RX navigation sys
#16
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Sacramento, CA
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An average guy knows that factory goods are always inferior when comparied to after market products. Thats why I got a gs300 with out the NAVaid system and got a Kenwood Excelon DVD,TV,CD,Navaid with Touch screen GUI. You get voice guidence and great popup windows down to the last foot of travel. It tells you where atms are gas stations, AppleBees and a whole libiary of POI. Granted I did pay for 4k for it. But I agree that the lexus Navaids does leave you wanting.
Last edited by GS300_BORICUA; 10-03-01 at 09:20 AM.
#17
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Kenwood system is excellent, however
investigate who the manufaturer of your 4K kenwood branded system is...and then investigate who the manufaturer of the OEM system is. They are the same.
#18
Pole Position
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Manufacturers might be the same but when the OEM goes in to negotiate a quanity discount that negotiation procedure oftentimes results in an inferior product. Maybe in this case, the middleman, DENSO, got a better price by agreeing to provide their our system programming.
#21
Pole Position
you're right.....depending on what type of DVD unit....
Originally posted by wwest
The basis of my first complaint is lack of map coverage due to DVD space limitations. I would prefer to have just my region on a single DVD with full coverage. All too often I can go to Mapquest and route successfully when the system can't. I would accept, gladly, the need to insert a different DVD, this one, if I were going to travel outside my region.
Obviously the major complaint is lack of a warning at thebeginning of the trip.
The basis of my first complaint is lack of map coverage due to DVD space limitations. I would prefer to have just my region on a single DVD with full coverage. All too often I can go to Mapquest and route successfully when the system can't. I would accept, gladly, the need to insert a different DVD, this one, if I were going to travel outside my region.
Obviously the major complaint is lack of a warning at thebeginning of the trip.
#22
Pole Position
You're right for the most part.......
Originally posted by GS300_BORICUA
An average guy knows that factory goods are always inferior when comparied to after market products. Thats why I got a gs300 with out the NAVaid system and got a Kenwood Excelon DVD,TV,CD,Navaid with Touch screen GUI. You get voice guidence and great popup windows down to the last foot of travel. It tells you where atms are gas stations, AppleBees and a whole libiary of POI. Granted I did pay for 4k for it. But I agree that the lexus Navaids does leave you wanting.
An average guy knows that factory goods are always inferior when comparied to after market products. Thats why I got a gs300 with out the NAVaid system and got a Kenwood Excelon DVD,TV,CD,Navaid with Touch screen GUI. You get voice guidence and great popup windows down to the last foot of travel. It tells you where atms are gas stations, AppleBees and a whole libiary of POI. Granted I did pay for 4k for it. But I agree that the lexus Navaids does leave you wanting.
#23
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Location: Missouri
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Hopefully I won't get dragged down into the depths of some of the recent nasty posts, here, but I can tell you that after getting a lot of run-around from Lexus USA, my dealer and other dealers around the country, I have finally received word that Lexus IS planning a DVD update for Devember of this year. At that time I was told to call my dealer for a part number (that probably won't work, though!).
I'm hoping the POI database is updated and also that more map data is included. I have no word on what the updates are, however. There have been major strides in recent months in terms of miles mapped for display (check out www.navtech.com for one such announcement). This has been my major complaint; the database for touting seems more complete than the one for display so one often is routed into areas with no maps (even in a city with newer roads/subdivisions).
My $0.02 worth.
Dave
I'm hoping the POI database is updated and also that more map data is included. I have no word on what the updates are, however. There have been major strides in recent months in terms of miles mapped for display (check out www.navtech.com for one such announcement). This has been my major complaint; the database for touting seems more complete than the one for display so one often is routed into areas with no maps (even in a city with newer roads/subdivisions).
My $0.02 worth.
Dave
#24
Out of Warranty
'00 Nav System
Because my RX is a 2000 model sans nav, I have run DeLorme’s Street Atlas 7 and 8 - as well as their AAA Map’n’Go Ver. 5 and 6 - from an onboard laptop for nearly 18 months with great success. These products have proven excellent, particularly for exploring 2-lane America.
Installed from one CD to the HD, Atlas intermittently pulls map data from a second CD that covers the entire US in incredible detail. Location database is good, if a little limited, however location accuracy is quite good. City street detail is quite complete, even in VERY small towns. Large cities are equally well detailed, and in the far backwoods of Wyoming I found that practically any drivable road was thoroughly mapped. Even dirt roads in state and national parks were accurately charted. Routing is reasonably good, considering that the system has no local knowledge of traffic patterns. Voice directions are occasionally confused, but they are easily silenced.
The signal from the Earthmate GPS antenna conveniently placed to look up through the moonroof is partially attenuated by the metallic UV coat on the window. This is not a problem in rural areas, but in cities where spurious RF seems to interfere with acquiring and maintaining satellite signals, frequent loss of tracking may result - just when you need it most. Instructions indicate preferred placement of antenna is on dash, but finding a secure location to minimize bright yellow case’s reflection in the windshield is a real challenge.
The DeLorme AAA product is also GPS-capable, but is best used as a trip planner. Its detailed database of motels, restaurants, even stores along the route is excellent, but precise location should be taken with a grain of salt. Errors in placement of facilities are generally less than 1/4 mile, but can result in considerable eyeball time on city streets. Recommend you transfer addresses to Streets application and navigate from there. Because all software, including maps in Map'n'Go is on a single CD, it includes local detail only in major cities and minimal information on intersecting or alternate state and county roads enroute. I suspect this is similar to the data delivered on the newer OEM navs.
Memo to Lexus:
1. Here's your product target. You CAN put an incredible amount of map data on a CD, the DVD version should perform considerably better than these posts seem to indicate.
2. How about a floppy drive, or at least a port so we can plan trips on our home computer, then dump route directions to the nav? Would allow much more detailed selection of route (fast, short, or scenic), full planning for fuel stops (exit services) and even location of POIs with a larger screen and a better GUI – without all the pre-trip fiddling. Or would this require too much cooperation among software developers?
Looking forward to my ’03!
Installed from one CD to the HD, Atlas intermittently pulls map data from a second CD that covers the entire US in incredible detail. Location database is good, if a little limited, however location accuracy is quite good. City street detail is quite complete, even in VERY small towns. Large cities are equally well detailed, and in the far backwoods of Wyoming I found that practically any drivable road was thoroughly mapped. Even dirt roads in state and national parks were accurately charted. Routing is reasonably good, considering that the system has no local knowledge of traffic patterns. Voice directions are occasionally confused, but they are easily silenced.
The signal from the Earthmate GPS antenna conveniently placed to look up through the moonroof is partially attenuated by the metallic UV coat on the window. This is not a problem in rural areas, but in cities where spurious RF seems to interfere with acquiring and maintaining satellite signals, frequent loss of tracking may result - just when you need it most. Instructions indicate preferred placement of antenna is on dash, but finding a secure location to minimize bright yellow case’s reflection in the windshield is a real challenge.
The DeLorme AAA product is also GPS-capable, but is best used as a trip planner. Its detailed database of motels, restaurants, even stores along the route is excellent, but precise location should be taken with a grain of salt. Errors in placement of facilities are generally less than 1/4 mile, but can result in considerable eyeball time on city streets. Recommend you transfer addresses to Streets application and navigate from there. Because all software, including maps in Map'n'Go is on a single CD, it includes local detail only in major cities and minimal information on intersecting or alternate state and county roads enroute. I suspect this is similar to the data delivered on the newer OEM navs.
Memo to Lexus:
1. Here's your product target. You CAN put an incredible amount of map data on a CD, the DVD version should perform considerably better than these posts seem to indicate.
2. How about a floppy drive, or at least a port so we can plan trips on our home computer, then dump route directions to the nav? Would allow much more detailed selection of route (fast, short, or scenic), full planning for fuel stops (exit services) and even location of POIs with a larger screen and a better GUI – without all the pre-trip fiddling. Or would this require too much cooperation among software developers?
Looking forward to my ’03!
Last edited by Lil4X; 10-05-01 at 10:01 AM.
#25
Pole Position
I agree with you......
Originally posted by dzar
Hopefully I won't get dragged down into the depths of some of the recent nasty posts, here, but I can tell you that after getting a lot of run-around from Lexus USA, my dealer and other dealers around the country, I have finally received word that Lexus IS planning a DVD update for Devember of this year. At that time I was told to call my dealer for a part number (that probably won't work, though!).
I'm hoping the POI database is updated and also that more map data is included. I have no word on what the updates are, however. There have been major strides in recent months in terms of miles mapped for display (check out www.navtech.com for one such announcement). This has been my major complaint; the database for touting seems more complete than the one for display so one often is routed into areas with no maps (even in a city with newer roads/subdivisions).
My $0.02 worth.
Dave
Hopefully I won't get dragged down into the depths of some of the recent nasty posts, here, but I can tell you that after getting a lot of run-around from Lexus USA, my dealer and other dealers around the country, I have finally received word that Lexus IS planning a DVD update for Devember of this year. At that time I was told to call my dealer for a part number (that probably won't work, though!).
I'm hoping the POI database is updated and also that more map data is included. I have no word on what the updates are, however. There have been major strides in recent months in terms of miles mapped for display (check out www.navtech.com for one such announcement). This has been my major complaint; the database for touting seems more complete than the one for display so one often is routed into areas with no maps (even in a city with newer roads/subdivisions).
My $0.02 worth.
Dave
Last edited by vicpai; 10-05-01 at 07:26 PM.
#26
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Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Missouri
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Yep, the others (Alpine/Acura) are known to have good POI databases. That's one thing I hope will be improved. I, too, was told July/August. I was also told "never" and I have been told just about everything in between. I got this latest from Lexus Corporate after I asked for a "real" answer and "don't answer until you know." Frankly, they probably still don't know...
There should be updates at least once a year and on a schedule. They should also be available off the Lexus web site (like Acura does) for a *reasonable* fee (not $500) and should also be user-installable (my three-month-old system has a database from early 2000 in it). I will not pay $100 for the dolts at Lexus to put a DVD in a drive. They probably mounted it such that one has to take the trunk apart, though... also probably need a special tool to open the DVD :-)
Oh well... we'll probably have this conversation, again, in December.
Dave
There should be updates at least once a year and on a schedule. They should also be available off the Lexus web site (like Acura does) for a *reasonable* fee (not $500) and should also be user-installable (my three-month-old system has a database from early 2000 in it). I will not pay $100 for the dolts at Lexus to put a DVD in a drive. They probably mounted it such that one has to take the trunk apart, though... also probably need a special tool to open the DVD :-)
Oh well... we'll probably have this conversation, again, in December.
Dave
#27
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: New Jersey
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i got my lexus without the navi..now the question...which aftermarket product do i go for?? here are the options :
1. Delorme StreetAtlas 2003/2004 with Earthmate
2. Deluo with Routis Navigation software.
Both will work with my laptop and are under $200/-(cheapest I could find )
Any input would be appreciated!
I used to have X5 and one thing I can say for sure is that its navigation sucked big time!!!!
Thanks!
1. Delorme StreetAtlas 2003/2004 with Earthmate
2. Deluo with Routis Navigation software.
Both will work with my laptop and are under $200/-(cheapest I could find )
Any input would be appreciated!
I used to have X5 and one thing I can say for sure is that its navigation sucked big time!!!!
Thanks!