DB S600

OKAY EVERYONE, THIS IS WHAT I'VE COME UP WITH...

1. THE MOTOROLA V710 AND THE LEXUS LX470 ARE ABLE TO LINK WITH ONE ANOTHER, IN SO FAR AS PLACING OUTGOING AND RECEIVING INCOMING CALLS.

*HERE IS WHEN PROBLEMS ARISE*

*NO AUDIBLE ALERT ON INCOMING CALLS*

2. PHONE SET TO A POLYPHONIC RING TONE (I.E. "ALERT") --> HAVE AN INCOMING CALL --> TELEPHONE SCREEN POPS UP --> HOWEVER, THE CAR IS UNABLE TO REPRODUCE THE RING (THEREFORE NO AUDIBLE ALERT).

I HAVE CALLED MOTOROLA AND THEY SEEM TO BE POINTING THE FINGER AT LEXUS FOR THIS DEFAULT STATING THE BLUETOOTH SYSTEM THAT LEXUS USES IS UNABLE TO REPRODUCE POLYPHONIC RING TONES. I HAVE CALLED LEXUS AND THEY ARE LOOKING INTO THIS PROBLEM.

3. PHONE SET TO A MONOPHONIC RING TONE (I.E. "NOTIFY") --> HAVE AN INCOMING CALL --> TELEPHONE SCREEN DOES NOT POP UP --> IN THIS REGARD THE PHONE DOES NOT MAKE THE CAR AWARE THAT THERE IS AN INCOMING CALL, NOTHING POPS UP ON THE NAVIGATION SCREEN AND THEREFORE NO AUDIBLE ALERT.

THIS SEEMS TO BE A PROBLEM WITH THE PHONE, IN WHICH IT IS UNABLE TO TRANSMIT BLUETOOTH ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AN INCOMING CALL WHILE SET TO A MONOPHONIC RING TONE. I HAVE SPOKEN TO MOTOROLA; THEY SAID THAT THEY WILL LOOK INTO IT.

*UNABLE TO TRANSFER PHONE BOOK*

4. VERIZON DISABLED MANY V710 BLUETOOTH FUNCTIONS; THIS APPEARS TO BE ONE OF THEM.

*UNABLE TO PLACE CALL WHILE VEHICLE IS IN MOTION*

5. LEXUS HAS DISALLOWED SUCH OF THEIR SYSTEMS WITH REGARD TO SAFETY CONCERNS. ONCE YOU EXCEED 5 MPH, YOU ARE LOCKED OUT OF PLACING A PHONE CALL AND ALSO INPUTTING DESTINATIONS IN TO THE NAVIGATION SYSTEM.

IF ANYONE CAN DUPLICATE THE RING TONE PROBLEMS NOTED ABOVE AND CARES ENOUGH OR HAS ENOUGH TIME TO REFERENCE SUCH TO MOTOROLA (800.331.6456) / VERIZON (800.2.JOIN.IN) / LEXUS (800.25.LEXUS) , I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT. I HAVE ALREADY DONE SO. HAVING SPENT $70K ON A CAR AND CLOSE TO $500 ON A PHONE, I WOULD HAVE EXPECTED BETTER. IT IS UPSETTING TO BE PUNISHED FOR BEING AN EARLY ADOPTER OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY. HOPEFULLY MOTOROLA / VERIZON / LEXUS CAN GET THIS PROBLEM RESOLVED ASAP.

THANK YOU.

Enigma869

Precisely why I switched over from Verizon to A T & T Wireless when I purchased my LX back in March. Verizon, shockingly, has been quite resistant to any new technology. They're the last of the wireless companies to finally release a phone with bluetooth technology, and of course it wouldn't work right. Because of this, I willingly paid a $175 early termination fee to escape a company that refuses to support any new technology it doesn't believe in. I can certainly understand some of your other frustrations with Lexus "safety" features. I took my own shots at Lexus for this in my review of the LX. Good luck getting your issue resolved.

John from Boston

krnlhappy

You are definately not alone. It looks like everyone has screwed the pooch on this one.

My poor mother has a 2004 LS430 and has been waiting for a decent blue tooth phone since she got the car. We tried getting her a ericson, but the phone was just complete crap on crap service (cingular/at&t) so we returned it. So all excited my poor little mom runs out and buys the v710 on my say so.

Tonight I just spent 90 minutes pulling my hair out because I figured I had to be missing something. But i saw the EXACT same behaviour that you did. The only difference being that i thought i screwed something else up when I changed the ringer to a monophonic tune and the car no longer received any incoming calls (I was basically at the end of my patience at this point).

How verizon/motorola screwed up:

1) Greed: in verizon's greedy little scheme to make sure we pay the verizon tax for mp3 ringers and pictures, they disabled/omitted obex, the protocol that allows intelligent device interaction. As far as verizon seems to be concerned, the only BT accessories you could want are headsets.

2) They apparently didn't test this with the handfree systems from major auto manufacturers. After a couple minutes it's painfully clear that this combination has some major problems.



How Lexus screwed up:

1) No dedicated button to get to phone menu, having to select option->information just to get the the phone screen (quickdials while in motion, menu while stopped) is assinine. For a company that makes you accept a disclaimer to use the nav system and disallows entry even if there is a passenger in the passenger seat who wants to enter something this is just mind boggling.

2) Car's voice recognition system has zero functions for the phone, you can't even use the voice recongintion to get into the telephone menu! Again, just mind boggling how this didn't seem like a huge oversight when they designed this thing.

3) There is no way to connect to the phone without dialing a number, being able to just connect to the phone would allow you to use the phones built in voice dialing functionality as if you were using a headphone.


Overall I'd have to say I'm incredibly dissapointed. We've been hearing about BT for what, 5-6 years now? They finally start rolling out products and two premium labels (verizon is a premium label as far as i'm concerned compared to other carrier pricing) have completely screwed up the implementation. Worst part is that they're not even the leading edge prodcuts, they're 2nd or 3rd gen products. My father has a 2002 Mercedes S500 with the integrated timeport that he had moved from his 2000 S500, and it works. Not even works better, it simply works. Pull the lever, say "dial name" and give it the name and it dials it for you. No fuss, no muss, sure you're limited to the timeport and v60 in mercedes, but they work. Even more amazing when you think about it is the fact that there is such liability involved with these types of systems that you think both parties would have tested this and worked together. Realistically it takes two to tango and there are a lot of broken toes on the dance floor.

Personally I was a little bummed out, I was kind of wishing that my wifes 2002 GS430 had bluetooth but after seeing the lexus implementation it's no big loss.

Now if the question is whether or not I should have my mom return this phone. I feel so bad because I gave her a heads up like a month ago that this phone was coming out and she was all excited, I warned her that when I tried the ericson phone with the car that the experience was less than spectacular, didn't realize how bad it really could be though.

krnlhappy

I just realized that you blamed verizon for "unable to place call while vehicle in motion"

I didn't see this myself, lexus limits this ability, but I was able to flip open the V710 and dial a number and press send and the call went through and was picked up by the car.

DB S600

hey krnlhappy, sorry to hear of your problems too. only if we could motorola / verizon / lexus to do something about this. i took my car to the dealer about 2 weeks ago and still no word. additionally, verizon blames motorola and motorola blames lexus (which is bs... vzw definitely had a major hand in crippling / forcing motorola to cripple the v710's bt programming). check out this link, http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...wtopic=11995&, it is to another message board where i started a similar thread. there has been a lot of discussion on the topic (3 pages worth). all that i can say now is for every lexus / v710 owner to do their job and complain and report their difficulties to the responsible parties. hopefully, if they listen, we'll see a software update addressing these issues in a month or so. till then...

krnlhappy

Supposedly Motorola will be releasing an firmware upgrade by november. In the mean time i told my mom to go back to using her old phone just in case another phone comes out before then or if motorola doesn't release a upgrade. The shame of it is that it is the nicest phone offered on verizon but it simply doesn't work. I was going to get a couple of them and the aftermarket motorola BT handfree for my wif'es GS430.

Here are a couple threads from another forum, actually the first one is the thread that brought me here. Apparently it is the same across all toyota vehicles.

howard forums - V710 and your manufacturer car BT sytesm

V710 and Lexus LX470 Bluetooth connectivity?

pbm317

Motorola knows that the BT module in the V710 isn't working. It actually isn't a Motorola BT module in the phone at all.. it was an outsourced part. I know a lot of people who are working as fast as possible on the firmware upgrade right now.

DB S600

pbm317:

so are you saying that the v710 does not work with lexus bt systems because of a HARDWARE or a SOFTWARE issue with teh v710???

thanks for your help.

pbm317

i'm not an engineer... but I know that they're working to fix the BT connectivity problems people are having. I'll try to talk to more people and see the problem is in technical terms.. hahah

Traturn

Not all bluetooth phones are compatible with the '04 LS/LS

The list started at just three phones that were compatible. These phones are advertised to work, and there is no claim that other phones will work....

Nokia 6310i
Sony Ericsson T608 and T68i.

Just three phones that were origionaly compatible with the LS/LX at the point when the program was released by Lexus.

Some time in 2004 they expanded the list to include:
Motorolla V600
Nokia 3600, 3620,3650 & 6310i
Siemens S56
Sony Ericsson T608,T610, T616 and T68i.

The reason you're having problems with the phone hooking up is its not compatible. Just because a phone is bluetooth doesnt mean that the Lexus will accept it. Its silly really, Bluetooth was supposed to be a 'standard' but even with that standard, there are compatibility issues.

Problems compound as the BT technology advances. Already the Lexus list of compatible phones is outdated. The 'best of the best' BT phones dont integrate correctly. Lexus customers are forced to use Cheverolet-like Bluetooth phones, because the Lexus-like Bluetooth phones dont work in their Lexus. Its a shame really, it doesnt work as advertised. There is enough blame to be passed around to Lexus, Phone manufacturerers and the Bluetooth people.

Lexus says it works; it doesnt.
Bluetooth says it works; it doesnt.
Phone companies says it works; it doesnt.

Can you imagine the finger pointing?

-Trat