Author Topic: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?  (Read 29820 times)

Offline monkeyhanger

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #10 on: 15 March 2015, 17:16 »
At that price, who'd factory order the basic Nav? Saving £750 and the ability to have it taken out and used on your next car or sold on for a likely £50 reinstall cost (if it's only 40 mins labour) to get a fair chunk of your money back. You'll be lucky if the standard factory fit system enhances your GFV by £150 3 years down the line.
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Offline Beddie

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #11 on: 15 March 2015, 17:26 »
At that price, who'd factory order the basic Nav? Saving £750 and the ability to have it taken out and used on your next car or sold on for a likely £50 reinstall cost (if it's only 40 mins labour) to get a fair chunk of your money back. You'll be lucky if the standard factory fit system enhances your GFV by £150 3 years down the line.

I'd have to agree completely! Definitely wouldn't spec DNS nav given this alternative as it feels and looks much faster and slicker than the VW offering..

Will be great for the used market too imo, assuming the golden rule of retail applies (double your money) then the dealers may be into it for £300-£350 cost price? And I'd definitely be pushing for one fitted FOC to seal the deal on a used car...
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Offline Dave_M

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #12 on: 15 March 2015, 18:29 »

Offline AndyG

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #13 on: 15 March 2015, 19:37 »
It does look good but when you are in Nav mode am I correct in saying that as your not in radio mode,you can't listen to the radio.This would annoy me.If you can still listen to the radio and have the sat nav on at the same time  with the sat Nav voice then I would be interested.Does this make sence?
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Offline DougL

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #14 on: 15 March 2015, 19:49 »
I think whatever is playing beneath the navigation continues to play. You aren't pressing the media button to change to media source, you are long pressing to change the screen source. The commands are sent to the RHS driver's speaker, the others will continue playing as normal AFAIK.
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Offline AndyG

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #15 on: 15 March 2015, 20:10 »
if that's the case I quite like it.Probably stick to the "waze" app on iPhone though for free for the rare times I need sat nav.
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Jackie Treehorn

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #16 on: 16 March 2015, 13:50 »
I use the Nokia Here drive at the present time on my phone which is free, and have found it useful when driving to Spain/France/Germany etc.  One thing I always found handy with the Garmins navs i have used in the past, is if you visited a random town abroad, you just zoom out, look for a car park symbol or petrol station and click on it and it give directions to it.  The Nokia Here drive shows all these features like cash points too but you have to just try to look at the screen and drive to them which isn't easy in a foreign country. So i possibly would pay £599 for this add feature and the intergration

GVN-MIB1 system for my VW 2014 Golf http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/oem/vw/GVN-MIB1/?view
Interested in how this all works after seeing this tread I contacted VW today to see what the price is, and they also will fit for £599 inc vat.  but when i asked about updating maps in the future and TMC traffic system whether it is a subscription service or is this free, (as it says Built-in Traffic Data Ready) they said to contact Garmin.  I contacted Garmin and they told me to contact Kenwood as it will be through Kenwood service. Couldn't find a phone number on Kenwood site so emailed and awaiting a response.  :rolleyes:

The Nokia Here Drive service is free, the maps are downloaded so no data is used and the maps are updated a couple of times a year I think, and it has traffic service if you want to use data.  Will wait to see what they come back with.


At that price, who'd factory order the basic Nav? Saving £750 and the ability to have it taken out and used on your next car or sold on for a likely £50 reinstall cost (if it's only 40 mins labour) to get a fair chunk of your money back. You'll be lucky if the standard factory fit system enhances your GFV by £150 3 years down the line.

Im not sure the basic Nav system is £1500? if you are looking at a saving of £750

I thought it was only about £750 for the Basic from the factory

« Last Edit: 16 March 2015, 13:57 by Jackie Treehorn »

Jackie Treehorn

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #17 on: 16 March 2015, 15:27 »
Reply from Kenwood

Thank you for your email

1:  How much it will cost to update the maps each time (yearly for example) via the SD card slot.
    Current cost on the Garmin website is £49.99
2: Can I buy a lifetime subscription
    Sorry no this is a Garmin feature not given to this product
3: Will the Built-in TMC traffic system be a subscription service or is this free?
    The TMC is a free lifetime service which is activated via the Garmin website and on screen instructions

Any other info required please ask
Kind regards

So it looks like you would likely buy the map updates approx every 2 years to cover changes to road networks at a cost of £49.99 each time (at the current cost). Not sure what the current system/service is for factory fitted nav

Offline pjr

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #18 on: 16 March 2015, 15:35 »
The Discover Nav/Pro Nav units get free twice yearly updates for at least 3 years - although this has recently changed to 5 years, apparently.

They aren't really free though, as they presumably have been costed into the initial purchase price of the Nav system.

Where this Kenwood unit is likely to be bought is if it was missed off an order for a new car, or a car was bought from stock/used with no nav - the cost is pretty similar to the official VW system, taking into account the cost of updates etc.
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Offline Mark V GTD

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Re: Kenwood/Garmin Nav Upgrade for Mk7 anyone?
« Reply #19 on: 16 March 2015, 16:20 »
Do roads actually change that much?