Sat Nav. Is It Good?

Goggy · July 29, 2015

What's the basic Sat Nav like? Not the Premium one, the basic one you buy for models below the Premier. I have read that it is not that easy to use. It's not the touch pad is it, it's a rotary knob?

rayaans · July 29, 2015

What's the basic Sat Nav like? Not the Premium one, the basic one you buy for models below the Premier. I have read that it is not that easy to use. It's not the touch pad is it, it's a rotary knob?

I think the actual maps are the same. However, premium nav comes with extra speakers, reversing camera and connected services.

Its a rotary knob, personally I find it harder to use than the touch pad (which is harder to use IMO compared to the joystick)

I dont think the basic sat nav gets the split screens either.

Goggy · August 31, 2015

Two friends of mine have both ordered news cars (not Lexus), neither of which have gone for the Sat Nav option. One uses TomTom and swears by it, the other uses Google Maps on his smart phone which he says works as well as any other Sat Nav he has used. Both feel the £600 and £950 sat Nav options are simply not worth the money. One said that within 5-6 years 'in car' Sat Nav's will be dead and gone as the smart phone improvements will make them redundant. I think he has a point.

rayaans · August 31, 2015

Two friends of mine have both ordered news cars (not Lexus), neither of which have gone for the Sat Nav option. One uses TomTom and swears by it, the other uses Google Maps on his smart phone which he says works as well as any other Sat Nav he has used. Both feel the £600 and £950 sat Nav options are simply not worth the money. One said that within 5-6 years 'in car' Sat Nav's will be dead and gone as the smart phone improvements will make them redundant. I think he has a point.

In car satnav will never be redundant. They'll just reduce the price

wh05apk · August 31, 2015

As "bad" as the lecustomer sat nav is, for most of my needs it is ok, it could do some things better, or have a flashier interface, but it always gets me where I want to go, the traffic function is particularly good, admittedly Google maps would work as well, but would be on a small screen, I would need to mount the phone somewhere (not easy in an is!)and end up with trailing wires which I hate, much prefer a built in system, although I agree the cost should be far less, the technology costs are minimal now.

wh05apk · August 31, 2015

Lecustomer? Should be lexus! Predictive text!

ColinBarber · August 31, 2015

The Nav system is good enough, but really it should be a £100 option, and maybe £300 for the premium version, not the excessive amount Lexus are charging, especially when they want £150 for each map update.

Even though I have the premium nav in my IS I use a Brodit phone holder for my Iphone 6, and use a flat cable which isn't too noticeable. I'm able to use different Nav applications and I'm able to control music from the phone rather than the hit and miss of the infotainment system. The bonus is my trips to/from work keep my phone charged up.

Goggy · January 28, 2016

One or two little niggles. I wish it was easy to turn off the sound. Sometimes my little navigator talks too much. And I don't mean my wife. Also, I wish she did not say 'slightly' left or right at the next roundabout, it is either left or right, not slightly.

DanD · February 11, 2016

If manufacturers ever get MirrorLink - or similar - to work properly, maybe built in satnav will indeed become redundant.

In my other car, I use an old Xperia Z as a satnav. I keep it in the car and use it just for that. I have downloaded offline maps onto it (Navmii), so don't need any kind of data plan, and just refresh the maps for free every 6 months or so. It is just as good as a built in satnav, shows POI and speed limits etc.

Wicksy · February 11, 2016

I feel that Lexus sat navs will do just as good a job as anything else but looks-wise are very dated compared to the competition.

ColinBarber · February 11, 2016

47 minutes ago, Wicksy said:

I feel that Lexus sat navs will do just as good a job as anything else but looks-wise are very dated compared to the competition.

and very expensive to keep up to date.

bluenose1940 · February 13, 2016

On 11/02/2016 at 8:07 PM, ColinBarber said:

and very expensive to keep up to date.

I think we should get a Lexus Owners petition going and try to force them to offer map updates at a more realistic price. I'm not techie minded but, when I'm out with my son in his car, he uses his phone and it seems pretty good to me and, it seems it is always up to date too.

Goggy · February 13, 2016

Sat Nav updates are a car industry cash cow, in fact Sat Nav's in general are. In the end I did go with Sat Nav, but I still don't think it is worth the money as my smart phone does it just as well, or better, at a fraction of the price. But I just decided to buy a car for nearly £40k without Sat Nav is daft, and I do like the bigger screen and no wires. I have to say it is not bad, but nothing outstanding and certainly not worth £1k.

DanD · March 1, 2016

SatNav is good to have when it comes to resale though...

Goggy · March 1, 2016

Yes agreed, most buyers want Sat Nav, so it would make it easier to sell.

Fatts · March 14, 2016

I am a bit late to this discussion but can anyone help with a guide how to set Premium SatNav to always default to the Navigation page. Currently my defaults to the music screen each time i swit h the car on. Am sure there must be a way to do this. Thanks

OldTrout · March 14, 2016

On 13 February 2016 at 0:06 PM, bluenose1940 said:

I think we should get a Lexus Owners petition going and try to force them to offer map updates at a more realistic price. I'm not techie minded but, when I'm out with my son in his car, he uses his phone and it seems pretty good to me and, it seems it is always up to date too.

Yes!

After my trials with a pirate DVD I wrote to Lexus and suggested that if they slip their update sets into four individual DVDs each at a quarter of the price, they would sell more and the pirates would be bypassed.

I did not even get the courtesy of a reply.

John

rayaans · March 14, 2016

2 hours ago, Fatts said:

I am a bit late to this discussion but can anyone help with a guide how to set Premium SatNav to always default to the Navigation page. Currently my defaults to the music screen each time i swit h the car on. Am sure there must be a way to do this. Thanks

Go to settings and then general. Just take a look at whether you have auto screen change on or off.

The car should default to the "Home" page which is a split screen with 2 or 3 pieces of information such as Nav, Music and fuel economy for example. I dont think you can make it default to the Nav page all the time though.

Fatts · March 16, 2016

Thanks, tried that but made no difference. Local Lexus garage have asked me to bring it in at the weekend hopefully will get a result.

Ian J. Parsley · March 28, 2016

I can get split screen on the 2016 CT Basic Nav.

What you can't do is have the screen half Nav, half something else.

Andyml · September 7, 2016

I have the "standard" navigation in my NX300 F Sport and, to be honest, can't get it to find either Richmond upon Thames or Munich...or Munchen for that matter...

An appointment with the dealer will resolve it no doubt but what a kerfuffle....