As I read around this board and talk to people with the Z1, the complaint I most often hear is that the GPS system in this unit is not very accurate! Some of the complaints are that there are roads missing from the maps and the cursor sometimes wanders off the road on the map that you are traveling! I currently have a Garmin GPS and it is SUPER ACCURATE and very reliable. For instance, it has every road built in to the base maps and it has NEVER lost the satelite connection while navigating! My questions..... Is there another d-din unit that looks as good in your dash as the Z1 but with a better GPS system? Will Pioneer be coming out with the Z2(?) anytime soon to correct this problem (and the other slight annoyances with the unit)? And lastly, are there mods available for the Z1 that will correct these issues? I really like the unit, but I think it currently has too many flaws to warrant a $2,000 purchase price. What do you think?

I like mine and haven't seen any missing gps information or poor routing. I'm pretty happy with mine, but it could be just me and the area I live in.

yes theere is one actually
its called a kenwood ddx 6019 its a double din with a garmin add on GPS i have the D2 but i heard the kenwood is good with it it has everything that Z1 has only everything is add on

Can't forget the 4 or so eclipse double din nav systems. Lets see there's the 5435 5495 6600 and he lst one I can't remmeber.

my Z1 is very accurate in NYC area, every road, every turn, plus there is a big database for voice, where the streets are announced, a lot of nice options.

So far Im pretty damn happy. :D

PS. Except the no ATT or Mute button, and no Visual graphical equalizer effetcs, i miss those function from my previous radio......

Well i have had mine for about a month now, and i love it. My gps antenna is mounted inside my truck UNDER the dash. Its completely invisible and i get great satalite coverage. I generaly get 7 out of 8 satalites. Occasionally on bad weather days i might only show 6 and the lowest i have seen is 5. But even on those days my navigation was spot on. I was also leary of all the bad coverage reviews but you have to consider the antenna location and so forth. The ipod browser seems to be the biggest flaw. I do not have an ipod i have an RCA lyra. its a 40 gig and i just hooked it up to the aux input. It works great like that. Of course i cant browse from the z1 but thats ok. I have found the z1 pretty easy to use and get used to. My wife has a garmin c550. and occasionaly we put it in my truck and compare the two. they are both usually right in step with each other. Of course hers has several different voices for navigation,thats cool, the z1 only has 1..
I would go for it. if you are waiting for something to come out that will be perfect you will never get one. everything has flaws but to me the unit is worth every penny i paid. I just moved to Baltimore Maryland a short time ago. I used to get lost every single time i tried to go somewhere. Sure id have a mapquest map or something like that but it didnt really help. With the z1 its easy to get around town, i feel more confident driving in the downtown area. If i do screw up and miss a turn, the z1 re-routes me in less than a second. Its awesome. i dont know how i ever made it without one.
anyways thats my 2 cents worth.

I've had ZERO issues with my GPS system. Sure, there are a few newer roads missing from the maps, that's to be expected. I suspect that the NAVTEQ maps are a bit better, but that's fairly minor. I can tell you with certainty, if the cursor moves off the road, or spins & it appears that you're driving backwards, it's because the VSS wire has been disconnected. The gyro thinks it's in full 3D mode, when in actuality, it needs to be in 3D HYBRID mode. Happened to me- easily rectified. The Z1 is a pretty damn good unit, with many cool features, outside of a few Pioneer created annoyances.

I would like to clarify what *my* problem is with the Z1. The POI locations are off. Addresses are correct, however how the Z1 maps the address to the map is wrong. All streets are good, tracking is good, just the mapping of address to map is off occasionally.

This is a MAP issue, and not a GPS issue.

-Jeff

Living in Florence, SC which is kinda rural, the GPS is dead on....

it even has a road built 2 years ago that's right up the street from me....

the Z1 is way better then the GPS that came with my 2006 Toyota Avalon.

I have never had an issue with the GPS system. Ever. It's dead on accurate. As to the mapping, the Z1 is better than the factory Nav unit in my Acura...which is Alpine.

Holding down the AV button will source the unit off. Same thing as a mute button

teknoking said:

my Z1 is very accurate in NYC area, every road, every turn, plus there is a big database for voice, where the streets are announced, a lot of nice options.

So far Im pretty damn happy. :D

PS. Except the no ATT or Mute button, and no Visual graphical equalizer effetcs, i miss those function from my previous radio......

Thanks, the holding part is what i don't like... :) And adding cell mute like other suggests with a switch button is inconvenient.

whtcrxghst said:

Holding down the AV button will source the unit off. Same thing as a mute button

teknoking said:

my Z1 is very accurate in NYC area, every road, every turn, plus there is a big database for voice, where the streets are announced, a lot of nice options.

So far Im pretty damn happy. :D

PS. Except the no ATT or Mute button, and no Visual graphical equalizer effetcs, i miss those function from my previous radio......

Usually for the first 2 minutes after turning on the car, I find that the nav is off by atleast 100 feet, it often has me off of the roads. I also find that when I deviate off of a set route in the nav feature, the arrow does not follow my new route for atleast 20 seconds or so. I think this also happens when I am just watching the screen w/ no destination set - My antenna is on my dash and I usually have all but one satallite available.
Anyone know why this happens?
Otherwise, I havent found any missing location data but i have found the nav unit to give poor directions when it comes to on and off ramps.

GPS is dead-on here in Columbia, Maryland. I've had no problems in Maryland, D.C., West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Can't understand those are are saying the GPS/Navigation on this thing sucks. I can live with it being off by 10'. For example it always tells me that "You've arrived" about 10' before I am really in my garage at home. BIG DEAL!!! If I can't find where I need to go when I am just 10' away, then I need more than a Pioneer AVIC-Z1. :-)

I drive about 3000 miles a week. It's pretty rare that the tracking cursor leaves the road. There's only 2 places I know that it does this: US-27 between Carrolton and LaGrange, GA, and US-280 between Opelika and Birmingham, AL. Both of these roads have been re-routed in new construction.

My VSS wire is not hooked up. The cursor has never shown the vehicle travelling in a direction that I wasn't going-unless I take off before I have given it a chance to get it's bearings. Sometimes, if the truck has been shut off for some time, it may take it a second. I have recognized this, and learned to let it "warm up" before I jump off in the wrong direction.

I also have a Garmin iQue3600. It is very accurate, but the cursor has left the road as well at times. Great little unit, though.

My LandRover LR3's NavTeq based system is horrible. In the area I live in, it will not route me on a lot of local roads-even though they are in the map! It is very frustrating. One time the GPS even glitched out on me and had the vehicle driving in all the wrong places. Was pretty wild to watch it keep trying to find a road to put me on-several miles away from the true location.

Hi again ALL! Well, Thanks alot for all the replies to my first post and question! It looks like the majority of 1 owners really like it! So, I will be out to the stores this weekend to look for a good price for the Z1. I am a trained aircraft mechanic (worked for Eastern Airlines) and have usually done all my own auto repairs, so I think I will install it myself with the help from all the great people here! Thanks again!!

BearGator56 said:

I drive about 3000 miles a week. It's pretty rare that the tracking cursor leaves the road. There's only 2 places I know that it does this: US-27 between Carrolton and LaGrange, GA, and US-280 between Opelika and Birmingham, AL. Both of these roads have been re-routed in new construction.

My VSS wire is not hooked up. The cursor has never shown the vehicle travelling in a direction that I wasn't going-unless I take off before I have given it a chance to get it's bearings. Sometimes, if the truck has been shut off for some time, it may take it a second. I have recognized this, and learned to let it "warm up" before I jump off in the wrong direction.

I also have a Garmin iQue3600. It is very accurate, but the cursor has left the road as well at times. Great little unit, though.

My LandRover LR3's NavTeq based system is horrible. In the area I live in, it will not route me on a lot of local roads-even though they are in the map! It is very frustrating. One time the GPS even glitched out on me and had the vehicle driving in all the wrong places. Was pretty wild to watch it keep trying to find a road to put me on-several miles away from the true location.

Don't forget you can report teleatlas errors here http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/cfl?Cli ... iveArea=MA

It's a limited relase version now, so I guess something better will come out soon. I guess they're trying to keep up with navteq. God Bless

Here is more information:

http://www.locationintelligence.net/articles/2265.html

http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/cfl?Cli ... iveArea=MA

FiremistSLK said:

Hi again ALL! Well, Thanks alot for all the replies to my first post and question! It looks like the majority of 1 owners really like it! So, I will be out to the stores this weekend to look for a good price for the Z1. I am a trained aircraft mechanic (worked for Eastern Airlines) and have usually done all my own auto repairs, so I think I will install it myself with the help from all the great people here! Thanks again!!

Don't forget to consider the avic s1, it uses navteq mapping data and seems fine to me, not to many complaints at all about it, in fact search the net for reviews there are many great user reviews on it like crutchfield and cnet, and epinions.com, I believe you can search by intersection and change languages and etc. But its not as high end as the avic z1. But I'm probably going to buy the avic s1 and wait for another product release of the avic line (maybe the avic z2?). Just a thought, God Bless.

I used my pioneer remote from my old single din radio and I can use volume up, down, att, pause (on cd only-will not work with the music library). Left and right arrow on it changes the track and the up and down arrow changes the playlist.