I had my D3 installed over a year ago, and having used it for over 30,000 miles I came to the conclusion that I was unhappy with the unit. I purchased the D3 for 999.00. After upgrading my speakers to Pioneer Premiere series and all of the other D3 modules the final cost including installation was well over 2,000.00

Here is the email I sent to Pioneer and their responce.

After having the Avic D3 installed in my vehicle for a year now I decided to send you some suggestions that could possibly help your future products compete with the other navigation head units that you’re currently trailing in features, GUI usability and overall performance.

The placement of the eject button directly above the menu button is terrible. Every time I go to hit the menu button and there is a small deviation in the road surface I mistakenly hit the eject button and out comes the disk.

The fact that the entire world is condemning your USB interface for being useless in file navigation is obvious. Have one of your engineers spend a day on the forums and get an idea of how your designs and products are being modified and hacked just to get some sort of usability out of them.

Your choice of map data could have and should have been Mapsource, Gamin. The legibility and overall GUI feel is much better on the I Gig from Chrysler and the entire line of Kenwood navigation units that opted to go with the world’s leader in navigation Garmin.

The fact that the D3 has been out over a year and you have chosen not to release any firmware/software updates is not very comforting to consumers that spend thousands of dollars on your products only to have you release new units with the features that you should have updated to your loyal customers.

Word is that you’re too concerned with brooming out your D3’s in hopes of promoting your Z2 - Z3 - N3 or other units you have in waiting. My 2 friends purchased 2 navigation units this week and I went with them. I’m sorry to say they were not Pioneer.

The fact that the D3 will not display data transmitted from the radio stations, Song title, artist, is not acceptable. The XM module or D3 I’m not sure which doesn’t display the entire song information that my cheap 35 dollar MYFI handheld XM receiver displays.

Larger companies than Pioneer have failed and went out of business because of poor product design, and not listening to their customers when developing and updating their product line. Your name is respected around the world, but your reputation could be adversely affected if you fail to listen to your customers and keep up with the current designs, ideas, and innovation that other companies are currently addressing better than Pioneer.

Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc.

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feed-back on our product and it's features. I will forward your suggestions to our marketing department.

Pioneer typically provides map upgrades about once a year. I would expect a new map upgrade to be available about mid-year.

If you have registered your unit on our web-site, you will receive any update or upgrade release notices. To my knowledge, none have been sent regarding the AVIC-D3.

Thank You,

Rocky

Customer Service Representative

I hope you weren't expecting that letter to have any sort of effect at all. Because it won't. But it doesn't hurt to tell them they're lagging a bit.

they are not going anywhere cause people keep buying their products... Customer Service or not... They really dont care what we think...

You guys would be surprised how close an eye Pioneer keeps on this forum. From the lowest employee to the head of the mobile department, they watch and greatly value your feedback.

Oh I am sure they do, but if they cared this forum would have lead to many changes that are now showing up in todays cars. Which Pioneer makes for the automakers some that is. Reading and acting on what you read is a good thing. I see a lot of suggestions in here. But I figure if they cannot listen to their own support emails, then why listen here.

I persoanlly think they shoud go to an open source for the GUI, and let people tweek it the way they want to. The people at Apple are on to something with the iPhone.

I persoanlly think they shoud go to an open source for the GUI, and let people tweek it the way they want to. The people at Apple are on to something with the iPhone.

The iPhone? Are you serious? That's one of the most closed pieces of equipment out there. If you want a good model for truly open devices then you should look at some of the Linux based offerings out there. Actually, a customizable Linux AVIC would be pretty cool. I think you'd see some really neat and creative apps written for it.

That said, all in all I'm happy with my D3 except for the iPod menu bug and the poor Sirius tuner interface.

yea pioneer prolly could care less about that im not trying to be a dick either im just saying they are still making tons of money no matter wat. and they prolly didnt think twice of that letter

I was always told that you can't bitch if you don't vote. That letter to pioneer was my vote. You can't expect change if all you do is sit on your ass and hope things get better.

Harley

The IPhone is open source now, and the only reason they did it was because it was hacked and they knew they were going to lose out if they didn't release the SDK. I honestly don't blame Pioneer for not going open source, they are in it for money. Until you have hackers working diligently on your programming and cracking the code, it will remain proprietary.

There are some things I'd like to see changed in my D3 but hey I knew what I was getting when I bought it.

My letter to Pioneer wasn't related to open source. It was related to firmware and software updates, and upgrades. Module, cable, and harness compatibility with other Avic units, iPod, USB, B/T, XM, Sirius. Prompt technical support and an overall interest in seeing their products compete in the Navigation marketplace. I guess I didn't think that far ahead. The fact that I paid 999.00 for the unit and another 500.00 or so for the additional modules only to have Pioneer decide to have a blue light special and blow it all out for less than 500.00. This was less than a year later? If the price gets any lower I'm buying another one for my Harley.

i hope a group of "techs" or "reps" are standing around a computer at pioneer laughing maniacally at your letter. mwaahh haha

and the fact that u paid 999 shows just what kind of consumer u are. end user, and for that 999 you expected the world. a grand is nothing now a days 2 grand is barely a dent. any of u remember when flip outs with nav were 3500 plus?

i respect that you took the time to voice your concerns with pioneer, but these units arent even designed with us stupid americans in mind. peace

What was the price of the D3 in March of 2007 the week it came out?

i believe cost was 700 something lol

I'm sorry that your life is so miserable, and you find comfort in others misfortunes. Hopefully one day you will grow and mature into a caring and decent person....... NOT

You might be surprised at how much Pioneer would pay attention to consumer comments. Obviously, they're not going to come up with a way to move the eject button on a D3...in fact, they may not come up with any changes to the D3. But they will likely consider customer comments in the design of future models.

Any company that sells electronics (and most other products for that matter) has to innovate or lose market share. Not all of that innovation is new features - making the features better and/or easier to use pays off with customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth advertising in the long run.

That's why I'm hoping that there will be some fixes/upgrades coming for the D3 - because Pioneer will want the reputation of supporting and improving their products after the sale (because it leads to more sales).