The later nav discs do update the nav system, so there is no going back. Mine played up a bit when i first got the car, and cleaning it a few times with a CD cleaner disc sorted it.

I had a cowboy 2011 disc in mine which stopped working. I went back to the original 2005 disc not expecting it to work but it does and i have retained 3d mapping and traffic. Sbould add I have latest MMI firmware installed.

Coming back to this,

After upgrading the MMI to 5570, I though I'd try my dodgy 2013 disc again. Still no luck, it just says check navigation dvd, however the 2003 one loads first time now. Mine just does not seem to like copies. I have tried DVD-R and DVD+R media, the result is the same.

From what I have read on forums siuch as gpsunderground, I think all it 'updates' are voice commands (audio files get saved to memory), and TMC table - which is a lookup table of TMC location codes to road stretches.

The media type is only one part of the problem, did you make sure you chanked the bookmark to DVD-ROM, not all burners will do this.

sometimes the copies last quite a while other times only a few months

I've now succeeded I think, the one I burnt on my dads PC last week using a Pioneer BD writer on Verbatim DVD-R media was immediately recognised and asked if I wanted to update the software. After about 10 mins of updating, and a reboot the disk is working. TMC is also working, not sure what else has changed apart from the map data.

You should find 3D map option now +++

I had the 3D map view with the 2003 factory disc following the MMI upgrade.

Thats what fella told me from audi, its about mmi version not maps year.

I've noticed a big difference when switching to 2012 maps from 2006

I advanced 10 years, from 2003 to 2013. Maybe now I can drive from Blandford to Castle Combe without doing a large amount of off road (according to the nav).