I have been very happy with my 2005 Prius--with one exception: the navigation system. I have been really disappointed with it for many reasons, and here are a few of them: 1. The system doesn't recognize addresses which have been there for many years (some over 20 years) 2. Even though the manual says that the system will give directions when you just punch in the telephone number for the address, it doesn't work for personal phone numbers and only some businesses 3. When you try to type in the name of the business or street name, many a time the system finishes it for you and you cannot make any corrections, even though the system has come up with the wrong business name or street name. These are just a few reasons for my disappointment. I would like to know the following: 1. What is the best navigation system to have? 2.Would it be possible for me to buy just the DVD of such a system instead of the whole outfit? 3.Would I be able to install this myself or do I have to go to the dealer to get this done? I would very much appreciate a response from the members. Vemvim
There are update DVDs available for the Prius system, but they may not fix all your issues. And, honestly, the update DVDs cost almost as much as you can buy a seperate new NAV like a Garmin or TomTom. As far as completing the name entry, it will only do that when it gets to the last known entry with the priviously entered letters. IOW, if you're looking for "mcdonalies" and you start typing M-C-D-O-N-A....if it has no other names in the memory with those 6 letters it'llprobably pop up with "McDonalds"...if Mcdonalies isn't in the system then there's no point in letting you type it in. As far as the entry of known good addresses I find that often this is a problem related to the way the "north, west, east, south" part is entered. Sometimes it just wants an "N" sometimes it wants the full "north" sometimes it doesn't want anything but the street name. It is unfortunate that the system isn't adaptable enough to help you figure out what it wants or give you several options. While the phone number thing is cool when it works I don't think you're going to find a system that has personal phone numbers...that would be a huge database. For me, an infrequent user of my Prius NAV (1-2 times/month maybe?) It works well enough that I can find what I'm looking for 99% of the time with the NAV alone if only by picking an address that gets me in the right neighborhood. Most new NAV systems are pretty easy to self-install. But none will work by plugging the DVD into the Prius NAV.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jun 24 2007, 02:23 PM) [snapback]467304[/snapback]</div> If you want an integrated system, then you are stuck with the Toyota NAV, otherwise you can install anything you want, but it will be a wart (an add-on, in other words). My feelings are the same as Evan's: I find the built-in NAV works for me almost all of the time. It has room for improvement, but it's still pretty good once you learn to use it. As for phone number lookup, features like that are not going to be very effective until cars are equipped with broad band access to the Internet. Otherwise, the data bases change too often to be useful. Tom
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vemvim @ Jun 24 2007, 11:08 AM) [snapback]467299[/snapback]</div> We're not sure if you were also enquiring about a stand-alone unit. We bought a Magellan unit at Costco model # 2200T. Having had a magellan before, we swore not to ever buy another one. Just because Costco is so liberal on returns, we decided to try it out. Gads, are we delighted! This 2200T is no where like the old Magellans. The menus are simple, gets to the point and easily entered. Best of all--directions to turn, are not in just # of feet, BUT the name of the street is given. That was exactly what my wife wanted. If you tell her to turn in 500 feet, she is completely lost. With the name of street pronounced and given ample time to turn, its a snap. We went to Sacramento to visit old friends and the gps guided us to the front door without a single hitch. The GPS found our motel every night w/o problems. Now, the highlight of the GPS -- it fits right on top of the door to the CD tray that swings down [under the radio] by friction. The unit will not move at all. Its like it was made for the Prius. The height of the GPS fits exactly. And the distance to the power supply is a straight line, so you do not have a huge long connecting cord dangling around. Every one who we have shown it to, have gone straight to Costco to buy one, except today -- the sale was gone and its back up to $299, rather than $249. Don't forget, this unit can be used from car to car. It also has a slot for an SD card and you can use this unit to play music at your beach and campling sites.
VevVim, let me put a different spin on this. Compared with a pile of paper maps, the nav system is great. It isn't perfect, but neither are paper maps.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jun 24 2007, 02:23 PM) [snapback]467304[/snapback]</div> Thank you very much for the information. I really appreciated the prompt response Vemvim
