Here's the backstory:  I had a Z-120BT and got frustrated with its lag (always seemed that I was already at the intersection when it would tell me that the intersection was coming) and how it routed (literally got to a destination once and it had me go around the block "just because").  Swapped out to an AVS-X8500BHS because I thought that it would be the best of both worlds between an AppRadio and a DVD receiver.  WRONG.  AppMode stinks and Car Media Player for the AVR is even worse (have to use the touchscreen to skip tracks instead of being able to use the head unit's hard keys).  And I completely missed the part about the resistive touchscreen.  Swiping AppMode icons while on the road with that touchscreen is a royal PITA.  I ended up disconnecting the HDMI cable, abandoning AppMode altogether, and now use Waze and Escort Live directly from my Pro-Clip holstered iPhone.

I'm now planning on a CA to WI roundtrip drive that will start within the next month.  I still have the Z-120BT and was planning to put it back in so that I have a navigation display that's bigger than the phone, access to the music stored in my phone without any Car Media Player nonsense, and will just run Escort Live off of the phone's display.  I went to the Pioneer website to see if they still had satellite tuners for the Z-120BT; and that's when I saw the NEX series.  I instantly came over here and started reading everything that I could.

So here's the question:  How much better is the new NEX navigation as compared to the Z-1XX units?  The graphics look tighter.  It seems to display the names of cross streets that are actually relevant (another peeve of mine about the Z-120).  Capacitive touchscreen is a BIG plus.  But if it's so laggy that I'm going to be mounting the GPS antenna on my front bumper to get as much advance notice as possible; and if it takes me from Point A to Point B by first taking me to Points E, F, and G, I want no part of this.

Selling the Z-120 and the 8500BHS would help subsidize the 8000NEX purchase.  I swore that I was done with Pioneer, but I have to say that I'm interested in this 8000NEX.  However, I'm not going anywhere near it if the 8000NEX navigation is nothing more than capacitive-screened lipstick on a pig.  So, for those of you who have spent time with both the Z1XX navigation and the "new" navigation, what do you say?  Enquiring minds want to know . . .

I love my 8000, nav is better than my Z2 but I do miss voice commands. Buy it you'll love it

it still takes you all over the damn place to get to point B but there is no lag at all and I have my antenna mounted under my dash

Pioneer is using a custom version of iGo map software for the NEX series as oposed to the garbage they used in all versions of the 2nd gen Z series so it is assumed and has been reported to be much better then that of the Z series. The last time Pioneer used iGo was with the 1st. gen F/X series and those units were the best navis Pioneer ever released.

I waited a few years before I upgraded. I kept telling myself to wait til the next years model thinking I'd regret it. I'm glad I waited. Although the Bluetooth / Ipod thing bugs me, everything else so far makes up for it. In fact, I use a SD card for my non-streaming music. Without having the other models you mentioned, this model is a great purchase.

Pioneer is using a custom version of iGo map software for the NEX series as oposed to the garbage they used in all versions of the 2nd gen Z series so it is assumed and has been reported to be much better then that of the Z series. The last time Pioneer used iGo was with the 1st. gen F/X series and those units were the best navis Pioneer ever released.

I'm just wondering, but how do you know they are using iGo?  Do you have a source?

My experience so far with the NEX 8000 is that I arrive at my turns anywhere from 2-5 seconds before the Nav says to actually turn, and then the voice gets cut off because I am already turning.  I can be sitting right at the intersection light, and the nav will say I have anywhere from 100-300ft before my turn.  Luckily I only use the nav as a reference, and I actually pay attention to the street signs. I have the GPS antenna on my dash in the exact location as the old one that would be pretty spot on with the turns.  Navigation redirection is fairly quick, and I have purposely missed turns to see where it will try to reroute. 90% of the time it will send me to the correct point, or smart enough to tell me to turn around at the next available spot.  There have been a few times where it sent me on some wild turns that made no sense at all.  That being said, some of the reroutes will be based on the setting you have for fast, shortest etc... In the old Avics I do believe there was a way to correct the position/location of where you were to adjust the GPS.  I haven't taken the time to look for it on this unit yet, if it even exists. 

My experience so far with the NEX 8000 is that I arrive at my turns anywhere from 2-5 seconds before the Nav says to actually turn, and then the voice gets cut off because I am already turning.  I can be sitting right at the intersection light, and the nav will say I have anywhere from 100-300ft before my turn.  Luckily I only use the nav as a reference, and I actually pay attention to the street signs. I have the GPS antenna on my dash in the exact location as the old one that would be pretty spot on with the turns.  Navigation redirection is fairly quick, and I have purposely missed turns to see where it will try to reroute. 90% of the time it will send me to the correct point, or smart enough to tell me to turn around at the next available spot.  There have been a few times where it sent me on some wild turns that made no sense at all.  That being said, some of the reroutes will be based on the setting you have for fast, shortest etc... In the old Avics I do believe there was a way to correct the position/location of where you were to adjust the GPS.  I haven't taken the time to look for it on this unit yet, if it even exists.

 

I'm using the default arrow and I, pretty much spot on but when I used any other icon I had the same problem, so now I just stick with the default arrow icon

My experience so far with the NEX 8000 is that I arrive at my turns anywhere from 2-5 seconds before the Nav says to actually turn, and then the voice gets cut off because I am already turning.  I can be sitting right at the intersection light, and the nav will say I have anywhere from 100-300ft before my turn.  Luckily I only use the nav as a reference, and I actually pay attention to the street signs. I have the GPS antenna on my dash in the exact location as the old one that would be pretty spot on with the turns.  Navigation redirection is fairly quick, and I have purposely missed turns to see where it will try to reroute. 90% of the time it will send me to the correct point, or smart enough to tell me to turn around at the next available spot.  There have been a few times where it sent me on some wild turns that made no sense at all.  That being said, some of the reroutes will be based on the setting you have for fast, shortest etc... In the old Avics I do believe there was a way to correct the position/location of where you were to adjust the GPS.  I haven't taken the time to look for it on this unit yet, if it even exists. 

Do you have the antenna on the metallic pad it came with?

Maybe your gps signal is not accurate. Is your vss wire hooked up??

I'm using the default arrow and I, pretty much spot on but when I used any other icon I had the same problem, so now I just stick with the default arrow icon

Yeah I'm using the default arrow as well, so I may play around with the other icons to see if it makes a difference.

Do you have the antenna on the metallic pad it came with?

Yes, I had an Avic Z110 upgraded to Z140 software, so it has the same GPS antenna, and pad, with nothing blocking it.  I have also checked the GPS connection, and it's receiving either 12 or 13 satellites as I am driving around.  The Z110 would only see 11, so I have somehow gained 2 satellites, but tracking is slightly off LOL.

Maybe your gps signal is not accurate. Is your vss wire hooked up??

Yes VSS is hooked up, I am getting the speed pulses, AND the speed readout is accurate on the NEX compared to my speedo, and several different GPS apps I have used to test it.  I have the nav set to verbose so that way I get a far enough heads up when I am in an unfamiliar area to really start paying attention until I can get this figured out.

Yes, I had an Avic Z110 upgraded to Z140 software, so it has the same GPS antenna, and pad, with nothing blocking it.  I have also checked the GPS connection, and it's receiving either 12 or 13 satellites as I am driving around.  The Z110 would only see 11, so I have somehow gained 2 satellites, but tracking is slightly off LOL.

If I'm reading this correctly your using the gps antenna from the Z110, I would disconnect that, and put in the one that came with the nex, you never know, it's worth a shot because I know I was annoyed as hell until I switched my icon to figure it out.

If I'm reading this correctly your using the gps antenna from the Z110, I would disconnect that, and put in the one that came with the nex, you never know, it's worth a shot because I know I was annoyed as hell until I switched my icon to figure it out.

Yep, thought about that as well.  I unplugged the old antenna, and instead of going through the trouble of running the new wire behind the dash, I ran the wire back out the front of the dash, with the dash kit left off so it wouldn't pinch the wire, and put the antenna on the metal pad on the dash to see if the results were going to be different...this was done right after the initial install, and test drive.  That is how I came to the conclusion that the antennas were exactly the same.  I did a 20 mile loop with it like that, and the distance that it was off was the same as the old antenna.  As I said before, the Z110 was spot on with turns, and gained less satellites than the NEX does.  If I get it figured out, I will be sure to post an update as to what was done to fix it.

In the past with the previous Z series it can take as much as 1K miles for the unit to calibrate and to reach its max accuracy. You may need to put more miles on yours.

In the past with the previous Z series it can take as much as 1K miles for the unit to calibrate and to reach its max accuracy. You may need to put more miles on yours.

Yeah I was hoping once the calibration lines were full, that it will have corrected the distance error, so I am giving it some time.  It isn't too bad of an issue, but it does concern me that a newer units GPS is not as good as an older unit...for now.  Otherwise, I love the NEX.  

The one feature that I really like is that it does not dim the unit when you turn the headlights on during the day, it will wait until sunset to actually switch the unit to nighttime driving. That caught me by surprise the first time it did it, as I was thinking something was wrong with the switch when I turned the lights on while driving in the rain during the day and I was expecting it to switch to night driving like the old AVICs would do.  It's those little things like that go a long way.

So far I can't say that I like the navigation better than my Z150BH...yet... but to be fair I haven't given it much use yet so I'll reserve judgment for a while still. The breadcrumb trails that I finally got back on my Z150BH after losing them on my X920 are now gone again, it doesn't seem to be an option on the 8000 NEX. Also missing is the line-of-sight line which tells me where my destination is in relation to my current location. None of the alert points work yet the red light camera alerts work on my iGo Primo app. I'll give it some time though maybe it'll grow on me.

-Keith

I think they are using iGo sat nav software because when you go through the menu for the sat nav its very similar to the Clarion I had which uses iGo and Alpine, who also use iGo. Also the icon for POI are very similar to the Clarion and Alpine. That just my theory, I could be wrong.

Koush

They are using a custom version of iGo.

My experience so far with the NEX 8000 is that I arrive at my turns anywhere from 2-5 seconds before the Nav says to actually turn, and then the voice gets cut off because I am already turning.  I can be sitting right at the intersection light, and the nav will say I have anywhere from 100-300ft before my turn.  Luckily I only use the nav as a reference, and I actually pay attention to the street signs. I have the GPS antenna on my dash in the exact location as the old one that would be pretty spot on with the turns.  Navigation redirection is fairly quick, and I have purposely missed turns to see where it will try to reroute. 90% of the time it will send me to the correct point, or smart enough to tell me to turn around at the next available spot.  There have been a few times where it sent me on some wild turns that made no sense at all.  That being said, some of the reroutes will be based on the setting you have for fast, shortest etc... In the old Avics I do believe there was a way to correct the position/location of where you were to adjust the GPS.  I haven't taken the time to look for it on this unit yet, if it even exists.

 

There is an option disabled by default which provides you with advanced navigation instructions. sounds like you might need it. i haven't tried it myself yet tho.

If you're talking about the verbosity level of guidance, I already have that set to verbose.  Otherwise, I have no idea of what advanced navigation instructions you are referring to.

Can some one elaborate on bluetooth issue or that it mo longer has coming from z130bt thanks

Apologies to all for my absence.  The internet's been down for a week at the house and I didn't want to try to thumb a reply on my iPhone.  Thank to you all as well for your contributions / discussions while I was away.  Here are the points that I found especially salient:

1. Custom iGo sounds very good to me.  I was prepared to purchase iGo through AppStore when I thought my AppRadio Mode experience was going to turn out better.
2. I didn't have the antenna on the metallic pad while the Z-120BT was installed.  I just had it resting on the package shelf behind my rear seats.  I didn't even see that the pad was supposed to be used no matter what until I was reading the NEX8000 installation instructions.  D'oh!
3. I also never hooked up the VSS.  As discussed in other forums on this site, Mustangs like mine require tapping the transmission OSS up near the ECU.  If I have to do that this time, so be it.

In the meantime, I've already ordered the unit.  It should be here tomorrow and I'll hopefully have it installed before the weekend.  Stay tuned for further developments . . .

If you're talking about the verbosity level of guidance, I already have that set to verbose.  Otherwise, I have no idea of what advanced navigation instructions you are referring to.

There's an option you can enable that gives you additional announcement about approaching navigation, I haven't enabled mine maybe I'll try it tomorrow... but from how the manual describes it it sounds like instead of it saying "In 800 feet turn left" it'll give you an additional warning at 1600 feet for example.