I saw a lot of latest Gen 6 U96 14.1 navigation DVD listings popped up on eBay recently, I thought they are just Lexus' current special reduced MSRP for $99 until Dec 31st, 2014. I finally pulled the trigger and bought one from a seller with 500+ reviews and more than 99% positive. I thought it is such a good deal with no tax. I was wrong! The DVD is just a burnt DVD-R DL with blue tint on the data side, label probably printed with inkjet, packed in a bubble wrap with a label of Toyota part number and applicable model years. It was carefully made to match the original but 100% counterfeit. I requested return and refund immediately. So far only 1 negative review came from a Subaru owner. A lot of positive reviews are actually from this particular Gen 6 disc buyers. I feel bad for them. I go to eBay and search for "Toyota navigation DVD", a surprising lot of them are counterfeit. The genuine DVD has rainbow colored barcode near the center ring, the text are transparent showing the rainbows too. The fake ones are just plain white and without the pressed barcode.
mrbigh, these sellers are well inside the USA. And I can't justify selling them at $99 MSRP neither... or $50.
I bought a lot of stuff recently from eBay, I bought Prius accessories from dealers on eBay in the past too. They even included invoice and Toyota warranty. Just like Amazon, you have to be careful choosing 3rd party sellers. I would never buy something like Windows 7 from there. This is the first time I got a counterfeit from eBay in many years.
$99 is probably the right price-point to get people to believe it's a legit sale, especially this time of year. Kudos to you for your honesty, most would just keep it and be happy they put one over on Toyota. I will admit Toyota's upgrade price is way too high and $99 would probably get them a lot more sales.
The MSRP is $169 I believe, but Lexus is running a $99 sale until December 31st. Too bad Lexus only share navigation DVD's with Toyota up to Gen 5, after Gen 6 it's all hard drive/solid state. Toyota are not running this sale... I intended to buy a legit copy for $99. I actually called a local Lexus parts department to verify my copy. The guy was very helpful, he actually pulled a Gen 5 DVD and told me it's gold, not blue.
I've always been curious about these updates. Are they really worth the money, and what are you actually getting from an update? I know I had a very early GPS and it didn't include a recent road change. But it wasn't a problem as the GPS eventually picked up the correct route. I can see getting upgrades if one is constantly on the road covering large distances that haven't yet been traveled. But if you basically stay in one area I don't see it being worth the money.
Man, for that cost, I might just stick to a smartphone navigation app. At best I'd update it every 6-8 years in the car. There's some major reconstruction going on in my area right now. So I think I'll wait until a year after it's done to update my car's navigation. Otherwise it might drive me off a cliff or something due to all the changes going on the road.
IMHO, the value of in-car navigation is very subjective. I love mine in spite of outdated maps and crippled capabilities when the car is moving. Just having the directions integrated in the audio system has value to me. Also, it was part of the package I wanted and I would probably have paid the same price without the nav part of the system. Looking at it that way, I can consider the nav as being "free". Now, when it comes to upgrading the DVD, I don't know when or if I'll ever do that. I augment the Prius nav with a Garmin Nuvi that we already had. Even though that has unlimited map updates, it is not always up-to-date either, so it is further augmented with Google Maps on my Razr. However, no matter which device I use to find something, I still use the Prius to do the actual navigation (because of the integrated audio). If the Prius can only get me close because the map is that outdated, I then let the Nuvi or Razr take me the rest of the way. I didn't have to do that on our trip last Aug/Sep, but I will when we visit our daughter in GA this Aug. She is having a home built in a new subdivision and I'm not even sure Google Maps will be updated in time. Fortunately, we're visiting them in Mar and again in May, so we'll already know where the new home is.
New latest version out now is U96 v 14.1 I was just able to find it online burn it to DVD installed like a charm Last year bootleg copies were selling on Ebay for $15
I wonder if it's possible to use the bluetooth to feed the Garmin audio into the car system? Best of both worlds?
I have wanted that for a LONG time but found that the Garmin is designed to be the audio device for hands-free operation of a phone......where I want it to be the source of the signal and not the receiver. AFAIK, none of the GPS units will operate in that direction. But I haven't gotten a new one in about 3 years. If they DID have that capability, it would pretty much mean a death sentence for the $700 built-in ones.
When I bought the Prius, I was looking for BACKUP CAMERA, which was bundled with the navigation. I got also the solar roof as a bonus. I bought the car as certified used, so it did not add on the price tag too much. I cannot justify the cost of the navigation option on a new car though.
I wouldn't put a legit upgrade dvd in my car even if it was free (which it should be). big middle finger to toyota for putting the worst nav they could find in my car. i haven't even bothered looking at the map screen on that thing since the day I bought it.