Volvo Navigation

[aitch2]

I drive an 05 XC90, and, living in Portugal, my one disappointment with the car is the satellite Navigation system, particularly in Southern Europe. At vast expense, I upgraded my maps in 06, but the information contained is very basic, only showing major roads etc.

I also have a TomTom, Which I use in my other cars, which gives comprehensive coverage, and is far superior in all areas.

When running the two systems side by side, which I did on a recent trip to UK, the Volvo (Navteq)shows up very poorly.

I was just wondering, before I go and waste another load of money on new discs, if anybody can give any feedback on the latest maps. Is there any improvement.

I believe the same system is now installed in Aston Martin and other quality cars, so surely Navteq must have made some effort to improve their systems.

[F i F]

If you look at the coverage on the old system then the problem with Portugal and to a lesser extent Spain, was that whilst there was full overage of main roads there was not full coverage of street level except in some areas.

Look at this graphic which shows the varying level of coverage.

Old Balearic maps

I know this isn't exactly your old map but close enough for the purposes, and you can see large area with almost no cover at all.

Fast forwarding up to today, the maps have been updated, significantly, see equivalent graphic today.

Latest map 07 on

As you can see it claims to show full coverage, not sure how accurate that is, though if you look at the map you can see significant improvements in both Portugal and Spain.

Edited by F i F on Friday 11th April 09:11

[aitch2]

Thanks for that, interesting.