Sat Nav on 2024 NX350h not showing towns/villages

PeteC · July 15

I bought a 2024 NX 350h and on a recent trip down to the West Country (long drive) I noticed that the Sat Nav map does not show the names of village and/or towns you are passing. So, you have absolutely no idea where you are passing or where you are on the route!

I reported this to Lexus Customer Service (naively thinking it was a configuration setting), but they've responded to confirm that, no, the Sat Nav map does not show village/town names and, no, they don't think it's a fault and instead suggested that I use Google or apple Sat Nav instead!

Has anyone else complained about this and/or got any better response from Lexus about when they will fix it?

hintonwood · July 15

8 hours ago, PeteC said:

I bought a 2024 NX 350h and on a recent trip down to the West Country (long drive) I noticed that the Sat Nav map does not show the names of village and/or towns you are passing. So, you have absolutely no idea where you are passing or where you are on the route!

I reported this to Lexus Customer Service (naively thinking it was a configuration setting), but they've responded to confirm that, no, the Sat Nav map does not show village/town names and, no, they don't think it's a fault and instead suggested that I use Google or Apple Sat Nav instead!

Has anyone else complained about this and/or got any better response from Lexus about when they will fix it?

I have a 2022 NX 350h and have just driven to Dorset today and all the towns and villages adjacent to our position were on the map. Eg We were on the A357 and I could see Sturminster Newton was showing to my right as we were driving north…..

IGR · July 16

I tested this today and found that town & village names are displayed if you zoom out a bit. The default view shows the roads, etc for navigation and no town/village name but if you zoom out a bit, the names appear but then you can’t see the road detail for navigation!

PeteC · July 20

Ken, Ian, thanks for the responses.

I've just had another look at my Sat Nav and the map shows a few random points of interest (school, golf course, garage etc), but no town/village names on any usable level of map detail.

However, when I zoomed out to the point I was seeing most of Kent (and some of Surrey!) I finally get a few random town names showing (Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Cranbrook, Sevenoaks, Croydon etc). Useless at that level of zoom, but they are there.

I presume you get village/town names at more useful level of map granulation than that which would point to a configuration issue and/or fault with my map installation rather than a general Sat Nav deficiency in the NX.

Thanks, I'll take it up with the garage I bought it from.

IGR · July 20

I just had another play around and found that sometimes the place names are displayed whilst scrolling/zooming the map but when you stop, the system draws in the detailed road & POIs, etc and the place name disappears. Highly unusable in my view !

Commander 1 · July 25

Lets face a fact . All car Original equipment satnav systems are poor. None are up to date. Google is always the answer altho it must be connected by a cable ... in 2024 ! Why a sophisticated Japanese (once revered for its advanced technology) car manfr. Why cant Lexus simply install Google instead of a crappy Pansonic system unknown for its GPS, satellite capability, permanantly connected offering an excellent drivers experience .

In fact the electronic system is altogether horrible and barely useable. If i could replace it I would . there are superb after market units available cheap, but replacement of the standard piece of junk is impossible due to the fact it controls all functions eg door locking features ; another really annoying device that pax find very difficult to use. God knows what would happen in an accident,Everyone would be trapped inside

PeteC · July 30

I've tried the Lexus Sat Nav around where I live (East Kent) and it doesn't show crucial information like names of villages you are driving near/through and doesn't even display the name of large County towns like Ashford, Maidstone etc (just a large grey blob on the map with no name!).

I also tried it on a trip to Devon and got pretty much the same (no town/village names so no clue where you are along the route).

What it does display is random/largely useless information like the location of a local garage, the name of a school and a golf course.

It's pretty much like having a map book where someone has tippexed out all the place names as some sort of game of Guess Where You Are?

As an aside, my last few cars have been BMWs and a Saab, in all of which the Sat Nav worked just great and my wife has a Mercedes GLC again where the Sat Nav works as expected.

In summary, the Lexus NX Sat Nav is cr*p and the response from Lexus Customer Service (not displaying place names is not a fault with the Sat Nav because displaying place names is instead an 'unsupported feature') is shockingly bad from a supposed quality car manufacturer. Very poor indeed.

Suffolk John · Tuesday at 04:36 PM

Hi PeteC, I couldn't agree more. I've been astonished at the lack of village/town names on my satnav yet it shows stuff like school names which should be something you can add/remove. It's frustrating enough in the UK but on the Continent I've had to switch to using apple Car Play/Google Maps just so I can see where we are compared to the trusty road atlas.

Such a simple oversight by Lexus. Maybe the Japanese are into their road numbers as there's no shortage of these!