I’m intruiged by the new Mazda sat nav unit and if anyone has one fitted into their 5, especially as a retro fit. I’ve not hunted much yet but have yet to find a cost for one.
Thanks in advance. 
I’ve seen a few brief reviews of the Venture edition, but there’s not a lot on the nav.
Download the manual from Tomtom and it goes through everything. I did.
This should answer all your questions.
Ta muchly.
Lovely car by the way, fantastic colour and love the brown/tan interior.
Can anyone tell me where to get the cable which connects an iPod to this unit, and specifically what I would be asking for? Having just got a new Venture, the dealer seems to be both lacking in knowledge about the unit itself and how to work it, and certainly knows nothing about what leads I need to use to connect the iPod (and, frankly, neither do they seem particularly to care!). Thanks in anticipation! 
It says on the Mazda website “*Please check mobile phone compatibility at www.mazdahandsfree.com. iPod connectivity is via accessory adapter cable available from your local dealer at an additional cost.”
http://www.mazda.co.uk/showroom/mx-5/MazdaMX-5_venture/
Mine was £25 from the dealer.
If you give me a couple of hours after lunch I will go take a picture.
Thanks for that! My dealer claims to know nothing about what cable is required.
Will just try another one.
Here’s the pictue of mine:
It is just a USB with 3 VGA cables which all join together in an ipod/phone socket. I am sure you can get one from other retailers as I beleive the wire is the same as the one used on BMW’s.
If you ever work out how to get the unit to read out incoming text messages from a modern phone do let me know. SMS is greyed out when connected to my new Nokia asha and if you check the tomtom compatability list of phones they are all old phones. I have all the settings on the tomtomm correct (computer voice and read out incoming text messages is ticked) but it refuses to interact with the phone on SMS.
Any idea (have you tested) what all the connectors do? Is one video?
I note the instructions say the unit can do rear view camera, is it simply a case of plugging one into the right RCA plug? I note ebay has cameras for about £15 and it would be great if it was that simple…does it change to that view when a camera is plugged in?
Can you play ipod video on the rear view screen?
I have ordered my Venture Roadster Coupe and while waiting on delivery am researching everything…
I’ve done some googling and mooching on the web and believe that what is needed is an iPOD AV cable. Apple sell one for £30 but they are available via Amazon for £15.
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC748ZM/A
I am about to take delivery of one of these cars after driving a Mk1 California which I purchased new in May 1995. Unfortunately, increasing amounts of welding at MOT time has made my mind up - the Mk1 has to go!
Alan
Picked mine up yesterday, fantastic, already needs a clean though…
Yes an ipod lead is needed for ipod video which will only play whilst handbrake is on, the picture disappears and you only get audio if moving. THe leads seems to be about £3.50 on ebay - no idea how good they are.
The rear view camera though is mentioned in the downloaded manual but isnt mentioned at all in the handbook I got with the car! I guess it needs more inputs than just the camera as it needs an input for reverse gear…I dont want to be dismantling my new dashboard for a few years yet. Shame, as rear view cameras are about £15 on ebay.
A question to those of you with this unit. Does your traffic system ever get a signal? Mine never seems to manage to tune to the TMC channel and I am wondering if there is an antennae missing or do I have to pay something?
Hmmm it seems Live is not actuivated and trying to do so comes up with Error 10. Is it supposed to have a SIM card in it? The status menu indicates it should but there is no numbers for that and I cant see a SIM slot?
This sounds like a hardware problem.
My traffic system always gets a signal by the time I have reversed out of the garage and down the drive. By the time I have turned on to the road and am in 3rd gear I have TMC after all it’s swirling on the screen.
It failed once, but I couldn’t get google search or the weather as it could not get a “live” signal.
If yours does it all the time, it is back to the dealer with you I’m afraid.
Mine is now out of 3 months free subsrcription this weekend but the sytems says it is £55 but online it says £47.50. Anyone know how to get the renewal for the quoted £47.50?
Hello again MX5 Montana - sorry for all the questions but I have just noticed in the photo you have a mazda folder/pack. Did your book pack come in that as mine came in a plastic bag? My dealer seems to have failed 
to give me quite a few bits (venture badges, tyre repair kit, something in the TomTom system yet to be sorted!), so I am wondering if that is somthing else I should have.
Thanks for your help
For the first couple of days I could not access live services (came up with TomTom Server is down) then no problems. Dealer had already inserted SIM Card (hatch to the left of the screen) and I understood this came in a pack with the badges etc (the dealer sorted that also). After getting used to things I removed the SIM card (followed remove SIM card instructions in booklet, and accessed TomTom website and downloaded latest traffic camera info and checked maps - also found I could download a grey MX5 as the car icon for the satnav which is quite cool! Used the live weather, traffic and google search and so far all good. Not sure if I will renew after 3 months though - will see what happens.
Sorry, meant to add that it seems to hook up woth my Blackberry OK - and uploads the phoonabook (as the lady calls it) and last dialled etc so can use the phone via the touch screen quite easilt, not tried text to speech yet! - I did not have a separate pack just the book pack with the instructions.
That isnt a SIM card (phone type) that is the SD card (just memory I think) with the TomTom software on it. My manual doesnt talk about a SIM card at all but it does refer to a GSM/GPRS module and when I go into info menu it has a dash next to the SIM ID. It seems like the unit cannot communicate with the TomTom servers and all the Live menu options are greyed out. Maybe they just didnt plug in the antennae…
However I will try it again as when I put the SD card into my PC and installed TomTom Home it did some updates but it came up with an error when I tried to set up the account…
If you go into your settings can you see a SIM ID?
Yes I got a mazda folder with the MX5 handbook and a Mazda NVA-SD8810 EU Live tomtom book (which was inside the folder in a plastic bag).
The navigation unit is now 3 months old and I have used all it’s features so much so that I have gone through the renewal process too. There is no SIM card in the unit as it talks directly with Tomtom via the transmitter in the dashboard. The SD card just holds your settings and maps. I had to take it out to connect it to Tomtom Home on my laptop but the updates don’t always work. At 3 months old subscription, the head unit asked me if I wanted to renew and after saying yes it extended my subscription period by 2 weeks and asked for an e-mail address off me. Back on my e-mail I had a link which asked for my SD card from the head unit and £55. I questioned the fact that it says £47.50 on the website but that is not for our unit and only the portable units so had to stump up the extra cash and renew at £55 as I do make use of the services and used to have a Tomtom Via on my old MX5 which I didn’t renew after it’s 1 year subscription and I missed the services.
I’ve just fixed my alloy too as I slightly curbed it last month by 2cm. No paint exists so I had to mix my owm using metalic dark grey, metalic silver and laquer.