Polo Sat Nav / In car shop

[steve-V8s]

We bought a 73 reg Polo new from the local main dealer. One of the preferences was to have SatNav but they had a number of cars pre-registered without so we took one of them. The Sales bod said no problem if you decide you need it you can pay to upgrade. My understanding was it is fitted as standard but you effectively pay a fee to unlock it.

Visited the showroom today to discuss and was advised all I need is an SD card with the maps on which they used to sell but no longer do but the files can be downloaded from VW website. However after 2 failed attempts to download the map file I communicated again with the dealer and it seems in addition to the SD card and files we also need to somehow purchase the Sat Nav option from “The Shop” which is built in the car quite what this means appears to be a mystery to the dealer and certainly is to me. Can anyone explain.

All we want to do is enable the sat nav in a 73 plate polo

[Glosphil]

Don't bother. Google Maps or Waze from a smartphone are far better & can be displayed on the Polo's central screen.

I say that after trying VAG's sat-nav on an Octavia vRS & a Seat Leon FR.

[steve-V8s]

Thanks for reply.
Driver doesn't have a "smart phone" which is why we wanted the function originally.

[stevemcs]

Normally you have to pay to have it activaated, mine had carplay, nav and phone all dissapear overnight, it seems to a VAG thing, you are better off finding someone that can retro fit it, usually cheaper and they know what they are doing.

I'm off to these guys in a weeks time

https://www.vw-retrofit.co.uk/

[steve-V8s]

We are happy to pay for it be activated. Problem is after several visits to the main dealer they have so far been unable to explain how we do that other than saying we buy it “from the car” they seem to be saying we pay the car some money which to me is an odd concept.

[steve-V8s]

For anyone reading this I now have a better idea of how it works :-

You go to the VW website and create a login by giving email address and some other details.

Having logged in on a phone you download an “app” and install it.

You connect the phone with “app” to car, select nav function and it will ask you for just shy of £800, if you pay that it will attempt to download the maps via your phone.

Two things are not clear :- does the phone need to be connected to the car to use nav and does it install maps on a plugged in SDcard or on memory already in car.

The 800 quid to enable something which is already there fairly conclusively decides VW will not be considered for the next car purchase.