@^$!@*% Navigation system

If it's within 30 days, call the dealer. He may be able to swap the car for you.

I had similar issue with seats (the manual seats are uncomfortable for a lot of folks) and manager told me if I had told him about within 30 days he could have switched car for me.

Gotta tell ya, the 6" system is no prize and has its own set of quirks and you'll lose auto/on/off headlights, auto/day/night mirror.

 

Toyota does create some odd choices. I think you are better off with power seats, auto/on/off lights, day/night mirror and the big screen nav than small screen nav and no seats, lights or mirrors. Plus if you have an iPhone, you have to buy Hotspot option from cell provider for Bluetooth to work while on the 7", iPhone Bluetooth works without that cost.

 

Solar Roof is nice. It really works in summer to keep car at "room temperature", having a sun roof is always nice and the black roof looks cool...three for three.

You DO NOT WANT the manual seats. Just awful.

The voice nav on the 6" is pretty bad so I don't think you are missing anything.

 

OMG. I bought the 4 with the solar roof on the 1st. And wow, what a waste of a 7" screen. Don't get me wrong, I love the moonroof, and the seats with power lumbar are surprisingly comfortable, the auto headlights work well, and the basic entune functionality has been rock solid. It actually got me to reset my pandora password and start using that again. The hands free bluetooth calling is great too, and no complaints from callers.

But.

The "premium" nav is absolutely terrible. First of all, the traffic and weather is provided by SiriusXM, which, because my car had a whopping 250 miles on it (had been purchased and returned by a 6'7" guy with buyer's remorse), had been turned off by Sirius, so the 3 years of complimentary data service from SiriusXM, which powers the "premium" but not the standard entune nav, was not there. Fortunately, after a long call with Toyota (who were awesome) the dealer called me and offered to comp me the price of three years of data service.

Crappy, awful data service. We're talking no traffic information on the NJ Turnpike or I-295, (I know rural backroads, so I really shouldn't expect traffic info there), but come on. Also, it doesn't appear to actually reroute you based on traffic, just give you a red warning that there's traffic on your route, that if you want, you can click over to the "traffic events" screen to make a call as to whether you want to do something about it.

As the OP posted, you also lose the 3D mapping, but I'm less upset about that, because the Heads up Display, is actually a pretty cool feature for routing, and works fairly well pointing you as to where you need to turn, and Toyota creatively used the split screen to give you both the 2d overhead and a 3d representation of your upcoming turns, but I'm used to the navigation on my android phone which is far far superior to this.

It's definitely a weird value proposition, and I'm not sure why they decided to separate the nav data away from entune on the hdd system to sirius, rather than keep it all as part of the entune setup.

Love the car, but the usefulness of the built in nav is questionable at best.

 

To each his own re: 3D mapping.

I have 2 Garmin GPS units (used them in my Z that had no nav or when I really need more up to date maps in my Prius) which both have 3D mapping as a choice. I never use that mode as I found it useless. It just shows lines going by. I even posted about it at Navigation Package or not? | Page 5 | PriusChat.

 

I can definitely see Cwerdna's point as to the usefulness of the 3D, and as I said, the split screen sort of provides a 3D like experience, with a static representation in 3D on the right. When you add that to the HUD which gives you an additional cue, I think the ultimate usefulness of 3D vs. what's in the package four is a wash.

But - I also wholeheartedly agree that when you spend significantly more for the upgraded package, you should not lose features. And it's not just the 3D, but I'm definitely of the opinion that the traffic solution provided by Sirius is inferior to an internet based solution through entune (I'd love to hear from people with the display nav, to find out what the coverage is like), but it's also way more expensive after 3 years as instead of 5.00 a month for data services on the standard, the premium will cost $16.00 a month, through Sirius.

In my opinion, that's a reduced value, for what should be a better system.

To me, the pros of the "premium" are simply that you have a .9" bigger screen, that's higher res, and can do split screen. I don't know that that really makes up for having to pay 11.00 more a month, and losing some of the features the smaller screen has. Sure, 3D may not be that useful, but shouldn't you have the option of 2D or 3D on the higher level trim?

 

eh, I don't know if I'd call it a gimmick, it does what it's supposed to do, which is keep your eyes off your console for the most important bits, and it makes for a better experience than what we'd have without it. If we had a truly awesome nav system, it would make that better too. Of course in my fantasy world the hud would be more of a true augmented reality solution, giving actual positional cues, which would answer your desire for 1:1 feedback on complex intersections.

But I don't design cars.

 

Really great point about the focal plane. Usually for me, it's doubled in my periphery while driving, but still enough for me to perceive the speed. It's also extremely useful for impressing people with all of the "awesome tech" in this car, but ultimately, I'd agree, it's limited.

The only reason I paid for the traffic alerts is because it was either that or give the same amount to the dealer. If it was my money, I'd never have bothered. Even if the coverage was adequate, the lack of impact on routing decisions makes it a worthless feature.

 

Will the upgraded navigation tell you how many miles away you are from a point you select on the map??

 

It probably depends on which "upgraded" nav system you have. On my 2012 Prius Five Model I supposedly have a "Display Audio w/Navi, Entune & JBL" system. Display Audio System Owners Manual page 22 (in the back half of the manual) indicates one of three optiions dispayed in the upper right corner of the display: distance to destination; estimated travel time to destination; or estimated arrival time to destination". That works flawlessly, but my Garmin 1450 offers much more, is portable, and shows current speed and posted speed limit in the lower right corner of its 5" screen. More importantly, Garmin includes lifetime free updates via internet download to your PC.

 

the real MORE is free map update! Will that ever come on a OEM unit?
Chrysler's UConnect (Panasonic + Garmin) does not give it for free.

current speed and posted speed limited is something any OEM can fix. portable? how is that possible, TomTom gone that route and failed with Eclipse AVN4430 didn't look like ppl wants a portable OEM unit at all.

 

lol did you know that the "Free" 36 months of data is useless unless you buy their crappy xm radio service? What useless garbage. I noticed I couldn't access the traffic, sports, weather crap lately. i figured the reason why, but just got off the phone with toyota and all they could say is I have to buy an xm subscription to use the data service.

i really love my car and the fact that toyota built such a technologically advanced machine, but holy cow I hate this radio. I really want to rip the thing out of the dash and throw it through the dealerships window.

 

data has to come from some where right? which do u perfer?
it can be XM radio or using the Data from your phone. HDD Entune system has taken the approach of getting the data from XM. DA-Entune system has taken the approach for getting it from the phone.

care to share what other things you hate about the radio?

 

I take back previous statement. Anyone with 3 free years of xm data access should get just that. 3 free years. regardless of whether you have xm music or not. Erica helped me get my account fixed.