Toyota Navigation or after market navigation?

The advantage of the built-in is that it's well, built in. You don't have to worry about it being stolen and the system is integrated with the steering wheel. The third-party is cheaper and generally has more features. Also, if you're the sort who wants to monitor your MPG or radio, a third-party frees up the MFD for that.

I have the built-in and am happy with it. My original plan was to get a third-party.

 

I have the built in navigation in my 06 Prius and it is great. No problems too, but when I am on a road really close and pretty much parallel to the freeway the navigation got confused, but that only happened like twice.

 

I have the built-in. It has a few shortcomings, but I really like it. Having it fully integrated with the MFD is great.

Tom

 

I have a Garmin third party, which I can use in airplanes I fly too....I like being able to have both the MFD functions and the GPS going at the same time. Toyota's OEM GPS will not let you program it while the car is in motion. Perhaps a safety feature, but if you have a passenger, he or she could/should be able to reprogram the thing while you're moving.

Downside is having to remove it nightly for theft protection. I have a little padded bag it fits into.

B

 

I have the built-in, and while I like the fact that it's built in I'd go for a third party solution for my next car. The nannying of the nav system combined with the relative lack of features have put me off slightly.

 

Simple Answer - Toyota Navi isn't Worth the Money

I've owned Acura's with Navi and have used After Market units; the Toyota unit is a rip-off. The most important features of my 06 Navi and Bluetooth are disabled while the car is moving and compared to most After Market units, the Toyota unit is featureless.

Toyota lost a Navi sale to an After Market unit when my wife bought a new ES 350 and I'll do the same when I replace my Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vincent @ Oct 2 2006, 03:40 AM) [snapback]326771[/snapback]</div>

This is a big problem with the built-in (other than the $250 cost to update), but there's a couple of wires that you can cut (and install switches) which solves that problem.

This is the first nav system I've had, so I have nothing to compare it with. My next car will have a nav system, but whether it's built-in or not is still up in the air.

 

I have Garmin Nuvi 350. I did a side by side comparison with the Prius nav system that was in a Pruis that I rented before I bought my Prius. Went on a long weekend trip with both running side-by-side. My wife and I both agreed that the Nuvi was a little better. We turned off the Prius nav after the first day.

Another advantage is that you can move it to other vehicles and you can use it in other modes of transportation (walking, bicycling, etc).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vincent @ Oct 2 2006, 05:40 AM) [snapback]326771[/snapback]</div>

I was just reading in the owner's manual that some of the features that are disabled via the MFD (when the car is moving) are still accessible via the voice recognition (itself a mixed blessing, I know).

For what it's worth, I value the built-in-ness of the stock unit in my '06. I'm sure that I'm not a 'power-user,' but it does everything I need it to do. I find myself frustrated with it only occasionally; overall, I'm happy with it. Not saying it's perfect, but the Furuno bells-and-whistles differential GPS (a few years old now) in my boat is TONS more trouble than this, and -- in its own way -- doesn't seem much if any more capable.

It does, however, have LOTS more buttons on the front, this cool looking trackball which I've never used, and always seems to wow the uninitiated.

 

Aftermarket units being produced today are Waaaaaaaaaaay more user-friendly and very intuitive. My 80yr old mother-in-law was able to figure it out the 1st day. Not to mention the cost difference and portability.

Toyota's Nav system SUX......!
I have it in my 05.
I bought my wife a Tom Tom 700 and it's way better and the new Tom Tom's have lots more new and improved features.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bshef @ Oct 2 2006, 02:17 PM) [snapback]327017[/snapback]</div>

I'm curious, can you tell me how specifically the Tom Tom is better? Frankly, I don't think I'd want ANY more features than I have already!

What I can't figure out is, how something can be be both "new" and "improved." If it's new, it wasn't around before...and so could not possibly benefit from any improvements.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 2 2006, 04:04 PM) [snapback]327064[/snapback]</div>

He wrote that the tom tom had lots of new and improved features. Key word being features. Some must be new to the older units, while others are improved on the older units. Pretty cut and dry to me.

I'm leaning towards either the Nuvi 350 or the Garmin c320 after all this.... Depends on how much I'm willing to spend at this point I guess.....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Oct 2 2006, 03:29 PM) [snapback]327096[/snapback]</div>

Makes sense. Thanks.

Still don't know what, exactly, is better about that Tom Tom unit versus stock, though (other than Toyota's "SUX").

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 2 2006, 05:20 PM) [snapback]327133[/snapback]</div>

I can only guess..... It really sounds as if the biggest gripe against the built in unit is that it doesn't allow you to do anything while traveling down the freeway for instance. I can see how this would be frustrating on a roadtrip, when you have a passanger that could be using the NAV. Aside from that, I haven't heard anything too "tangible" if you will.....

 

My first GPS was a Garmin GPS III+. Monochrome, small screen, no voice, no real directions capability. Used it mostly for "instrumentation" (setting cruise speed, seeing how far I'd gone, watching for my turn, etc).

After a few years, decided a colour one would be nice, with voice direction. Got a Garmin Streetpilot III. It sucked! Kept loosing lock with the sats. Went back to the GPS III+.

Then I decided to "build" my own. Got a PDA, and after shopping around a lot, got a Garmin CF Que 1620 to plug into the PDA. Much better! The PDA (Toshiba e830) has a VGA colour screen and a very fast processor. In fact too fast. I had to force it to operate at 208 MHz as "auto" (up to 520 MHz) created too much noise for the GPS module! Still, at 208 MHz the map updates much faster than the others I've tried/owned. The maps are fantastic. Up to date, and fascinating to watch - perhaps too much so to the point of distraction ("so that's where that road goes - oops, better concentrate on driving!"). Updates to the maps are $140 or less. You can easilly add a "amplified antenna" that you can stick on the roof for much better sat. coverage.

One advantage of the built in is "dead reconning". It is fed motion input from the car, so it can compensate when you loose sats in congested areas (tunnels, downtown in large cities, narrow canyons, heavy forest). You can get dead reconning in after market as well, where you tap into the odo cable (and do a little calibration). The Garmin Streetpilot 7500 has this feature for example.

Another advantage of built in is the audio is fed through the car speakers. The aftermarket ones are adding this though with built in FM modulators - you tune them in on the car radio. Or you can use a cable to the external audio input some cars have.

Just some options and comments from years of portable GPS use.

 

I never really used a portable GPS nav system, but I'll say something about what I like about the Toyota nav:

1. Screen is much larger
2. It connects to the wheel so the nav is usable even after the sat signals are lost
3. I heard the sensitivity is better, because the antenna is better located, etc.
4. It shows the number of lanes in each direction at a highway split.

Of course, the bad thing is that it's more expensive and you can't take it with you.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Oct 2 2006, 05:20 PM) [snapback]327133[/snapback]</div>

TomTom does things like traffic updates (assuming you have a compatible bluetooth phone... read: not verizon and probably not a RAZR). TomTom is also cheaply updatable.

 

I have the toyota NAV! works well with me.I havent used any others so i cant really give an opinion on that.I see that one of the biggest headachs with the toyota NAV is lack of operation while in drive.That can be solved by getting a Coastaltech lockpick!One of its features is to remove the screen gray areas during driving so you can use the nav in motion.I may buy one for that and also for my bluetooth.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(stanlwyjohn @ Oct 3 2006, 01:11 PM) [snapback]327492[/snapback]</div>

The lockpick won't work with the 2006. You'll have to cut the speed sensor wires (and install switches) for that.