for new models etc, that they should be able to charge a fee to retrofit it to earlier models, but $1550 is just over the top. If a satnav system requires $1500 upgrades to keep it current, then it's completely pointless having it at all.

I'm surprised nobody else on here seems to have had this experience.

[dArK5HaD0w]

I'm surprised nobody else on here seems to have had this experience.

that's cause the avg driver will not bother to upgrade the maps. and those that chose to, will find the cheapest way, aka - free, to do it. that's where forums like this are invaluable.
sure, u'll have to b tech savvy to upgrade the firmware and/or maps, but if it means saving $1550 - i'd drag my a55 to learn how to do it myself, or get a mate to do it for me.


as i said before, sensis provides the map data for vw/skoda & audi.
sensis will charge u $199 if u buy the map upgrade from them directly.

vw aus want to charge $1550 for an upgrade!
even if a firmware was included in the upgrade, i can't see how the firmware alone warrants an extra 1000-1300 dollars.
then again we're talking dealer prices.

when i ordered mine, i was informed by my dealer that it would cost approx. $650 for map upgrades.
guess times have changed.