2010 Prius Navigation System is really horrible

I've noticed that when some people state they had to get a car that could get them to work more economically or the "wife wanted it, not me". Usually, they will compare their new Prius to the "great car they had to give up. Their new Prius usually has all kind of faults that the other car didn't have. Go back a day or so and look at the comments. Not just this thread. If I see a real negative comment, I sometimes see a connection to "had to buy the Prius". Maybe it is me going nuts with all of this snow falling now.

 

But, my Garmin does the same thing. It never has shown my right address and it puts me on the street behind my house.

Remember the saying location, location, location? Well I think for Nav systems its maps, maps, maps. I live in a new development, that's part of the problem. I feel, for the most part, all newer Nav systems operate pretty much the same. Some, like Garmin have new programs to locate the sats faster and find you faster, but navigational directions seem to be the same as they were 3 or 4 years ago. JMHO, by no means an established fact.

 

Come on Toyota you listened to your customers and made some great improvements to the gen 2 Prius...you can do a lot better on the nav if you want to...especially considering the cost.

 

as an FYI my house is listed as 5645 on the GPS... my house # is 5609. i determined my "location" by parking directly in front of my house and saving the location. for the houses on my street, they start at 5601 and skip every four. the highest # on my block is 5617. But, i am nearly half way

with 5601, 5605 on one side and 5613 and 5617 on the other... so in reality, i am simply 45% of the way from the corner.

ok, now if that was the end of the story, then we be ok. but its not. 5645 is not searchable. 5609 is.

 

Understood.

But my point is my street only goes to 1145, and if you use that to divide the range for the street, I get that. But my point was the Prius NAV system goes to 1198?!? Where did it come up with that number?

Also, don't get me wrong. I do like my Prius. In fact, I love it. When everything else is so good about it, the deficiencies in the NAV system become pretty obvious.

And I know it is easy to jump to the wrong intent from just reading a post (as opposed to having a conversation with someone where you can get more context from body language and inflection), but I'm not crapping on Toyota, I'm not upset that I got a Prius, I just feel that for the amount of money that I paid for their factory NAV system, it could be better. Especially when I can get a Garmin Nuvi 765T for $150 and it is 'full featured' and more accurate. Especially when the NAV package is $2,428 (yes, I know that includes more like the audio, but lets be real, this is paying a captive premium price).

So I love my Prius, but the NAV system could be better. I don't go into a store and say, give me the OK product for the most expensive price. As a consumer I want the best deal I can get. If the NAV system had been 'free' I would not have anything to complain about. But they charged me almost $2,500 for the package!!!

Who here would buy a car, then go out and put a $2,500 NAV system upgrade into their car, when they can get NAV systems in the $200 range that are competitive?

 

My guess is that having become #1, listening to customers is now a thing of the past -- just like GM did when they were #1. It'll be interesting to watch history repeat itself. I'm sure we'll see over the next few years offerings of things no one wants, inflated prices (e.g. nav) on those options, and decreased quality (already seeing that).

 

we posted at the same time but look above at mine for my "experience"

 

I feel somehow "sorry" for you guys in the US (and Canada) after reading your many "horrible" disappointments at your Toyota Navi system...overpriced, very bad quality,slow inputs,inaccurate destination, etc etc...Sometimes I wonder ( and this fact is partially proved already)...did you ever read the Navi Owner`s Manual ( or Prius Owner`s Manual ) at all ????
Like f.ex. "the name of the town I`m In not showing, or "the name of the street not showing" ..etc
Then shortly afterwards, comments like " oh..thanks ..I was not aware of this....etc, etc...
Surely you must realize that the accuracy of the Navi system lies in the hands of the map producer ( Navteq in this case )
However, I realize that the US / Canada Navi system is somewhat inferior compared to our European system, with Harddisk Map, and the possibility to input destination etc. while driving and the 40 Gb HD drive. However, the Map database is the same..from Navteq..but different countries have different accuracy in terms of the maps.
I live in Norway, and so I am not fully qualified to comment on American customers in general, but by reading many different posts in this forum, I believe that "reading the owner`s manual" is NOT a common habit of US Prius customers.
As far as I know, judged from my own Prius gen III experience, the study of the Owner`s Manual would exclude MANY of the post`s and maybe contribute to more selective postings in this excellent forum. In addition, using the "search" option could vastly eliminate many postings and questions ...if used as intended..
Kind regards !!

 

I did read the manual, and I did watch the online videos. I understand my NAV pretty well (I won't claim expert as you learn the fine details of a system over time). But the ability to push the map button to get the city and the street address was not a feature that jumped out or stuck with me. This speaks to how intuitive, or not, the system is...

And at least for me, the Toyota NAV system is not un-uasble, it just does not have the price/performance ratio that I feel it should have.

 

I don't have a 3rd gen, but on the 2nd gen, since the Map button is on steering wheel and frequently used, it's pretty easy to discover the above feature (I don't think I read about it in the nav manual). Removing it from the steering wheel I'm sure made it less convenient to use and hence less easy to stumble across.

 

True...

 

I have been playing with the on a Prius III and it seems to work well enough so far.
The main reason to not get it is cost. Not only does it cost around $2000 to purchase plus $265 DVD updates, plus the cost of NavTraffic, but because it costs so much, you feel compelled to also purchase an extended warranty for an additional $1000+ due to terror of possibly needing to repair the nav out of warranty.
Now you are looking a spending around $3000 more than if you skipped nav and used a portable.
Do you feel you will get your $3000 worth of use out of it?


I now use a portable GPS daily only because I use the bluetooth and traffic.
I think if I bought a III without nav, I could just use the built-in bluetooth for calls and use BING411 and traffic.com traffic on demand by phone services to get traffic reports without using the nav. Traffic.com can send you automated traffic reports for your commutes by phone, text or email. I then would only need to pull the GPS out for trips out of the area and that's not very often.

Backup camera, USB and bluetooth streaming would be nice, but not for $3000.

 

Well, I do have GPS apps on my iPhone...

And sadly, my 2010 Prius was before the USB option (which I would have liked to have had).

 

Yeah it is not the most sophisticated naviagation system but I have used it extensively here in the Northeast US without problems. I live in a flat that was built only three years ago and the nav system always takes me to my door. Yes it is a bit expensive but it is part of an integrated system that works really well imho.

 

I agree. It works fine for me in NC. My Mom moved way out in the country on one of these loop roads. My Nav took me to her front door.

I have relatives in Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem and have had no problem with entering their destinations and driving to their front doors.

 

I'd get the NAV for the same reason I'd get the Prius, for the shear enjoyment of technology. Face it, we could have bought a cheap base model Corolla instead of a Prius, and would have gotten almost as good mileage, but what's the fun in that?

 

I as well have found the NAV to be quite efficient and direct with my directions.

One of the best features I like, is that when I have a POI location I am planning on going to, I can hit the POI, get the information for the location and dial the phone all in one easy step.

I have made reservations enroute to a restaurant or other POI, which has been quite useful.

I have never had it misdirect me to the wrong location.

Maybe it's topography related to some areas being better than others, not sure but in the Northeast it has been right on.

I enjoy integration as well, and dont' want to attach and run any other devices, I like the clean all in one look.

Plus we now have Texting laws, cell phone laws here, and I don't need the added grief of using a handheld device, be it some sort of phone with GPS.

IMO the money spent was worth it to me.

 

You can plug a Garmin GPS into the under armrest power port and mounted in a cup holder mount and just leave it plugged in 24/7. It turns on an off automatically with the ignition. When you want to use it, you just pop it, mount and all, in the cupholder. When you're done, drop back into the console storage. Super easy and you only have to plug it into the port once.

The "clean look" is nice, but , wow, it's so overpriced considering the cost of the JBL stereo with bluetooth is already icluded in the price of the package III.

Look at this:



If the navigation package cost around $400 like the MSRP of the factory nav for the 2010 Sentra, then it would be a no-brainer to get it, but at near $2000, it is much harder to justify.

 

I agree that the nav is overpriced. In fact, I had not planned to get one because of the price. I found the car that had everything that I wanted with the exception of the Nav. I went ahead and bought the car. Now that I have it, I am glad I have the Nav integrated in to the car. It makes for a nice, clean package.