Alternative Sat Nav units

[Not Now Kato]

I'm looking to fit a Sat Nav unit into my 56 plate 1.9 tdi. Apart from the RNS510 units I have also seen what appear to be all singing all dancing units to fit the Passatt advertised on e-bay at a hefty discount on the RNS price. Has anybody had any experience of fitting and using these non VW units.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

[johnloaderuk]

Others on this forum have used this company http://www.oemretrofits.co.uk/ and reports have been nothing but praise for them. The RNS 510 is supplied and fitted for £600, with latest 2010 mapping including speed camera database. Other companies can offer a similar service.

People generally stay away from ebay as someimes you don't get what you hope for, and it can be difficult to get your money back. Having said that I don't personally know of anyone that has had a bad experience via ebay, and I'm sure most sellers are genuine and honest, but why take a risk when you can go to a professional company.

My Passat has the RNS 310 sat nav fitted, which can be had cheaper than the RNS 510, but has less features. As far as finding where you want to go, I don't really rate either unit, and my TomTom is never far away.

[jimgironde]

If you look at the oemrefits link, go to their faq section and burried in the detail is the quote that all the units are "2nd user", not sure I would pay £600 for a secondhand unit?

I am looking to put a fixed satnav in my 57 plate tdi and think the best value at the moment is the Kenwood DNX 7240 BT. This is all singing and all dancing with a 7 inch screen and highly specced.

If you go on the Kenwood site you get a link to Kenwood Premier Centres who will sell to you at £995. I have rung around a few centres and they all seem to fit free of charge under the offer with approx £50 for bits and pieces.

[rjb2001]

Kenwood DNX5240BT

Kenwood DNX5240BT more details

Haven't looked what the differences are although it's only got a 6.1" screen but then again it's £200 less than the other one....

I like the idea of the reversing camera input, pity it's a company car!

[jimgironde]

The 5240 has the smaller screen as you point out, this means that they can put a rotary control on the front which spoils the look imho.
The 7240 comes with a remote control so somebody in the back can control it for you, it also has motorised tilt which the 5240 doesn't, so you can adjust if the sun is on the screen.
However, if you compare the 5240 against the VW rns510, the 5240 wins in my opinion at a fraction of the "new" price.

[johnloaderuk]

It would probably pay to make sure the Kenwood unit wouldn't drain the car battery as the VW RNS 510 can sometimes do when retro fitted, which I think depends upon the car software version or something like that. It's been discussed at length on this forum before, so a quick check would be wise.

[redrolo]

I looked at the Kenwood and like the unit. The only downside I found was that where I live the light fingers brigade still take a keen interest in the aftermarket kit, as it sticked out. I found the RNS blended in with the car more discretely. I bought mine off a guy on the VW navi forum, and in my Biased!! opinion it is better sound than the RCD I had, and the navi is awesome!

Happy naviing what ever you stump for.

[Not Now Kato]

Thanks for all the information guys, very useful. Will go and do some homework on the Kenwood unit.
Again thanks for all your help.

[Slick]

ive got a pioneer F700bt some pics in the link below, its a great unit

I've have made it stick out slightly now as looked a bit sunk into my dash after I first installed it

[lepopester]

Hi guys,

I'm a Noob but the unit I picked was the Pioneer Avic f9110-BT which fitted seamlessly into my Passat (2007 TDI 170 SEL). Got it off of Ebay for about £350. Satnav is brilliant, you can still use the steering wheel controls, has USB and SD slots. You need a special lead to use and IPOD but this is only about £15 from Ebay too. It is also made for VW/Seat/Skoda so it fits into the dash without the need for fascia plates, looks OEM. It's got Bluetooth as well so you can link it to your phone. I think the top version used bluetooth to connect the Ipod as well so that might be worth a look.