RNS510 Fun.....NOT

[tezza]

Just got back from a trip from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, gotta say bloody beautiful up there.

Had fun getting up there putting the RNS510 through it paces, according to the unit when on the Pacific Highway past Coffs Harbour I was OFFROAD and it kept on asking me to turn left (1st time into the bush and the 2nd time into the river)or please make a U turn.
I agree the maps are totally inadequate once you get out of a major city. If you relied solely on them you would be 100% lost.
The VW version is as confirmed by VW is version 1 which is equal to Version 14 of the older Sensis map 9well thats what I got anyway and it is suposed to be the latest)????
The other thing that really threw me off was its calculation of time and distance once a destination had been plotted. From the point of plotting at 4:30pm to destination was 536k travelling at 100kph should come out to approx 5 hours therefore arriving at destination at around 9ish BUT according to the RNS510 I would not get there until 2am ??????. It seemed to think I was travelling at 50kph. When we got closer to Brisbane it corrected itself .....buggered if I know but to say will not be throwing out my good old UBDs for a long time

In saying this though the whole navigation was up the **** it did not even know about the NEW part of the Pacific Highway (which is now more than 1 year old) and was as I said before also trying to ask me to go around roundabouts that did not exist it had no idea where it was.

[Tim]

Any sat nav system is only as good as its maps.
I found that my Tom Tom makes plenty of errors. You cant rely on these things 100%. There is still no complete replacement for the old grey matter

[PaulM]

Which raises a good question though - can you update the maps & how?

[tezza]

Which raises a good question though - can you update the maps & how?

Update is done by another CD just pop it in and away you go but at present I do not think there is an update from VW version 1 for the RNS510, cost is what is the killer I am lead to believe it is around $900. I will be buying another a Tom Tom for the next trip

[PaulM]

$900 for some maps?????? Thats outrageous. I understand though that the RNS can take a flash memory card - so there must be another way to upload maps etc.

[Buller_Scott]

yeah, screw that crap. google maps on your mobile phone is the way to go.

[STV4SYT]

I found a free one called aMaze that installs on my n95 8gb and uses the GPS. not perfect nav, but if u know what is just a silly direction and ignore it u can get your destination relatively easily. using the googlemaps is ok, but was a pid having to keep looking at the pone (memory not so good anymore)

[Treza360]

I have the latest TomTom XL which has the very latest and greatest Sensis maps and it still doesn't have the Tugun Bypass or the fixed speed cameras which are around Brisbane.
Basically at the end of a day you can only trust them so far.
As long as we don't have any idiots on here like those you see in the news who drove off a peir into a lake or into forest because the GPS said too.

[The_Hawk]

Dad just updated the maps in his Subaru Outback to V14 of the sensis maps, the biggest thing for him was the inclusion of the M7 which is handy. Off the top of my head he was talking round the $300 - $400 mark for his map DVD. I have also heard tell that different car maps can work in different cars, so if you find a cheap version from a Toyota it may well work in a Subaru... no clue about what works in the VW system, but if you know someone with a different system it may be worth trying it out if the VW maps are THAT expensive, then you can buy the "cheaper" maps and away you go!

As for driving "offroad", if you plot from one place to another it will take you somewhere it knows rather than through the dirt so it should be fine. Personally I will set my nav and go, ignoring it entirely if I think I know a better way until I need it. Or just have the map on but no destination till I get to where I don't know where I am (that way I get speed camera/red light camera warnings).

For estimated times, again it depends on the maps, if it thinks your going to be driving through 60 zones it may be right, did it know the road you were actually driving on or was this the offroad experience?

Not that it helps you, but my Navman S30 is wonderful, an excellent upgrade to my older bluetooth GPS + PDA with Navman software on it
I tell you for under $300 these days it's well worth the cash for anyone who doesn't have a GPS to buy one.

[RhysQ]

i have a cheap navman N30 or C30 or something. i has all the latest maps including the new tugun bypass and works an absolute treat. it also has all fixed speed cameras and red light cameras. i have never even nearly looked like getting lost. i recently had a few property inspections 1.5 hours out west and even every street out there was available. i have had it for over a year and never had it updated and uses the Sensis maps as well.

my mums Lexus RX350 and my dads RX330 have pretty much the same system and they seems to work a treat as well. really accurate with distances and times.

$900 for maps is ridiculous, i don't know how they can get away with that. our france and monaco maps for when we travelled cost us $139!

EDIT

Not that it helps you, but my Navman S30 is wonderful

yeah that must be what i have...its awesome. we even took is to paris and never got lost in the city with it...and the streets there are absolutely crazy.

[tezza]

Yes! all of you guys are correct and is as we did, only used it as a guide but so bloody annoying when you spend $2500 for a great unit (nothing wrong with the RNS510 itself) it is just the mapping.

Reading a few other forums, I am getting the very distinct impression that the Sensis map that VW use is NOT the latest Sensis map more like 2 years old. I do not care what they say for a map NOT to show Australias main highway between Coffs Harbour NSW and the Queensland border is ridiculous.

We have basically decided to go out and buy the Garmin nuvi760 (expensive - yes but hey it is only money and you cant take it with you) as the maps you can download for this are incredible and in many cases FREE. Offroad, Bush, Local, Topical and more. also I think it has TMC. Just doing a bit more research before as we do not want another dud

[Moonan]

Somehow it's got to be worse than just out-of-date maps. My Garmin has sensis maps from 2006 and they correctly show what the RNS apparently does not! They've stuffed something up somewhere...

[JustCruisn]

I use destinator with free maps I found on rapid share.

Was using Version 2007.Q1.5244 - map of Sensis
newly installed Version 2007.Q2.7389 - map of NAVTEQ

These still have a few missing streets.
The Tugan bypass has been open for like a month. Good luck finding that on a GPS map or UBD.

Here is some more info on the process of electronic maps...
http://forums.fluxmedia.net/faq-freq...-outdated.html

[The_Hawk]

I was going to get to that, but as Just Cruisn has link to, even the "latest" maps can be a year or more old, so don't expect brand new roads to be on there. In fact some of the major selling points of new units is the "updated maps".

When you stop and think about it, a in dash, motorised, touch screen, DVD playing headunit with iPod connector +MP3 support and USB can be had for round $1,000 and a GPS like the Navman or TomTom can be had for under $300 it's amazing how some of the in car systems can go for $3k - $4k.

If you want to dumb it down a shade, say $300 Pioneer head unit melded with $300 Navman S30, I'd buy a Navman MP3/CD player with USB and/or iPod connector with a small touch screen for $600.

[gldgti]

i think this thread should be in the ICE section