sherrod
Getting familiar with the group...
I posted this in another thread in response to a question, but it seems important enough to also use to start a new thread.
I have a 2010 with Tech package (DIS nav control). Navigation is important to me, and I was very concerned when I read all of the negative comments on this forum. I have used the nav system many times in the two months I've owned my car. It works much better than I expected. In fact, I prefer it over the Infiniti navigation system that was in my QX4 SUV.
Here are some plusses and minuses:
--- Plusses ---
* The navigation screen is large and well positioned for easy viewing. It's the best looking navigation screen display I've seen.
* It responds well to voice commands. The process of programming an address via voice is tedious, and I rarely use it. But it is nice to be able to press one button and say "Navigate home" or "Navigate work". You can also say "Navigate address book {name in address book}".
* It has a nice split-screen display that shows on the right a detailed view of an upcoming intersection while displaying the normal route overview on the left. The detailed intersection views always seem to be correct, even for unusual intersections, road splits, etc.
* When cruising without approaching a turn, it displays a list of upcoming turns and roads on the right with distances between each turn.
* The voice guidance it provides is easy to understand. It gives a pleasant "ding" sound when it is time to turn.
* You can block out areas or portions of streets that you never want it to use.
* You can say "Detour one mile", and it will quickly compute an alternate route around a problem.
* The Points of Interest facility works fairly well and quickly.
* You can program the navigation system while the car is moving. Most factory navigation systems won't allow this.
--- Negatives ---
* Programming an address is strange and sometimes very annoying. You enter the street number followed by the street name without providing a city name before the street name. I believe the reason they did this was because it's sometimes hard to know which city a street is in when several cities run together. For example, around here a street could be in Nashville, Brentwood, or Franklin within +/- a mile. Many streets cross all three towns, and the town boundaries are irregular. When the street name is unusual, this system works fine. But when you are going to Main Street it gives a list of every Main Street in the state, and you have to check them one-by-one to figure out which one is the right one. They need to do something about this.
* The voice guidance does not pronounce street names. It just says "Right turn ahead".
* Using the wheel to select numbers and letters works better than I expected, but it certainly isn't as convenient as touching a screen (my old QX4 had touch screen navigation). On the other hand, I always had fingerprints on my old navigation screen. It didn't happen to me, but I know others who have worn out sections of a touch screen that are used over and over (such as "Enter").
* The XM traffic information is not used by the navigation system to optimize route selection. Most other recent navigation systems use traffic information for routing. In fact, there seems to be very little benefit to having XM traffic.
* You have to take the car to the dealer to have map updates installed. However, because the navigation data is on a hard drive, it is faster finding points of interest than DVD based systems.
* There have been many complaints by owners of the 2009 model about no map updates since 2008. The 2010 model currently comes with maps from Sep. 2009.
* The voice command "Cancel navigation" suspends the current route; it doesn't completely cancel it. So it is still there in a suspended state until you go into the navigation screen and terminate it. You can say "Resume navigation" to resume a suspended route. They should have separate "Suspend" and "Cancel" commands.
* There are no voice commands to say something like "Navigate Mexican Resturants" or other references to points of interest.
* I have found several entries in the Points of Interest that were no longer in business. The POI database seems to be several years old even on the 2010 model.
I have a 2010 with Tech package (DIS nav control). Navigation is important to me, and I was very concerned when I read all of the negative comments on this forum. I have used the nav system many times in the two months I've owned my car. It works much better than I expected. In fact, I prefer it over the Infiniti navigation system that was in my QX4 SUV.
Here are some plusses and minuses:
--- Plusses ---
* The navigation screen is large and well positioned for easy viewing. It's the best looking navigation screen display I've seen.
* It responds well to voice commands. The process of programming an address via voice is tedious, and I rarely use it. But it is nice to be able to press one button and say "Navigate home" or "Navigate work". You can also say "Navigate address book {name in address book}".
* It has a nice split-screen display that shows on the right a detailed view of an upcoming intersection while displaying the normal route overview on the left. The detailed intersection views always seem to be correct, even for unusual intersections, road splits, etc.
* When cruising without approaching a turn, it displays a list of upcoming turns and roads on the right with distances between each turn.
* The voice guidance it provides is easy to understand. It gives a pleasant "ding" sound when it is time to turn.
* You can block out areas or portions of streets that you never want it to use.
* You can say "Detour one mile", and it will quickly compute an alternate route around a problem.
* The Points of Interest facility works fairly well and quickly.
* You can program the navigation system while the car is moving. Most factory navigation systems won't allow this.
--- Negatives ---
* Programming an address is strange and sometimes very annoying. You enter the street number followed by the street name without providing a city name before the street name. I believe the reason they did this was because it's sometimes hard to know which city a street is in when several cities run together. For example, around here a street could be in Nashville, Brentwood, or Franklin within +/- a mile. Many streets cross all three towns, and the town boundaries are irregular. When the street name is unusual, this system works fine. But when you are going to Main Street it gives a list of every Main Street in the state, and you have to check them one-by-one to figure out which one is the right one. They need to do something about this.
* The voice guidance does not pronounce street names. It just says "Right turn ahead".
* Using the wheel to select numbers and letters works better than I expected, but it certainly isn't as convenient as touching a screen (my old QX4 had touch screen navigation). On the other hand, I always had fingerprints on my old navigation screen. It didn't happen to me, but I know others who have worn out sections of a touch screen that are used over and over (such as "Enter").
* The XM traffic information is not used by the navigation system to optimize route selection. Most other recent navigation systems use traffic information for routing. In fact, there seems to be very little benefit to having XM traffic.
* You have to take the car to the dealer to have map updates installed. However, because the navigation data is on a hard drive, it is faster finding points of interest than DVD based systems.
* There have been many complaints by owners of the 2009 model about no map updates since 2008. The 2010 model currently comes with maps from Sep. 2009.
* The voice command "Cancel navigation" suspends the current route; it doesn't completely cancel it. So it is still there in a suspended state until you go into the navigation screen and terminate it. You can say "Resume navigation" to resume a suspended route. They should have separate "Suspend" and "Cancel" commands.
* There are no voice commands to say something like "Navigate Mexican Resturants" or other references to points of interest.
* I have found several entries in the Points of Interest that were no longer in business. The POI database seems to be several years old even on the 2010 model.
