Nav System Adventure

Actually, at the current estimated price, none of ME are going to get the update anyway.

Toyota will HAVE to provide new versions on an ongoing basis, or else develop a rep for having useless NAV software after just a couple of years. What's missing here is Toyota's actual cost per unit from their supplier, so if we get that we can then identify who is the ripoff artist, because above $50 it's *somebody*...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mikepaul\";p=\"39305)</div>

agreed.But does anyone have a real price rather than a price based on a guess based on the price of a different car? I saw someone quoted almost $1000 which I find hard to accept. The CD (not DVD) in my MR2 cost circa EURO 200 if I remember correct.

As for the quality of the navi, its ony as good as the data. The data is bought from Navtech or Teleatlas (or similar) and MRT only decides which subset he wants to include. Thats why Lexus and MRT dealers are on the DVD but not say BMW. The CD for Italy and Switzerland were terrible.

 

I personally think that anything over $50 for an update is a ripoff. Granted you don't have the economy of scale that you would pc mapping software, but piracy is nearly zero. And since it's just the data being updated, not the software, then that should reduce costs of updates.

I guess since the replacement part market is what is selling these updates, that explains the cost. The markup on factory replacement parts is astonomical. A $.50 part would be sold by a dealer for $10.

Overpriced upgrades beg to be pirated. Not that I'm condoning such things.....


The first error I found on the Nav system showed up before it even left the dealer's lot. The salesman was showing me how the nav system worked, so he had me put in my address. It showed my house being 3 miles from where it actually was. Turns out the whole street got numbered backwards. Since I was at the end of the street, the error was greatest, putting me at the complete wrong end. The salesman was slightly embarrassed by it, then proceeded to show me something else.

 

I did not "ask" for anything. There is a "button" on the touch screen for Emergency. Toyota should fix this. It should send you to a full service hospital emergency room. If you have time to stop and go to a Urgent Care (Doc in the box) or Family Practice office or anyone else that want walk-ins you should have to do that while stopped. The screen button should be for full tilt boogie emergencies. Just my opinion. Stuff like this is OK when you are on your home turf but if you are away from home you want the Big Guy!

 

Quick note on the emergency thing. I had an occasion to use this feature this past weekend. My girlfriend got a serious thwack in the lower lip on Saturday (never use a right-handed bullpup left-handed) and we had to drive to the emergency room of rural south central Virginia.

We got directions from someone who knew the area, but was not a local (this is important, as the locals gave directions like "Head up Percy road and then go into Keysville". Like I know where the #@?!! Keysville is and what roads to take after I get on Percy Road). With general directions in hand, we hit the road and keyed in the emergency function on the NAV system.

If you are moving, the NAV system will show you the route to the closest medical facility. Regardless of whether it has an emergency room or is open on a Saturday. If you are stopped, it will give you a list to choose from, with the distances to each one.

The NAV system insisted on routing us to the "Neck & Back Center" 15 miles away. And until we stopped the car, we couldn't get it to give us an alternate destination.

Once we stopped, we were able to look at the destination and select a more likely choice (it wasn't actually the right one) that was a few blocks away. Once we got close to the destination, we saw signs for a hospital and ended up at what actually our third most likely destination. Sometimes hospitals do not actually have the word "hospital" in their listing on the DVD.

The moral of the story: The DVD was great, as it let me see the turns coming up and which way to go to get to my rough destination. But selecting the exact destination solely on the DVD was definitely a hit-or-miss proposition.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my girlfriend is fine. She's off solid food for three days while her mouth heals. The dentist says she most likely won't require further treatment.