Meet the Audi Navigation system of ours - 1
We've reviewed some of our products for prestige vehicles - and now it's Audi's turn. Audi is probably most successful European Prestige brand in Australia, in terms of sales & quality. No matter what people bring up - depreciation / expensive service after 100k Kms / car performance for non S / RS lines - Audi is definetly well made vehicle & gives a pleasure of driving.
Besides, depreciation / service fee after 100kms is pretty high with any other vehicles regardless of luxury / standard / commercial. Not to mention the performance wise, you don't want to cop a fine with speeding.
Talking about Audi, let's talk about Audi's Navigation built-in audio, which happens to have same name as us.
Audi's beloved 'Naviplus' Audio + Sat Nav system - until Audi slammed with outrageous price of updating features.
Audi has shown this very first Naviplus Sat Nav system back in 2002, on It's second generation Audi A8 D3. Just like any other competitors, the system ran Navigation via Map DVD discs yet the quality was relatively better than Benz's NTG 2 Navigation or BMW's Navigation system. And as the car got to 3rd gen, mainstream vehicles like A3, A4, A6 came with Naviplus Audio Rev2, with built-in Nav (No longer DVD required) and better quality. It was all good until Audi decided to slam down some massive $$$ on Map update fee, which was around $950 for entire Australia, $500 for certain states. One of our mates used to drive his dads Audi S4 2007, which had every features apart from reverse camera (but had sensors and PPD). And as Map update was ridiculously high, they haven't updated it for 6 years, and then It somehow got a minor error with itself.
Like, showing Library is located on middle of the road - showing the map of Blacktown (NSW) instead of Glen Waveley (VIC).
Not sure whether It still does that - not to blame Audi's Nav system, as nothing can be perfect & the system (not just Navigation but also audio itself) was outdated for a long time.
It was a definetly a great system consider it's age & technology at that time, great enough to
be supplied to Lamborghini LP570 (The notorious Audio system that supplied by Audi, and locked by Lamborghini - worst nightmare for Car stereo specialists)
2014 AUDI A4 3G+ MMI FACTORY NAVIGATION SYSTEM
And after 2009, an end of an era of Audi 2G Audio system, 3G Audio system debuted.
The system that is still being used in current Audi, with bit of extras and updates.
3G system was a lot different to its father, fully operative without DVD Map, no more ridiculous map update (In fact, there was 'cheaper' way to obtain 'genuine' map update') and it had better overall quality.
The price of $3.5K for Navigation system may sounded a lot (which it is a bloody rip-off), yet in other hand - consider its value It may be a reasonable price.
However the market wasn't same as back when they've introduced it's 2G Nav system.
Navigation system was no longer a prestige's secured treasure, cheaper cars like Toyota, Holden, Ford, Mazda etc already took the market and attracted with its well equipped features.
Touch function was also a key factor for the success of their victory over prestige vehicles.
Of course the audio feature isn't a key factor of vehicle purchase, yet Its convenient and Touch function can grant more things than just dialing via buttons & scroll sticks.
As mentioned above & as we all know, Audi is a luxury prestige brand. And even it's a luxury brand they still have ranges and optional accessories - which makes a difference between 3G and 3G MMi.
MMI controller surrounds gearbox - It's the easiest way to classify between 3G / 3G MMI.
Generally, 3G MMI comes with Factory Sat Nav system and newer ones have MMI Disc system inside of glove box. Where as 3G doesn't come with any Nav / Reverse Camera or other accessories.
Just a shiny badge of 4 rings, and dealers will either say buy a 3G MMI one or they claim they have 'comfort' / 'trend' package etc. And they usually call aftermarket audio specialists like us.
Talking about us for Audi solution, our system isn't different to our previous post regarding
Mainly targeted for Audi with 3G audio (no MMI), that our factory Integrated module grants navigation system without modifying / changing / damaging - doesn't even touch audio systems.
Because you know, replacing the whole unit for Navigation and more feature is somewhat losing its position in the market. Those are really good option if price is right, yet these days standard features are good enough to satisfy customers hence we've studied & developed more in Integration area, and this Audi Nav system is one of the outcomes.
In this post, since we've got already enough text already, we'd like to finalise it with our one of demo video we've made in past.
It's not greatest video out there yet not the worst either.
Hope you enjoy it and we will talk to you later.
Naviplus
