Becker Map Pilot review ?

[asinrutee]

Speed camera information is unlawful in many EU countries so it is not surprising it is not available with the Becker

Speed camera information is avaible on the Becker, it's a seperate download, costs about £20, I have downloaded it and it works fine

 

[stuartfoster]

Did you download that from the becker site?

 

[Peter Hill]

Downsides to Becker unit.

I have a 2012 B Class with the latest Becker sat nav.

The first and most obvious problem is with the 'voice'. There are a continuous stream of mispronunciations, some simply 'laughing out loud' wrong. 'Bermondsey' for instance sounds entirely wrong. Long road instructions eg 'A2005' become garbled as the name is lengthened to 'A two thousand and five' not 'two 00 five'. The problem would appear to be that the satnav does not speak english originally, although the voice has had an english accent grafted on.

It keeps coming out with ridiculous instructions at the 'time to turn x' prewarning a few hundred yards down the road. When you actually get to the junction it is usually correct, it's just the prewarnings seem to be left in and wrong too.

Becker have released a very flawed and poorly checked set of voice commands and instructions for UK users. Although their manual and 'come on' state that the mapping is updated twice a year, the currently released set of maps is well over a year old. As becomes obvious if you drive around (eg) French southern coastal resorts where there are many newer changes and additions to the roads.

I recently parked directly outside a ginormous Auchan in Calais. But the sat nav didn't know about it. It (the Auchan) has been there for rather a long time too. The satnav knew about the Cite Europe, and lots of other little 'supermarkets' around Calais. I may have made a mistake in naming, and I will check it next time I shop there, but I suspect that Mr Becker has censored the listing ...

Another problem we discovered from our holiday was that you have to put in searches only as Mr Becker wants. Although all the maps refer to Av, Bd, and St, for Mr Becker you have to write it all out in full. Avenue, Boulevard, and Saint etc or it will not find the places at all.

P.

 

[nuvolablue]

I have a 2012 B Class with the latest Becker sat nav.

The first and most obvious problem is with the 'voice'. There are a continuous stream of mispronunciations, some simply 'laughing out loud' wrong. 'Bermondsey' for instance sounds entirely wrong. Long road instructions eg 'A2005' become garbled as the name is lengthened to 'A two thousand and five' not 'two 00 five'. The problem would appear to be that the satnav does not speak english originally, although the voice has had an english accent grafted on.

It keeps coming out with ridiculous instructions at the 'time to turn x' prewarning a few hundred yards down the road. When you actually get to the junction it is usually correct, it's just the prewarnings seem to be left in and wrong too.

Becker have released a very flawed and poorly checked set of voice commands and instructions for UK users. Although their manual and 'come on' state that the mapping is updated twice a year, the currently released set of maps is well over a year old. As becomes obvious if you drive around (eg) French southern coastal resorts where there are many newer changes and additions to the roads.

I recently parked directly outside a ginormous Auchan in Calais. But the sat nav didn't know about it. It (the Auchan) has been there for rather a long time too. The satnav knew about the Cite Europe, and lots of other little 'supermarkets' around Calais. I may have made a mistake in naming, and I will check it next time I shop there, but I suspect that Mr Becker has censored the listing ...

Another problem we discovered from our holiday was that you have to put in searches only as Mr Becker wants. Although all the maps refer to Av, Bd, and St, for Mr Becker you have to write it all out in full. Avenue, Boulevard, and Saint etc or it will not find the places at all.

P.

But that aside - you're quite happy with it are you ?

 

[Red C220]

So........anyone retrofitted an older 4gb Becker unit to a new 2012 car ?

I have a 4gb unit in a 2011 facelift C class.

My understand of these units is there is no fundamental difference other than the size of the hard memory.

It does mean I can't have all of the Europe maps on - but I have the wholes of UK, France & Belgium and room for plenty more - just no the entire continent.

 

[st4]

Stupid question but I am not a techy chap, would one of these fit my pre facelifted car?

 

[artyman]

If you just have the standard Audio20 Steve, go for the Universal Media Interface or Navigation 20 as they call it now.

 

[st4]

If you just have the standard Audio20 Steve, go for the Universal Media Interface or Navigation 20 as they call it now.

Might look into it.

Planning a massive grand tour of the continent and would like Nav. I'd make do with the Tom Tom but the French get a bit lippy as it has camera alert abilities and will take 850EUR plus my Nav away if I am stopped and found with it.

 

[st13phil]

I'd make do with the Tom Tom but the French get a bit lippy as it has camera alert abilities and will take 850EUR plus my Nav away if I am stopped and found with it.

Unless you really want to invest in the UMI / Navigation 20, just make sure no French camera sites are loaded on your Tom Tom, and turn off the proximity warnings while in France. No problem.

 

[st4]

Unless you really want to invest in the UMI / Navigation 20, just make sure no French camera sites are loaded on your Tom Tom, and turn off the proximity warnings while in France. No problem.

I hate spending money, but heard even if this is switched off, because it can detect these things, its a phat fine and bye bye nav unit.

 

[st13phil]

I hate spending money, but heard even if this is switched off, because it can detect these things, its a phat fine and bye bye nav unit.

It's not a problem if it doesn't have French camera sites loaded and the proximity alert feature is turned off. There was much fuss about this initially, but even the French aren't mad enough to ban every Sat-Nav. The reality is that no Gendarme is going to take an interest unless you are stopped for some other reason anyway.

 

[Red C220]

I had UMI on our previous C class and found it quite reliable and useful.

It got us from Surrey to Edinburgh without any issues a couple of year ago.

 

[asinrutee]

Did you download that from the becker site?

,
Yes, it's not a very big download and I had no problem wih downloading and installng it

 

[Leakeo]

Paul, any chance you could tell me which buyer you got it from in Germany i'm after one myself and want a trusted dealer.
Cheers

 

[nuvolablue]

Call off the dogs - found it.

Hi. Please can you share how to do this ? Thanks. I bought a second hand unit from Germany, and on boot up everything is in German !
How do you switch to English ?
Thanks.

 

[davidhrushton]

Hi. Please can you share how to do this ? Thanks. I bought a second hand unit from Germany, and on boot up everything is in German !
How do you switch to English ?
Thanks.

I downloaded the English manual from the web and using the pictures I compared the menu in German to the English menu, found which was settings and went from there.

 

[davidhrushton]

Anyone managed to alter the volume? I watched a YouTube video and the guy said to switch to something like Disc, no cd, and return to the Nav and using the rotary knob on the audio 20 itself, NOT the steering wheel controls, alter the volume of the Nav. However I found that when I returned to the radio and turned it up, the Nav volume was too high. Is there an easier method? Dave

 

[jonnyMercUK]

Anyone managed to alter the volume? I watched a YouTube video and the guy said to switch to something like Disc, no cd, and return to the Nav and using the rotary knob on the audio 20 itself, NOT the steering wheel controls, alter the volume of the Nav. However I found that when I returned to the radio and turned it up, the Nav volume was too high. Is there an easier method? Dave

Are you on about the nav volume on the Becker? Adjust the volume using either controls on the steering wheel or nob on the dash when an instruction can be heard.

 

[davidhrushton]

Are you on about the nav volume on the Becker? Adjust the volume using either controls on the steering wheel or nob on the dash when an instruction can be heard.

Initially the volume of the Becker, compared to the radio was very low, so adjusting the volume turned up the radio to an unacceptable level. Using the technique I described turned up the volume of the Becker but that is now too loud, so I need to repeat the technique to get it right. I just wondered if there is another way.
See this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24QkgGWUMo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[jonnyMercUK]

Initially the volume of the Becker, compared to the radio was very low, so adjusting the volume turned up the radio to an unacceptable level. Using the technique I described turned up the volume of the Becker but that is now too loud, so I need to repeat the technique to get it right. I just wondered if there is another way.
See this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24QkgGWUMo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Use my method to alter the volume of the Becker. Then you can alter the volume of the radio as you like.

Set a destination and when you hear an instruction change the volume using the controls.