- You can try and get by with using a phone for navigation, but in the end you'll be frustrated by it, at least I was.

- Garmin has a good rep no doubt, but they look like **** stuck up on the dash. Do you really want a $100 suction cup 4-5 inch screen on your Lexus?

- Aftermarket nav is the way to go if you didn't get the OEM nav. Now here is the tricky part, to the best of my knowledge you'd be the first to put in an aftermarket nav in a 3RX. Honestly you'd be looking at a pretty big job just with the dash bezel and situating the unit properly, not to mention interfacing with the car and not losing functionality or setting off some type of alarm/throwing codes type thing.

Where there's a will, there's a way. I just don't know it

 

No practical way to retrofit a factory NAV unit. Current NAV in the RX has some good features that the add on units don't have.

1. Push the Lexus Enform button and tell the person on the other end where you want to go (place or address) and they will download it to your NAV unit. Wife uses it all the time.
2. The eDestination feature is also nice, log onto Lexus Drivers site and search and then download destinations from your laptop to your NAV unit wirelessly. We travel a lot so I'll spend some time in the evening figuring out where we are going the next day and when I get in the RX in the morning a couple of clicks will download it.
3. Easy way to track up to ten stocks; handy to check how the portfolio is doing during the day. Bad day = Sonic, Good day = Outback
4. If you have the optional Heads Up Display (great feature) the turn by turn data shows up on the windshield display. Handy if you are in an urban area.
5. Plus the integrated unit just looks better.

 

There is a company called Fly Audio that alot of people from the IS forum uses. You could find their threads with over 1000 messages regarding how this aftermarket nav works and looks good on their cars. The only problem with the RX is that it is a touch screen, but you could buy enough options to compensate what you don't have. You are probably looking at least $2-3000 to get this product. Below is the link:

http://www.flyaudio.net/product_id.asp?id=227&xid=3

 

Luckily companies like Cartoys do that for a living!!!

 

I wonder how many 3RX's have had aftermarket nav units installed in them by any professional installers. I have yet to hear of one. I definitely wouldn't want my RX to be the guinea pig.

I can also imagine what the costs would be for doing a fully integrated install on one of our cars, $500? $700?

 

I hear what you're saying there. I don't think you'd do it to save money.

But consider this thought. I paid $2465 for my Lexus Nav system, plus $349 for a Prestigious Society Nav Override, plus $195 to have the Override installed. That's a total of $3009. In my opinion, this resulted in an "adequate" nav system that manages to pi$$ me off atleast once a month.

On the other hand, a Kenwood DNX9960 (which includes a Garmin-based GPS) costs roughly $1200 plus (using your guess) $700 to install. That over $1000 savings. Of course, you'd probably eat that up with speaker upgrades, etc.

And don't get me started on the cost of map updates. Lexus charges you $200 a year plus installation. Garmin charges you $120 for Lifetime updates.

If you're worried about the teenagers doing installs at Cartoys or Best Buy, I used a high end installer (Benchmark Motoring) to install my nav overide. They charge $62.50/hour for installation and did a seemless job.

 

I'm not saying the OP shouldn't do it, or even that it wouldn't be cool, but rather they should be aware of the unique obstacles the 3RX will pose.

• Installing the unit in the dash rather than the setback section near the windshield would be complicated. There are climate controls there, and I'm not sure if the stock radio unit is even located there or if it is just a faceplate with controls (if not, then it is a single din which means they'd need to do a flip up unit that would block the vents if you didn't want to mess with the climate control - not very classy in a new Lexus IMO). You'd then need a new bezel too. That'll have to be custom done.
  
• As several have mentioned the setback section is too far off to use as a touchscreen unless you're Shaq, which means you'll either have to lean way in or install some type of mouse. Only way I see this is possible is if you do a carpc instead of aftermarket nav.
  
• Outlining the costs that I can think of off the top of my head:
  - Running new power wiring (unless you tap into the power source for the non-nav info screen)
  - Interfacing the climate control info to come up on the new unit - That's gonna be tough
  - Interfacing with the steering wheel controls
  - Fabricating a wire harness for the audio or running new audio wiring which will be even more expensive
  - Running the backup cam

These RX's aren't going to be nearly as easy to work on as other cars. My Cadillac took me a weekend to complete because I had to run a bundle of wires to the trunk to bypass the radio tuner - yes the radio was actually located in the trunk, the headunit in the dash was just the controls basically. If the RX is as complicated or more so than that then you can expect a complicated, time consuming and expensive install, especially if you want it done neatly.

 

Hi Guys,
I am new in this forum. I recently bought an RX-350 year 2011 with Navi on it. However, after I bought this car I noticed that I can not change anything on Navi system while I am driving. I did some research, and I know that there is a way to cut a wire (permanently or temporary with a switch) to disable this function. Can anybody help me for the instruction please? Thanks.

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I understand the consequent, but still I would like to know how I can do that. I may be able to play around that without cutting the wire and change it back to original shape whenever I want. However, I need to know what wire and where I should find that wire.

 

By the way, how can I create a new message, not under somebody's else post? I cannot find anywhere to give me this option. Thanks for help.