Does anyone know how to get the phone pad up on the display? Randomly, the pad pops up, but usually it's not there, forcing me to dial new numbers from the phone itself.
I have to try that out, but I'm not sure if it's true. Are you sure? Even standing still I think I may not have seen the pad on. If it is true it's ridiculous. Is that another supposed safety feature? Does anyone know how long the new car smell lasts by the way?
just another bonehead feature of the radio you're not allowed to touch when driving. thank all the bonehead people that don't pay enough attention to what they are doing and crash into other people then sue the manufactures for giving them the option to distract themselves enough to crash into other people.
The smell lasts a month or two. And yes the pad for sure goes away (along with most all other features including any usefulness of the navigation) anything above 4 or 5 miles per hour. Oddly I can browse and keyboard search through all my tracks on my ipod though while the car is moving, yet I can't even browse my contacts to make a hands-free and safe phone call. 95% of the time the only calls I make are either my parents or my wife so I have those 2 on speed dial. As for navigation my garmin nuvi 50LM is tons more functional than the toyotacrap nav, plus it has lifetime free map updates as opposed to the yearly update toyota offers which costs nearly double what I paid for the garmin unit.
Well, that's reason enough to not even look at nav in my future purchase unless they change that. Why people continue to buy built in nav is beyond me. (unless they want leather or moonroof and are forced to take nav) I can't stand the thought of pulling over to change routes or sitting in a parking lot to plan a destination before I pull away. I know the greater good is to protect us from ourselves but I refuse to let the dumbasses of this world decide how I use a $35K+ car. I'll talk to Siri instead.
I have no complaints with the phone, it is cool to take a phone call while driving, and I use the voice dialer if I want to actually dial while driving. I also can't complain about the nav system - it is better than carrying around all those paper maps. But my perspective is different - I remember the days when there were no phones in cars and you had to plan your trip on an actual paper map before you left home.
If you have it, you will have a voice button on the steering wheel, on the lower left, just above the pick up and hang up button. Not sure if it is on a II. Edit: does not look like it is on a II. Even with the dial by voice function, I refrain from calling people while driving. I will selectively answer important calls.
