zasy99

Just ordered mine from the pioneer website a few hours ago :D

With the Navtraffic you'll have good and bad experiences of it helping or not.

3 days ago on my way home on the turnpike in florida it listed 2 accidents but still good traffic flow (green), well, It took me an hour to go 3 miles, stop and go all the way and I couldn't get off, no exits.

At other times it does its job, like I said, not 100% but its cool and only costs an extra $3 or 4$ on top of your XM radio subscription.

Great to hear you got your new Z1 working and bypassed, sorry to hear your first one got stolen.

You can hook up both the XM and Sirius add-on units and subscribe to both networks, with XM you would need the additional NavTraffic subscription.

The Sirius website has a list of Sirius NavTraffic compatible equipment, that list is very short right now, one unit only and that's for Alpine head units.

Taken from their website:

Q. Which navigation systems are capable of using SIRIUS Traffic data?
A. The first available SIRIUS Audio plus Traffic Tuner is the SIRIUS SIR-ALP10T. Compatible with Alpine SAT-READY headunits and the Alpine NVE-N872A Traffic Ready Navigation system, the SIR-ALP10T is distributed through Directed Electronics. The Alpine products are available through Authorized Alpine Dealers nationwide.

I have both my gps and xm antennas on my dash pushed as far front as they go up against the glass, one on the driver side, one on the passenger side, no metal underneath, just the dash material.
I always have between 6 and 8 satellites for gps and 'strong' signal for xm.

I say that as the metal looks ugly, sure you will probably get better reception but do you need it, in my case for example I am fine without it.

I'd suggest trying without first if you don't like the way it looks with the metal, if your reception is poor then put the metal underneath too.
Either way good luck with your install and enjoy the system :wink:

Well, I just got my Z1 install done on the weekend and to my dismay my entire neighborhood doesn't exist according to the maps in the Z1.

Very annoying when trying to set the 'home' position, I have to set my home now as a point on a main road about 1/2 a mile away from my real house.

We just today picked up a new 2006 Nissan Murano with navigation and it shows all the streets, even the portable GPS from Garmin we got about 3 months ago has all our neighborhood streets in it.

We have permanent paved roads here and the community has existed since 2001.
What has me wondering, if my neighborhood isn't on here what else is missing?

I am actually going to call Pioneer on this one, kind of unacceptable if you ask me for a 'top of the line' navigation system.

I got my install done locally and also purchased the Z1 from the installer.

I like to give local shops business, helps keep the community alive but on the other hand I do need to watch out for myself in regards to costs.
So what I did was approach my local installer and let them know what I could get the Z1 for online. I straight up told them that I know its without warranty etc and that if they could offer a price that was not too much higher I would get it from them, simply to give them business, even if they did not sell it for the regular $2000+ like they normally would they could get a sale, make a small profit and make somebody like me happy.

Well, they gave it to me for $1700.00 + tax. Its a great deal especially because they were familiar with installing the unit and the Ducati Flasher already and even had a bunch of the flashers in stock which they gave to me for cost. I did get a bunch of other things done at the shop and also got other units such as the iPod, XM and Bluetooth adapter installed, also very good prices.

My point with saying all this is that sometimes it does pay to go to your local installer, talk with them, try and work something out, let them know what you can get it for, offer to pay a bit more for peace of mind that if something goes wrong you can go back to them, who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Well, my anxious wait was over, shop has had the car the entire week, put in the Z1, blutooth, xm and ipod modules, complete dynamat extreme of the vehicle, infinity interior speakers and kickers subs in a custom enclosure.

They know the flasher and installed that without a problem, I gave them a diagram of the vss wire so that went smooth, illumination wire was hooked up correctly as well. Both gps antennas are on the dash and get great reception, for xm always strong and 7 satellites for nav.
It all turned out great.

Best of all, the unit installed was manufactured in April so flasher does its job perfectly.

The navigation is spot on accurate and the speed indicator is within 1.5mph of my speedometer reading.

Now only if the Z1 could read MP3 DVD's, allow direct copying of mp3's to the hard drive and support weather with a full map layout the world would be a better place, well, my car at least.

Oh yeah, where I live there are no streets according to the Z1, my community was built in 2002 so what gives, are the roads in the Z1 that out of date? I say this as we also have a Garmin 2730 which we got a few months back and it shows everything.

OMG, you guys have me so worried right now.

My car has been at the installers since Monday as I am having a number of things done, I get it back tomorrow and the whole reason I went with the Z1 was because I thought you could unlock it, with the locks in the unit is paralyzed.

I'll be up all night now worrying if my unit can be unlocked or not :roll:

[quote name="grcplaya"]http://www.thecamerapros.com/prodetails.asp?prodid=31772[/quote]

Just checked that link.
Now I gotta say that beats the lowest price I have seen it anywhere by at least $100.00.
Funny thing is, the rest of the accessories are overpriced even when compared to Pioneers own MSRP listing.
Anyway, you can bet there is no factory warranty behind that.

Pretty much the only online store I know of that is a factory authorized dealer for Pioneer is crutchfield.com.
Large chain stores like Circuit City and Best Buy are as well, check pioneerusa.com for more listings.

I was debating a long long time whether to risk it and get a cheap unit from an online store for around $1500. A recent seriously bad experience with buying a large HDTV online however swayed me into paying a bit more to get it from a local reputable installer who if even not an authorized dealer will exchange the unit himself if it is faulty.

The trouble with those online store is, if you read their policies they pretty much have you beat, they usually always impose a restocking fee, sometimes even if the unit is damaged, they have very strange rules like you must sign for a package even if there is shipping damage (be ready for a 1 - 2 month battle to get that sorted) and some won't let you send a unit back if you opened the box (hello, how are you supposed to try out the unit to see if it works without opening the box).

Its a trade-off, pay more, peace of mind, pay less and gamble.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Great video there, I have forwarded it to a couple of friends in Europe.

My car is at the shop as I type this and is having a Z1 and other goodies installed.

When the thing about MP3 playback was mentioned in the clip a CD was being put into the unit.
I would expect its the same as the Z1 here in the US, Mp3 playback from CD's, they didn't say from what media.

The picture ID for incoming calls looks cool but how often would you use it, you need pictures of everyone and then you'd need to upload them.
I would not even look at the unit for incoming calls, just hit accept call by default.

The Zip code thing looks neat, doesn't the U.S. Z1 have that (haven't tried it yet as I am having mine installed now), it would make sense as pretty much everything here is zip code dependant, would be strange if the unit doeesn't support that.

Satellite radio, I lived in Europe (Germany) for quite a number of years and have driven with people in luxury cars with gps navigation units and I don't remember any satellite radio services.

Bluetooth, I like how everyone and every advertisement mentions the great bluetooth features, what they don't tell you up front is that you need to fork out another $120 plus installation for it.

Can't wait to get my car back :D