Touareg satnav sim?

[gordon stephenson]

As per title chaps, Can somebody please enlighten me as to what this means? My curiosity finally got the better of me, Had the car quite a while, every time I use satnav, a message pops up saying "sim card required for live time information, What sort of sim would be needed, Don't want to be paying too much for something that is not really necessary, Will I gain any advantage?

 

[stormin]

You must have a newer Toerag than mine 2007. Mine says no nav DVD or similar. Don't worry too much as I use Google Maps on my phone. By far the best for real time traffic and route updating I've found.
Sorry not. Much help I know.

 

[rtcosic]

Not a VW but my car has a SIM for the SatNav and can be used as a 'hotspot' (?).

With the SIM it gets updated information about traffic and can re-route to avoid congestion. It's done it to me once in 12 months. Travelling from Portsmouth to Maidenhead on roads I'd never used before and on a dark wet night. Sent me down tiny country lanes to the point I was sure I was lost, then we emerged onto a main road 100 yards from a roundabout with two lanes of traffic backed up further than I could see on this main road. So presumably it was routing me off the trunk road to get around this congestion. Useful if you do a lot of driving on new routes and minimising your journey times is valuable to you. I'm retired and neither applies.

As the car was new it came with a 3 year subscription for the SIM. I won't be paying a bean to renew it! If I ever need the traffic information I would just use one of the various routing apps on the mobile phone.

 

[pedrobedro]

I use a TomTom in the car but Waze is on my phone for emergencies and is very good.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Which headunit is in the touareg?
We had one with a RNS850 and got told we needed an e-sim for it (data sim only, no expiry x about £10 a g/b)
Problem was once the sim was put in the car it wanted to only use that sim card for calls and would not work with any phones connected via bluetooth for hands free.

Did manage to enable something on a smartphone to let the car use that for the internet access. Stopped the message popping up about a missing sim so you could try that.
I use google maps myself, if I am playing music from my phone via the car stereo then the directions are given over the top of the music. If I am using the car nav then it annoyingly mutes the music to give directions.

Edit:
I think the reccomend one for the touareg was a data sim, i think it was an A8 or something that had an esim (built in, not an actual card you can change) that one was set up via a Vodafone app/subscription)
You could probably use a normal sim but I think you have to put it into a phone first and enable mobile data etc before you first use it.
Check to see if you have a sim slot then pop in any working sim card (the wifes) See if the hands free etc. still works from another (your) phone.

 

[gordon stephenson]

The headunt is the RNS 850, Satnav seams to work fine without the sim, I am with Virgin for my phone, so may call them for advice on data only, Prices etc, Thank you for the replies, All this technology stuff baffles me completely,

 

[tlovatt]

In my car the data sim allows simpler searching for destinations e.g. you can tell it to go to Costco Coventry and it will search online for the address and then navigate without me having to do anything, it will get up to date traffic info and it will do some software updates (but not the actual maps due to size) I can also get satellite views for the Sat Nav and when searching for POIs it will add extra info e.g. if I look for nearby petrol stations it will show what price they are charging at the moment.

For Sat Nav you do not need much data, my car came with 3 years of 500MB per month. If you car takes a physical SIM there are some cheap deals e.g. talk mobile (part of Vodafone) do a 2gb per month sim for £5, you would probably get away with a free one from 3 https://3g.co.uk/three-data-reward-sim you only need to pay if you go over the 200mb.

If nothing else it is worth having the free sim to give it a try.

 

[rtcosic]

In my car the data sim allows simpler searching for destinations e.g. you can tell it to go to Costco Coventry and it will search online for the address and then navigate without me having to do anything, it will get up to date traffic info and it will do some software updates (but not the actual maps due to size) I can also get satellite views for the Sat Nav and when searching for POIs it will add extra info e.g. if I look for nearby petrol stations it will show what price they are charging at the moment.

For Sat Nav you do not need much data, my car came with 3 years of 500MB per month. If you car takes a physical SIM there are some cheap deals e.g. talk mobile (part of Vodafone) do a 2gb per month sim for £5, you would probably get away with a free one from 3 https://3g.co.uk/three-data-reward-sim you only need to pay if you go over the 200mb.

If nothing else it is worth having the free sim to give it a try.

I hadn't realised the SatNav was using 'live' data via the SIM for all of that! Naively I thought that was 'static' data downloaded with the map updates. But as it will search for service stations by price I should have realised. I have had the car for 15 months now and only found that feature 3 months ago, by accident; I was bored waiting for SWMBO and was randomly poking about on the SatNav screen! Up to then, I had used Petrol Prices App when away from home.

Once again this Forum educates me on non-welding stuff!

When the included 3 year one runs out, I like the idea free one from 3, but always assume the mobile telephone types are out to con me somehow!

 

[angellonewolf]

ive near given up with tomtoms google maps is better than most satnavs unless your a trucker or such that need low bridges etc would not suprise me if there is an option on google maps for that as well

 

[gordon stephenson]

The free data sim from 3 might be worth a go, But first more help needed please, How much data is 200mb per month? Also would the sim be in use while the sat nav was working or only used when it needed to pass on live updates etc?

 

[hotponyshoes]

The free data sim from 3 might be worth a go, But first more help needed please, How much data is 200mb per month? Also would the sim be in use while the sat nav was working or only used when it needed to pass on live updates etc?

Just going from the history on my phone and the most I have ever used for google maps is 50mb in a month. Most months are about 15mb.
I don't usually have the satellite image on (maybe towards the end of a journey when I am trying to find the place) and I might only use it for maybe 3hrs a week total?

You can get up to 5 kg those free sims per household so you could always get a couple of spares if you are going on a driving holiday.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Thank you hotponyshoes, My slow brain failed to pick-up on the Five sims per household, Excellent, I often have the maps showing on screen but only rarely use the navigation, Particularly lately due to lock -down,

 

[hotponyshoes]

Actually if it's a rns850 nav unit you can do things the other way around as well. If you have a smartphone you can set the headunit to use that for the data connection I think.
What phone have you got and do you have mobile data available on it?

 

[gordon stephenson]

I have a 6S plus iPhone, Just checked and yes mobile data is on, I would need info on how to get the rns850 to accept my mobile data,

 

[hotponyshoes]

Only works with android phones as you need something called rsap (remote sim access protocol)
I'm pretty sure apple do not support it as they have apple play or something of their own.

Order one of the free sims to see if it gives you anything you will actually use.
If it does and you do use all the data in a month then you can either order some more of the free ones or weigh up if it's worth paying for one.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Thank you, I will get a free one, 200mb that renews each month, Fingers crossed.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Try it.
If it disables the hands free on your phone you could always set your phone to divert calls when unavailable to the car sim and put your phone I flight mode or something.

 

[gordon stephenson]

yes I have ordered a free one from 3, If it does weird things to my phone etc, I think I will just remove it and manage as I do now, will report back when it arrives!!