Just picked up my Lounge TA. At a test drive of a TA Lounge when I asked about the sat nav fitting socket on dashboard I was told they were now coming in 2012 as standard and not optional extra. When I picked the car up from different salesperson and asked why there was no fitting he said "some come with them and some without!".

Does anybody know the true position and can the dealer fit one as I would have ordered it if I had been given correct information ( had to wait 2 months anyway)?

thanks

They are not standard, they used to be a no cost option which some dealers just put on all the cars. Mine came with it even though I never asked for it. Hope that helps

They are not an extra cost option hence why you might not have got it.

How bloody vague!

If a buyer asks a question he expects an honest answer. Is it any wonder we don't trust car salesmen: 'some come with and some don't' just isn't good enough. They are all at it though - I'm researching a new car now and there are all mannner of inconsistencies regarding spec printed in brochures, spec quoted on-line and spec and options mentioned by the salemen. And no two salesmen seem to agree

Buying a car is a very fraught business; and why don't the salespeople have a sense of humour, it's like walking into a cross between an undertakers and a dentists' waiting room when you go into a car showroom these days

306maxi said:

They are not standard, they used to be a no cost option which some dealers just put on all the cars. Mine came with it even though I never asked for it. Hope that helps

They are not an extra cost option hence why you might not have got it.

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That was correct when the OP's car was ordered - it is now a £50 option. And not retro-fittable.

Thanks. It is ironic that this particlular salesperson was in other ways was excellent and was a pleasant surprise after what I can only describe as awful sales service in the Toyota, Citroen and even Mercedes dealers. We were looking to buy for cash and in case of the Mercedes could not even find a salesperson to deal with ( colleague had exactly same experience in same dealer when trying to buy a new B class ).

It looks as though unfortunately this salesperson got the information wrong ( but to his credit he knew far more than anybody else about the cars ).

Is there are particular advantage of using the Fiat sat nav that fits into the dash other than no trailing cables. Does it offer other controls e.g. Media that third party ones do not? Not sure how far to push this with the dealer.

Thanks

The Fiat sysem is a TomTom, and seems to be very good. And it has the Bluetooth and radio etc. readouts too. So it is worth having.

I have a good TomTom already and the new ones have lovely big screens, so I wouldn't mind a trailing cable to get that screen. However, I am looking at cars with proper telephone Bluetooth (which the Fiat has) and I'm not concerned about the satnav, whcih I use a lot for my work and which I actually prefer NOT to be incorpoated in the car. The Bluetooth phone link is a different matter and i want that.

My satnav is over five years old and the screen takes both the letters and numbers of the postcode in one go: great

The new ones have letters and numbers on separate screens, so you have to jump between screens to input a code. Thanks TomTom, that's another inconvenience youv'e left me with if I have to buy a new machine. And Garmin are the same... progress! Especally when you have to input over ten codes a night, in a hurry!!

Good luck anyway.

GoGas said:

Thanks. It is ironic that this particlular salesperson was in other ways was excellent and was a pleasant surprise after what I can only describe as awful sales service in the Toyota, Citroen and even Mercedes dealers. We were looking to buy for cash and in case of the Mercedes could not even find a salesperson to deal with ( colleague had exactly same experience in same dealer when trying to buy a new B class ).

It looks as though unfortunately this salesperson got the information wrong ( but to his credit he knew far more than anybody else about the cars ).

Is there are particular advantage of using the Fiat sat nav that fits into the dash other than no trailing cables. Does it offer other controls e.g. Media that third party ones do not? Not sure how far to push this with the dealer.

Thanks

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To be perfectly honest I wouldn't be hugely devastated about it. Don't get me wrong, the B&M Tom Tom unit has a few nice features but nothing that is a must have.

I've always meant to get the B&M Tom Tom but I was on the continent last week with my Nokia Lumia 800 and it performed flawlessly and the only thing that got me lost was putting in the wrong place into the phone rather than the phone itself directing me the wrong way.

Just a pain that the bloody mount is in the middle of the dash and not to the OS where it should ideally be. Better than being half way up the screen where some like to mout their navs though.

I'm surprised there isn't an adapter to allow garmin units etc to be shoved into the same hole.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Just a pain that the bloody mount is in the middle of the dash and not to the OS where it should ideally be. Better than being half way up the screen where some like to mout their navs though.

I'm surprised there isn't an adapter to allow garmin units etc to be shoved into the same hole.

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Personally, I wish someone would make an iphone mount to put into the hole.
Satnav on the phone plus no wires charging=perfect.

Oh, and to the OP, the reason the salesperson said "some cars come with it, some don't" is because the dealer must "tick" the option box for it when ordering. Might be too much trouble for some?? Or just forgetfulness?

I wouldn't worry about it. I am a gadget freak, and after borrowing a tomtom blue&me 2 wouldn't buy one.
All the bother of taking it away every time parked would get on my nerves.
Others love theirs, but I know where I'm driving 99.4367% of the time. The other 0.5633% of the time, I use my phone.

deeyup said:

Personally, I wish someone would make an iphone mount to put into the hole.
Satnav on the phone plus no wires charging=perfect.

Oh, and to the OP, the reason the salesperson said "some cars come with it, some don't" is because the dealer must "tick" the option box for it when ordering. Might be too much trouble for some?? Or just forgetfulness?

I wouldn't worry about it. I am a gadget freak, and after borrowing a tomtom blue&me 2 wouldn't buy one.
All the bother of taking it away every time parked would get on my nerves.
Others love theirs, but I know where I'm driving 99.4367% of the time. The other 0.5633% of the time, I use my phone.

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That makes no sense for Fiat though, the best they're going to do is sell a few docks which they won't be able to do for much whereas they can put a nice big markup on the Tom Tom units.

I got my car one month ago and it came with a fitting even though I didn't specify one. Not quite sure what I can do with it, but it does provide a talking point whenever someone gets into the car with me.

Robnw67 said:

I got my car one month ago and it came with a fitting even though I didn't specify one. Not quite sure what I can do with it, but it does provide a talking point whenever someone gets into the car with me.

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I'd be livid if my new car came with one tbh. Awfully ugly looking thing IMO.

GoGas said:

Just picked up my Lounge TA. At a test drive of a TA Lounge when I asked about the sat nav fitting socket on dashboard I was told they were now coming in 2012 as standard and not optional extra. When I picked the car up from different salesperson and asked why there was no fitting he said "some come with them and some without!".

Does anybody know the true position and can the dealer fit one as I would have ordered it if I had been given correct information ( had to wait 2 months anyway)?

Click to expand...

I would agree with the previous posters and not worry about it. Surprised at Fiat charging for the 68R option port now since Alfa are no longer charging for it - they used to charge £70 for it and practically nobody ordered it.

GoGas said:

Is there are particular advantage of using the Fiat sat nav that fits into the dash other than no trailing cables. Does it offer other controls e.g. Media that third party ones do not? Not sure how far to push this with the dealer.

Click to expand...

Sat Nav port is purely a charge port. It hasn't been tested yet but I reckon that the Tom Tom Live 2 might still 'handshake' with the B&Me in the 500 without the 68R option port. If it 'talks' then you can use the Tom Tom to navigate the music. Plus it has some Eco stuff but you can get that anyway by using a USB stick in the 500.

You might find that in the 500 the Sat Nav is better positioned off to the right of the steering wheel beside the driver's pillar given the size of the car.

If I was buying a Sat Nav that didn't handshake I would buy one of the new Garmins with traffic updates (LIVE model).

If you are only an ocassional user of Sat Navs, smartphones are really catching up but don't do the traffic alerts yet. Worthwhile looking at Navfree and more recently Skobbler now have an 'off-line' version that will work in landscape mode.

Personally I'd prefer a dedicated sat nav & currently the Tom Tom is the best for traffic updates. Proved very useful last week on a blocked route on a main road and had to go on the back roads. Saved me a lot of time reading maps and allowed me to concentrate on the driving.

Here's a thread with some links if you want to do a bit of reading (Click here)

Thanks. On balance will not be too concerned as effectively charge port without much other advantage and most say position is not optimal.

loveshandbags said:

If you are only an ocassional user of Sat Navs, smartphones are really catching up but don't do the traffic alerts yet. Worthwhile looking at Navfree and more recently Skobbler now have an 'off-line' version that will work in landscape mode.

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I have tomtom in my iphone and have had traffic updates on it for the last 2 years. The new ios6 apple maps (free) has traffic also.

loveshandbags said:

Sat Nav port is purely a charge port. It hasn't been tested yet but I reckon that the Tom Tom Live 2 might still 'handshake' with the B&Me in the 500 without the 68R option port. If it 'talks' then you can use the Tom Tom to navigate the music. Plus it has some Eco stuff but you can get that anyway by using a USB stick in the 500.

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It will work as long as you have Blue & Me, as all you're doing is pairing up the device to the B&M unit. Don't forget that Fiat accessories do a suction mount and charging cable for the TomTom unit, so it is 'endorsed' as such.

RUI said:

I have tomtom in my iphone and have had traffic updates on it for the last 2 years. The new ios6 apple maps (free) has traffic also.

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A Tom Tom app on an iphone is nearly a sat nav. You're paying quite a bit of money for it compared with the Navfree & skobbler type apps. Had forgotten that you get the traffic updates on it the same as the sat nav.
Is there a seperate charge for the traffic updates aside from the map updates on the tom tom app ?

Haven't used the ios6 - sticking with 5.1.1 on an ancient iphone 3Gs.

bgunn said:

It will work as long as you have Blue & Me, as all you're doing is pairing up the device to the B&M unit. Don't forget that Fiat accessories do a suction mount and charging cable for the TomTom unit, so it is 'endorsed' as such.

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I thought that & that's why I have issues with '09 MiTo on the Tom Tom. It has the 68R option port that was paid for by the previous owner but it wouldn't talk to the Tom Tom blue & Me Live 2 sat nav. To get it to work involves a new Blue & Me ECU (whatever that means) and the part alone will cost €300 plus an hour's labour. Ideally it should work on a new 500 but after Deeyup's saga with the AVO rear shocks I would be afraid to recommend that you buy the fancy sat nav and then for it not to work for the B&Me handshake 'bit'.:bang:
You'll notice on the Tom tom sites that it specifically states that it will only work with the 68R option port installed. Hence test with someone else's tom tom before you buy.

loveshandbags said:

Is there a seperate charge for the traffic updates aside from the map updates on the tom tom app ?

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Yes its about £20 for the year. I only use the nav about once a month but it has free map updates and the traffic is very very good.
If I am going on a longer journey and I know the way I always put the sat nav on as it shows if there is traffic and will divert me around it

RUI said:

Yes its about £20 for the year. I only use the nav about once a month but it has free map updates and the traffic is very very good.
If I am going on a longer journey and I know the way I always put the sat nav on as it shows if there is traffic and will divert me around it

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The traffic updates are about the only thing that gives the Tom Tom the 'edge' over the Garmin. That price is very good on the app. I think it's about double on the sat nav.

loveshandbags said:

The traffic updates are about the only thing that gives the Tom Tom the 'edge' over the Garmin. That price is very good on the app. I think it's about double on the sat nav.

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My Garmin has had traffic updates for the past 4 years - Hows TomTom got the edge?