Nav. system update

[Garrett]

I bought a 2013 Audi A4 Prestige in Florida on the 11th and drove it back to North Carolina. During the trip, I noticed the nav. system (MMI 3G+) was making numerous mistakes with the routes I entered. Like the Tom Tom GPS I use in my pickup, it needed updating and it apparently hadn't been since the vehicle went into service in Nov. of 2012. Took it to the Audi dealer in Charlotte, NC and they told me the nav. update was $265 plus another $130 for them to install it. I asked them if they couldn't just sell me the update SD card and I'd install it myself. I'm a retired airline mech. and have done this hundreds of times over the years to airliners. They said I couldn't as the software had to be unlocked by an Audi dealer by communicating with the Audi website in Germany. I know I should have researched this more before I bought the car but would have never expected to be bent over to this acute angle financially for something that by all rights should be at no cost. My trucks GPS had lifetime updates when I bought it and it seems to me there should be some way around this gouging of the customer by Audi. If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate hearing it. Thank you for your time.

[Audi Owners Club.]

Hi Garrett...welcome to the Forum.

There are specialists in the UK that can carry out this sort of update but not sure about the US, although there must be a VW / Audi specialist somewhere?

I would just carry on with the TomTom as would always stay updated with a quick download on the PC whereas you would have to be reliant on buying the updates from Audi on a constant basis at huge cost.

Let us know how you progress with this

Cheers  Trevor

[Garrett]

Thanks for the input, Trevor. I'd prefer to use the nav. system that's in the car and after talking to 3 dealers here, it looks like I'm just going to have to eat this.  $400 is as cheap as I've found and a good European car repair center told me there is no other way to get the updates than to go through an Audi dealership.