I have a 2021 ES with Nav. My connected services subscription expired which wasn't a concern until I noticed that the NAV system no longer recognizes my requests for directions.

I used to be able to say things like directions to Applebee's or Holiday Inn and the system would understand. Now it only understands exact addresses. I can't even ask for 254 Clinton Ave because it responds with Clinton Ave in far away states. IMO that makes the system largely dysfunctional.

Have others had this same experience? I don't need updates for new roads and points of interest but I thought that info from 3 yrs ago would still be in the system.

 

I have a 2024 with 400 miles. I saw this and yes, it works that way and yes you paid for it when you bought the car. Many auto manufacturers have gone down this route. I could see if they had a large overhead like Safety Connect but for what it is and for the money they want per month is too much.
Enough Toyota owners have complained and maybe even brought a civil suit. I herd that Toyota changed the policy to if you have or are paying for any of the connected services that it is still included. Remmember they don't get a 10 year trial on the other services. Maybe if we all complain and don't pay for it. Lexus my change their minds. Ya, right!!!

 

When I bought my 2001 LS430UL which I still have I was told then about Lexus nav unreliability. Nothing has changed since I bought my 2020 ES300hUL. It is still highly unreliable so thank goodness we have android available with real time info.

 

I quickly realized the dynamic navigation on my 2021 350es was a joke when it tried to send me the wrong way on one way streets, onto streets that had been closed for months for construction, and to an animal hospital located over 2000 miles away instead of the one three miles from where I entered the correct name. I complained to the tech guy at the dealership and he just chuckled and said use Google maps or Waze like everyone else.

 

definitely a weak point in Lexus. With google apple and Waze being free, at least we're not forced to pay for Lexus subscription.

 

How much is subscription?

 

The no subscription required, built-in voice command system is enhanced with an active subscription required cloud based Dynamic Voice system. For at least some of the navigation related voice commands Dynamic Voice provides the additional smarts to resolve fuzzy commands into more specific localized commands.

Since Lexus kept changing the packaging and subscription period terms on the cloud based services, I don't know the Dynamic Voice and Dynamic Navigation terms are with the 2021 model year ES "Dynamic" services. For my 2019 ES, Dynamic Voice and Dynamic Navigation are a package subscription and since I opted to keep that subscription active after the trial period the "Dynamics" continue to work as they did during the trial subscription period.

 

Hard to say what the current official (US) price is.

When my 2019 ES's 3 year trial subscription was due to expire, the (US) Lexus web site indicated the on-board navigation database update with 2 year subscription was something like $169 plus whatever the dealer's service charge was if you had them do the database update. (With the change over to the "new" Drive Connect with Cloud Navigation, the (US) Lexus web was redone to such an extent that information on the old Dynamic Navigation subscription service either has been removed or buried somewhere not easily locatable.)

I had my dealer's service department do the update and the total cost for the database update and 2 year subscription was $89.88. I have no idea if that's what the official Lexus corporate price was supposed to be, but I explicitly questioned the service manage that that price covered everything (database update plus 2 year subscription plus service labor charge) and the service manager confirmed it did. The Lexus subscription system showed a change in the Dynamic Navigation subscription status from trial to paid active. (There was an issue with the car's navigation system still showing an expired status that took multiple weeks of back and forth between the dealer's service techs and Lexus corporate support to get resolved but that eventual got fixed with no additional charge.)

 

Dynamic Navigation is $80 per year. Really not a big deal. Same price for Remote subscription.