Garmin City Navigator

[Greg Masters]

Re: Registering

I didn't have to register on-line or by post with my SP3 to unlock the Mapsource CD

I think that after about July 2002, unlock codes were no longer included in the SPIII package - you had to register the product to get the unlock codes.

Greg

 

[John Armstrong]

Re: Re: Registering

I think that after about July 2002, unlock codes were no longer included in the SPIII package - you had to register the product to get the unlock codes.

Greg

Greg, bought mine last month, unless of course, it was old stock?

 

[Howard Millichap]

Re: Re: Registering

I think that after about July 2002, unlock codes were no longer included in the SPIII package - you had to register the product to get the unlock codes.

Greg

Bought mine as a "SPIII deluxe" in December. It came with all areas unlock codes.

 

[Greg Masters]

Re: Re: Registering

I think that after about July 2002, unlock codes were no longer included in the SPIII package - you had to register the product to get the unlock codes.

Greg

It's what the guy from Garmin told me ..... honest!




Greg

 

[MikeO]

I Emailed Garmin for some guidance on upgrading the City Navigator to V5.00; thought this reply shed some light on the costs/exclusions.

MikeO



Hi Michael,

We are only offering free of charge updates for units purchased/registered after the release date of our updated data, as specified on our website (15th Jan), which is 4 weeks before we expect to have the new product ready for shipping.

The upgrade cost for the European City Navigator product is US$150 for products registered before the release date.

Our data source, Navtech, supply map data to greater than 70% of the in-car navigation systems, many of whom have to have their data/updates on a region basis (rather than all the European regions like our system) and their current update costs are about 149 Euros per region, so for all 7 regions are 1043 Euros. We therefore think our upgrade price is very fair when
comparing to this.

If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Regards,

Tony Broad
Service/Support and MIS Manager
Garmin (Europe) Ltd

 

[John Armstrong]

Regions

I don't think I'd be too happy if I lived in Spain or Ireland and was asked to pay 149 euros for the V5 of Mapsource. There again Garmin might let you have it at a reduced price? Can't argue with the quality of the Garmin kit, and its always seemed to have the edge on the competitors.

BTW why does 128mb Garmin data cards cost approx £200 in the UK and digital camera ones cost less than £50?

 

[judge]

Re: Regions

BTW why does 128mb Garmin data cards cost approx £200 in the UK and digital camera ones cost less than £50?

Cos when they built their systems they did so using a proprietry memory card system then artificially raised their prices.

Garmin is uneniably good kit but you can't lose sight of the fact that they want to rip you off in the process.

 

[MikeO]

Garmin cards are available in the USA for about half the price they are in this country. If you feel you need more memory (I personally don't - 128Mb is fine), then see if you can get someone who's going there to pick some up. A search in Google recently showed several stores selling 128Mb for $150, as compared with £199 here....

MikeO

ps Some might think that something as small as a data card would be easy to avoid paying import duty on. I couldn't possibly suggest such a thing.....

 

[John Armstrong]

$150

Now that's an idea. I can forsee the need if like me you go from the NW of England, down through France, and into Spain. My jaunt in May takes up 126mb on V4, so I don't think it'll fit on one card for V5?

 

[Greg Masters]

OK guys, City Navigator v5.00 is in the shops now!

You'll be pleased to learn that in now includes Prague and the Czech Republic which were totally absent from v4.

I've had a look at Spain, and the mapping data seems a lot better.

Here is Cáceres from v4.00:

 

[Greg Masters]

and this is what it looks like on the same scale and detail setting from v5.00:

 

[John Armstrong]

V5

Just got my V5 and a couple of things I've noticed so far:

1. Got to recalculate the routes, as some of the roads have changed enough to go an "interesting" way.
2. Some of the POI's have changed slightly so see "1".
3. My route fron the NW of England down to Segovia and back hasn't maxed out the 128mb card Unless they've changed some of the map boundaries as three of the places I'm going to Pamplona, Segovia and Beaune are at a much better detail level.

 

[Kenny Rodkiss]

v5

Is the cover for Andorra any better.
v4 is next to useless there.

 

[John Armstrong]

Andorra

I'll have a look tonight. The other idea is to have a look at the Garmin website and their V5 viewer.

 

[Greg Masters]

Re: v5

Is the cover for Andorra any better.
v4 is next to useless there.

No change that I could see.

G

 

[gazza]

Version 5

Hi all, this is really aimed at anyone who has a BMW Navigator and has upgraded to Version 5 mapsource s/ware from 4.11.
Today I received not one but two copies of the V5 disks from Garmin. Nice eh, having just read the disk sleeve it makes no mention of needing an unlock code ? only that you must have a previous version of mapsource already loaded. Hmm, bit confused now. I don't really want to try and load the V5 upgrade until I am sure it has enough benefits. What concerns me is, will it overwrite my current 4.11 if I do attempt to load and leave me with no mapsource unless I purchase an unlock code for V5.

 

[MiGSel]

Gazza,

I'm under the impression you are confusing Mapsource with City Select.

Mapsource is the program. Current version 4.11, nothing more recent available. You can install different sorts of map data inside Mapsource, like Roads and Recreation or MetroGuide maps too.

City Select is the map data for SPIII, that can do autorouting. Current version 5.0, previous version 4.0.

I don't know what the story is with the unlock codes for City Select 5.0, but it has nothing to do with your Mapsource program for sure.

If you install the new map data and it turns out you can't unlock the maps, you can always uninstall and go back to your Mapsource with Cityselect 4.0

Hope this helps,
Michel

P.S. I'm waiting for my CitySelect 5.0 myself, so I am curious. I played ignorant (not so hard to do) and went for the free upgrade.

 

[Greg Masters]

Gazza

If they have sent you the disks, I guess that you get the free upgrade. To unlock the data, you need to drill down through www.garmin.com to the unlock pages and key in all sorts of stuff. They then give you the unlock code. I didn't have to pay for mine - as I registered after the cutoff date in January.

However, you do not lose version 4.xx. Mine still sits on the PC and you can switch between all the data versions that you have.

I dunno if it's worth the $150 they're asking - it depends on your useage. But I'm pretty pleased that they have corrected a 'white' lane just up the road from me - for nearly every journey I make v4 used to send me down that (dead-end) lane and could take some time recalculating the correct route!

Greg

 

[Greg Masters]

City Select is the map data for SPIII, that can do autorouting. Current version 5.0, previous version 4.0.

Michel could be correct, but the BMW Navigator didn't use City Select v4.00 - that was for us poor tikes would could only afford the regular SPIII.

The BMW version used V4.?? that contained all the BMW dealerships.

Greg

 

[Kenny Rodkiss]

The BMW Navigator comes with European City Navigator v4, at the moment.
The BMW dealers are programed into the base map in the unit and not part of v4.
As for v5, you get the cd's for free ok but you have to get the unlock code on-line and that is when you find out if you get a free update or like me have to pay.