Suzuki ruining their reputation with this Satnav and underhand charges

Hi folks, somewhere along the line Suzuki is being screwed by IT companies and is passing that on to the customer with punitive charges. £250.00+ for a map update? Do me a favour. Those were initial leading pay-thru-the nose charges ten years ago when Satnavs were new. (I remember paying nearly 2,000 for a mobile phone the size of a brick that you can get the equivalent functions now for £15.00!) The bods at Suzuki obviously don't know you can get world-wide map updates FREE from openstreetmap! The ambiguity in all this is hiding the extra cost. Local Suzukie dealers (at least here in the U.K.) are woefully undertrained on the IT stuff. They invariably will lie to the customer to cover this up which adds a further ambiguity to all enquiries. It is appalling service. Obviously Suzuki has farmed out its IT to other firms, doesn't control their own fate and is being blackmailed by them both on map updates and software changes. As usual the customer has to pay.

I just did a 4,000 mile round trip in four weeks from York to Malaga in Spain and back using Mapfactor navigation system app which is FREE on any smartphone and which incorporates Openstreetmap maps. It let me down about four or five times on new roads otherwise was absolutely accurate and trusworthy. I hasten to add that this wasn't in my Suzuki but my other car, a camper. There are other free navigation apps on google playstore and i've tried most of them. Mapfactor comes out best for me on all points save that there is no live-streaming advanced notice of traffic or accident blocks. It does have FREE speed camera notification which is almost impossible to add to the Suzuki Satnav for some reason. Suzuki REALLY need to sort this problem out to get customer loyalty back. How stupid are the marketing and sales people at Suzuki? Every time a buyer gets in their new car and puts in a destination they are reminded almost every day they are being conned and cheated by Suzuki on their Satnav with expensive out of date maps which are obtainable free elsewhere. It's like a reverse advert. "Good morning customer, oh, and don't forget, you've got to worry about your satnav being out of date!" It's guaranteed to create suspicion, lose them customers and reduce follow-on sales. They worry about how many cup-holders are necessary to keep drivers happy and then do this. Absolutely stupid. My advice is to complain loudlyto Suzuki until they get the message and use a smartphone app instead because the existing head unit just isn't worth the bother.

 

hi go to GARMIN SUZUKI SITE and will tell you how to do it ,you need a NEW 32 GB SD CARD ,and the map's are updated once a year for &70 .a new car has all ways old maps

 

Bosch unit not Garmin

I've just in the last week bought a pre-owned 2016 SZ-T and it came with a 'Here' maps SD Nav card. Bottom line is, it is dated 2015 and is clearly out of date. I'm not sure which Vitara's are fitted with the Garmin system, but if you are, then you're probably in a better postition for updating your maps. I sent 'Here' maps an email and despite the promise of a response within 48 hours, I've heard nothing back from them four days later. In fact, when I tried to access the purchase area of the site, it wouldn't let me in, so I didn't get anywhere with it.
I've trawled the famous auction website and many of the SD cards being flogged there are errr, very cheap . Fact is, whilst the Infotainment system is good, a genuine 'Here' replacement map will most likely be too expensive for me to bother purchasing. I have a TomTom with free lifetime map updates which I'm going to continue using because it is up to date and has live traffic and camera info.

 

I gave up in the inbuilt NAV on car head units years ago as the update costs are ridiculous and stupid, use google maps on your phone or go buy an aftermarket unit with lifetime free maps for less than the cost of one in car update map.

My new replacement head unit has android fitted and i just use google maps on it and cache the maps for the area i'm travelling in. It has Wi-fi and i set it to log onto free wifi sites while travelling to update maps and itself in the progress.

 

I thought I would give Here maps another try and sent them another email. That was two days ago and despite their automated response claiming they will respond within 48 hour's, once again, no follow up. I'll just stick with TomTom, free lifetime maps and live traffic. I just find it a bit of a shame that 'in car' nav support appears non existent on such a new model.

 

its the same for any in car nav, support is crap, and expensive. Decent android head unit, google maps on the phone and away you go, or a stick on unit like you have with lifetime free maps. Way easier, which is why i dumped the Garmin unit out of my GV, cost of 2 map updates and I bought the tablet based unit i have now, and its got decent nav built in.

 

Not being one to give up easily, I eventually managed to contact Here Maps using their online chat service. I provided them with my vehicle details and they responded by telling me that there are currently no updated products available for my vehicle and that I should contact my dealer direct. This clearly explains why when I attempted to use the Here Maps website, it wouldn't let me past a certain point, so no option to view/purchase a new Nav card etc. I would love to know what year Nav SD cards are currently being shipped with brand new Vitara's if a replacement updated map is unavailable for my own car. Just to reiterate the point, our Nav SD card is from 2015. In the past 3 years, there have since been significant road changes to the motorway system here in the UK which are not reflected on our in car mapping, unlike our TomTom which had a new map update just a few weeks back.

Needless to say, I'll just stick with the TomTom we have for navigation. I currently have free UK/European lifetime maps for the life of the unit that we have, it also has live traffic information which works very well. It's just a massive shame that some in car manufacturer installed Sat Navs just don't get any further support other than the initial installed product.

 

Hi frupi
Have a look on Ebay I have seen EU maps for sale on there at around $50.
In Australia the latest maps are 2017.

 

Thanks for the tip, however the auction site was the first place I looked and no surprise, there are sellers advertising 2018 SD cards for the new Vitara. Trouble is, Here Maps have told me there are no updated SD cards for my year model, so that only leads me to summize one thing and I don't need to spell that out. I just got the impression anyway from the person on chat, that all they're interested in is directing me back to Suzuki, and I have absolutely no intention of paying I suspect, a ridiculous sum of money just to buy an updated SD card that will be out of date anyway within a few weeks or months.

As I say, I'll just stick with TomTom in future. The mapping on my TomTom unit is better than what came with the car and the maps are updated 4 times a year. Admittedly, I have to have the TomTom mount stuck on the screen, but at least I can position the TomTom where I can actually see it, right in front of my line of vision, rather than having to take my eyes off the road to look at the built in media screen.

Thank you anyway for the link.

 

I have a 2017 UK model and mine came with a 2017 map SD card :mellow:

 

Try this forum Log in
Join up and have a look, there is a lot on there about this. I'm a member on there and found them very good

 

Try this forum Log in
Join up and have a look, there is a lot on there about this. I'm a member on there and found them very good

 

How to check version

i have a 67 plate vitara s, how do i check which version of maps i have installed on the sd card.

 

At what point did the navigation unit switch from using Bosch maps to Garmin? My 2016 Vitara appears to have Bosch maps -- and no way to install the Garmin.

 

about the same time they swapped manufacturers and started fitting Garmin head units. Depending on model and location you could have either a Bosch head unit, or a Garmin, and maps are unit manufacturer specific

 

For most of the journeys requiring a satnav, the old (2014?) version is more than adequate. It was rather "interesting" touring North Spain last Autumn though. For journeys when the inbuilt is out of date, I just use Google maps through the phone link-up.

 

So I thought I'd revisit this thread because I decided to do some research into obtaining a so called 'latest' nav SD card from the famous auction site.

Sure enough, there are sellers offering supposed latest nav SD cards for the Suzuki Vitara. In the photos, they show what they are selling. To all intents and purposes, they look the real deal. I decided to do an experiment and so I used the QR code reader on my iphone to read the QR codes on the labels on the photos of the SD cards for sale. I was really surprised that the QR code reader actually worked scanning the image on the screen of my laptop. It revealed to me, that not a single QR code that I scanned related to a 'latest' map. Some dated from 2015, some from 2017. Another give away was the fact that the QR codes revealed the actual official part number of the copy of the map that was held on the SD card, which almost always differed to the official part number printed on the label of the SD card.

All that aside, my Wife had an offer for a new Tomtom Premium X model which she bought direct from Tomtom for over £100 less than she could buy it from anywhere else. It's a superb bit of kit, much much better than the Suzuki built in nav and of course, bang up to date. Big screen, live traffic, iphone integration etc, well worth the investment. I've inherited her old GO5000 model for use in my day job, so I'm not complaining.

 

@frupi

Interesting research. My dealer suggested that the auction versions were ok but on the basis of what you’ve found, I reckon they’re more suited for a replacement stolen card rather than regular updates.

I’ve got the 2019 model and have only used the Suzi satnav once. Nothing wrong with it but I prefer the versatility of Apple CarPlay and Waze.

Rob.

 

Agreed. I personally wouldn't buy one purely because I don't believe the majority of the SD cards being sold, are in fact up to date and this of course is reflected in the price they sell for. The cards probably work fine, but my Wife and I rely on up to date navigation in our day jobs and we also rely heavily on the live traffic aspect that TomTom gives us.

 

I bought this item:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2019-202...ZUKI-NAVIGATION-SD-CARD-MAP-EUROPE-SWIFT-SX4-S-CROSS-VITARA-BALENO/362625137894

And it looks genuine and works fine.

With the new SD-Card installed, the satnav shows the following information:

'Data carriet version: Sd2-Suzuki-SLN_EUR_2019 v1'

I am assuming this means that the maps data on the SD-Card is dated 2019.

My unit is the older Bosch SLDA unit, using the Bosch maps SD-Card, obviously. Unlike the Garmin unit, the older Bosch unit does not have the Live Data option, instead it relies on the standard TMC traffic information. The reason this could be important is that I was told that the Live Traffic subscription will only work with an original Garmin SD-Card, but not with a fake or copied SD-Card bought off eBay - but since I don't actually have a Garmin unit, I can't verify this.

And, just to say that with help from other forum members I was able to uodate the firmware on the SatNav/Radio unit to the latest version 1806.2. This is a free download. What I don't know is if the SatNav software (not maps data) gets updated with the firmware update, or it may reside on the SD-Card and gers updated when a new version of the SD-Card is released.

 

Did you manage to connect using Android Auto after the firmware update? Or mirror an Android phone to get Google Maps?

 

Yes, Android Auto works perfectly with my Samsung Galaxy S9.

However I do not use Google Maps so didn't check that particular app.

 

Sat nav updates

I personally would not bother with any car manufacturers installed sat nav. None are updated more than on an annual basis, making them potentially out of date within weeks. and then they are pretty expensive. Far better to use an app on your phone such as Waze or Co-pilot. If you have Apple car play these apps can be displayed through your cars entertainment screen. Simples!

 

I personally would not bother with any car manufacturers installed sat nav. None are updated more than on an annual basis, making them potentially out of date within weeks. and then they are pretty expensive. Far better to use an app on your phone such as Waze or Co-pilot. If you have Apple car play these apps can be displayed through your cars entertainment screen. Simples!

I agree in essence, and mostly use Waze or Apple Maps (via Apple CarPlay and my wife's iPhone), but at the same time I also like to have updated maps on the original satnav unit, for completeness....

 

Can I just add my vote for Waze too. The built in is a good basic satnav. It'll get you from A to B. I just prefer using Waze on my phone for that and using the single usb socket for an Ipod classic. Pity the system doesn't have two, it makes you choose between music and maps.

 

Hi,

I have a 2016 Swift SZ-L with what i believe is a Garmin head unit. I have an SD card slot that is empty so assume the maps are stored on the HDD of unit. I have tried the process on Garmin Express with no luck. Has there been any breakthroughs on this problem?