Avic-Z1 or Eclipse AVN-5510?

[Beep13]

Right,

 

There are a few threads on here about comparisons of the kenwood unit (dnx7100) But i just wanted some user experience feedback. It seems misfit has alot of experience with multiple units, and i know he sells kenwood as well, so i hoping to get his user opinion, or anyones review based on use, rather than spec/feature comparison. There are very little reviews on kenwood, you can find the pioneer and eclipse all over.

[JTS97Z28]

Wow thanks for the writeup morton10. I am glad I decided to go with the 5510 UPS tracking shows it arriving friday cant wait!!

I was gonna go into detail myself about some Pioneer nav nightmares but there was too many. Ok so I will tell two stories I have lol:

First was when I was in job training in Oklahoma City (home is in IL). I was simply routed on a highway and I followed the instructions to get off at an exit. At the bottom of the offramp you could either simply turn left or right. My destination was about 2 miles to the left and for god knows what reason the Pioneer nav told me to turn right and do a illegal u-turn about 3/4 of a mile down the road then head back in the correct direction . lol

 

I also find using Pioneers point of interest function about 97% useless. Again, I was in OKC and got out of training and was hungry. I selected the closest Taco Bell I drove 4 miles only to find myself in a resedential neighborhood. I was pissed and turned the nav off haha.

 

James

[djmixmac]

if i'm not mistaken, there is no display for the blue tooth. you dial through your phone. therer is an external controller for volume, answer, and hang up. its kinda cheesy. all the other interfaces have pretty shitty screen menus. but as said before, the navigation is much better, and thats what you buy it for

 

AVIC Z1 FTW!

[MisFit]

never actually used the kenwood, so i cant say anything good or bad about it. i have heard that it has the worst ipod interface of them all, but thats just what i heard

 

and whats your problem there dj mishmosh?

[dcpmark]

i have heard that it has the worst ipod interface of them all, but thats just what i heard

 

I can confirm that the Kenwood iPod interface is not very good. It was one of the first (after Alpine) several years ago, but it hasn't improved much, even in the latest units. Both Alpine and Pioneer's are much better, and although I haven't seen one in person, the pictures of the Eclipse's look much better, too.

[djmixmac]

 

and whats your problem there dj mishmosh?

 

 

LOL djmismosh, I like that!

[jmorton10]

if i'm not mistaken, there is no display for the blue tooth. you dial through your phone. therer is an external controller for volume, answer, and hang up.

 

That is partly true, there is no display on my H/U but I'm curious as to why you need one??

 

Mine dials any phone # with a voice command(if it is in my address book I just say the name, if it's not I say the phone #), it works perfectly without ever taking my eyes off the road so why would I need to look at a display?? You can answer with a voice command also if you want.

 

Any function that you would use a display for is available to me by voice command & it works perfectly without ever looking at a display so why is that a disadvantage??

 

~John

[MisFit]

didnt say it was a disadvantage. someone asked what the display looked like

[jmorton10]

I followed the instructions to get off at an exit. At the bottom of the offramp you could either simply turn left or right. My destination was about 2 miles to the left and for god knows what reason the Pioneer nav told me to turn right and do a illegal u-turn about 3/4 of a mile down the road then head back in the correct direction

 

This is the kind of stuff that's inexcesable & why I dumped mine. I mean come on, are you kidding me?? The cheapest GPS out there doesn't make mistakes like that & this POS cost me $2200.

 

Any NAV unit will make an occasional mistake sure, but not ones like that & the Pioneer does stuff like that routinely. None of my 3 Garmin units or my Eclipse has ever said to make a u-turn, you buy NAV units so you don't get into situations where you HAVE to make a u-turn.

 

~John