Hi All, Thank you all for the great information. You have helped me solve many annoying quirks with my 2007 p6 Prius. I sell and repair industrial robots in California and Nevada. I drive aprox. 1,300 miles per week. For what it's worth, I set the cruise on 78MPH on the freeways and average 44.7MPG when I add up the receipts at the end of the month. We call it the "Twilight Zone Car" because looking at it from the outside it looks very small but when you get in there is a lot more room than expected. My 6'8" friend rode in the back and was surprised how comfortable he was. BUT.......Those of us who purchased the Nav System paid aprox. $2,000.00 for an out of date GPS system that is not as useful as a $700.00 Garmin. I removed the DVD and noticed that the date was 2005 and the GPS map info was supplied by Navtec (the same company that supplies the map info to Garmin and other GPS mfg's). If you go to the Navtec site they have updates for the other systems but point you to the car dealer for the Prius and Lexus updates. I think this is just wrong..... What can we do to put some pressure on Toyota to make it right? Glad I found this site, Ken
Morally or legally, theres a difference you know. I'm sure that Toyota has a deal with Navtec for support ONLY through Toyota so they can rake in the bucks.
Glad to hear you're enjoying the new Prius. As a noob myself, I'm still getting acquainted with mine and looking forward to driving it in warmer weather (live in Montana, bought it just this past December, so the warmest temps it's seen so far has been about 38 degrees) and seeing how it performs. On my recent 2600 mile round-trip to Minnesota I averaged 70-75mph, and got 42mpg which I thought was pretty good considering the conditions. I purposely avoided the built in nav system for the reasons you seem to be describing. I bought a $400 Garmin Nuvii at Costco, didn't care about a six CD changer, or Bluetooth capacity, and saved myself more than a grand. When the Garmin goes obsolete, assuming I can't update the maps, I'll eventually replace it although it should last for quite a while. But I'd definitely lobby Toyota if I were you, can't hurt. Good luck!!
We bought the built-in NAV system because it is built-in. It works well and I have few problems with it. That said, the features and user interface could be a lot better, and access to updates should be more reasonable. I'm used to using Garmin units for hiking and marine navigation, and they are far superior in ease of use. Still, if I had to do it again, I would buy the built-in NAV. Tom
No, thats not what I was getting at and I wish you well with your endeavor. I bought the NAV system also. My point was that there are a lot of companys that make a product that is sold under many brand names. If a large company has it's brand name on the product, they usually have a contract with the manufacturer not to undercut "thier" prices etc., in any way, shape, or form. "Morally" it sometimes stinks, "Legally" it's binding. If you find a way around it, please post.
