I’m not really ‘into’ cars, which is why Pistonheads holds little to no appeal. There are several Mazda forums though which do appeal as they have specific useful info.
If anyone wants a link to downloads for all the Mazda Connect firmware versions, satnav maps, Gracenote etc, let me know.
The satnav stuff is awkward as it seems to be tied to SD card CIDs but there are how-to’s on getting it working which then gives 3 years more updates. Haven’t got that working yet, and haven’t yet braved the firmware upgrade as there’s a slight risk of bricking the unit if you don’t keep the power on.
If you get the satnav update working, I'd appreciate the info. Everything on Mazda3revolution for it seems to have got deleted I guess at the request of Mazda.
Does the inbuilt Satnav get traffic updates thou, or is that another subscription? I can't make head nor tail of it currently, and as I don't get the car until Saturday it's not something I can check, and I doubt I'll get much chance over the weekend anyway to try stuff with where it's already at, other than connect to Bluetooth!
I'm umming and arring about the firmware on mine as it's at v33, which means I can't tweak it unless I update it to a tweakable version. If the FW is still at that version, I suspect the maps are also 4 years old. Part of me just says wait for the CarPlay unit as I'm an iPhone user, rather than faffing around and spending £60 on a cheap Android phone to tether to my iPhone to use android auto. However I would much rather use Google Maps/Waze than the inbuilt system.
Either way I'm looking at £40-£60 to get an updated satnav SD card via ebay which probably won't work how I want it to, or attempt the firmware update to sideload Android Auto and then £60 on an Android phone. Or just wait and spunk £200-£250 (plus installation probably as I won't want to do it myself unless it looks really easy, and I'd probably rather someone else do it who knows what they are doing)
The only other inconvenience is the crap placement of the 12V socket being behind the handbrake if I want to just carry on using my iPhone and find somewhere to mount that! Running a cable to the dash to a phone holder looks messy and trying not to get it in the way of the hand brake and gear stick, and I do have a dash cam also. I don't really fancy fucking about with the fuse box, so I'm going to have to think of a way to get that cable around also without it being a mess. I think I should be able to get through the upholstery above the window and down the casing down the sides like I did with the Mondeo, but once I get down to the bottom of the passenger side door it gets more complicated, go round the glove box and back down the side of the passenger side middle, or continue to go round the outside and under the back passenger side foot mat. Once I have the car I'll have a better idea I guess.
