My Ford Touch Maps

[murphy]

I just received an email from Garmin.

It contained the following paragraph.

 

Garmin is proud to work with HERE maps, formerly known as NAVTEQ maps. HERE keeps our maps fresh, accurate and reliable by making 2.7 million changes to them each day.
 

 

So Garmin can provide me with four free updates per year to the map for my Garmin GPS with the data coming from HERE but Ford hasn't updated the map for my car since August 2012 and when they do provide an update it will cost $200 per update.

 

It appears that Ford considers map updates to be a profit center.

 

[Eric4539]

I agree with you murphy.

 

I also have a Garmin and lifetime maps; in fact I just updated my Garmin the other night.  I have had my Energi for 10 months now with no indication that an update for the maps for the navigation system is available.

 

I hope it doesn't cost $200 for an update when it is available!

[SteveEnergi]

Agreed.  I have a Tom Tom with lifetime maps.  They provide 2 major updates a year and small updates throughout the year.  This service should be free.

[Rexracer]

Even Acura is only a $99 map update fee.

[http]

Could be worse.  The cost to update my wife's Lexus RX450h was $299. The map update was $139 with $169 labor for the installation.  You don't really buy a map disk or USB.  You buy a license USB that the technician uses to install the map.  It takes him about an hour with the maintenance laptop hooked up to transfer the map data from his laptop to the hard disk in the car. This is why we only update the maps every three years.

[meyersnole]

Even Acura is only a $99 map update fee.

 

The Acura updates are $149, and the updates were near worthless. They would discount it to $99 when they were getting a little old. (They use to cost $199 discounted to $149).

 

Now I have not bought them in a while, because I was very unhappy with the lack of updates (merchants that had been closed for a year or more still listed, roads that had been around for a couple years still not on the disc).  If you go to the site you will see it for a limited time. They are just trying to get rid of the discs before they get their new stock.

 

It does seem odd that the car manufactures have not changed their model, given that the smart phones have up to date maps and are eliminating the need for built in systems.