PKG5 owners is NAV worth 800 bucks??

i wish i had nav just so i can have a voice activated radio and climate control system

 

We just got our Touring Pkg #6. We used it this weekend driving down to our camper. Love it! All the Garmin's we've had are always trying to put us on a road that only a raised 4WD could possibly navigate. The Prius Nav put us on the correct road the first time. With 3 options to choose for routes, I was able to pick the route I always take. My only complaint is certain features don't work if you are moving. I can over ride on the Garmin, but not sure it's possible on the Prius Nav system.

 

Sorry, Garmin Nuvi goes along with us despite the fact that we have the built-in Nav in the Prius. Been burned too many times by wildly inaccurate directions.

Interesting that someone with a 2009 is happy with it, perhaps they've fixed the bugs? Our 2008 nav is awful, can't make changes while car is in motion but that's the least of its problems. Dealer said they'd check to see if anything was wrong or if discs could be upgraded but of course that never happened...

 

Given the choice I much prefer my Garmin Nuvi. It does things the built in will not and upgrades are cheaper and easier. We waited 17 weeks for an option 3 without the NAV. Wednesday when another dealer put an option 5 in front of us to take home that night we took it along with the NAV. It was worth the $800 to be driving any Prius, especially here in Atlanta as we pass closed gas station after closed station.

 

I find the navigation system to be helpful. The large screen really makes it nice. I also have another navigation device with traffic and incident alerts, re-routing, etc. but I find myself using the built in nav most often. It re-routes quickly and there are many views and options; some you'll really want to read the instruction manual to learn, including the very many voice command options. I believe the nav option also allows for additional blue tooth phone functionality. I'm not saying it's the best system but for me, it certainly is an added bonus. If the $800.00 won't kill your pocketbook you might think about taking the deal.

 

I say no. You can get a nice garmin gps for 200-300... and it's portable so you can take it with you in another car or on vacay. Spend that 500 bucks on something else.

 

The nav unit is good, and I'm glad I have it. I don't find that it calculates great routes and the data is a bit out of date sometimes. I still prefer to calculate a route online and then adjust the nav unit as needed. The best feature is when we are out in a new area, I can just say "Mexican" and it will find me all the nearby Mexican restaurants, and with one touch of the screen, my bluetooth phone calls them up to see if they have seating available. Sure, I can do that just with my iPhone, but the combination is really nice. Worth the money to me...

 

I don't have the built-in NAV, but I don't like the idea of having the map out of my normal field of view. I have a Nuvi, and it sits up on the dash where it does not obstruct my view of the road, but is directly in my field of view. Plus, I can use it in either the Prius or the Xebra, and if I travel within North America and plan on renting a car, I can take it along.

I don't think built-in NAV is worth $800. I sure wouldn't mind having the back-up camera, though. Those didn't exist for the Prius in 2004.

 

I have had my Barcelona Red Baby since March, and I have to say I love the NAV ystem. In fact lately I have been messing with the daft little tarts processor mind trying to get it to give up! I can''t do it. It promptly recalculates the rerouting and gets me back on course. I live in Los Angeles. Here in LA it works great! I say go for it, Buy it!!

Of course if you live in the middle of the River Styx, Good Luck!!

73 de Pat KK6PD

 

what i don't like is when toyota says you save $2,000 when you buy package #5...

compared to what?

they make it very difficult to get the nav added on after the sale. the way things are if you change your mind, its hard to get the package added later. i only heard of one person on here who actually did get the dvd system installed after the fact, and that was on an older prius and not the 2004-2009 model years

another arguement about not getting the prius nav system is that the 2010 model will have a totally different navigation system, it may
be better, it may even include traffic or other features. if you spend the $3,280 on a package 5, won't you feel a little burned when the 2010 comes out?

another thing that clouds the issue of whether or not to get the nav is that the supplies of prius cars is limited to zip code, and you probably don't have access to all packages and all options, so say you want to save money and want to get the package #3 with a cd changer, and you can only get the package #2, you will be forced to buy that dvd package just to get the package 3 stuff you wanted.

in calfornia say you wanted a touring model, sorry you can only get a touring with dvd and leather right now, and your stuck with it..

 

I use my nav all the time. I think the money was worth it!

 

The 2008 nav system is lousy - counterintuitive and cumbersome.

My $300 Garmin Nuvi is far superior in many ways.

 

I like the NAV, the climate and volume voice command is pretty cool. I am still discovering new features with it after two years of owning my car. Plus you can upgrade to more current maps and firmware as they come out. The small hand held units are nice (and cheaper) but the large touch screen and not running power cables or installing a mount has value to me as well.

 

i have the built in nav and a tomtom 920. used them together in recent 4300+ mile trip over 3 weeks. like the automatic screen changes as approach turns in built in and like hearing the name of streets for turn with the tomtom. the voice commands are great with the built in. both worked great and never disagreed with each other. the tomtom was less expensive and updates are very inexpensive vs built in but i liked location and size of built in screen. having both gives me everything i could want.

 

We went without the Nav system... but I just HAD to get some sort of navigation...

 

I liken it to the built in DVD player in our van... It sure did cost more for the factory unit than buying a unit at BestBuy and it may be missing a feature or two, but having something integrated into the rest of the car’s systems has advantages. I like that the guidance is integrated into the car’s audio systems, voice commands for audio and climate controls, same clean one screen interface, etc. If those things are important to you, then get it. You pay way more upfront, but since having such integrated units adds to the resale value of the car, you get a little of that back.

I am a bit concerned that if Toyota goes with a different supplier for the 2010 and beyond vehicles, updates for the unit I have will stop. That would be a drawback.

 

oh please go with a different supplier. toshiba/denso is just too expensive..

and where are our updates to our toshiba/denso bluetooth telephone firmwares???

heh

 

I absolutely love the NAV system do I think its worth 800 bucks probably not.....but I do have it and I do love it!!

 

garmins traffic units are tied to msn now, and the msn signal isn't as good as clear channel's signal. the clear channel version costs $100 more then the msn, so if you are buying a garmin with a traffic receiver make sure you have a good return policy