You two are responding to a very dead thread.

i was thinking about the eclipse (it is direct connection to my car, wouldn't have to wire anything).. but went for a z1, and really happy with it.

I used/tested a Z1 quite extensively before buying a 2nd Eclipse unit(a 5500). I love a lot of the features of the Pioneers, but my #1 main concern is a useable NAV unit as I travel a lot, & as far as I'm concerned the Pioneer is basically useless in this regard.

A neighbor of mine has a Z1 in his MDX & we have compared the two units at lenght & the Z1 is totally incapable of calculating an intelligent route from point A to point B(the Eclipse is superb in this regard).

If Pioneer drastically improves the NAV function of the new Z2, I still may swap out my Eclipse for that unit but it will have to be dramatically better than the Z1 for me to even consider it.

~John

I'm about 60% happy with the Z1. My hugh disappointment comes with its inability to give us accurate routes. Re-routes are even worse at times. I'm tired of hearing - "Turn right and make a legal U-Turn." I thought that I was upgrading when I purchased the Z1 from my Garmin 2720. Boy was I wrong! Garmin knows GPS!!!! Routes on it were right on the money every time and if you took a different route it would recalulate it perfectly. The other thing that the Z1 falls its face is the estimating the arrivial times. Mine is always at least 50% to much. I've adjusted the speed settings and tried two different connections to the speed wire, to no avail. Garmin was right to the minute every time. The "learn" feature is a joke also. I've been traveling the same route for 4 months now and it still wants to take me 20 miles out of my way.

I also really enjoyed being able to add POI's to the Garmin, I added thousands of them to that unit. It was easy with the garmin, as all you had to do was connect a usb cable to your computer/unit and download them. I know, my Honda Pilot is to big to get into the house as most likely your rig is also, but maybe they could make it so that we could burn them to a CD and them install them into the unit. After all, if it can copy music, why can't it copy POI's? They have done a good job of getting POI's, however, sometimes you just need special ones in your unit, like for myself, if I'm on a trip and blow the seat out of my pants, I need to be able to find the nearest Big & Tall Man's shop - Z1 dosen't provide that (ya, I know - take extra ones with you).

I eagerly await the new update in hopes that they correct these issues. I know and understand that the Z1 was their first release of a Nav unit. In time it should be up to par with Garmin. What good is an expensive Nav unit that can't Nav???? Sure I like all the other feature of the thing, but they have to get the main feature up to snuff. I don't know, is it plagiarsism if they copy Garmins technology? If it's not, then get on it boys.

A concern I have with the new Z2 is that 80%+ is going to be map updates. Granted, that is needed, but again I sure hope they have done a lot of improvements on how the Nav section works.

Bottom line is that, yes I will update, but probably have my Garmin close by in case I want to take a trip.

Not to change the subject of this thread, but we need a spell checker on here. Man, how did you say to spell "IBM?"

From what I understand, the navigation software was made by a Canadian company. No offense to anyone, but what do Canadians know about US maps? Where are they getting their data from? My cousin's neighborhood was built in 2001/2002. The spelling for the street names in his neighborhood was often off. One of the street name was suppose to be Fairfield, but according to the AVIC-N2 and Z1, the street's name is Fairchild.

I don't think the Z1 was Pioneer's first navigation system. I believe the N1 was their first, running the CNDV40MP software. Perhaps, if possible, Pioneer would contract a different navigation software company and make it so that we can reformat the hard drive with the new software. I had my N2 for a long time, and recently upgraded to the Z1. So far, the street's names in my cousins neighborhood has not been fixed. I haven't done too much navigating with the Z1 yet, but with the N2, there was only one time where the POI threw us off. We were looking for a nearby Claim Jumper Restaurant in the San Diego area. Although we were only 3.5 mile away from where the restaurant actually is, my N2 took us to a deserted area. We were just about to turn around and head to a different location when we found the restaurant, accidentally, about a mile from where the N2 took us. It was all the software's fault. It would be nice if the navigation software company would just make the software OPEN SOURCE. That way we can do our own editing of whatever is not correct with the program.

The only thing I am not satisfied with is the slow map update releases. I use a different gps devise in my truck. They come out with map updates for it every 6 months. I have purchased the last two updates for it for $99 each. The map data that came on it was newer than the map data that came on the avic. I would not recomend buying an avic if you are planning on having the latest maps. I feel that once you make the purchase they do not feel that they need to suport you anymore. I just turned someone away from an S1 because of it. I have owned my avic since the week they were released and there has still not been a single map update.

I'm finding more and more errors with mine too. More often than not, it does not take me to the address I type in. It's almost always at least 1/8 mile off. I made a trip to Knoxville last night, and the Z1 was HORRIBLE. I had me driving in circles and made me late for a date. It turns out they redid like 5 freeway on/off ramps over 2 years ago, and the Z1 maps did not reflect this. It's inexcusable to have maps this out of date on a $2000 navi unit.

My $60 USB laptop GPS is worlds better as far as map acuracy. I'm thinking of picking up one of the Kenwood 7100s for my mom's van. If it's better, I might dump the Z1 and go with the Kenwood in my car.

yup... It's almost always at least 1/8 mile off sounds right.

I wish i got the new eclipse with the bluetooth. The Z1 is to slow on start up and i pod !

My buddy just got the eclipse (6610 or whatever its called.) The bluetooth sucks compared to my D3, he couldn't use the camera he already had installed in the car, he had to hook up his VSS wire that his Pioneer didn't need, and the ipod display is worse than a D3 and Z1. Guess you might want it for sound reasons, but I am not sure I would give up everything else for it

I was going to go with a z2 but now i am considering the Kenwood DNX7100 because it uses Garmin for navigation, reads mp3\wma on DVD, has USB 2.0 connectivity, control and playback of VIDEO ipod, plays divx files too! No it does not have a hard drive but with a 60gb video ipod, i dont need one. screw that ripping to a 10gig partition from cd baloney.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-baL4fdVaGD ... Navigation

now i am torn between the two but the kenwood seems to have more/better features to me. i havent played with the gui, but if it is decent i dont think i will go with a pioneer.

Holy Crap! That Kenwood looks nice!

is the 2GB "hard drive" on the kenwood mechanical or a flash card?

Nice Kenwood, If I was still in the market, I would seriously consider it. My Z1 is not perfect, but i still love it. The time it takes to load a CD is no problem for me either, it will record them faster than they are playing so you don't have to wait for the whole CD to play. Some of my "non-store" library burns the names anyway. My steering wheel adaptor and blutooth work fine,..my only "real" complaint is the micrphone,...it just sucks out loud, no matter where I place it. Yeah the maps suck a bit, BUT, mine is in learning mode and recognizes how I drive rather quickly, plus destination history is mostly how I use the maps. I have other Garmin products and in the major cities where lots of construction is going on, you will find any maps are a bit useless. My feeling is this for ANY mapping,..if I have to rely so heavily on a machine to show me where to go, I shouldn't be driving, besides, you'll crash into something anyway.

Thanks to Ducatiboy and others here, we all seem to have "quality" problems, wouldn't you all agree? Now go enjoy whatever it is that you have installed in your car,.....step up to the plate and make a decision as to what you need,....heck,...make a pro and con list if you can't decide on your own,.....no 1 machine will do all for everyone,....isn't there a saying about pleasing most of the people most of the time?,.....