Navigation Package or not?

So I am not a nav. person. I personally will never use navigation. However, I would use the backup camera, the hands free phone interface and the bluetooth music streaming. We just ordered a 2010 IV through the Costco program without the nav. package, but am now thinking maybe I should call and add it on. I didn't want it, but like 30 minutes after the fact wifey is suddenly interested in it. What to do?

 

Probably good advice. Anyone know how hard it is (or isn't) for the dealer to change an already placed order?

 

I would get the Nav.... I think that it add's a lot more ease to the driving experience and to the value of the car.

 

I have two weeks with a 2010 V w/ Nav. I live in rural North Carolina and the nav system doesn't recognize many of the roads here. Nowhere near as good as my $150 Garmin portable. The only feature of Nav that I find useful is the backup camera. If backup cam were available as a separate option, I would opt for just that. Voice commands seem to work well, and there are a lot of them to learn. Except for the shabby nav guidance here, the car is a dream.

 

Personally, I think the nav works pretty well. I was actually surprised that it could find my street because it's a fairly new one. Yahoo complains that my postal code doesn't exist, and for the longest time Google maps was showing my apartment as forest!
Granted, I haven't gotten to use it too much (only got the car a few days ago), but it hasn't steered me wrong yet.
I guess we'll see after awhile whether my opinion changes. So far my only complaint is that they could have used a higher res screen, but no big deal.

 

NO !NO! NO! I have it in my 08 and if it wasn't already in the car I wouldn't have added it. To up grade disc is $320. You would only probably buy one upgrade maybe in five years or you found a area you travel in has been highly developed and you track into open country. I would buy a Garmin or similar GPS like I have for my other two cars. What Toyota wants for the option you could buy 3 or 4 portable GPS units and when you trade cars it stays with you. Sgt Tip

 

Your "order" is nothing more than an allocation request to the regional distribution office, which may or may not make changes to the make up of cars it orders from Toyota, and may or may not make the specific, requested allocation. You can easily change your order, although in certain parts of the country it can be hard to find particular models and colors with SR. Frankly, it makes more sense to e-mail several dealers with quote and availability requests for the specific model, color and options you want. This puts you in touch with internet sales managers who have more info and flexibility than the average salesperson. You can limit your callbacks to just the ones that claim to have access to the right car (without BS addons or BS market adjustment fees). You can also research currently available inventory through dealer websites or buildatoyota.com. Instead of "ordering" you should be making your dealer identify a specific car (by VIN) that is currently available or arriving soon (already on the ship or train). Trust me, your life will be much more peaceful if your wife is happy about the car!

You'd be surprised how often Nav can come in handy, on the road or even in our own home town. Despite the naysayers, it's generally good enough and has the advantage of a large, built in screen. It also makes all setup stuff on the car (e.g., phone) much easier. Finally, the bluetooth audio streaming is great!

 

Whether you want the Nav package or not, depending on the region you're in and how hard your dealer wants to work...you may not be able to GET a V w/o Nav at minimum anyway....
http://priuschat.com/forums/dealers-pricing/64962-tmc-not-building-my-car-back-square-1-a.html

I may just drive to St Louis to get my 'base' V.....

 

We are enjoying our onboard navigation and I really like having a backup camera. I use that every time I drive and for parking it is excellent. I think it is a good investment. On a trip, you really need two navigation devices one to navigate the car and one to search for all the things you want to know about your destination. You can never have to many GPS's.

 

Living in Hawaii I have never used navigation, but after 2 days of fiddling with the features, I like it. If the backup camera was available without the Nav, I probably would have gone without it. But, I am also looking forward to the Ipod interface where I can see my playlists on the large screen. I had the Ipod interface on my FJ and it only displayed a single line of info. I didn't find it very helpful when searching for songs, but it was nice to be able to control from the steering wheel/deck rather than touching the Ipod itself.

 

Another potential reason to buy a Garmin or other portable GPS instead of NAV.

I was in FL for 3 days this week, and I took my Garmin and used it in the rental car. Very, very handy. Can't do that with the (fixed) NAV option.

 

I totally agree. I like the onboard nav, but I also have another GPS device. I don't see why you wouldn't take both while going on a trip.

 

Since we didn't order navigation on our III, but wanted the features, including backup camera, traffic info, lane assist, and voice prompts, I started looking at aftermarket alternatives. Here are some ideas:

Navsgo (no traffic info, includes "lane information"--maybe not the same as lane assist)
Pilot (no traffic info, no lane assist--little more info seems to be available)
Garmin Nuvi 5000 (FM traffic info with add-on receiver, no lane assist, need to add hard-wired camera)
4UCam (no traffic info or lane assist)

There may be other options out there--this is just what I found with a brief search.

Navsgo looks nice, but lacks traffic info, and maybe lane assist.

At $130, the Pilot is the cheapest option to get a backup camera that just happens to also provide navigation.

The Nuvi 5000 has the most features, but is the priciest--it's also 7" wide, so is bigger than my little Garmin 200. Where to mount?

I'd never heard of 4UCam, and suspect support might be scanty.

BTW, without the need for a backup camera, I'd probably go for the Garmin 755T--it has so many nice features, but lacks an external video input. I may end up getting a dedicated backup display and adding a portable GPS.

There may be other, better alternatives, especially if they're permanently mounted, but I didn't look at those. Has anyone tried an aftermarket solution that provides most of the factory features?

 

You don't need to and sometimes aren't supposed to mount the nav on the windshield and depending on which of dozens of choices of portable nav units you choose, you can do about all those things plus some different things that you can't do with the Prius nav.

The backup camera (only due to very poor rear visibility combined removal backup camera option from on models without nav) is really the only thing I see as being very useful that can't be done with portable navs I've seen. I wouldn't be surprised if the standalone backup camera option was removed to promote sales of the nav.

 

Here is one that seems to have everything. It is from th Escort Radar Company. It is expensive. How about a group buy?

SmartMirror - Navigation With A View - Escort Inc.

 

The Escort looks really nice. Perhaps we'll see many more examples of this configuration from other makers soon.

There are already a few available from China, but the documentation is minimal, and probably the support as well. Here's an example that claims to do nearly everything. Feedback has been mixed, but is generally positive. Price is very attractive.

Here's an example from a German developer, but it seems to be only a prototype.

One issue I wonder about: are these fancy mirrors so conspicuous that they're in effect shouting, 'Steal me'? Also, none of the mirror solutions seem to include traffic info.

 

Took my Prius on its first road trip today (300 mile day roundtrip to Portland Oregon). I lived in Portland back in the 1980s for about a year so I am pretty rusty regarding directions, to say the least. Without the Prius NAV, I would have been very lost. I went to several old haunts, as well as explored a few new areas. The NAV never failed, including finding a nearby McDonalds when I wanted an egg McMuffin. I am very pleased. I am sure my portable Garmin also would have served me well, but I am a big fan of built-in NAV for lots of reasons. Bottom line is that, with all due respect to other posters, I don't find the criticisms of the Toyota NAV system found on this board to be valid, at least not in this part of the country. Obviously, YMMV.

 

(I have an 06 Prius w/factory nav and a Garmin Nuvi 350 for my navless other car.)

Agreed. Unlike CAR4TWO, I find 3D view on my Nuvi 350 to be useless. All it shows me is a bunch of lines going by representing streets. Uhh, I can see that out the windshield. Hence, I almost never use 3D view.

The previous gen Toyota nav systems (I'm sure the 2010 has it too) have lane assistance on the highway. On the right half of the screen, it has a picture representing lanes and arrows telling you which ones to stay in when you come near junctions. I wish I had a screenshot.

Besides that, if I ever get confused about which way to turn (usually in the city), I just press on the compass at the top left to switch from North Up (my preferred settings) to the other mode (car heading up?).

Personally, I find some of the criticisms about how primitive the Toyota nav system is to be somewhat off the mark too. For those that care, I gave some comparisons at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...dvd-nav-vs-other-nav-system-2.html#post675023.

That said, my opinion now is that given the prices, quality of PNDs and their update prices vs. $1800 for the larger screen and convienence of factory nav, I wouldn't buy factory nav anymore.