ASK THE EXPERT: IS THERE A CHEAPER WAY TO UPDATE MY CAR’S SATNAV?
Dear Alex,
My six-year-old Mazda CX-3 2.0 Skyactiv-G has done 40,000 miles. Will it require a new cambelt soon? And secondly, during its service last June, I was quoted £140 to have the satellite navigation updated.
I have always had it serviced by a Mazda dealer, so thought this was excessive. Must I get the update via Mazda or can I take it elsewhere?
– JR
Dear JR,
The CX-3 has a metal timing chain rather than a rubber timing belt, which is not known to suffer unduly with problems and should therefore last the life of the car. You shouldn’t have to change it as long as you stick to the service schedule so that its engine oil is changed frequently.
Mazda includes free map updates for the first five years with all of its cars, so you haven’t had to pay for these updates until now.
If you want to keep paying for them, that’s your choice. If you decide on this, that price sounds about right. It costs £98 to download the maps from Mazda’s website and install them yourself, so I can imagine once a dealer has added a labour charge it would come to about £140.
If you’re relatively tech savvy, downloading the updates yourself will cost much less than getting the dealer to do it. You’ll need a computer with an SD card reader, to which you’ll need to download the Mazda Update Toolbox.
Then you eject the SD card from the navigation system, insert it into the SD card reader and follow the instructions on the Update Toolbox. Once the download has finished, you can put the SD card back in your car.
Alternatively, you can get an SD card pre-loaded with updated maps from an aftermarket provider such as SatNavWorld (satnavworld.com).
You simply insert the new SD card into your car’s satnav system. SatNavWorld is currently offering updated maps for your car for £59.99, which is a significant saving. I haven’t used this company myself, although I’ve heard good things from readers.
2023-05-28T07:04:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd