The .:R36 has arrived!!!

**Jayse** · 04-12-2008, 10:02 AM

hey jmj,

The RNS510 is a wonderful unit. For the 2 times i've used the SATNAV since i got the car it's been really good. With street names and directions appearing on the MFD as well as the main screen i've found it both clear and useful. Seeing the unit is touch screen i find it easier to enter an address compared to the X5 or E class turn the dial and push systems! When you plug in a destination address, the SATNAV gives you 3 option routes to take giving estimated time and distance for each option.
Now, only having the car for less than a week thats about all i can say about it...some of the other guys on here who've had their units longer might be able to shed some more light on it. After the drive up to Sydney for xmas i'll really get to see the SATNAV in all it's glory....i hope!
What i'm really looking forward to exploring more on the unit is the 20GB of hardrive to load music/movies etc. (30GB total minus 10GB for SATNAV software) So far just using the radio (probably my only issue with the unit is the limit of only 6 programmable radio stations for both bands combined!!) and CD has been great. I upgraded to the Dynaudio 600W Premium Audio System..awesome...cranked up the volume really loud and no distortion...something to put the Saturday night Chapel Street crawlers to shame!!

All in all i'm def happy i ticked the RNS510 SATNAV option and i would recommend the unit it to you.

Cheers,

Jayse.

**jmj** · 04-12-2008, 03:33 PM

Thanks Jayce... your initial impressions are much appreciated. I completed my order today to include Sat Nav and reversing camera. Now for the long wait until March next year!
Cheers

**passatpout** · 05-12-2008, 08:20 AM

I had RNS510 in my Golf in London.. sensational, absolutely brilliant and I reckon the best sat-nav I've ever used (including Garmin, Tom-Tom, etc). Watch what it does when you're driving through tunnels and other areas with no satellite reception.. going through the Rotherhithe and Blackwall Tunnels in London, it always had position accurate, nothing like having wheel sensors and accelerometers in there to do the dead reckoning. Even my wife enjoyed using it, and liked that it came up on the MFD with directions. I think it only gave us one false steer - and that was into a street which had recently (as in the previous fortnight) been converted to one way. It guided us around London all the time, as well as to places such as Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, and was brilliant for explaining the bit between the motorways and town centre. The only thing I couldn't work out was if it could accept Point-of-Interest download files from web servers, but I assumed it could somehow, although the inbuilt list was pretty comprehensive.

If the quality of the maps here is as good as western Europe (over there, it was quite happy to plan a route from Belfast to about Vienna/Budapest), and everything else is the same, then it's good stuff. Have a go at playing with the map, since it's very easy to scroll it around just by dragging your finger on the screen, then pressing the car icon in the centre will take it back to your current position, plus the zoom function is very easy to use to get either more detail or more area.

As I said, it's a fantastic bit of gear, and I reckon we'll be getting it in our next new cars (only didn't in this one since it's a retrofit, doesn't work quite as well as factory fitted, we're using regular roads most of the time, and needed the car in a hurry).

But the stereo bit has me puzzled - over there, with digital radio, mine was picking up about 50 stations on FM alone, and produced its own list Even the radio in my Passat now (not RNS510) has 12 FM and 6 AM stations...

**3Putt** · 05-12-2008, 08:45 AM

Check this out if you have a Windows Mobile Device with GPS ...

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps.html

Will make in car Sat Navs obsolete, i reckon. Bit cheaper than RNS510...like... FREE!

Then there's always the iPhone!