Loaner GPS
 

I know that Audi will loan me a GPS to use while there. Some of the older posts seem to say that the GPS units were not very good and some people have brought their own from home. Does anyone who has used one of the loaner units in the past year or so have anything to say about them? Is it worth buying and bringing one from home that will only be used once? I think the cheapest ones pre-loaded with European maps are around $179 or so.

I think it all depends on how reliant you will be on the GPS. While it was perfectly fine for going from city to city or major landmarks, it wasn't as easy to search for addresses and lesser known places. For one, I'm not familiar with European addresses, so trying to type in something wasn't that easy. Searching for lesser known places was difficult at times. I had activated International data with AT&T on my smartphone, so for most searches I ended up relying on my phone then trying to punch in the information onto the GPS. But for general directions, I was able to use the loaner GPS without any issues.

Our free Audi loaner worked intermittently the first couple of days (powering off with no warning and cranky to reboot), then behaved itself the rest of the 14 day trip. Tried calling numerous Audi help numbers and good nowhere with that, even with my German speaking wife talking to the less than helpful customer reps. Thankfully we had brought our Garmin and had our phone Navies. I would highly recommend a spare or backup.

We had our loaner system last month and no issues. Traveled though Southern Germany and a significant amount of Austria. Highways and backroads with no issues. In fact I relied on the loaner unit more than my wife.

Munich and Salzburg are not easy towns to navigate and our unit worked fine

The only thing was the unit had a slight delay and you had to pay attention on what turn you needed to do or you would pass it by before it told you to turn. However, that was on the tight streets of Salzburg with limited view of the sky.

I don't think I would buy one. As a failsafe Google Maps from my iPhone would have been the backup, but make sure you have an international data plan

There's a guy over at the Bimmerfest Forum that rents out European map on a SD card for $20 or a Garmin GPS unit for $50.

$20 Garmin Map Europe NT SD Rental $50 Nav Rental - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

Same experience. The loaner they gave me worked great. I think was actually brand new. My only complaint is that it took a little while get a satellite signal after a full power off.

I knew him personally and loan from him navigation dvd for my ED.
Great guy, highly recommend.
He is in LA, CA

Thanks, everyone. It sounds like I will be OK with the GPS they loan me.

Picked up my new SQ5 in Ingolstadt on July 23rd and dropped it off in Madrid (after driving some 3500 miles) for shipment to the USA on August 20th. In my opinion, the Garmin GPS Audi loaned us was worse than terrible. Many, many times it was absolutely worthless. Either couldn't figure out where we were or where we were trying to go or it would put us in a circle loop over and over unable to find its way out. If I hadn't had my iPhone with the Maps app we'd still be lost somewhere in Europe.

I've taken ED on BMWs the previous two years (ALPINAs) and they give you a USB unit for Europe that is unbelievably good with accuracy down to 40 feet with verbal instructions in English (or other languages if preferred). Audi should be ashamed not to do something similar. The Garmin unit was so, so bad.

I contacted Sarah yesterday and this morning I get her response:
Apparently we raise their awareness.
Thank You, All!