Nav CD showed up yesterday at the front door. Spending less than 5 minutes with the manual I figured out how to enter and save addresses in the system memory.

First blush, I like it! Some will say that the lack of a visual map is a negative.
I'll make two points on that topic and move on to how it works.

1) This is a rapidly evolving technology. My hunch is that both a visual map system or the current Nav system will be rendered obsolete in a year or so by completely new innovations. Therefore: I would much rather have the non-intrusive format that won't look dated in a short period of time.

2) I recently tried to figure out a MB GPS system on a recent trip to LA. As a passenger and with a "quick use" guide I never got the darn thing to tell
us how to go where we were going.

How it works:

The trick is the arrow down key! You don't have to type in the whole town name
or street or street number. once you figure that out data entry is pretty quick.
You by and large just select from a list.

I saved my home address in memory and headed off to test the system. Named the memory location as "HOME" thinking that should I ever suffer from
rapid onset memory loss, at least my car could get me home!

A nice (not orgasmic) but comforting female voice gets you headed in the right direction. As you approach a turn or freeway ramp she instructs you to make a turn. The name of the street that you need to turn on is displayed on the screen. Along with distance data, a graphical bar that decreases in size when
you approach the turn.

There are a few tricky intersections near my home. In one case to left turns
adjacent to one another. The system picked up on that and indicated "the second left"

Overall first impressions: Useable and pretty cool.

Chris

 

I agree, it gets the job done and its easy to use.

 

I agree with your comments, the Nav. system is easy to use and helpful. I've been using it when driving to destinations that I already know and occasionaly it surprises me with a better routing than I usually use. My only complaint with the system is that it has some significant errors in its database.

For example, last week I used it to navigate from my house in Fremont, CA to San Rafael, CA. The route is suggested is the same one that I always use, but when changing from I80 to I580 just past Berkeley it told me to turn left onto I580, which is just plain wrong, the I580 ramp is on the right (it made the exact same error in the same place on the return trip). Oh, yeah, one other problem on that trip, the database hasn't been updated to reflect that I880 connects directly to I80 (that section of freeway collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and wasn't rebuilt until a year ago), it wanted me to take I580 to I980 to I80. The CD-ROM is dated 11/99, which should have been plenty of time for updates of major freeways to incorporated.

These problems wouldn't be so annoying if Audi didn't charge so much (US$190.00) for nav. system updates.

marcos

 

I agree, and have noticed multiple errors in the database as well. I have tried in vain to comment on this via AoA - they simply suggest that I have my dealer look at it (as if the dealer can changed the CD data - duh!). Other than that, I think the system if quite good - though I wish they had gone with a DVD-ROM for the entire country, or at least an east/west split.. One question though - at some point in the near future I will be taking a trip outside of my region/zone. Assuming that I fork over the ridiculous amount Audi charages for the extra CD, how do I actually navigate across the zone border? Do I insert the distant CD while home, and enter the desination? Or does the system assume that I can find my way to the zone boundary, and then change the CD?

 

I live right at the boundary of two NavCD zones and go through this quite often. You have to put the destination NavCD in in order to input the place you want to go. The Nav system will only provide direction and distance if you are "off-map". As soon as you get "on-map" the Nav system will kick in. So you are on you own until you get to the zone covered by the NavCD inserted. It is a pain....

 

the navigation system on my A6 4.2 has never worked from day 1. All 8 satellites are strong signals but when I input any destination the computer says "Off Road" and the voice system says "The Route Cannot Be Calculated".

Anyone have these problems? And, is there a solution I can bring my dealer.

F.Y.I. : Dealer has already tried replacing the CD with an updated version to no avail.

Please Help.