Received letter today offering a map update for nav system, $159.99 with free shipping by Dec 31. Anyone else get this? Nav option was $795.00 and now I need $159.99 upgrade? $160 bucks won't send me to poor house,but $795.00 will buy a lot of Tom Toms. Am I just overreacting here?

 

Car Maps are always about $150 for the latest version. Wait 3-4 years and then buy a year old version at a discount. New maps are not needed yearly.

 

Lee, you'll also pay sales tax on that update.

 

I received the same letter I was shocked at the price as well. I checked up on my Wife's 2014 Jeep, and they want $149.00.

Pretty expensive considering the Garmin I have on the bench with lifetime map updating that I bought for $100.00.

I am watching the posts on software mirroring, I think it might be pretty cool to use my iPhone, and WAZE displayed on the C7 Nav screen.

George

 

Don't be too eager to upgrade.

I still have a 2007 upgrade in my 2005, and only once has it not had the address available.

POIs are the only reason to upgrade regularly, not the maps, IMO.

 

I got a letter.

So they're just now getting around to an update of the map version in my car that was likely a year or more old when the car was built in early February of 2014?

This update should have been free to bring everyone up to date with the current version and then charge the exorbitant rate for any further upgrades. When the system was new it was already about a year or more old.

No thanks. I like the nav in the car but it does me no good anyway while the car is on a lift stored for six months of winter.

 

I have NAV in my DD and that will be my plan for updating the maps.

 

Android Auto will be out in March 2016. I'll wait for that. It'll be vastly superior to the current Nav and stuff like Voice Recognition. Speaking of which some real life examples:

• Tried to navigate to McNee Ranch. Factory Nav could not figure it out. Google could. Figured out later on that if I had said "McNee Ranch State Park" it woudl have worked in the factory Nav. Stupid!
• Tried another one "Navigate to El Torito". Nothing. "El Torito". Wrong, no! No! NOOOO!!!, "El Toritos!" - Worked! Apparently their search algorithm doen't thing to check the plural form of nouns! Dumb!

There are other examples and all of that will go away, with free updates on Google Maps, great voice recognition and real time re-routing, and... bing, bing, bing!... free map updates. Why anybody would pay $160 for map updates is beyond me!

 

The main reason I configure and order any car with navigation is just because I take long road-trips through areas that have no cellphone coverage. Google Maps won't help me then and I'd rather have the car itself provide me the basic directions I need even if the map hasn't been updated in 3 years. Android Auto will make things a lot easier for me though - now if only Waze would get to work supporting it.

 

Got the same letter. I'll pass, as I did last year. The only time I used the NAV was for traffic, but now I have not paid for traffic and weather on XM, so I don't use it. My iPhone is better anyway.

 

It just cost me $200 for an upgrade on another make vehicle. Annoying.

 

What version is this supposed to be? I didn't get a letter for my 2015.

 

Thanks everyone for your input. Black and White, I have a 14, perhaps you don't need update update yet.

 

Since Google owns both Android and Waze I can't see any reason why Waze won't be supported by Android Auto.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

That was one of the things that annoyed me severely post purchased.

Specifically asked sales if, like my tomtom, NAV map updates were free for life.
(emphatic YES! - on more than one occasion)

I found out otherwise later.

And he found out what a bad idea it was to lie to me.

 

Pretty standard across all OEM auto nav units. The auto manufacturers have to pay a license fee to the map providers. Of course this price seems excessive, but I do understand not being able to provide free updates forever. Now, if the navigation manufacturer is the same one who provides the software (i.e., Garmin) then you don't have to pay.

 

This pricing IS pretty standard. My Acura TL Type S is the same, but they run $99 specials from time to time.


I'll do an update every 2 to 3 years. It's either this or get a Garmin.

 

I've never had a problem with Google Maps and lack of cell coverage. Navigation uses the GPS, not the cell service. BTW, what do you think the in dash system has that the cell phone doesn't? IOW if Google Maps on the cell phone needs a cell connection to operate then so does your car so either way you'd have a problem.

But as I said, I've never had a problem because it uses GPS not cell service. True, initially you have to use some net connection to download the initial maps and do the route planning. But both Maps and your car have the same limitation. Thereafter any nav, be it in dash or on cell phone, that has any smarts whatsoever would have long since downloaded all the mapping data it needs to navigate.

So I don't understand you're stated problem. And yes I take long road-trips through areas that have no cellphone coverage too like Death Valley, etc.

A couple of seconds of Googling would have told you that they all get map data from providers. Even Garmin has to pay license fees Who Licenses Maps to TomTom & Garmin?

As I see it I bought the nav unit from GM and the software came from them too. If they outsourced it then it doesn't matter to me. Why does GM ask you to compensate them for licensing fees in order to get data from a map provider and Garmin doesn't? Basically it's a big ripoff and I will not stand for it.

 

I paid a stupid $1795 for the factory NAV in my 2009 Z06 and update CD's were $200. Of course, since the last C6 was a 2013, that is the latest map/POE update I can EVER get.

I understand the NAV in the C7 is worlds better than the POS NAV in the C6's, but I doubt if it's better than the $99 Garmin I use, that has free lifetime map/POI updates(every 3 months if I want to send the time downloading them off my desktop). I update my Garmins(have three of them, in three different cars) a week or so before I plan on taking that particular car on a trip.

I don't stick them on my windshield. On my Z06, I have a homemade adapter that holds the Garmin in my cup holder. On my DD I have a homemade adapter that fit's into the slot that holds sunglasses, etc, and on my 64 Vette, I just open the glove box door and stick(using the suction cup) the Garmin on the glove box door that has a shallow cup holder built in.

All three are easy to remove to take inside the house to download the latest map/POI, and if I'm loading all the destinations in the Garmin before a trip, I don't have to do it in the car, but at my desk using my desktop computer for address's etc where I'm going each day. I preload each destination at home so I don't have to mess with it while on the trip.

Only once have I lost my GPS signal to a Garmin and that was for a very short time. I was driving through a "tunnel of trees" and it wasn't necessary for me to take another road of that road during the signal loss, so no big deal. I have been through all parts of the country, especially out west, where I had no cell phone service but had a GPS signal.

 

You are aware that Google Maps downloads the MAP over your cell provider. The GPS would work on your phone when you have no service but if you loose cell coverage for a little bit of time you are just a dot traveling on a white screen.

It DOES NOT download the whole map when you pick the route.