SatNav Updating

@Motacilla
That is quite interesting, especially the ones that support OEM reversing camera and multi camera support. Are there any makes worth looking at or more importantly and to avoid?

Soeley wrote:

@Motacilla
 Are there any makes worth looking at or more importantly and to avoid?

My perhaps controversial view is that it no longer matters what brand the car radio carries.  These are all now essentially full computers, and the Android OS means they are all about the same in terms of construction.  The "guts" look a lot more like a new mobile phone's than an old car radio's.  That is why they are so cheap these days, despite being far more capable than car stereos in times past.

The units will be designed, assembled, and sold by companies you've never heard of.  You can buy them on Aliexpress directly from China, and have confidence that they will arrive in a timely way and as advertised.  There's really very little risk, especially at today's pricing.

I would say, search Aliexpress (start with "Jimny radio" for example) and when you see a configuration that you like drill down with your search terms.  There will be a dozen sellers offering near-identical items.  Look for customer reviews that say it fit the Jimny properly and was plug-and-play.  

Below are some pics of typical units on offer.  The photos are from customer reviews, in advertisements I picked at random.

Good luck!

   

 

If you think the Garmin sytem on the LCN/SLDA is bad, just wait until you get a TomTom based unit!

The one in my Citroen is unbelievable excruciatingly unnecessarily difficult to use- and then they have the gall to disable all the "features" except mapping & routing  if you don't pay a King's Ransom every year for a "subscription"!

The LCN/SLDA just picks up traffic info via the service on Classic FM for nothing, and you can add any speed camera database you like yourself.

(I still haven't figured out how to save destinations in the Citroen......)

Thanks DrRobin, it looks as though the unit is 1870. I have ordered an updated 2023 SD card from a seller on a well known auction site. I'll give it a run and see how things go. All the info about replacement units from other members is very interesting, especially as there appears to be a car head unit dealer not too far away from where I live. If it gets to a point where the head unit does not meet my needs, I'll look at getting a new unit. All the info on the XDA forum is way over my head. It would be nice to have the existing unit mirror the screen from the I-phones my wife and I have, though I understand it can only cope with one phone linked to it. It's no problem. Our other car has a satnav/audio unit which is far older and cant be updated so it's no big deal not to have the latest tech. Our other car has a cd player in it and I read yesterday that CD's are making a come back much as vinyl did! LOL

No problem Mike, always happy to help.

The iPhone screen mirroring works ok, but to be honest I seldom use it.

I used to get a company car and have a little experience of other head units, I wouldn’t say Suzuki’s SLDA is any worse than any other, certainly mine all seems to work ok, even the touch screen.

I had an Android head unit in my Gen 3 and have an updated Android head unit in my other car. I have a lot more features in the Android unit, but it isn’t really any better and in comparison to a factory fit head unit is relatively slow to boot.

As far as build standard goes, I don’t think there is much in it between any of the head units I have had, they are all made in China for the smallest amount of money possible.

In summary I am perfectly happy with the built in head unit in a Gen 4 and won’t be changing it any time soon.

Now if I had bought a LCV with old fashioned radio/CD it would be a different matter.

Good luck with the new map card, I am sure it will be plug and play.

Robin