OK - an installer hooked up the Avic f7010b4 Nav system. It's in effect the same as the f700bt. I have a few questions comments:

1. The system really rocks. I was worried reading some of the things here. I find the ipod integration very nice. Had only one random reboot when messing with a lot of buttons at once.

2. In 2d map mode, can you change the orientation to whatever you are facing? It seems it always gives you North orientation.

3. My FM reception is much poorer than the OEM radio. I am in a Chevy Express Conversion van. I just scanned the technical manuals and it doesnt seem to have a powered antenna in there. Is there a way to boost the antenna in the radio? Buy something inline?

4. The sound quality is not as good as the OEM radio. I have adjusted some things, but I guess the next step is to get better speakers/amp, etc. It just seems like too much bass is coming across, distorting the sound. I lowered the lows to the lowest setting. Guess I will play with it some more.

5. Overall - it's SO easy to use. Backup camera rocks! Just love the system. I come from owning Lexus/Toyota vehicles and this nav is about as fast and much more intuitive. Love it!

OK - an installer hooked up the Avic f7010b4 Nav system. It's in effect the same as the f700bt. I have a few questions comments:

 

1. The system really rocks. I was worried reading some of the things here. I find the ipod integration very nice. Had only one random reboot when messing with a lot of buttons at once. this will happen sometimes. just make sure you let the system load completely before you start doing too many things at once. i usually wait until my bluetooth connects to ensure that it is fully loaded (about 90 seconds)

 

2. In 2d map mode, can you change the orientation to whatever you are facing? It seems it always gives you North orientation.no you cannot change the orientation in 2D mode. North is always up in 2D mode. Vehicle is always heading up on 3D mode.

 

3. My FM reception is much poorer than the OEM radio. I am in a Chevy Express Conversion van. I just scanned the technical manuals and it doesnt seem to have a powered antenna in there. Is there a way to boost the antenna in the radio? Buy something inline? not sure about this one. maybe someone more technical can chime in.

 

4. The sound quality is not as good as the OEM radio. I have adjusted some things, but I guess the next step is to get better speakers/amp, etc. It just seems like too much bass is coming across, distorting the sound. I lowered the lows to the lowest setting. Guess I will play with it some more. same as above. someone with more audio experience could answer this.

 

5. Overall - it's SO easy to use. Backup camera rocks! Just love the system. I come from owning Lexus/Toyota vehicles and this nav is about as fast and much more intuitive. Love it!

Thanks Newman! Very helpful!! I have the installer coming back to put in some amplifier for the antenna. I may just add xm/sirius module to it too.

1. Yeah, just give it a sec to boot up. I don't wait as long as the BT connecting, but just don't try to do a lot before then.

2. There are ways to do this. The good news is that it's actually quite an easy "workaround" to use the 3d mode, but tilt all the way up and re-center your arrow on the screen. You can also save all of these settings as the default if you slightly modify a file internal to the system (but this requires you "hacking" the unit). See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17512

3. It really sounds like the installer may have missed an antenna amplifier that you have. If you haven't really exhausted your resources to find out, I would do some more research before you pay the guy more money to fix a "problem." Do you get any AM stations? I have a Toyota Matrix and found out that I have an antenna amplifier - so I had to make sure that the AVIC's "Power Antenna" wire was connecting properly through my Metra harness.

4. This is bizarre to me. The Pioneer units are known for having some of the best sound out there, and I must say that I agree. I seriously had no idea that my 5 year old stock speakers could sound this good or this powerful. You should play around a little with the EQ settings some more. For me, I set the "Loudness" up to 2 and I use the "Powerful" EQ setting.

5. I've played with the Lexus navis also - and like them a lot - but the only thing they have on this unit is the fast bootup time.