Just nabbed a fairly loaded '02 ES300 for my wife's daily commuter (and my stealth fighter weekend drives ) and it came with V1 of the NAV. It's pittiful in every regard and I won't bore you with my scathing review of a 2001-technology GPS unit haha. It was designed in 2001, enough said.

I haven't been able to find any information on the non-map improvements the various versions make, if any at all. Will upgrading to V7 give me 3D NAV view like with most common portable GPS units on the market? I have a TomTom One 3rd edition I got for $100 last fall that kicks the Lexus NAV's butt. I'd hate to waste money on V7 if all I get are an upgrade to 2006 maps and POIs but no upgrade to the core NAV functionality.

Related to the NAV. Where is the NAV antenna. I see an in-glass antenna system in the rear glass and another antenna by the rearview mirror. I was going to tint the glass but didn't want to negatively affect GPS reception. One local place said the NAV antenna was in the rear glass and I should use ceramic tint for a grand total of almost $500. I haven't called any place else as I thought I should become an educated consumer first.

If it was business hours I'd just call the dealer and annoy them with all of these questions. Instead YOU get me! ha!

 

Only because I always *LOVE* to answer my own questions I'd like to report that upgrading to a newer version of NAV does NOT provide any visible new functionality. In my '02 I'm still stuck with the poor (imo) 2D map layout and "arrow" screen. No 3D view as seen in newer portable GPS devices.