Question for our European stationed members

[Roger Batts]

Do any members in Europe have the US radio in their vehicles? If so, does it still work? I have a customer that is moving across the pond and wants to know if he can use the European navigation discs with his American radio. Anyone there run in to this?

 

[Todd Z]

Nelson had his Mazda 3 there...



Todd Z

 

[NickyVandries Belgium]

mine works fine in europe

its not the end of the world

 

[Roger Batts]

I was just trying to find out because I heard that the US uses a different portion of the airwaves (the odd tenths on the dial), and everyone else uses the even ones.

 

[Robert Poole]

The us radio's step up and down in the odd numbers 1.3.5.7.9 whereas the european and asians use the even, 2.4.6.8. I found that out when I was installing radio's in the Tauruses that were going to Korea. go figure





Have a good one



Bob

 

[Nelson Atwell]

You are right that the stations are spaced out differently on the dial. A digital tuner will miss some stations entirely, tune some in just fine and a few will be there, but not tuned in correctly.



Europe has had digital broadcasts for several years. I understand it is slightly different than HD radio which is coming to the US. He may want to switch head units when he gets here to take advantage of the digital broadcasts.



Regarding the navigation discs, GPS is the same format around the World, so there should be no issue. He should make sure he gets the latest updates on his navigation discs. Especially in the eastern part of Europe there are major changes occurring regarding highway construction, city renovations and even national borders. My system is only a year old and already I need to get an upgrade, because of these issues. Poland is currently constructing their highway network, similar to how we did in the 60s and 70s. Travel currently is by two-lane roads (think Rt 66), with only short sections of "interstate highways" completed.

 

[Roger Batts]

That's the thing. If he changes the HU, he'll lose his nav. So, if he buys the nav discs from a Ford dealer when he gets over there, they should work with his current HU?

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I am not even sure if Ford sells cars in Europe with Nav systems. He should be able to Google a dealership in the country he is going and send an email directly to them from their website to ask the question.



IMO factory Nav units have a huge disadvantage over the portable units like Garmin sells. Those DVDs cost more than a Garmin and the information is out-dated before he even puts it in the unit. My advice is for him to just get a European Nav unit from an electronics store while he is here. It will cost him less in the long run and the navigation data will be much more accurate, since they can be updated in real-time on the internet.



I am including a link below to a site where he can build his entire travel itinerary online and then upload it to his GPS. This is an excellent solution for Europe.