hard drive based in-dash navigation units

[oldlady2]

Do any of Pioneer in-dash navigation units or any or brand allow you to map and address a location not defined in the general database or POIs. I have a portable plug-n-play iWay which far exceeds my Pioneer AVIC D3 in nearly every category.

 

When I say map I mean you stop out in the middle of a pasture and designate that location by the satellite reading coordinates. You give it a name like Joe's barn and load/store it in the address/database which on the iWay is a hard drive.

 

This D3 was an after-market add-on to a new Toyota Highlander. I am very disappointed in several things/lack of features. The motion bypass lock is major .The iWay was a simple agreement to not use while driving and and one button unlocks; the night time screen is always on because of headlight sensor (running lights always on), cannot play CD/DVD at same time as navigation is active without swapping discs in and out. It is a total waste of good money. Further I could have bought the unit, backup camera and at least a 4-disk cd changer for the $2100 I was charged and financed. I know some of that was labor.

 

Does the Z2 which has hard drive meet my expectationa? Is there a viable bypass?

[whtcrxghst]

1. Your salesmen sucks. He should have told you about the disk swapping beforehand so you could buy an ipod and never put another CD in that slot.

2. The D3 is easily bypassable

3. You can "map" or designate any point with your D3 or any Pioneer nav unit. When you are sitting in the middle of that pasture, touch the screen and touch the icon to register the location. It will then show up in your address book and you can rename whatever you want. No Pioneers will do it by latitude and longitude though

4. I used to have a toyota with running lights and it was not always on nightmode. You should have your installer fix it

5. The Z2 has a HD so it would store 10 gigs of your CDs. It too is bypassable, just like the D3

 

Do any of Pioneer in-dash navigation units or any or brand allow you to map and address a location not defined in the general database or POIs. I have a portable plug-n-play iWay which far exceeds my Pioneer AVIC D3 in nearly every category.

 

When I say map I mean you stop out in the middle of a pasture and designate that location by the satellite reading coordinates. You give it a name like Joe's barn and load/store it in the address/database which on the iWay is a hard drive.

 

This D3 was an after-market add-on to a new Toyota Highlander. I am very disappointed in several things/lack of features. The motion bypass lock is major .The iWay was a simple agreement to not use while driving and and one button unlocks; the night time screen is always on because of headlight sensor (running lights always on), cannot play CD/DVD at same time as navigation is active without swapping discs in and out. It is a total waste of good money. Further I could have bought the unit, backup camera and at least a 4-disk cd changer for the $2100 I was charged and financed. I know some of that was labor.

 

Does the Z2 which has hard drive meet my expectationa? Is there a viable bypass?

[Itchy]

$2100 for an installed D3? You were seriously ripped off. MSRP is $999, but if you shop around you can get them <$800. With an install, you should have had it under $1000. Do some homework. You made the salesman very $happy$.

[cntrylvr79]

$2100 for an installed D3? You were seriously ripped off. MSRP is $999, but if you shop around you can get them <$800. With an install, you should have had it under $1000. Do some homework. You made the salesman very $happy$.

 

Not when it comes to Dealer Markup. I remember an older couple coming in to have sirius added to their dealer installed D1. Guy said dealer charged 3400 for the D1, install, and a 6 Disc changer. Mind you the D1 was 1600 at the time and the changer was 180.

[VBLUE42]

Yea Ive been reading your post and tried to offer you a solution to your nighttime screen problem. Apparently my solution did not work because it appears the unit was not hooked up properly. You keep slamming the D3 because of all these problems your having but per your other post it seems all the problems were installer mistakes, either that or dealer mistakes. I think the other mistake was to let the car dealer arrange the purchase and installation of your D3. You apparently were charged way too much because of this. The motion lockout is also not Pioneer only. Most all of the OEM factory nav systems Ive seen as well as all of the aftermarket systems have the motion lockout. These companies have a huge liability on their shoulders if people start killing each other because their watching a movie or trying to input their destination while driving. The motion bypass is very simple to install. The solution to your problem is to find a qualified installer and explain your situation to them, that you made a mistake by going to someone else and that you would like to see what they can do for you. Many independent shops/installers love to be able to fix a problem that someone else created especially when its simple to fix. And the problems your describing seem to be easy to fix. It gives them an opportunity to win a customer for life and gets them a good reference to people you know. I would find the shop that has the best reputation and been in business the longest. A quick search on google in your area would probably turn up a place that could solve your problem in a couple of hours.

[oldlady2]

Thanks for all the input . My salesperson was a newbie in the business--1 year experience. She mentioned the dealer routinely installed navigation products & expected I would have a unit with at least a 4 disk changer but did not mention brand.

 

I realize from all the posts (and I did try the suggestion for the day/night display) there must be problems with installation. A call to Pioneer tech did not offer a solution either.

 

The unit IS set for daytime display. When in garage at night it is much darker-nearly black with illumination set at 42. When I back out into daylight it changes to a very dark gray. Today, which was bright sunlight, 100 deg. it was nearly unreadable. Switching back and forth between daylight/night display doesn't affect anything. I've even tried background/color changes.

 

I realize, too, I needed some help with using the unit by comment how to map a location--THANK YOU. I haven't given up on the unit. There was NO demo on use, partly my fault as installation exceeded expected time and I had appt. 100 mi away. It is very different and slower than the plug-n-play. My expectations were based on the iWAY.

 

A HDD is faster changing/correcting routes, but it has some negatives too, like failure! I can add the IPOD (I have never owned one--don't faint) and even plug in the front of the unit, or install a separate CD changer. The problem with a changer is where to put it in or around the dash. I hate in-rear or trunk changers. I'm not too fond of swapping Map disks, but one disk does have most of the places I want to go.

 

Sorry for criticism; my expections were based on iWay and my half-sister in-dash unit in 3-yr old Accura which is unlocked but older. She did not have it bypassed; the unit came from Accura that way. I assume this lock/e-brake requirement is relatively new.

 

When I get all these problems corrected I have friends who can do the bypass. I don't want to mess with it until I get all the other problems fixed. The dealer has agreed to try to find solutions for everything but the bypass which he says he could be sued if he did it.

 

Hopefully my Sept. appt. will resolve all this and I can report to all of you my satisfaction or offer it for sale...I'm not beyond buying a Z2 if it can be bypassed and having it installed by someone, not dealer. There are some independent automotive audio/video installers in my area.

[VBLUE42]

The dark screen thing surely sounds like an install error. I think there is hope for that issue. Also, if it will make you feel better, the D3 is pretty snappy on corrections with the DVD drive, at least I havnt gotten myself in a situation yet that required it to search for a correction that was so far off the route that it had to search for more then about 3 seconds for a correction. Usually before my eyes get to screen to see that I made a wrong turn it has already found a correction and started yelling at me to turn around or go to the next intersection. It actually works very well. I dont think you would see enough difference in the HDD units to justify the extra expense. An ipod, even an ipod nano which you can get for about 150.00 bucks at Wallmart now is a very a useful add on to the D3. And the control interface on the D3 is a dream to use as opposed to the Z series which can be very slow and cumbersome to use, especially while driving. I really think you've made the right decision with the D3, just give yourself a little time and look over all the features of all units compared to the D3. If you have anymore questions were all here to help. Good luck