I am thinking about buying a GS300 with no nav. Is nav required to utilize Bluetooth technology?

 

I have a GS300AWD without ML and NAV the bluetooth buttons for the phone are on the steering wheel. They bring up the phone screen but I dont have a bluetooth phone.
--Pete

 

Yes, you do have Bluetooth with or without Nav.

 

Just think you should expect a few little "quirks".

Apparently, not all Bluetooth phones are equal, and some don't let you use all the features.

I have the Moto V551 and Cingular. The setup works at least as well as one of the all in one hands free kits like the CCM Navigator. Sound quality is not the same as if you held the phone up to your ear, but it's quite passable. Some people at the other end have told me it sounds fine, others have said it's horrible. For a more objective assessment, I left myself a message on the home answering machine (digital). The message was a bit "choppy" but quite understandable. I suspect it was something to do with the fact that the phone was digital, going to analog, storing as digital, etc. I wouldn't want to have a long drawn out discussion, but it beats holding a phone to your head. The other party sounds a bit "muffled", kind of like you'd get if you turned the treble all the way down on the radio. Needless to say, the outgoing sound quality, depends on how clearly you speak, and if you turn your head to the mic in the overhead area where the sunroof controls are. Would have had better quality if it was in the steering wheel or dash right in front of you, but...

You can't do much more than answer the phone or use the one touch dialing when you're in motion - no voicemail reviews - but they give you a total of 18 slots to fill with one touch numbers. This "big brother" stuff of disabling functionality "for your safety" is the most annoying thing about this car. I'm sure glad I didn't pay for the Nav system and have to put up with the constant "I agree" nag... and I'm not nuts about cutting wires in a $50K car to undo a problem that the manufacturer put in.

Having the stereo automatically mute for the phone is just great. Hang up, and in a couple of seconds the sound is where you left it.

The phone book is OK, but I can only transfer one number at a time from my Moto. Also, the name can only go up to 9 characters, if I recall correctly. Also, if it's a multi-part name entry (i.e. has spaces), the car's system may transpose the order. I've had luck using just last names or lastname(x) with no spaces between.