in the user manual link on the subaru-maps website, it has this for pricing....

 

Walker,

I go to that page but on my Maps page that has my VIN and says subscription expired 3 days ago no pricing plans are offered - Thoughts???

Thanks!

 

Or.....use smart phone and Google Maps/Waze.

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That is okay for city/suburbs, but not a good idea for places with poor cellphone reception. The better option, in my experience, is to have both - a smart phone-based nav and a Garmin or TomTom unit that can be squirreled away in the car trunk.

 

For that kind of money, you can buy a Garmin which has free map updates and you can use it in any vehicle.

 

Thanks Walker. Yeah I think I'll spend the money on steak and booze instead. Waze has been pretty good to me so far so I'll keep using that. Besides even after quite a few updates, Subaru Maps still has the wrong speed limits on the roads I travel on and Waze doesn't.

 

The problem with using Android auto or Apple car play is that you will lose navigation on areas where there is no cell service. It happened to me on our recent road trip. I was glad I had the option to switch to my vehicle's navigation. The free subscription on my 2018 Outback just expired. Most likely I will spend the $200 for three more years since we mainly use the car for road trip going to places with spotty cell reception.

 

if you do then you are doing it wrong as Google Maps, Gaia, and many others do allow offline maps.

 

Doesn't change the fact that having a back up to your phone for navigation purposes can come in handy in a variety of situations. I carry enough accessories as it is, and have sworn off mounting devices in my cars, so adding a portable GPS is of no interest to me. That said, I don't put high priority on updating my stock nav maps - I usually just improvise when I encounter the occasional missing road. Having a nice big map built into the dash is far superior to the alternatives in a number of ways, and it's hardly the end of the world if it doesn't have every last detail exactly right, at least not to me. I've had some amusing encounters out in the boonies with folks that are 100% at the mercy of their phones. That'll never be me.

 

I've had some amusing encounters out in the boonies with folks that are 100% at the mercy of their phones.

I feel your pain. These are usually the same people who omit any pre-trip planning. They are also more likely than average to blindly follow GPS misdirection onto railroad right of way or into a water hazard (river, lake, etc.). In conversations with National Park S&R folks, their most common "rescue" scenario these days is naive hikers who carry both a GPS and a cell phone but have absolutely no idea where they are.

 

As I was a long holdout before I bought an iPhone, I had a Garmin GPS. It still gets updates. It is a backup for Waze on the iPhone. I like Waze for its constant user input and warnings, but I am not a phone addict.

PS: I also carry "PAPER MAPS" in my cars...

 

As I was a long holdout before I bought an iPhone, I had a Garmin GPS. It still gets updates. It is a backup for Waze on the iPhone. I like Waze for its constant user input and warnings, but I am not a phone addict.

PS: I also carry "PAPER MAPS" in my cars...

I also carry paper maps.

 

I got the same email. The Subaru Nav system on my 2018 is the worst I've had in 5 vehicles with Nav. My wife uses hers on occasion in her Crosstrek but has also complained about its accuracy. Maybe it is better in the US, but for Canada it is mediocre at best.

I never use it and use Waze instead. I have also used Google Maps, and it worked all the way around Iceland - like the whole island - in a rental car, so I have confidence in Google/Waze (same company now) to work.

 

The maps on my 2019 are junk - slow, difficult to visualize in 2D, and send me on non-existent routes! I'd rather buy a Garmin and/or TomTom than stay with this piece of junk software.

 

I don't know a about the 2019 but in our 2018 the built in NAV is a TomTom unit so switching to a TomTom would not be any better.

 

After one year mine stopped working (both speed limit display and map). Then, at almost 2.5 yrs the speed limit readout activated when I crossed over into Nevada. I noticed it come on and turned on Nav, and my map displayed. Both stopped working again as soon as I went back into California.

Anybody familiar with this behavior and know what's going on?

 

It probably causes cancer to Californians so it has to be disabled there.

 

Not sure what all the fuss is about. Your navigation system will continue just fine if you don't update it. Are people really concerned that they will get lost in some new development that hasn't been updated to their maps?

I love my car but agree with others that the navigation app is really garbage vs. google maps (GM), etc. And yes, GM works in offline mode just fine. If it glitches you still have the lowly Subaru navigation.

 

Not sure what all the fuss is about. Your navigation system will continue just fine if you don't update it. Are people really concerned that they will get lost in some new development that hasn't been updated to their maps?

I love my car but agree with others that the navigation app is really garbage vs. google maps (GM), etc. And yes, GM works in offline mode just fine. If it glitches you still have the lowly Subaru navigation.

Has anyone renewed the map updater? How much did it cost you to renew the "free" map updates?

My issue with Google’s Maps or any other cellular based app is that you use up your cellular data when navigating on the fly. Not everyone has unlimited data plans nor need them. You can plan and download Maps ahead of time, but you’re still using a small screen to navigate. I’ll keep the native navigation and supplement with my Garmin gps or iPhone when necessary. Additionally, I usually print off Google map directions ahead of time as well.

 

Everyone is different and has different priorities. For me, my OB Nav is used only for local, quick navigation. I travel a lot for business up and down the eastern US and use Google and Gaia exclusively. They just work well for me. I do extensive trip planning ahead of time with Google Maps and Google Earth. If I’m going to explore off road, I download Gaia GPS maps. I recently went to Hattiesburg Mississippi and I had never been there so I used Google Maps and Google Earth to plan the trip and download points of interest along my route from my home in CT to MS. I have an iPad mount in my OB so I can see a larger Nav screen. This may not be for everyone, but I love doing this level of planning each trip. I always try to plan contingencies in my trip or alternate routes as weather, accidents and construction happens. You can’t always predict things and stuff happens. But being prepared with some preplanning always helps. But that’s just my opinion.


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I hate my 2016 nav but I enjoy using it as a heads up map especially if I'm lost in suburban area I'm unfamiliar with. The nav is not worth sinking money into for an update for the handful of extra streets you'll gain.... and in 3 more years it will be out of date again and Subaru will probably pull the ability to update it further.

However, if ever I'm in the sticks and out of cell phone service it always stays connected.... even if it's grossly inaccurate.

 

At a minimum, the stock nav should be able to keep a reasonably reliable lock on your position, no matter how remote, which means you have an accurate latitude/longitude regardless of where it thinks you are on it's map. So just zoom out and you can always use it to maintain a heading based on other landmarks (I've caught folks bitching about their GPS accuracy only to find out they keep it zoomed in so much it's comical).
(tip: on the 2015-17 nav systems, when off road or off map, you can tap your location on the screen and then hit the info button that appears in the upper right to get your coordinates)

Guess I'm not surprised, but it's interesting to hear that map updates can get botched. This is somewhat like software updates with the head unit - think about why it is you've decided to update. The map will never be perfect, regardless of how many updates you apply, so is the system working to your satisfaction for the most part? You might save yourself some headaches by leaving well enough alone.

 

OB navigation for just about all cars sucks. Subaru is no exception and I have not used it once and only booted the app up once or twice. Subaru using TomTom data is not helping their cause much.

Carplay and Android Auto / Google maps are much better options for navigating in cities and Gaia is excellent for off-road. The latter 3 all offering offline capability.

 

Don't know why you need to parrot this, it's already covered earlier in this thread and in numerous similar threads. Some of us are simply making a case for the stock nav because so many people seem to think it's totally useless. Nobody is saying it's great, or that it's even worth keeping up-to-date, but it's far from useless. I've yet to see a persuasive argument against having it as a backup.

 

Hold my beer.....


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Haven't used a recent Garmin, but did for over 10 years, a few years back inputting an address was a Royal PIB.

Surprised google maps hasn't killed them yet. Do people still buy those things now we have free nav on our cell phones?

Updating in my Toyotas was over $100 each year, and Garmin was about the same ($79ish?).

Oh and they had nag screens that your maps are out of date.

 

Haven't used a recent Garmin, but did for over 10 years, a few years back inputting an address was a Royal PIB.

Surprised google maps hasn't killed them yet. Do people still buy those things now we have free nav on our cell phones?

Updating in my Toyotas was over $100 each year, and Garmin was about the same ($79ish?).

Oh and they had nag screens that your maps are out of date.

I get free updates on my Garmin and none of the Garmins I have ever owned have ever had a screen pop up telling me the maps are out of date. I don't recall any problems entering addresses on my Garmin but the stock nav can suck at times.


As usual for me I like the stock nav unit for convenience, my Garmin performs better than the stock nav so I use that on longer trips when it is worth the time to set it up and leave it in place. If the first two options fail for some reason I might resort to my phone in a pinch.

 

If you take the time to read the thread, I think it's obvious that I'm not advocating for off-road use of the stock nav, I'm simply attempting to explain that just because the nav doesn't know what road you're on doesn't mean it's suddenly rendered useless. So, my earlier "tip" was related to these situations - it still provides useful information when you're on an unknown road, IOW off-map (which, as far as the system is concerned, is the same as being off-road).

 

Honestly I've never really thought about using it off-road, but it could be handy if I were to get lost. All I've ever really needed is the compass to keep tabs on where I am and which way I want to be going.

 

So let me get this straight. I will still be able to use the car's maps even if I don't pay for any more updates correct? My Starlink service is still OK until 2023. If I don't update the map service will I still be able to use the map service with the last update I installed? Or is Subaru going to turn off the car's map button?

 

Yes, you will be able to use the maps with the last update installed. It won't turn off, or go away. It is no different than using a standalone GPS unit without updating the maps that point on.

 

No, you basically own whatever map is currently installed in your head unit, they can't take it away from you unless they set it up as a subscription service (which nobody does for GPS units AFAIK).

 

Thanks, that's what I thought but you never know. So I'll still have the car map as a back up.

 

Google maps, as mentioned, can be downloaded for offline use. You can also download them into a tablet if you don't feel like using a phone.

For short trips, I use my phone, google maps, and android auto. For long trips, I download the maps to a tablet, but also use the phone. In addition I ALWAYS have paper maps. Paper maps are far superior in that they show you as much context as you want, and are usually not printed in illegible pastel colors that some graphic artist thought would look cool on google maps. Also, paper maps tell you whether a road is paved or not, which google maps does not think you need to know.

 

The one thing I find useful with in-car maps is that I get shown the speed limit of the road I am on on the dash, and it adjusts for school zones automatically. Because of that, I may pay for updated maps every so often when my free period expires, when I know a lot of roads that I drive on have changed, but I won't need to do it every update. For everything else, I use Google Maps on Android Auto.

Hopefully one day Subaru see the light and do what Hyundai did a few years ago and make all map updates free forever (they just do them at your next service, rather than provide it to be user-installable - one of their ways of trying to make you service through Hyundai rather than someone else).

 

The one thing I find useful with in-car maps is that I get shown the speed limit of the road I am on on the dash, and it adjusts for school zones automatically. Because of that, I may pay for updated maps every so often when my free period expires, when I know a lot of roads that I drive on have changed, but I won't need to do it every update. For everything else, I use Google Maps on Android Auto.

Google maps also shows the speed limit on the head unit, but unfortunately it is not integrated into the dash display. On the other hand, I have seen many cases where Google maps had the correct speed limit, and the latest update of the Subaru feature had a wrong speed limit -- usually too high, because speed limits tend to be revised down when development happens -- or no speed limit at all.

 

In 2017, I purchased map updates for my 2011 Outback because some newer streets in the community were not recognized - seemed like a good idea to update periodically anyway. Unfortunately, even the newer versions did not show any of those newer roads! The manufacturer responded that maps are slowly updated over time and there is no guarantee that "all" roads are ups to date no matter what version you are using. BTW, that 2011 was replaced with a 2018 Outback; does anyone know if Subaru uses the same navigation software in newer models?

 

no. The newer ones are TomTom. The 2011 was the kenwood navigation (the DV3200 series?) so it was Garmin.

 

I update twice a year for free on my 2018 Outback. My last free one will be this August and then I guess I will learn how much it costs.