Sat Nav SD Card question

[Mr Pig]

I called the dealer the other day to see if the cards were still stupid money. Yip, sure are, but that's not the best bit.

If you go to a dealer and pay ridiculous money for a brand new card, it's still out of date! Apparently, VW pay the company supplying the software for regular updates so when you buy a new card the maps are always fairly recent. Despite charging so much for the cards, Seat won't pay for the map updates so their cards are years out of date. Basically, if I bought a new card today the maps would probably be the same as the ones on the 2014 card I already have!

Bit hand for Seat folks! Way to go guys.

 

[Tell]

If they were like mib2 they would be 18 months out of date. The freeze date to get them turned round and produced. They will be all the same process, you see the releases come up where people have Mapcare on non Seat Vag brands for mib1 still being rolled out. We do have the work around for standard mib2 which isn't so bad. If you roll your sleeves up you can get them on the maps yourself 18 months later or so. Can be faster. Mapcare has been abandoned for mib2 on non Seat brands now, the updates are all free.

Google isn't the bees knees on timing since they also have missing roads in their data but when put them in they will arrive much quicker. The issue that remains for mib1 standard is whether any workaround exists to coughing up. On the thread it says there is but hasn't been tested. Heresay evidence.

 

[Mr Pig]

I think it's brand dependant. I just bought a VW MIB1 card for a Golf which cost £35 and is current. The cards Seat are selling for MIB2 are £130 (plus £25 'fitting') and are out of date.

 

[cupra14]

What (technically, in detail please) stops a VW MIB1 card being used?

 

[Tell]

It will be mib1 Mapcare that stops all of the identical cards from working across the brand. You have to go up the thread for someone wanting to be a guinea pig to trying what a dealer said.

Basically the map updates are all identical across brands, interchangeable, it's Mapcare built into the firmware of the units that prevents you from doing a straight update. Well the code dongle things that control what your unit can do. Firmware checks for that being set. Mapcare is on there.

These FEC / Swap codes

http://forum.obdeleven.com/thread/6082/fec-swap-codes-list-mib

You haven't got the code you don't get in. That's how people get stuck with their firmware updates since they don't have the license for additional aspects of functionality.

Mib2 standard we have a workaround which is a software fix, mib1 standard one dealer somewhere who says yes it's possible on the thread, probably not true. Just the card from them. I did report back in 2016 some people had success with updates others didnt, but those are one off updates. Here I think there are two types of mib1 cards, dealer ones and DIY ones. Need the part number to pin any success down which is what I said above. That dealer had claimed there after you could do the updates yourself.

Mib2 plus / High without Mapcare you get it turned into a retrofit by a specialist if you want to do map updates yourself like Mapcare - it's a feature of retrofit although I did have someone who had an Audi one that they couldn't do map updates contact me - so not all retrofits clearly allow you to update the maps. A retrofitter needs ODIS to access the central VAG computers to register changes, if they dont have ODIS they cant do the work. The one in the Midlands does "retrofit" work but doesn't have ODIS login so cant do map work - they told me that. That's for Mib2. I've had my Mib2 plus / high turned into a retrofit after Walone on this board had his done - Croyden based outfit that does have access to ODIS.

Several years back a guy from Slovenia or Slovakia appeared on the big Seat Navigation thread saying he could do it for a price on mib1 standard so the maps could be updated, just send him your £800 unit, price not published. No takers to my knowledge, but people said just say how, he said too technical. Now whether retrofitter in the UK could do it, never asked since I don't have mib1 standard. The Croydon based outfit could be a good start. Basically they deploy well known retrofit solutions developed in the east. So they might have the Slovenia / Slovakia guys technical fix which he got from somewhere. Somebody needs to phone them up who really wants to update their maps or follow up that dealer on the thread who promised a card that could do everything . Those ebay sellers of 2016 I reckon.

 

[cupra14]

Thanks.

Doesn't sound too easy to use VW MIB1 update, then. £35 sounded OK but the silly Seat price - no.

 

[Mr Pig]

A VW dealer wanted £70 for the card but I bought one off eBay, brand new for £35 delivered. Works perfectly.

 

[Tell]

In a VW thou with Mapcare ?.

Some people have bought Seat cards off eBay then get the dealer to activate it. Basically that's the one off update. That's all about 2016 on the Navigation thread (drop in at page 35 or so and on from there:

https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/navigation-system-updates.388586/page-83

As said it's not been resolved how some people could slap in with an eBay mib1 card and it worked and others needed to have it activated. As said further up I did stumble on two styles of cards, updates and complete new cards. For mib2 people they do get sent cards which are the updates where the car is bought from a dealer from afar and do it themselves.... although that maybe in the six month Mapcare grace period.

Thus I reckon their are two týpes of cards you can buy, but whether you can buy them from Seat in the UK is another question. You need to check say a German Seat parts catalogue for anyone committed to this. I stumbled on it when I was looking for the Mapcare activation pack for the Plus that's sold abroad. I wondered whether this was the one being promoted above by a dealer. But obviously you are still tied to Mapcare without a form of retrofit for mib1, that needs to be checked by anybody committed to it.

Should add on the long thread some people in the past when they get the post updates to the thread joke that a DIY way to update Mib1 standard maps has been found. So far it hasnt been and a reliable way of buying an update card for DIY hasn't either. Mib2 standard is a different matter with the workaround technique. That's why people committed to owning a particular vehicle have mib2 retrofitted or do it themselves, you find threads on that on the net. The loose end is whether mib1 standard unit can be turned into a retrofit removing the need for Mapcare updates by any companies in the UK. On a mib2 plus / High the cost ranges from £200 - £300 which is clearly of the order of the one off update but then gives you the unlimited ability thereafter. About £600 if you get mib2 Plus Mapcare activated abroad through Seat dealer which isn't offered in the UK since Mapcare isn't supported. Think a lot of Ateca Cupra Mib2 plus owners will be banging their heads on this one in the future when they find their maps are out of date.