Can anyone point out the advantages and how this works?
Only a £50 extra so was wondering would I regret not adding it?
Have an old sat nav unit at the moment so looking to buy a new one anyway, so thought silly not to look into it.
Cheers all.

I'm pretty sure it just adds the hole on the dash to take the blue&me tomtom which is about £260. But it does take away the clutter of satnav wires & that sticky plunger thing on the window.

i like the idea of being able to use the buttons on the steering wheel rather than trying to touch the correct place on the screen whilst driving, but i too would like to know how good the sat nav is??

It's Tomtom with a years free updates, I believe they are among the best along with Garmin.

I ordered my trekking with the sat nav port - it would make more sense for it to be standard, can't be that big a deal to fit one whan assembling the car surely?

I have 3 tom tom sat navs - a sat nav, a phone app and a add on unit to my double din screen. All work reasonably well though n ot without their quirks - still a step up from google maps and its upside down navigation.

I do like the lane assistance feature though don't like the cost of upgrading to new maps.

I've used the FIAT / Tom Tom for a year now and it is as typically good as any other Tom Tom. Okay, its not quite as clear and simple to use as something like the BMW iDrive (which is the best of the factory-fit systems i've yet tried in a car), but for a tenth of the cost the Tom Tom really is very good indeed. I'm not sure how Tom tom compares to a modern Garmin system, though I'd be amazed if it is not equally good or better

FIAT has customised the interface a little over what you get on a regular Tom Tom and with the 'predisposition' mounting point, you get a reasonably well integrated system that is very good value for the money.

On a new FIAT I think this option is a no-brainer at £50; so much so it amazes me how many Pandas out there don't have it. Probably because many Pandas are originally dealer rather than customer orders...

I understand its standard on the Cross??

Predisposition is standard on the Cross, I have the TomTom and it so far seems very good though I must stress I have not used it in anger yet. The main advantages over a "bought" from Halfrauds Garmin are the BlueandMe integration, voice and steering wheel control and of course it is unlikely to Bork itself a day outside the warranty which my extensive experience of anything Garmin has led me to expect.

Oh, and most important of all your location graphic is a little Panda, a nice touch.

panda panda said:

I ordered my trekking with the sat nav port - it would make more sense for it to be standard, can't be that big a deal to fit one whan assembling the car surely?

I have 3 tom tom sat navs - a sat nav, a phone app and a add on unit to my double din screen. All work reasonably well though n ot without their quirks - still a step up from google maps and its upside down navigation.

I do like the lane assistance feature though don't like the cost of upgrading to new maps.

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So I wouldn't be stuck with buying a tomtom direct from fiat?- I could buy one anywhere and it would fit the cradle and charge?
Not that bothered for having it useable from the steering wheel (getting the leather wheel with controls), but to not have trailing wires or having to plug it in the cig lighter sounds good.

4x4Panda said:

On a new FIAT I think this option is a no-brainer at £50; so much so it amazes me how many Pandas out there don't have it. Probably because many Pandas are originally dealer rather than customer orders...

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Or.... because an AA map book is £1.99, and I don't like driving up railway tracks or the wrong way down one way streets!

And it works a great!

Oattam said:

Or.... because an AA map book is £1.99, and I don't like driving up railway tracks or the wrong way down one way streets!

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Good point!

I must admit I'm one of those folk that uses sat-nav for new journeys; though I'd like to think i do allow common sense to override any daft directions.

Certainly, when I used early generation stuff from Becker and Garmin the systems were more than capable of giving really rubbish instructions. Since then I've stuck with tom tom and BMW factory fit systems and I can't actually recall that they have ever sent me astray. i am however someone who updates the maps fairly frequently, which I'm sure helps as well.

I was going to recommend the tom tom mount as it also provides the user interface for your MP3 player. However, I won't do that as it is a really basic one: a) it could be dangerous for the driver to operate while driving and b) your passenger would find it far easier to simply select the tracks directly from the phone itself!

So yes you are right, each to their own

I have to confess, I have used directions on google maps with my phone on occasion, but generally I like to go through the process of planning a journey on a good ol' map. Furthermore, I never have to navigate around big cities for which I suspect a TomTom or the like would be very useful.

My TomTom 2 live came yesterday. Updated it & tried it my 500. Neat but the GPS speedo seems laggy, not easy to pair & can't work out how to get FIAT cars on there to replace the Alfas????

With apologies for resurrecting an old thread...

Is it true that you need a special Tomtom for this - one that's not then transferable to another (non-Fiat/Alfa) vehicle? If so, I'm inclined to save £150 by buying a bog standard Tomtom from Halfrauds that I can use in other cars too.

It's totally worth getting- the TomTom is a great little sat nav, virtually as good as the built in unit in my LandRover Freelander2, and not having trailing wires and something stuck on the windscreen is excellent! It integrates with the car and steering wheel controls very well- though the Eco driving thing is rubbish- foot flat to the floor and it's still in green- I also have a classic BMW E30 325i convertible and the Eco gauge on there seems more trustworthy... Even if it seems to be a 0miles per gallon all the time! I just pull mine out and put it in the underseat box- I've got a padded bag for it to live in so it doesn't get scratched.
I will say I do hope the next generation or an update is to redesign the radio so it's a sat nav unit.
And mine has had one update at 6 months old, and ever since it crashes my Mac every time I plug it in to update- which didn't really bother me until just this last month the screen went black and white, it started freezing mid journey, and then it stopped funding satellites- turns out it's faulty in some as yet undiagnosed way. It's being fixed under my warranty.

Surprised u think the eco driving thing is no good. I struggle to keep it in the green band..... Haha

Whilst it is geared to the FIATs etc, in terms of customized graphics and integration with the cars systems, we also use ours in other cars simply for navigation. You just need to buy a regular TomTom screen-mount for the purpose. These are not too expensive from Amazon or the like.

Many thanks for that information - my dealer told me that it used a dedicated sat nav unit that couldn't be used in other cars. It would be good to be able to transfer it to the Barchetta, for those increasingly rare occasions when I'm brave enough to take the B on a longer trip where sat nav would be useful.

Still narked that the Fiat Tomtom costs soooo much more than a standard TomTom. You can buy a TomTom Go with full EU lifetime maps for not much more than £100, but Fiat want more than double that amount for the Blue&Me version. Is there a significant improvement in functionality with the Blue&Me?

Some pictures to visualise