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Hi,

I have been working with Holden to try to get the a number of defects with the GPS (Navi) in the Captiva fixed.

It has a number of faults:
•   Very old & inaccurate maps:- eg didn’t know about Tauranga/Mount harbour bridge (which I understand was built around 25 years ago), it thinks there is a railway line in Cambridge (which I believe was removed 15-20 years ago), etc, etc,
•   Route cannot be followed:- eg when going from Pacific Ave Mt Maunganui to Greerton Rd, Tauranga it said to go down Salisbury Ave & into the sea!!. Within Tauranga it tried to take us down Devonport, down The Strand, Down Harrington, then Willow, then Hamilton and over the railway line (road ends before the Railway line) & presumably into the sea, etc etc
•   Road Disappearing:– When driving at 70-100km/h with Navi on, the road you are driving on disappears. If you slow to below 70 km/h the road then reappears.
•   Calculated route is often the longest distance:- eg When traveling from Tamahere (Hamilton) to Orin (Waikato) wants to go via Hamilton city and then out again. Also when traveling from Glenview (Hamilton) to Tamahere rather than continue down Ohaupo Road it wants to turn around & double back and go back through town and then out via SH1.
•   Time to Destination is always wrong (almost x2). For example Hamilton to Taupo it thinks will take 3+ hours rather than 2 hours. Apparently the GPS estimates travel time based on 50km/h even if you are driving on the open road or the route is open road.
•   Inaccurate speed warnings:- eg large number of 100km & 80km area’s that it thinks are 50km areas
•   Inaccurate Map:- At open road speeds position on map is out by approx 200mtr. So when it says to turn you cannot.

Holden have said that some of these defects may potentially be fixed in the Q3/Q4 update, but they can’t say when the update would be available or which if any of the defects will be fixed.

Is there anything that I can do – would the consumer guarantee’s act re Fit for Purpose apply ?

Regards

Geoff

We'd agree that this is not really acceptable. Most vehicles sold in New Zealand use mapping data from local sources, with updates done very frequently (3 monthly for some), but our understanding is that Holden uses a company based in the USA and the data is very out of date.
We'd certainly suggest that you put pressure on Holden to provide the updated data ASAP. However, whether you'd win a case against Holden based on the CGA (not fit for purpose) is doubtful, especially if Holden is offering a solution.

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I just wanted to clarify something, you mention that a CGA claim is unlikely to succeed as Holden have offered a solution.

What Holden have said is that a solution may be avaliable in the next version update in Q3/Q4, however they are not able to confirm a date when it will be avaliable and also are not able to confirm which, if any, of the defects will be fixed in the next update.

Does this still count as them offering a solution ?

Regards

Geoff

There are often problems with Nav mapping, but from your description this one would seem to be worse than most. We can understand your frustration when the system tries to send you into the harbour etc, but common sense must always prevail, and Holden isn't the only manufacturer to be subject to these niggles.
I'm not sure where you are going with this but if you're looking for a reason to reject the vehicle, I don't think you have grounds.

thanks for that clarification.

I probably wasn't all that clear in my original note, I'm not wanting to reject the vehicle, but more looking for advise re how to get Holden to fix the defects as at the moment they do not seem to be overly interested in fixing it anytime soon

OK. I'd still continue to apply the pressure to get the mapping update as soon as it's available, but other than that there's not much you can do. It's also fair to say that they (and any other manufacturers who use the same mapping provider) probably have their hands tied to some degree too, but constant pressure may filter through to the mapping provider to help speed things up.