I'm considering a 6th generation ES. It's my understanding that Apple Car play is not available on the 2013-2018 ES. With that being said, is buying a car with NAV the only way to get a navigation display on the screen? Will google maps through my iPhone not mirror to the display?

If getting a ES with nav is what I need, is the Lexus Nav decent? i.e. works well, intuitive, up-to-date?

Thanks in advance.

 

I don’t think you’re going to make that work. You could search this forum and likely get lots of info on Nav, and integration, what you can do and not do. I find the factory nav irritating, it seems to be a dated software, isn’t intuitive and costs many hundreds of dollars to update. I have a Garmin from Costco, free lifetime updates and I like where it sits in the corner of the windshield where it’s easy to glance at, unlike the the factory nav where I have to take my eyes off the road too long.

 

I agree with St1800. I also have a 6th Gen ES.. I do like the navigation system on the car but not ready to let the dealership update it. I actually stopped at my local lexus dealer just last week and asked the service writer approx. how much to update the nav. He told me around 300 bucks give or take a few dollars. Well as it turned out I recently replaced my Garmin Nuvi ( which I use in my 4 Runner ) with a brand new Garmin about 3 months ago.. It normally sells for 270.00 but I found it on Ebay for either 179 or 189. When I called Garmin to ask them a question about the unit, the rep told me he would match the ebay price, plus I talked him into throwing in a free soft case ( 20 dollar value ). It's a 7" display, looks marvelous and more importantly has free lifetime maps. Add to it that it's also portable between vehicles, I'm sticking with the garmin as opposed to paying Lexus 3 bills for an update. Just my opinion.

Roland

 

in car navi is nice to have but with so many phone apps with live data, it makes zero sense to have onboard anymore.

Especially if you have to pay X dollars to keep it updated. Should be an integrated app, but this is how they get a little extra money out of you.

And fwiw, the voice recognition in lexus is ****.

 

I have a 2017 ES with the factory nav, and when I am in doubt, or need a second set of reliable "eyes" I always whip out my Apple Maps on my phone. The factory nav is a nice feature to use when you are going to a "predictable" destination. More often than not, I always whip out my Apple phone. No, the Apple Maps will not show up on the Navi screen (I wish it did, but Toyota/Lexus has been very late and ignorant not putting Carplay in the model until the 2019 model). Lexus has a *****ty reputation for their navi systems, and it is not worth updating in my opinion. The ETA in the Lexus is not accurate as what is on the Apple phone apps. If my destination is to a congested area, (i.e. Hoboken, NJ, Lower Manhattan) , I whip out my I-phone to get the best ETA before I leave the house--the Lexus ETA is not accurate until you are 10 minutes to the end of your trip.

 

I'll present a somewhat different view from some of the others.

Since about 2002, I've bought around 7 different vehicles. All but one had navigation systems. For the one vehicle that I bought without a navigation system, I regretted the purchase soon after making it.

Yes, I understand the criticisms of the Lexus (and other car manufacturer) navigation systems, but there is still something very nice about having a larger screen built into an easy-to-view location in the vehicle and one that is integrated into the rest of the car's systems. Further, to me, aftermarket add-on navigation comes across as looking somewhat tacky.

And, yes, I know that navigation systems are expensive vehicle options, but, regardless of how good products like Garmin systems might be, built in navigation systems are still in high demand by used car buyers, and that is especially true for luxury brand used cars, including those from Lexus. There was a a used car manager from a Lexus dealer who used to post here. He posted, on several occasions, to say that, when someone wants to trade in a car at his dealership, the offers that he made for cars without navigation were deeply discounted because he knew that a non-navigation car was likely to sit on his lot for an extended period of time and/or would be sold at auction. On the other hand, he knew that navigation-equipped cars would move off of his lot quickly for a premium price, and his trade-in offers on those cars were reflected the higher anticipated demand for them.

Even though built-in navigation systems add to the purchase price of cars, they retain a higher percentage of their value than most other options. Thus, a good portion of the cost of a built-in navigation system is recovered at resale or trade-in time.

 

As you can see, everyone has different opinions. I’ll agree with lesz in that I prefer the larger screen with the map on my 2014 ES display. I upgrade every two years and new roads around here are up to date. It’s accurate. The only thing I find a little annoying for road trips is Lexus nag assumes a few speeds and the time-to-arrival is usually longer (but I’ve gotten used to that). While we use the iPhone for some things, I also use Lexus Mac to find nearby food, gas, etc., and it maps it for me. Again, good for road trips in unknown areas.

 

The primary advantage of having incar navigation is that if you don't have cell signal, you can still use the navigation feature of the vehicle. Cell phone navigation requires cell signal.

 

Yep! Off the interstates, cell phone coverage gets tricky, regardless of the carrier. And then it might be slow, also.

 

I also noticed how far off the Lexus ETA calculation was. I finally minimized that error by maxing out the preset speeds for highways, roads, streets. Those numbers are only used for ETA calc so no reason not to alter them.

 

There are GPS navigation apps that use (downloaded) local maps on the cell phone and require no signal.
One such is Sygic which I very much like.

Sygic GPS, Navigation is the world’s most downloaded Offline GPS navigation app, trusted by more than 200 million drivers.Offline 3D maps are stored on your phone for GPS navigation without an internet connection. We update the maps multiple times per year for free, so that you can always rely on Sygic GPS Navigation. NAVIGATE ANYWHERE, EVEN WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION

 

Repost info: Download and configure Lexus Enform App Suite (not LEAS 2.0) Uses the phone's voice recognition
and map data to place destination into the native Lexus Navigation. Use before traveling to store Point B's, use
during travel to dictate spoken directions, use Fuel Finder to sort gas prices and chose stations. Pre Apple CarPlay
program, works quite well but does not address the routing concerns Tootsall mentioned.