Built in or portable GPS

I have a Garmin GPS 192 that is used for Aviation, Marine or Land. It has autorouting features, notifies when to turn and automatically recalculates routes when missing a turn.

I set it on the dash of the Prius using a bean bag mount (lots of room on this dash!) and it is easy to glance at without turning your head and looking inside the car.

I forgot my beanbag mount one day and was surprised that it fits nicely in the MFD frame. Just have to be careful about pushing that back of the GPS into the MFD screen.

The primary advantage of this GPS is it is portable. You can use it in different cars/planes/boats.

I believe this GPS is about the same price as the builtin.

 

This question is a common subject of discussion - see an earlier thread regarding the portable options for some informative feedback!!

http://priuschat.com/forums/anyone-using-a...ht=gps+portable

 

ive been using a portable GPS tied to a mapping program and it works great. only have very little experience with the Prius nav.

but im using "point to point" mapping program that includes a GPS receiver that hooks to the USB port of my laptop.

it cost $89 at costco and if you have a laptop, its the way to go.

ps... you might want to disable the voice... a bit irritating to me anyways

 

I have a 2005 Prius with the Nav system. It (the Nav system) is a useless piece of junk. Don't waste your money on the Nav system. Half of it doesn't work when the car is moving, and it is very expensive. The other half works sometimes, and sometimes not. It is unreliable and basically useless.

The Nav system was designed by lawyers not engineers or programmers, and it is totally idiotic. If you are stopped, you can get a list of rest areas (gas stations, restaurants) with directions and mileages, but if you are moving, you can't. Even if you have a passenger trying to get the information (ie, with the driver watching the road and the passenger trying to get the information), you (he, she) can't.

You have to speak "rest area" and get icons (if it understands you which it seldom does...maybe you have to speak Japanese), but only on the 0.5 scale. That means that if the rest area (gas station or restaurant) you want is 50 miles away, you have to tap the screen 35 or so times to find out where it is.

If you go between Kentucky and Tennessee, you can't switch the zone map on the Prius Nav system without stopping the car. This can only make sense to Toyota's idiot lawyers.

If you want to throw money away, send it to me. But DO NOT EVER buy the Toyota Nav system. It is a useless piece of junk.

Buy a Garmin or other GPS. They are much better, and much cheaper, and they actually work, even when your car is moving. You can program them from the comfort of your home or on your laptop in a hotel room (while I have to go to my cold garage to program the Prius Nav system).

Of course, do what you like. But my recommendation is to never buy any Toyota product with that insane Nav system. In fact (I know this may shock some of you), I wish I'd never ever bought the Prius.

 

I love the 2005 Nav system and I use it all the time.

Even if you are not using the guidance features,
seeing your current location and cross streets
really helps.

I have a Garmin 2620, and I consider it far inferior than having a big always ready display built in.

And I love my Prius.

Robert

 

I have a 2005 with the Navigation system, and I love it - I'd be very disappointed if I hadn't got it with the car.

If you press Map View while you're moving, you can turn on or off gas stations, restaurants, hospitals and one or two other Points Of Interest.

You can also change the destination to one of six that you've stored.

You can point to a position on the map and get the name of the town, or at .5 mile resolution you can get street names - you can do that while moving. You can also either insert that location as another destination or replace your destination with that point - those features are all available while you're moving.

I've used laptops with handheld GPS receivers for over 5 years, and the built-in is much better for my purposes - it uses a combination of dead reckoning and the GPS receiver for more accurate positioning than you get with the GPS alone - it confirms the turn location with two 'dings' that usually occur just as you're turning - that's after the warning messages and earlier single 'ding' that you get when approaching turns.

I find the voice prompts and 'dings' helpful to alert me to turns, and the displayed distance to the next turn is useful too. The Navigation system also tells you to move over to the right or left in anticipation of the turn - I didn't get that from the handheld.

There's a non-Toyota 'plug in' modification available that will allow full programming of the GPS by a passenger, even while moving - that overcomes the only real complaint I have about the Navigation system.

As with all electronic navigation aids, you're well-advised to look at a map and figure out where you're going before you start out - the route guidance isn't 100% reliable, sometimes telling you to make impossible turns or telling you that you've arrived when you're next to your destination but on an Interstate with no exit for miles - sometimes the map data will not show new roads - that's where you need to use your head. But that advice applies to both the handheld and built-in navigation system.

To answer your other questions:

Re: "guidance to a destination is terminated about 1 block (500-1000 feet) from the destination

Yes, it still terminates guidance when it's a block from the destination, but you still see the destination on the map - in that regard, I don't think it's much worse than a hand-held or laptop. It told us we were at our destination when we were 100 feet from it, but on the Interstate - we didn't like that, but then we should have known better than to just blindly follow the voice guidance.

... no exit information is available for the interstate system
Might be for some Interstates, but not the one's I've used in NJ and NY - it identified the exits very well. Are you talking about services at the exits? Those are called "Points Of Interest" and yes, they're identified if they're selected.

... the database is two years old (1999 data). I think there was an update to the DVD - and I expect updates will be available - I don't think the database that comes with the 2005 is that old.

... address lookup will not work for county roads, navigation will not work for county roads

County roads are on the my map and have been included in routing - I guess it depends on where you are - I've been routed on some very small access roads that surprised 'the locals' who rode with me.

1. can you do multi-destination routes? Yes.
2. can you use and save waypoints? Yes.

 

I have the NAV in my 2005 and I'm slowly getting used to it. I like having the map large enough to read and I really like the ability to split screen for North up and larger scale (2 mile or higher) on one side while having head up and smaller scale (.5 mile or less) on the other side. That said, I still find my handheld (Garmin Quest - about $500) to be a valuable supplement on a longer trip. The handheld still seems to be more user friendly and better organized for finding POI's.

 

I am a huge fan of GPS, GPS systems and the like - and really considered getting a separate system for my new Prius. However, there are several points which won me over and no one here has mentioned:

The Prius nav system is not *just* a GPS receiver. It also includes a Gyro/Magnetometer (for heading/motion information) and wheel encoders (which tell the computer the current wheel speeds). These set of additional sensors allow the Prius to know location *without* having a GPS fix.

For GPS to work correctly/well, the GPS receiver needs a *good view* of they sky. This obviously doesn't occur in cities, by buildings, in tunnels, and anywhere there is overhead/side blockage (tree canopy, etc.) The built-in Prius sensors allow the navigation system to work where a separate GPS system would lose reception and not display or lose position.

Therefore, I opted for the in-dash system. Also because of not worrying about the system working, powering up, integrating. And I have the voice commands, and in steering-wheel controls. The one shortcoming so far is that I cannot "retrieve" the gps information from the computer for using on my own desktop computer for analysis & fun.

 

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I must disagree (but that's likely because the initial Canadian version didn't come with factory GPS).

I have a Garmin 2610, and I love it. It's not as convenient as a built-in unit, and lacks the voice command, but Garmin's software is FAR superior to Toyota/Denso's. You can also get maps for the entire world, and take the GPS with you when you travel.

Having it when driving to California last year was absolute bliss. No worries about getting lost, missed turns, trying to read a map while driving, etc. I'd never do a road-trip without a GPS again (not to mention that it neatly solves the "Are we there yet?!" from kids, because you can tell them EXACTLY when you'll be there)



Dave.

 

I had planned to get a #5 package and get a portable one (or have one installed). The problem was that the #5 package wasn't available in Southern California or in Nevada (at least when I checked in Henderson). So I went with the #6 and have been very happy with it.
It's very possible that you may have a choice of a #6 or wait.

It has given me little trouble, even directing me correctly to a place that Mapquest and Yahoo Maps gave wrong directions. It even showed me a faster way to and from work. One time it wasn't as good, way out in the boonies, it wanted me to leave the correct route (even make a legal U-Turn) and go on a road that was best serviced by pack mule. It gave the correct road I was on and the destination was correct.

Ah well, it's better than my last system. That consisted of a 2000 Thomas Guide of San Diego.

 

Many of the standalone nav units do have superior software, but most of them do *not* have the same online map and POI capacity as a built-in DVD-based unit. The Streetpilot 2620 contains a hard drive which can accomodate the entire Mapsource databasse (but which is also much more susceptible to vibration damage from vehicular operation- it wouldn't take a big speed bump to scrape heads on most typical hard drives), but all the other units contain only a few hundred MB at best; even those that support external SD cards can only use up to 256 Mb cards according to the specs. Compare this to the 8.5 Gb of map data that is available online all the time with a DVD-based nav unit.. Typically, with a standalone nav unit, you must carefully pick and choose the map sections and features that you want given the memory capacity of your device. This might mean only a couple of citiies worth of detailed info, and you'd have to reprogram the unit with new map data with a computer if you travel outside the region or want to see a different set of features vs. a DVD based unit, which generally covers an entire continent in one or two 8.5 Gb DVDs, and if you travel outside the coverage area, it's an easy DVD swap vs. pulling out programming cables, etc..

With a standalone nav, certainly, you do have a wider choice of world maps and also topographical/marine map CDs that you can buy, but most of these specialty maps are used for off-road use (eg hiking and boating) where the autorouting capabilities are not used- I bought a far cheaper handheld GPS unit for this kind of usage. A nav unit meant for vehicular use, while not precluding topgraphical and marine use, is mostly wasted in these capacities as much of the cost of these units is in the autorouting functionality. They are also typically comparatively bulky and have limited standalone battery life- ie, you really do not want to go hiking with an typical autoroute nav unit..

In other posts, I've also gone over my other rationale for going with a built-in nav unit, particularly convenience and security- again, most of these units are comparatively large screened for easy visibility, so leaving them on the dash is an invitation for "dash and grab"; alternately, you have to unplug and hide or take the relatively bulky unit with you every time you leave the vehicle, and hook it back up when you return, which I found to be a huge hassle).

As to the software quality issue- certainly, many of the built-in nav systems seem to have quirkier autoroute capabilities than the top of the line Garmin standalone pod, but really, you quickly leaarn to deal with them- heck look at Microsoft- market domination despite poor softwre quality.. In any case, the quirks are generally minor- for instance, the original version of software that came with my aftermarket Pioneer nav had a strange quirk with a handful of destinations where it would tell you to go past the destination, make a U-turn and come back.. This was fixed with a software update, but the built-in navs are not alone in strange autoroute behaviour- I've found a few wierd situations with Garmin's standalone units as well.. Again, software quality wasn't a big deal for me because you generally have an idea of where you are going, and you can also look ahead on the map display and override the default route if the instructions sound like they're leading off in the wrong direction, but in general, even if you blindly followthe directions, however circuitous they may be, they will still get you to your ultimate destination, which was the entire point of having such a system in the first place..

 

The 2610 uses standard CF cards, and can store the entire north american mapset of the US and Canada, including auto-routing and all points of interest on a single 2gb card that you can buy for around $140 (no moving parts). Remember, it's equally easy to pull out a CF card and swap it with another to cover a different continent if you travel. It's even faster than swapping a DVD-ROM.

BTW: You do know that there are moving parts in the factory GPS right? It's a DVD-ROM drive, which has precision optics and motors, both of which will eventually wear-out. A 2610 with a solid-state 2gb CF card has no moving parts whatsoever...

You do have some good points about security and the like - and I'll certainly buy an integrated GPS in the next generation Prius I buy, but I'm not at all unhappy with the solution I use, and to imply that the factory navigation is the best solution out there is rather misleading.

Dave

 

www.tomtom.com look at tomtom go 700. its got bluetooth (phone, weather, traffic) and you can permanently attach it to your car if you want

 

The Garmin 2620 works fine too with a flash card in place of the hard disk.
Just copy to your pc, swap in the flash card, and copy back to the Garmin.

Makes it faster routing as well as less risk of shock damage.

I wouldn't trade mine for any built in unit. Wish I'd saved some money and gotton the 2610 instead though.

 

Well, I'm not sure I would want to be told I'm at my destination right when I'm passing it. I think it's a bit better to get some advance notification so I can turn into the parking lot, instead of driving past it. It's not going to know exactly where the entrance to the parking lot is, so if your destination was in a strip mall or office complex and it told you that you were at your destination right as you passed, you may have already passed the parking lot entrance by a couple of hundred feet.

Actually, the distance before your destination at which it announces your arrival appears to be based on the type of road and maybe your speed. On roads where you are traveling faster, it tells you further ahead of time, and when you are on a residential road, it tells you when your are about one house away.

It does the same thing with turns. On residential roads, it will announce an upcoming turn when you are 1/4 mile from it. On main roads with speeds of 40 mph or more, it will announce an upcoming turn when you are 1/2 mile from it. (It tells you how far when it announces, like "In a quarter of a mile, right turn" or "In a half mile, right turn".

I'm not sure what "no exit information is available for the interstate system" means. It will tell you when to get off the highway and will show a zoomed in turn map of the off ramp, with your position on the ramp indicated. It won't provide you with a list of all the exits on an interstate, if that is what the complaint is, but who cares? My destination would be an address somewhere, not exit 47 on I95. It may use exit 47 to get me to my destination, and it will tell me to get off on exit 47, but why would I want to look up detailed information on exit 47?

 

Optical drive mechanisms are well proven in an automotive environment and tolerant of shock (no danger of head crashes such as for hard disks- an optical drive just loses focus and then must re-read the affected block). Certainly, memory cards are even more durable, and I was not aware that the systems supported the large capacity cards, however consider the available map and POI detail available on a 2 GB card vs. a single 8.5 Gb double layer DVD (or a set of 2 disks = 17 Gb of map/POI as used in the latest systems).. The DVD systems still have the standalone systems beat in terms of map detail available.

Standalone units do tend to be faster but this is mainly due to 1) smaller database and 2) use of memory/hard drive based datastore vs. optical.. Personally, I have not noticed any real advantage/disadvantage to the speed of route calculation/recalculation. In most cases, the reroute is fast enough to get the next street, but once in a while it may take a bit longer if it has to access new data from the disk.. I don't see this as more than a minor annoyance since areas where you can take the very next street if you miss a turn are in general areas where the one after is not that much farther out of your way so a less than instant re-route is not that critical.. Most units give you plenty of advanced notice of upcoming turns, to allow you time to get into the correct lane anyways, and if you intentionally take a detour, you generally have an idea of where you're going and again, an instant re-route is not critical, but merely serves as confirmation that you are going in the right direction.

The one factor which I intentionally left out previously because it is really personal preference, is the aesthetic consideration- the built-in systems are integrated into the vehicle electronics, so there are no additional pods to clutter the dash, windshield mounts, etc.. Personally, I'm not a big fan of barnacles of any kind stuck to an existiing console- regardless of functionality, I think it just ruins the appearance.. I've got a Miniscanner in my Classic Prius and despite the attempt to match to the decor with the photo of the dash on the faceplate, I feel that it does stick out like a sore thumb, but in this case, I have to accept it because the info display is IMO even more useful than a navigation display (heck, it's almost more useful than all of the vehicular displays put together), and there are no other alternatives available (except to build your own)

Anyways, I'm not arguing in favor of "factory" nav but for a built-in nav (ie, a dedicated, permanently installed system that is integrated into the vehicle electronics- certainly there are many better navigation systems that the factory system: my own unit is an aftermarket unit) instead of a standalone because of 1) database size 2) integrated nature (aesthetics, security, convenience). The only situations where I can see that a standalone unit has value are 1) where youi have multiple cars that you drive to new, previously untravelled destinations (if you have to drive a different car in to work on some days, this doesn't count- you don't need a navigation system to go to regular destinations) on a regular basis or one or more of your vehicles is of an older make/model where it doesn't make economic sense to install a built-in nav unit.

 

Other things to consider is that the built is more likely to cost more to upgrade than the handheld and that the handheld can be operated while the car is in motion. There are 3 ways to overcome that, but you still have to do it.

Something in favor of the built in is that it comes in a package that includes a BT for the phone, VSC and HID lighting.

 

Well... For similar reaons I decided I wanted a 2004 #7 or AM vs a #9 or BG?

Im using a handheld pc (ok it's an ipaq 22XX series) with a bluetooth hockeypuck gps antenna and software. works in my pprius. in my wife's camry (if i give up my pda) and in whaterever rental care we drive.

worth the $400 rather than the uplift from #7 to #9 in my model year (2-3K$)

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I have a 2004 Prius with the factor Nav system. I just purchased (temporarily) a TomTom 700, to see if that would be a possibility if I get a new Prius. I'm returning the TomTom as soon as possible.

The TomTom did have a few features I liked better than the Prius, for example: street names were more readable, and cross street names appeared as they passed; the sound of the voice directions was actually clearer than the Prius, although the volume was a little marginal; I found the 3D view quite pleasing. But the main points in favor of the Prius:

1. The TomTom rebooted (or something) twice in a 300-mile trip. Once it directed us to make an immediate right turn (on a straight stretch of freeway).
2. When a turn is coming up, the Prius shows a large detail of the corner, lanes, etc. The TomTom doesn't, and neither does any of the others I've looked at.
3. The screen on the Prius isn't too bright, but the TomTom was considerably dimmer, making it difficult to see much in bright sunlight.
4. The trip's remaining time on the TomTom was about twice the actual remaining time. Remaining distance always agreed with the Prius.

I wanted badly to like the TomTom, but I'm afraid I'd have to rate the Prius quite a bit higher.