iga123

I've got one-week old 2010 FWD RX350 Granite/Black with Nav, comfort etc. options (MSRP $47144). Leased it for 36month/10K year for $492 with tax monthly from Lexus of Pleasanton, CA. This is my first Lexus/Toyota car.

Before making decision to buy I had all the pricing and reliability issues carefully researched (or so I thought). What I never found out while reading Lexus forums (my bad, I guess) is that one CAN NOT ACCESS PHONE CONTACT ENTRIES OR LOOK UP AND SET NAVIGATION POINTS WHILE DRIVING!




It boggles my mind. While moving, I can open the phone screen but Contacts, Redial and manual keypad are all grayed out. I can still open Speed Dial and Call History, scroll the list and dial this way, but no Contacts list, which requires the same scrolling and clicking as Call History.

OK, I thought, I should be able to use hands-free with voice recognition to get to my Contacts this way, but no, EVEN IN HANDS-FREE MODE NO CONTACTS AVAILABLE WHILE DRIVING.

Last thing to mention is that a passenger can't use Contacts or look up navigation points either. The system is not smart enough to recognize that passenger is sitting there and could navigate it safely.

Again, it completely boggles me. You guys discussing here $350 "Prestigious Society" Nav override box that with a press of add-on button tricks Toyota's Nav system into thinking temporarily that cat is not moving. This messes up GPS tracking for a while, of course, just to override the stupid Nav restrictions.

I think everybody should petition Toyota to get these restrictions removed, maybe with some disclaimers signed, on individual basis, whatever...

This is just so lame!

George

jeffmust

Uh...not to be a jerk...but...no test drive?

iga123

Did the rest drive for sure. Loved the car and even checked that my iPhone connected to it over BT and could download all the contacts and play the music (in the parking lot). Never occurred to me to test phone functions while driving, took it for granted.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

The voice recognition works great for phone use.NAV,not so much.

iga123

You're right, I spoke too soon. Voice recognition is _supposed_ to work and dial the numbers for me while I'm driving. Except every time I say "Phone" it responds with "lower the temperature" (I'm not kidding you here). I say "Call Home" and invariably and cheerfully it starts calling my voicemail.

BCRCornet

Try replacing the voice tag for your home phone number from "Home" to a two-syllable phrase, e.g., "Home, please".) Does that make any difference?

MEP7557

She seems to like the word 'dial' better than 'call' and 'phone'. My experience anyway.

Fogcutter

Same thing happened to me. Maybe overstimulation during the test drives? Anyway the phone at least has worked out -- the recent calls cover 80% of my calls and I can access them on the roll. Recent addresses work too on NAV.

Prior discussions of this problem seem to say that all of the car makers are going this way. Hopefully they will stop.

Shouldn't have to work around things like this.

Anyway, enjoy the vehicle. Lots there to like.

OneOfOne

not trying to start trouble as I am long range researching the rx for when my current lease ends but the voice dial on my present car is just as lame as the lexus. it appears that my next move is to acura because despite the stupid comments in other threads about 'going down' to the mdx the mdx and all acuras has great voice features. everytime I think of going back to lexus something like this makes me pause. I love lexus luxury but some of the missing features are mind boggling.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I find using three words works better.
When I call the wife I go with Call Cindy Mobile or Call Home Mobile.
The word Mobile works somehow.