I have been a fan of Pioneer since I started driving 15 plus years ago but they are starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth with the Avic F series nav systems. The first one I installed in my car had a problem with the bluetooth, nobody could hear me. I swapped out mic's but that didn't fix the problem. I sent the stereo back to my vendor and he sent me a new one. The bluetooth on the new one was better than the first but still nowhere near the quality of other systems I install for a living. Then after a couple weeks my F series just won't boot anymore, I tried everything to get it booted including reloading the 2.0 software. When I finally called my vendor to have it replaced he tells me that the F series is discontinued and that I would have to send my 3 week old radio in to have it repaired. So I call Pioneer the other day and get the standard "did you mod the radio in any way" question to which I replied "NOT AT ALL", I even have the parking brake wire hooked up to the parking break. So then he tells me to send it to them and it might take up to a month to repair. I then ask him if they can't fix the radio and replace it that I would like my custom aluminum knob off my old radio and he says he can't gaurantee that. I am to the point now that I may just call my vendor and tell them that I don't want the radio and I want credit or a refund. I mean I am 0 for 2 with this unit and now that are going to repair it? With my luck it will last just long enough for the warranty to run out and then die again. Sorry to vent hear but I am very frustrated right now, just the thought of taking my dash all aprt again to remove the radio that might not be back for a month makes me sick.

Sorry man, I feel your pain. I used to be a huge Pioneer fan. No more.

too bad for you. mine works fine

I feel your pain.. im sending my F700 back now for the 2nd time to pioneer for the same issues... this is ridiculous how they could release a product with konwn bugs. On a good note... they "repaired" it and sent it back to me within 10 days so that wasnt too bad

My unit (F90) kept continuously rebooting and needed to be sent in for repair. It sucked having that huge whole in the dash and no music in the car for six weeks. It got repaired and been working ok for the last two weeks. Even with the 2.0 update the performance is sluggish compared to all others. This is what I get for using a product that utilizes crap from Microsoft.

F series is POS, case closed.

Emu-destroyer has a time bomb... it'll reveal itself soon

F series is POS, case closed.

 

Emu-destroyer has a time bomb... it'll reveal itself soon

You know, just because you can't get it to work, doesn't mean no one can...

F series is POS, case closed.

 

Emu-destroyer has a time bomb... it'll reveal itself soon

 

You know, just because you can't get it to work, doesn't mean no one can...

LOL, Boris, listen to yourself --

what's there to get to work? This isn't a crossword puzzle... Either it works out of the box or it doesn't... you guys crack me up, LOL

F series is POS, case closed.

Just out of curiousity........... do you still own your F-Series?

Emu-destroyer has a time bomb... it'll reveal itself soon.

And forgive my ignorance, but what's that all about??????

LOL, Boris, listen to yourself --

 

what's there to get to work? This isn't a crossword puzzle... Either it works out of the box or it doesn't... you guys crack me up, LOL

Well, mine works, both stock and with all my mods, so where's the problem?

LOL, Boris, listen to yourself --

 

what's there to get to work? This isn't a crossword puzzle... Either it works out of the box or it doesn't... you guys crack me up, LOL

 

Well, mine works, both stock and with all my mods, so where's the problem?

Well mine does not work correctly, so he isn't alone.

Bluetooth freezes and won't disconnect. Unit crashes and reboots randomly. Its slow and sluggish. The Pioneer ipod cable is garbage, and I had to replace it if i want to hear both left and right channels. The SD card is absurdly slow. If you cant get voice recognition to work (or don't want to have to wait a minute for the VR to complete), then trying to access the music you want is painstaking and even dangerous.

I could go on, but no need to.

I was just informed today that I will be getting a REFERB radio in the place of my 3 week old radio that I sent in. I am not happy at all and I feel real sorry for the customers I have sold this radio to. It baffles my mind that after buying and selling Pionner for over 15 years that they refuse to give a credit for a def radio and will send a refurbished radio in its place. If there is one mark on the refurb radio or doesn't operate PERFECTLY I will be contacting the BBB and getting my money back for sure. This is by far the most frustrating problem I have had in a long time.

LOL, Boris, listen to yourself --

 

what's there to get to work? This isn't a crossword puzzle... Either it works out of the box or it doesn't... you guys crack me up, LOL

 

Well, mine works, both stock and with all my mods, so where's the problem?

Well, Boris, so long as it works for you, there isn't a problem -- the rest of the people on here with defective Avic's are just flukes, or their ignorance with technology -- they should know how to correct a frozen Avic or an avic that keeps rebooting -- right Boris? Gotcha.

There's no problem here! I'm lovin' my kenwoods and got rid of my Avic's REAL early on (thanks to 6ave.com - who actually told me yeah, we get a lot of those back as returns).

Thanks Boris for the clarity.

LOL, Boris, listen to yourself --

 

what's there to get to work? This isn't a crossword puzzle... Either it works out of the box or it doesn't... you guys crack me up, LOL

 

Well, mine works, both stock and with all my mods, so where's the problem?

 

Well, Boris, so long as it works for you, there isn't a problem -- the rest of the people on here with defective Avic's are just flukes, or their ignorance with technology -- they should know how to correct a frozen Avic or an avic that keeps rebooting -- right Boris? Gotcha.

 

There's no problem here! I'm lovin' my kenwoods and got rid of my Avic's REAL early on (thanks to 6ave.com - who actually told me yeah, we get a lot of those back as returns).

 

Thanks Boris for the clarity.

Yeah local installer had a nice smirk on his face when I mentioned I had an AVIC-F. He told me his customers had their share of problems, and one girl in particular was really pissed off about it.

A very big installer in Austin too, not my neighbor or anything. I am not imagining the quality problems on this unit, as some here would like me to believe.

Hey there Raydee, i totally understand where you come from. I've been a Pioneer fan for over 10 years. I remember the first Radio i put into my car was a Pioneer. I think the problem with the F-Series is that it came to market way too fast to compete with other manufactures. There should of been more testing with the unit before it was ever released. But with the D-Series being so popular and needing an update, they rushed into releasing the F-Series before all the bugs could be fixed and worked out. If you really think about the design and concept of the unit, it's really great when it works. However, most of us have some type of problems.

From most of the stories i've heard, it all has to do with software related issues. I mean, i understand that this is a new frontier, where do you really find someone to write a program or software specific for GPS, Radio, Entertainment. It's really no excuse, but i think Pioneer has been doing an decent job at damage control.

Specifically with your unit, i wouldn't accept a refurb. With most electronics, you really can't trust a refurb, ideally it's suppose to be a defect that was sent back to the manufacturer and was refurb with new parts and working correctly. (However, since it's not a new product, and had parts replaced, by law they cannot sell it as new). Usually Pioneer Refurbs come with a 90 day warranty. But since your originally unit was less then a year old, it should carry the full remaining year left. I would definitely check up on that.

At the end of the day, it's about two things. How a company designs a product, and how well they stand behind it.

I got a update on my unit yesterday, according to my supplier they are going to be sending me out a "new" unit next week. When I asked if it was brand new he said no its a re-formatted unit. When I told him that was a refurb he said No it wasn't it was just re-formatted.....LOL. When I told him that I didn't want someones used radio that already had problems he asked me why I was complaining and that I got a deal on the unit to begin with. Needless to say this supplier will never get my business again. The part that kills me is I still think Pioneer makes some of the best sounding radio's on the market and I will continue to buy Pioneer but if anyone asks my opinion on the F series they are going to get a earfull. Hopefully they have everything fixed on the X series that should be out in a month or so.

For the people who are having trouble out of the box then I say to you thats a shame..... sometimes these things happen. Now for the F-series... I agree there are some bugs... I personally have the F90BT and there are a few little quirks that annoy me..(map switches itself to 2D mode occasionally, unit defaults to map after a call... VR takes FOREVER or sometimes doesnt catalog at all, etc. etc.) everyone knows the bugs. However with that being said the unit is SO completely customizable that I can live with the bugs. Lets face it... the unit has Windows so its basically a PC in your car.... and anyone who has EVER used a PC knows that they are going to crash its inevitable... but that should be easy enough to recover from. Plus Pioneer is sure to release a new firmware version (3.0???) hopefully sooner than later. I just bought a new car and was in the market for a new in dash NAV, My previous unit was also an AVIC-N3 and it did its job but I wanted something with DIRECT iPod control out of the box...Bluetooth out of the box, NAV, and it had to SOUND good... I searched and searched... I didnt want a crappy no-name brand like DUAL or some Japaneese or Chineese crap noones ever heard of ...and the BIG purchase point was price...I didnt want to break the bank... My ceiling was 600 - 700 USD.... I compared the F90BT and could not match the out of the box Features and price with anything else. And lets face it...its a Pioneer it sounds AMAZING I didnt even have to hook it up to an amp for seperates just one amp for subs and I'm gold. Im sure there are WAY more people who will agree with me than who dont. Im not bashing anyone who is having problems... we all have problems with SOMETHING.... but hey at least we have good ol AVIC411.com to help ease the pain and hopefully help us with our issues.... I dont think theres ANY problem ive not been able to resolve using this site including repairing my old rusty N-3 when the ribbon cable tore and Pioneer choked the industry and made it IMPOSSIBLE to get one... so thank you to all who contribute to this community and keep up the good work.

...of the box, NAV, and it had to SOUND good... I searched and searched... I didnt want a crappy no-name brand like DUAL or some Japaneese or Chineese crap noones ever heard of ...and the BIG purchase point ...

Last I checked, Pioneer was a Japanese company, and F-series is built by quite Chinese (or Taiwanese, may be) MiTAC...

For the people who are having trouble out of the box then I say to you thats a shame..... sometimes these things happen.

Rod -- I respect you and agree with you when you discuss Pioneer's long lineage of GREAT sounding and greatly performing product until the F-series.

Where I disagree is the concept of customizability and "knowing this is a windows based product, so it's going to crash" .. that's fine and all if I'm in my living room or my bedroom and i'm checking websites or doing my taxes on my PC and my PC crashes -- no big deal, I would probably shriek a few obscenities (i'm sure most of us do) and continue to either soft reset or hard reset .. blah blah... we've come to understand this is how Windows just does things. I'm safe in a reclining, ovepriced officeMax desk chair and can take the opportunity of re-booting my PC to go down and get some more lemonade... no car accidents there.

Now in vehicle... MOST PEOPLE WHO BUY THE AVIC do NOT customize it and DO NOT KNOW IT'S CUSTOMIZABLE and buy it BASED ON THE FACT THAT IT WILL WORK OUT OF THE BOX WITH THE GIVEN FEATURE SET that's reported on the price tag. It's THAT simple. Please, for those confused about the issue, re-read the last paragraph. I suggest they sell the F-series as "The first In-Car Windows based Stereo/PC Multimedia unit."

I know BorisM thinks some of us aren't intelligent enough to "figure out" the complexities of the Pioneer and some others think it's been "installed incorrectly" and other say "quit bitchin' and wait for 3.0 that'll solve ALL THESE PROBLEMS" .. but c'mon, even though the AVIC is WELL under the next competing model (Kenwood, Alpine, Panasonic) in price and has (and I agree) THE BEST GUI, it's still not performing like it's supposed to for many many people.

People shouldn't HAVE to go into testmode, mess with some files, re-load operating systems. For those that are comfortably and internet/CPU savvy enough to do so, AWESOME, then THE AVIC F-SERIES is the PC/Car stereo for YOU!

That being said, I implore anyone that doesn't have as much conviction for the Pioneer name, nor the F-series in particularly, to reconsider restocking fees and/or losses you may take on ebay, and dump the F-series ASAP and let it be someone else's problem and consider a new unit. For those that think that's blasphemy, a lack of support for an awesome company (Pioneer) and pure idiocy/lack of computer savvy (as per some members here) then by all means, stick with Avic, get used to the bugs, and by all means, KEEP BOTH HANDS ONTHE WHEEL and EYES ON THE ROAD as you realize that your bluetooth just froze or your ipod audio just dropped out or your Avic just rebooted on you.

Oh, and perhaps take the time and opportunity afforded to your by your Avic re-booting to stop and do the following:

1) get some gas

2) obtain a cold beverage for that long car ride home

3) turn on your boom box that you've conveniently learned to bring and leave on your passenger seat to listen to music during Avic reboots or f- ups

4) have a conversation with other passengers in the vehicle

5) Think of what you SHOULD have said to that co-worker of yours today that got under your skin

6) re-consider that time share that's been burning a hole in your brain, "no no, it's gotta be a scam"

7) Consider adding updating your facebook page when you get home

surf the net on Kenwood's website and keep telling yourself, "no no, waaay overpriced, I got TOO good of a deal on this Avic, 3.0 will fix everything."