Quality of Navigation?

[cpkdude]

People have gotten them for far less from A&E.

 

In may - I called three this month, all in California (of the few that are left).

I guess your people know something I don't

lol

[VBLUE42]

Find a lower price and then hit them with a price match.

[1loudls]

well of course its going to be super expensive, its not a regular kenwood model, its an excelon model, which do have a premium added to the price, just like pioneer's premier and elite, thats like the difference between a buick and a cadillac, they may be 95% the same car with most of the same features, but the caddy is gonna cost you about 10k more, and of course people will pay for that name.

 

i think it would be crazy to pay an extra few hundred bucks just to get from an authorized retailer

 

http://www.amazon.com/Kenwood-DNX9960-e ... B003FNDSZI

 

i would just pay the $1275 and call it a day, even if you had a major problem, you could send it in, pay for the repair and still have spent less money total

[cpkdude]

First, I'll see how the Pioneer works. Oh, is this thread still about "quality of navigation", or is it now a Kenwood promotion? lol

One thing's for sure, most people agree that Garmin is hard to beat

[todd612]

Strictly speaking the Pioneer Navi works. It get's me from point A to B. In comparison, I've owned two portable Garmin navis 350 & 760 that has its flaws too. Garmins interface is nicer looking and more intuitive but I've had issues with its navigation. e.g., it doesn't give out the best routes, its logic is mediocore at best and insist you go a specific direction even though you know it's better going your way based on real world experiences.

 

So far I like Pioneer's navi how it shows you which lane to be in on multi-lane roads and a bar graph countdown before your next turn. And I love saying "Find the nearest McDonald." It works, fast and intuitive. That is something I cannot do on my Garmin.

[Jer]

Strictly speaking the Pioneer Navi works.

 

No, it doesn't. It's horrible. In fact, if you've read the recent posts in this forum you will see that I've had a very negative experience with the BT and it appears as though I'm not alone. The Navigation might be even worse.

 

Just the other day I was coming down from the mountains West of Denver and taking my wife somewhere. We came out right by I70 and Colfax. Instead of telling me to get on I70 and head east to I25 to take south (our destination was South of Denver right off of I25) it wanted me to take Colfax through the heart of Denver to Colorado Blvd then south. That route would have taken me at least 2x longer and that is with decent traffic which it wasn't. Had I now known where we were I would have lost about an hour of my life and the funny part is had I not known any better I would have had NO idea that there was a MUCH faster way. The entire time the navigation wouldn't figure out that my way was better and kept wanting me to u-turn to get back on it's path. I have had my Pioneer unit less than a month and it hasn't once given me a decent navigation route. One time I turned right, my destination was plainly viewable on my left. Rather than telling me to turn left it had me go three more blocks, turn right into a RESIDENTIAL neighborhood, go two more blocks, do a U-Turn in the middle of an intersection and then back track to make a right hand turn. Fortunately I'm not the person who drives into the ocean because my navigation unit told me to so I just turned left and chalked it up to yet another worthless navigation performance from my Pioneer. I can go on and on but I won't. I've never owned a portable Garmin navigation unit but I have had several Kenwood units with Garmin Nav as well as a couple mobile phones with Garmin on them and can say that it's FAR better than Pioneer. In fact, Pioneer isn't even in comparison as far as I'm concerned because it wouldn't be fair to Pioneer.

[1loudls]

the part that really grinds my gears is when you are transferring from one freeway to another, all you hear is this damn thing talking non stop, prepare to exit in 1 mile, prepare to exit in 400 feet, prepare to exit now, continue ahead and prepare to entire the hwy in 1/5 a mile, prepare to entire the hwy in 400 feet prepare to enter the hwy now!

[VBLUE42]

So far I like Pioneer's navi how it shows you which lane to be in on multi-lane roads and a bar graph countdown before your next turn. And I love saying "Find the nearest McDonald." It works, fast and intuitive. That is something I cannot do on my Garmin.

 

The Garmin navi in the 9960 contains all of those features.

[cpkdude]

So far I like Pioneer's navi how it shows you which lane to be in on multi-lane roads and a bar graph countdown before your next turn. And I love saying "Find the nearest McDonald." It works, fast and intuitive. That is something I cannot do on my Garmin.

 

The Garmin navi in the 9960 contains all of those features.

 

maybe he meant for comparitively price units? dunno

[Vibe2.0]

I previously had a D3 and have owned portable Tom Toms and Garmins. I am happy with my 920. Mine is accurate, tracks well, and map is detailed enough. Custom POI's are a nice feature as well. My VR also works surprising well, not perfect but better than I thought it would. Seems to be some serious bashing on here about this unit. In fact before I bought I was nearly turned off by the posts.

 

I am making this post now because I think someone who is happy with the unit should be represented. So here is my take. First as with all things I understand the unit ( read the manual ) and it's limitations. I updated the formware to the most recent version and made sure what I connect ( Nokia E71 and Ipod 80GB classic) are configured as they should be. I also am using the AVic feeds software for PC, AVic Feeds software for Symbian ( available on Nokia Ovi site free), and Music Sphere software. First I went through my Ipod and cleaned up all album and title name and album art. Resynced everything.

 

MusicSphere / Ipod:

Then I played around with Music sphere. This is definitely NOT an intuitive piece of software. In any case you run it and it initially analyzes all your music, in my case 4000+ songs, this took around ten hours. Once it does that you "update" it to create playlists. The playlists it created are a bit odd. It has pre-labeled categories "BPM/ Eighties/ etc" it put songs in each one that dont make a whole lot of sense to me and I have not figured out yet how to modify the plylists it creates. The helkp file from Pioneer is weak at best. In all it creates a little sphere that you can twirl around on the Avic interface to selct the playlists from. Pretty neat, but not a real necessity as the normal ipod playlists and Avic Ipod interface is solid enough where you do not need the MusicSphere. Not a single issue with Ipod album artwork displaying and VR has been good. Also video from my ipod is pretty neat. I do wish you could scroll through movie cover artwork instead of through title list but it works and displays cover art and thats really all I need.

 

BluTooth :

Dare I say I do not own an Iphone. What can I say I prefer a stainless steel phone not made in China. Of course I would loive to try the Pandora app. Anyway my phone paired up easily following the instructions and transferred the entire phone book including avic feed sw created contacts / poi's. WHat a huge improvement over the D3 and the Tom Tom I used. The VR for phone calls has been solid Saying "Call Ashley Cell" returns do you want to call the mobile number for Ashley? to whhich you need to reply yes. I was impressed iot could seperatye a contact that had two numbers stored on the phone ( one mobile one home). Subsequent pairing has been fast with no problems.

 

Avic Feeds

This software is again Pioneer and pretty clunky. It does allow you to customize your POI's with photo icons and allows you to create POI's from excel CSV and KLM files. You can also export KLM poi'sto SD card from the software.

 

Avic Feeds for phone:

A bit primitive but allows you to take a geotagged photo assign it a name and save it as a contact which you can then transfer from the phone to the Avic . the contact shows up in your phonebook but selecting it will allow yo to rout to it. Pretty useful actually.

 

FM:

Compared to the D3 it has RDS and the display is much nicer in my opinion.

I do not use XM, Sirius, MSN or back up camera. I cannot say anything about them.

 

In conclusion I think theis unit is a steal at this price and in general I" I like it alot"

[cpkdude]

have to agree with you - so far mine is quite AOK. the install was a little rough, but the unit, for the price, is a great deal. I got mine for under $400 with all rebates and discounts from Amazon. Dollar for dollar, it's a way better deal then say my iPad.

 

Although, she does make some completely wrong decisions on her driving direction ideas. Not quite sure how something that so many other companies have working can be this far off from time to time. Other times, she's spot on.

I wonder if Pioneer would think wrong directions constitutes a malfunction in hardware?

[Vibe2.0]

I really cant imagine there is a better buy under $600 BEFORE rebate. I also dont want to harp but way to many people crapping on the item on this forum.

[VBLUE42]

Well this is a forum and it is here for people to relay their thoughts. Many people feel that some of the features of this unit are lacking for the money they spent. Keep in mind the same problems carry over to the flagship unit Z120BT as well. And when the previous units had better navi at an even cheaper price there really is no excuse for the lack of features in these units.

[cpkdude]

Well this is a forum and it is here for people to relay their thoughts. Many people feel that some of the features of this unit are lacking for the money they spend. Keep in mind the same problems carry over to the flagship unit Z120BT as well. And when the previous units had better navi at an even cheaper price there really is no excuse for the lack of features in these units.

 

yeah, but your a Kenwood guy, aren't you?

As far as this unit, even at $800, it's a way better deal than spending $1600 for a 9960. Sorry, that's the cheapest price I can find from an authorized dealer - anywhere.

If the NAV really ticks you off, you can do what I do - keep the $100 Garmin portable I have in the glove box for emergencies.

The Bluetooth sounds pretty good from my little Mazda. No one has had to hang up or biatch about not understanding me, and I can hear them just fine.

The iPod interface is mostly outstanding, as is DVD, CD and A2DP pairs right up quickly.

The Bluetooth app found both my old Nokia and my wife's new BB Bold 9700.

Pandora streams fine, and although a complete menu for Pandora via A2DP would be nice, it works for now.

Voice recognition has understood me more often than the VW Jetta we have. It's a learning curve, but so far finding an album, song or artist has been mostly flawless. Finding a POI has been a little iffy, but I haven't finished the manual.

SD cards play video and audio (video needs certain codecs, but that's no biggie), and transferring photos, Avic info like POI's and favorites has also gone off without a hitch.

Mine updated first time, off the factory update disc without a problem. It took 2 mintues.

It's obvious to most of us owners that the NAV could be better, but it also does lots of things great - it handles phone calls, lane assignments and re-routing without a hickup. And, it learns your routes after one or two tries.

If Pioneer can address the few minor details, I will have walked away with a complete theft for $390. If not, I have an excellent music, video, radio and average GPS.

Sorry, the Kenwood's just too damn overpriced and can't compete if Pioneer keeps these promotions going (which I doubt), so if people are smart, they'll keep watching for those coupon codes I'm posting and grab a bargain.

[VBLUE42]

The point of this thread is the lacking features of the navi. And regardless of weather I now own a Kenwood or not, I still have extensive experience with the navi on these units. I am also not condemning or condoning the features on this unit. What I am commenting on is the opinion that people should not complain about this unit. As I said, this is a forum for people to relay their thoughts. Regardless of weather its pro or con.