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I love this unit, BUT the lack of streets is KILLING it!


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you're unfamiliar with a part of town and a friend calls to tells you to meet them somewhere but doesn't have an exact address ("Go about a mile down 1st Avenue and turn right on Olive street..."). If I don't know where Olive street is I'll have to look out the window at every upcoming street sign to know when to turn. Not the best option, especially in traffic or at night in poorly lit areas.

 

The work around here would be to plot a route to the street of interest.

 

I've only had mine installed for a couple days, but I've also noticed that the maps seem grossly out of date. Even though the unit is brand new and the installer checked for all firmware & software updates, the unit can't find my address and none of the roads in my entire neighborhood are displayed. The newest roads in the area are all at least 4 years old, but the map shows no streets for blocks in any direction around my house. My three year old Kenwood displayed everything accurately.

 

I saw the same issue with both my 8120 and 9140. I have said it before but no unit is perfect. Some are better then others but non of them are perfect.

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I love this new unit, so this is not a Pioneer vs. Kenwood pissing match. But I have to agree that not having cross streets labeled seems like a huge oversight. My previous unit was a Kenwood DNX8120, and while everything about the Pioneer unit "looks" nicer and more modern, the Garmin maps in the older Kenwood were more detailed and the displayed info was much more helpful (especially while driving without route guidance).

 

Not having the next cross street name displayed doesn't seem like a big deal if you've never used it, but it can be a very helpful feature.

 

Here's an example: you're unfamiliar with a part of town and a friend calls to tells you to meet them somewhere but doesn't have an exact address ("Go about a mile down 1st Avenue and turn right on Olive street..."). If I don't know where Olive street is I'll have to look out the window at every upcoming street sign to know when to turn. Not the best option, especially in traffic or at night in poorly lit areas.

The Kenwood feature mentioned in the original post had the upcoming cross streets labeled as well as a banner across the top of the screen that displays the upcoming cross street. As soon as you enter an intersection the name in the banner changes from the street that you're crossing to the upcoming street on the next block, so you know the upcoming cross street name from a block away.

It's not a necessary feature if you're familiar with the part of town you're in or know exactly where you're going, but after using it for a couple years and now not having it in the Pioneer, it seems like a very helpful feature is missing.

I'll play with the zoom levels to see if I can find a setting that is more useful.

 

I've only had mine installed for a couple days, but I've also noticed that the maps seem grossly out of date. Even though the unit is brand new and the installer checked for all firmware & software updates, the unit can't find my address and none of the roads in my entire neighborhood are displayed. The newest roads in the area are all at least 4 years old, but the map shows no streets for blocks in any direction around my house. My three year old Kenwood displayed everything accurately.

 

The rest of the unit is very nice, but to me the nav is the most important feature, so I'll keep playing with the nav settings before writing it off as a waste of money, but so far I'm a bit disappointed.

 

Exactly what makes the Kenwood a great unit. I had the DNX7140 & the cross street feature you just talked about was great. Last night I was on the phone with a friend & ran into that EXACT situation you described & my Pioneer was of no use to me at all! I couldn't even depend on my high priced unit to help me get to the street he told me. I drove right by it & had no clue. This same situation came up numerous times before, but I had the Kenwood at those times & NEVER once had this happen. Looks like I'm not the only one to complain like previously stated...

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is the 2nd biggest annoyance of this unit for me, the first being entering a street name as a destination. Unless you're already looking at a map and know the EXACT SPELLING, forget it. My 2003 Acura Navi unit automatically grey's out invalid keypad options, but this high-end unit does not. That's pretty incredible.

 

Overall in general you could say this unit is 'street-ignorant'.

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This is the 2nd biggest annoyance of this unit for me, the first being entering a street name as a destination. Unless you're already looking at a map and know the EXACT SPELLING, forget it. My 2003 Acura Navi unit automatically grey's out invalid keypad options, but this high-end unit does not. That's pretty incredible.

 

Overall in general you could say this unit is 'street-ignorant'.

 

The Kenwood grey's out the letters too making it pretty much impossible to spell it wrong.

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If you leave the map scale on the lowest setting, ie. 0.25mi instead of 0.5 or 1mi. You get a little bit more street details. Nothing like the Garmin but a little better.

Have you seen the Garmin nav on the Kenwood DNX9140? It's just as bad or worse!

That said, the Z110BT is my first nav unit (apart from the Pioneer-made factory nav for my Lincoln LS) and I'm a little underwhelmed when comparing its nav abilities to my old (but modded) Mio C520.

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  • 1 year later...

I think I will be giving my unit back to BestBuy - the nav feature added some big $$$ to the cost, and it works so poorly that it seems wasteful to keep it. My iPhone's free google maps app does a better job of displaying street names! What could possible be the root cause for such a poor user experience?

 

Totally agree & can't believe I have the unit still. Had someone in my car the other day & they couldn't believe it when we passed a street we were looking for. They have a generic unit & even it has the major streets & such when not in navi mode. It's really sad being how much this damn thing cost.

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I have a Z120 -> Z130 and it takes away letters as I spell out the street name to make sure I get it right, so I haven't had any issues where it let me type out a misspelled imaginary street. That part has worked well for me, however, the street detail does suck. My X910BT had street level detail and although it had fewer options, it was nice and easy to see cross streets and what not. Not sure what happened to that when they made software for this unit.

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  • 1 month later...

Some of the street names show, not all of them when it comes to cross streets, at least in my area and the surrounding three counties. I played with the setting a while when I first got it because I thought the unit was glitchy at first, but then realized that the map detail was just better on the X910.

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