SIM card recommendations

[sasha320]

I am about to renew my Audi Connect licence and need to buy a SIM card for the car.

I’d be using everything except downloading sat nav maps.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the best SIM card to get?

Ideally I’d want to get a 32Gb or more SIM card that is ‘Pay As You Go’ but with an annual time window.

I need European coverage as well.

Basically I want to buy a large capacity SIM card and forget about it.

What is everyone else using?

[sasha320]

P.s., how much data are people using?

I guess I would like to extrapolate any use cases to understand how mich data I’d need for continuously driving through Europe for 4.5 days (for up to 8 hours per day).

VOXI (a Vodafone offshoot) appears to be quite good value / low commitment at the moment.

[Lig]

Hi Sasha,

I too would be interested in the answer .....

Also as a noob, can you tell me what 'Audi Connect' actually gives you?? Is it just stuff like a weather report and live traffic updates??

I take it the sat nav maps are hard stored somewhere? And do they cover Europe as standard OR is this something else that you would use Audi Connect for???

Cheers,
Lig.

[MikeFish]

Hi Sasha,

I too would be interested in the answer .....

Also as a noob, can you tell me what 'Audi Connect' actually gives you?? Is it just stuff like a weather report and live traffic updates??

I take it the sat nav maps are hard stored somewhere? And do they cover Europe as standard OR is this something else that you would use Audi Connect for???

Cheers,
Lig.

Mainly google maps. Also use google search for your destination; much better than using a postcode as it will take you directly to most business addresses. You can also send your sat nav destination from your phone to the car before a journey and call it up next time you are in the car (or later).
Also means you have a wifi hotspot in the car so the kids can use it on their ipads etc to get online.
But it was an option, not all cars have it. Easiest way to check is look for a SIM card slot inbetween the 2 SD card slots.

[HDPete]

I’ve got a 24GB Three SIM from Amazon that lasts 24 months, so perfect for the Google Maps and Audi connect - just don’t enable the WiFi hotspot for the kids!

[HDPete]

Three Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M3VJ2B2? ... b_ap_share

[Permituk]

I use a smarty sim, whatever data I don't use gets taken off my monthly bill. Most I've used in a month is 1gb but average is about 300mb and that's between 1000 to 1500 miles per month. I've also used it in France, Belgium and Germany without problems.

[MikeFish]

I found 2gb per month was enough unless the kids were both watching YouTube videos on long journeys.

[Lig]

Hi MikeFish and thanks....

OK so.... are there any other features? My car has it, but I am just unsure if I really need it? I dont use the car for work and will probably do about 3K miles a year. My 15 year old BMW sat nav served me just fine So I am sure the 'standard' sat nav in this will be miles better than that!

Is there anything else I am missing with this?? I know its only £43 for the SIM as hdpete has kindly shared the link.... BUT I am just not sure I will benefit...

Any other advice greatly received...

(Apologies to Sasha320 for hijacking your thread, but maybe of use to others too)??!!

Ta Lig.

[sasha320]

No worries all commentary and debate welcome.

I had Audi Connect when I first got my car and felt that it was interesting but not that useful so i didn’t renew it.

However since I haven’t had Audi Connect, I have found myself a) noticing how rubbish TMC traffic updates are compared to the Audi Connect traffic monitoring and b) I miss being able to forward a destination to the car from my phone.

So i have resubscribed for Audi Connect as its free and now I need a SIM card. Sounds like 5gb a month with International (European roaming) will do the trick.

I didn’t pay attention to my previous SIM usage as I was trying to download the latest maps all the time and lost track of what data I consumed for maps and what the run rate for everything else was.

[HPsauce]

My other car (a Volvo) has a similar system, though as I don't have the dedicated SIM installed it just uses my phone as a data connection via Bluetooth/hotspot.
The data volumes for detailed real-time traffic information (Volvo use INRIX) are actually very low in practice. I'd expect Audi to be similar.

I use Giffgaff and even the basic package with 500GB data at £6 per month suffices, though when I'm travelling a lot I go up to the 2GB/£8 option. In reality that's mostly used for uploading photos to iCloud when doing touristy things around Europe..

My Audi on the other hand has an RNS-D...…..