I have had my Pioneer AVIC-Z120BT for about 1.5 years. I replaced a "carputer" that I had built with components from mp3car. Even though I never had an issue with it, I decided to get an all-in-one solution that had a few more features than the one I built.

I was super excited to get it installed and start using it. Even since then I have been disappointed. All the reasons I purchased this unit have turned out to be a joke. I bought my unit from Crutchfield, and should have utilized their return policy, but I wanted to give this unit a chance.

Voice recognition never understands a word I say. Even if I lean forward to the point I am just a few inches from the mic, it will not understand anything. BT connects to my phone, but there is no way to have a phone conversation. The call is too hard to understand on both sides of the phone. Perhaps some of these issues can be solved by using a mic other than the one provided with the HU.

Menu navigation needs some work. If I am browsing a directory of music, and I enter a directory that is quite a ways down the list, then exit the directory, I am back at the beginning and have to scroll down again. Adding/Changing music should not require an external application to re-sort your files so they appear alphabetical.

I have recently upgraded the firmware to 2.003 with the hope that some of these issues would be addressed. However, it only seemed to make things worse. Since I have done the upgrade, the screen will go blank occasionally, and a few times, the music playing from the SD card would just stop.

Are any of these issues addressed with other upgrades? Perhaps going to 130? or 140 if possible? I have ben reading the about the upgrade process, but I don't want to go through the trouble if it will not improve the functions of my HU.

Well any upgrade would likely make the unit more usable then the way you feel about it now but the issues you describe that you dont like for the most part are no different with the new units. What you are describing are personal issues you have with the unit. Even though most would agree with you, Pioneer seems to feel the way these units are designed are what people want. These units have essentially had the same features and issues all the way back to the Z110 and nothing really seems to change. Bluetooth has always been a problem although some do report that the slight hardware revisions with the 130 did address a lot of the BT audio quality issues. Voice Control has always been hit or miss. But the bigest disaster with all of these units has always been the piss poor navi software these units use and is the signal biggest complain from users. Now that the 140 has been released, people were looking forward to the Nevteq maps, Advanced App mode, and the addition of Android support but so far complaints about the navi now being worse and Advanced App mode being nearly useless are starting to surface. Add that to the fact that Pioneer removed voice control for the navi and it seems they are going backwards if anything else. Honestly, tablet style devices are becoming so numerous, and in different sizes that it would make more sense to incorporate one of those in your car before ever spending the kind of money on a head unit in the future. I have had an in-dash iPad for a little over a year now and haven't looked back.

Thanks for the the reply. This is probably the most well thought out post I have received on any forum I have participated. Even though it isn't exactly what I was hoping to hear, I appreciate you taking the time provide input.

I did a ton of research on Navi head units before I made my purchase. The only thing I didn't/couldn't do, was actually get my hands on one and try it out for myself. If I had it to over of course, I would have chosen a different brand, but it may not have been much better. I threaten my wife with installing this into her car so I can get something different.

I have considered using a tablet, but I keep thinking security may become an issue if I leave it in my car. I assume your in-dash iPad has a custom install/mounting bracket of some sort, but still needs a head unit for amplification. I may have to reconsider something like this.

Yeah I certainly wouldn't leave it in the car. I have my dash piece fabricated so it is freely removable. And there is no head unit in the car. It is all controlled from a Parrot MKi-9000. From there line out to a Rockford Fosgate 3Sixty.2 digital EQ and from there to a JL Audio XD600/6 amp. I have full control of the system from the steering wheel, the best of all worlds from the apps and the sound quality is absolutely amazing.