jeffmaggie

2010 RX350, Premium and Comfort Package. No DVD Entertainment

OK, I'm not sure if this should be a new post or not, but I didn't want it to get lost under my original post of getting feedback on the navigation override. I purchased the override from Prestigious Society www.prestigioussociety.com after several emails to Mike about my concerns. I received the kit about 4 days after payment and installed it yesterday with help of a friend who is pretty good at this kind of stuff in his spare time. I took the family to luch as payment to him.

The instructions are spot on, everything you need to ask is right there for you. It was a breeeze to do. For a very expensive car, the whole thing is made out of plastic on the inside, but that's another post.

One note to anyone doing this: When you get to the part of connecting the harness to the back of the Nav unit, there are 2 harnesses on the unit. The top harness won't fit with on the override. You'll have to connect it to the 2nd harness beneath the top harness in the back. Instructions only mention one harness and it appears to be the top harness and that one is the wrong one. You'll have to undo it to get to the second one, but it's easy.

The total installation time including driving around and testing it before securing all the panels took 3 hours. The next time around, even I would be albe to do it in about an hour. It's the "see one-do one" approach.

It helps to have small hands and a limber back as you will need to invert to get the screws out of the radio.


How it works: There are 2 modes:
1) Auto Mode: It's default state every time you start the vehicle is just as the factory installed it. All grayed options remain gray when in motion. There's a switch that you can place anywhere. I have mine next to the steering wheel. Pressing the Navi button on the switch once while stopped or in motion gives you access to everything immediately. This access lasts for 5 minutes...enough for you to input your information or make a call. At the end of the 5 minutes, the icons will gray out and go back to factory defaults. You can repeat this as many times as you wish. When using the override mode so all icons are available, you will not be able to track your movement on the Nav map screen. Don't get bummed at this. Remember that the reason you're pressing the button in the first place is to do something that isn't on the map in the first place. Pressing the switch before the 5 minutes is up will gray out the buttons and also allow you to resume real time tracking on the map.

2) Manual Mode: Manual mode allows functionality to all the grayed out features.

The price was $299. I thought it was a great deal and would reccommend it to anyone even remotely annoyed with the default limitations. I've driven the RX for about 4 hours yesterday and 4 hours today and love it. It's allready made my life much better and I feel like I've just bought another new Lexus.