[jiffy]

Bought my T ROC 3 months ago at 3 years old, finally today i have got the 3 SIM and got carnet working properly!!! Email from VW saying it expires in 2 days! Will this mean i will not get traffic updates or online searches anymore? If this is the case there may be a nearly new 3 SIM for sale on here. I will not want to be paying VWs high prices. Thanks.

 

[Impala]

Yes, the most useful features of Car-Net are only provided free for the first 3 years, while the Emergency Call and basic Security & Service are provided for 10 years.

I don't know if any forum members have paid to extend the Guide & Inform (the most useful in my view) or Security & Service Plus. I can't recall seeing the current charges listed anywhere.

Strangely, my free subscriptions expire on 21/05/2022 (a week away) but I have not received any communication from VW. My car goes in for a service next week on 18/05 and I wonder if they will mention anything about Car-Net. They have already tried to get me to sign up for an All-in service package for cars over 3 years old.

If you bought your car from a VW dealer it might be worth asking if they would pay for a 1 year subscription so that you get some benefit of Car-Net due to your short period of ownership. How else could you assess its value for any future subscription ?

 

[Impala]

I just checked on MyVolkswagen and it confirms that my subscriptions to Guide & Inform Basic and Security & Service Plus will end on 21/05/2022. Security & Service Basic and Emergency Call Service are shown as still active, presumably for another 7 years (making 10 in total).

Clicking on the links to find out more about renewal I found that Guide & Inform Basic will cost £70 incl VAT and Security & Service Plus will cost £55 incl VAT. Neither of these states the length of period but I assume it will be for 1 year. I can almost certainly do without Security & Service Plus as I very, very seldom use it, so it is good that these can be renewed individually as I find Guide & Inform Basic very useful and use it a lot.

Still £70 a year seems a lot when you compare it to the information you can get free on the internet. I don't know how this compares with similar services for other brands.

 

[Hawkeye]

As you say @Impala, the options to extend are in MyVolkswagen - you get the option to extend for 1 or 2 years, I've actually extended both of mine for 2 years as doing it that way was a bit cheaper.

 

[Impala]

Thanks @Hawkeye - does the choice between 1 and 2 years come up when you actually go through the renewal and payment steps ?

As I said, the pages I've seen so far don't mention a time period never mind a choice of 1 or 2 years, but I haven't done the renewal yet as the We Connect details page for my vehicle has a highlighted banner stating 'Mobile online services have been deactivated for this vehicle'. I'm trying to find the reason for that and what the implications are for these Car-Net services before I renew.

Also, if you renew before the original 3 years is up, does it extend the original expiry date by 1 or 2 years, or is the new expiry date 1 or 2 years from the date of renewal ?

 

[Hawkeye]

Thanks @Hawkeye - does the choice between 1 and 2 years come up when you actually go through the renewal and payment steps ?

As I said, the pages I've seen so far don't mention a time period never mind a choice of 1 or 2 years, but I haven't done the renewal yet as the We Connect details page for my vehicle has a highlighted banner stating 'Mobile online services have been deactivated for this vehicle'. I'm trying to find the reason for that and what the implications are for these Car-Net services before I renew.

Also, if you renew before the original 3 years is up, does it extend the original expiry date by 1 or 2 years, or is the new expiry date 1 or 2 years from the date of renewal ?

I renewed mine back in at the beginning of March, 19 days in advance of it "running out", and from memory, when you select them on the screen and go to pay, you get the choice of 1 or 2 years at that point. They also take effect from the day that yours would normally "expire" - although as I found it's the day that the dealer did the PDi not the day I picked it up, so mine actually ran out 4 days in advance of when I collected the car! But yes they are an extension from the original expiry date, so you can renew in advance of expiry.

Strangely I too had that same banner as you which confused the heck out of me, as my services were still live, but once I'd renewed it went away (and I never had loss of service, so still don't know why I got it - like you I assumed that they had been curtailed - yet everything still worked).

Looking back at the confirmation of purchase I received from VW, the Guide and Inform was £120 for 2 years and the Security and Service £85 making a total of £205 for the 2 years.

 

[Impala]

Thanks again @Hawkeye - Strange about the deactivated banner. When I saw this on the We Connect web page last night I checked the car and noticed that the WLAN icon was missing and the Globe was greyed out on the infotainment status line and when I tried Car-Net it failed to get an internet connection (as expected from the missing icons). I checked my wingle data SIM to make sure it was still working - it was.

This morning the WLAN and Globe were back (no surprise there), Car-Net was working in the car again and all the features like Parking, Petrol and News etc. were working, but the We Connect web page still has the deactivated message. I then requested a new vehicle heath report on the web page and that worked too and returned correct mileage, mpg and trip data from the car.

It seems, like you say, this deactivation message might be linked to the soon to expire subscriptions. I'll post an update when I renew my Guide & Inform, but I don't think I'll bother with Security & Service, so the message may continue to be shown in my case.

I registered my car on Car-Net myself on the day after I took delivery, and that date is shown correctly on my subscription info. It seems a bit presumptious if your dealer registered your car with Car-Net before delivery, especially as you have to accept the T&Cs during the process.

 

[Impala]

Update - here are the current renewal prices (14/05/2022);

Service	1 Year	2 Years
Guide & Inform Basic	£70​	£120​
Security & Service Plus	£55​	£85​

I renewed Guide & Inform for 2 years. The We Connect web page now displays my new expiry date (21/05/2024) but it still displays the deactivation alert, so I guess it might require renewal of both services for it to disappear. I can live with that and save £85.

@jiffy - You only need the Guide & Inform service for traffic, petrol, parking, news, weather etc., so I would ask the dealer if they will pay (or even partly pay) as a good will gesture in view of the fact that you didn't know these services would only work on your car for 3 months when you bought the car.

 

[T28B]

I've actually extended both of mine for 2 years as doing it that way was a bit cheaper.

Me too.

 

[jiffy]

Update - here are the current renewal prices (14/05/2022);

Service	1 Year	2 Years
Guide & Inform Basic	£70​	£120​
Security & Service Plus	£55​	£85​

I renewed Guide & Inform for 2 years. The We Connect web page now displays my new expiry date (21/05/2024) but it still displays the deactivation alert, so I guess it might require renewal of both services for it to disappear. I can live with that and save £85.

@jiffy - You only need the Guide & Inform service for traffic, petrol, parking, news, weather etc., so I would ask the dealer if they will pay (or even partly pay) as a good will gesture in view of the fact that you didn't know these services would only work on your car for 3 months when you bought the car.

Impala, a very good friend of mine more or less runs the garage, I put this to him yesterday, and he is going to speak to his sales guys on mondaya1 Will I pay if needed? yeah probably, especially as I now have it working properly, until tomorrow. I go on a good trip to Wales on Monday, so would have been useful.
Thanks for all the feedback.

Jeff.

 

[Impala]

... I go on a good trip to Wales on Monday, so would have been useful ...

I renewed mine online using MyVolkswagen, where my car is registered. That shows the status of the subscriptions with buttons for extending those about to expire, these then take you to the VW Shop to add to your basket and complete the purchase. Once I filled in the payment details, it took only a few minutes for the subscription extension to be activated and there was nothing else I needed to do.

It's very simple, straightforward and quick, so you could do it when in Wales if you are there for a few days and after you have heard back from your friend. Good luck !

 

[jiffy]

I renewed mine online using MyVolkswagen, where my car is registered. That shows the status of the subscriptions with buttons for extending those about to expire, these then take you to the VW Shop to add to your basket and complete the purchase. Once I filled in the payment details, it took only a few minutes for the subscription extension to be activated and there was nothing else I needed to do.

It's very simple, straightforward and quick, so you could do it when in Wales if you are there for a few days and after you have heard back from your friend. Good luck !

Thanks, maybe i will be able to do that, hope my friend comes up with the goods!

 

[Impala]

Is Car-Net being discontinued ?

I logged on to MyVolkswagen web site today to check the status of my We Connect functions. Still the same as noted above but I noticed a small [1] super-script against each of the Car-Net services (Guide & Inform Basic, Security & Service Plus, Security & Service Basic and Emergency Call Service)

The meaning of this was given at the bottom of the web page as follows;

Important information :
1. The mobile online services for Car‑Net use 2G/3G mobile networks as a technical basis, while We Connect uses 2G/3G/LTE mobile networks. The 2G/3G mobile networks are expected to be gradually switched off by the network providers from 2020 onwards. There may be restrictions in the quality of mobile online services from this point onwards. It is expected that the services for Car‑Net will no longer be available from 2025. Limited use of the We Connect mobile online services will still be possible with LTE.

If taken at face value, this seems to say that all of the Car-Net functions in our T-Rocs will cease from 2025.

Anyone heard of this or got more information ?

 

[RedRoc]

Is Car-Net being discontinued ?

I was recently informed by Vodafone that they were dropping 3G in 2023 and that my texts/calls would then be on the poorer 2G. My phones data would remain on 4G (always assumed that my phone was all 4G - note to myself, never assume...).
From what you posted, it would appear that VW use 3G for data - thought they would have been on 4G as its been around for ages.
Doesn't sound good for Car-Net, as it would not just be a software fix. Poor show from VW if it does dissappear as its useful as you've said further up.

 

[Impala]

... From what you posted, it would appear that VW use 3G for data - thought they would have been on 4G as its been around for ages ...

Well the geographic coverage of 2G/3G is a lot better than 4G, so that may explain why they have stuck with those and I guess if they tried retaining Car-Net on 4G there would be a deluge of complaints when the car can't connect.

Let this be a warning to those contemplating renewing their Car-Net subscriptions next year. I've just renewed (some of) mine for 2 years, so that takes me to May 2024, so anyone renewing in 2023 should probably go for a 1 year subscription.

 

[twist]

I wonder if you’d be able to retrofit a 4G modem and continue your service. It would be good if VW offered some sort of upgrade to this at a dealership.

Also, what about current gen T-Rocs (and other VW cars)? Are they now being fitted with a 4G modem or are they still 3G? Shameful if it’s the latter.

 

[Impala]

I doubt that is part of the plan ... look at the statement "Limited use of the We Connect mobile online services will still be possible with LTE" where the key word is LIMITED. Limited to what ? Probably the automated emergency call.

There are large parts of the country, outside of urban areas, which don't have decent 4G coverage and that's not going to change any time soon. I read a suggestion about linking electric charging points to in-car Sat Navs but that would also rely on 4G/5G mobile networks, so once again the rural places that would benefit most from the service are the very places where there would be no network coverage. Yes it sucks, and it is being driven by the need to switch off lots of 'old' comms systems so as to sell off the frequencies and bands. It started with analog TV, then FM radio (halted for now), now 2G/3G, traditional copper landlines and I'm guessing all terrestrial Freeview TV will go soon and be replaced by broadband and 5G networks.

Switching off 2G/3G would mean people will struggle in my area to just use their mobile phones as the 4G is so weak and patchy. Shocking.