Hey cmusic, thanks for sharing, you just gave alot of 2nd Gen IS owners hope to install an aftermarket unit nav/screen display in their non-nav vehicles.

 

Alpine 6.5" touchscreen

Alpine 6.5" regular monitor



The Vehicle Hub Pro requires a Alpine video expansion module for a second monitor or the touchcreen to work. The upside is you can have seperate video and audio on each monitor. Like I could have the factory stereo playing on the main speakers and have NAV on the front monitor while a DVD is playing on the rear monitor with the DVD sound going to a set of headphones.

 

Let me comment that I run the Alpine expansion module (VPE-S431) in one of my cars although with a full blown Alpine head unit and touch screens. It is a must have unit if you run multiple screens. I love it

 

Nice write-up Chuck....

I'll have to check out this Alpine Unit and see if i can do something with it in my LS430 ML.

Mike

 

Here's the story..

I live in Hawaii and Servco Lexus of Hawaii (the only dealership on the island) told me that there would be no way i would be able to order a IS with navi. They said that the only way i would be able to get my hands on a IS w/ Navi would be to buy one from California and ship it. After realizing that it would cost about $53k to get the car shipped from California, i decided to just order a 07 IS350 from here (hawaii). Anyways, my friend who works in a audio shop told me that i would probably be able to just retrofit the stock navi deck into my non-navi car. The only bad thing would be that the mapping for the navigation wouldnt work. I am totally fine with that because i mainly want the Navi for the dvd player, bluetooth, the screen, and back-up camera. I know i can go aftermarket for all this but i rather have a stock unit that i know was made for the car. (ive had bad experiences with aftermarket decks).

Anyways, ive come to realize that if i wanted to convert my car into a car with navi, i would not only have to buy the Navigation screen head unit but also the buttons that go on the steering wheel for the bluetooth, the back up camera, and all wiring accessories.. I realize that this isn't going to be cheap but im just wondering if it would actually be worth doing all this work. What do you guys think? More importantly do you guys think it will work? My friend said that all the wires should already be there and that hopefullly it will just be plug and play...

please fellow clublexus members, i need your input...

 

considering its still a relatively new car... im pretty sure it would be one very expensive set-up. plus i dont think anyone knows exactly which parts you would need.

 

its been researched and it doesnt look like a direct swap, lot of wiring is very different from non nav vs. nav

 

You'd need more than navi (the nav dvd drive doesn't play movies). You'll also need the ML with DVD changer. Besides being a nightmare logistically, the price makes such a venture completely unrealistic. You're turning a $4K option into a $8K nightmare.

 

My recommendation is to purchase one equipped the way you want instead of trying to retrofit it.

 

really?? i was hoping that it would be plug and play...

im not questioning your knowledge about this but are you 100% positive that the wiring is different?

Im just in denial right now... hhahahahaha

 

The biggest reason to forget it is Hawaii may not be covered on the DVD disk. The tutorial clearly says coverage is for the “continuous” United States and Canada. Now perhaps the GPS function would work, but you would have no background map to work from. That's probably why it's not offered in Hawaii.

 

Guess you didn't actually read his post.

 

Yes, I missed that. At any rate, in spite of the cost, it still seems it would have been a better idea to buy the car in California and have it shipped out.

 

plug and play? this isn't a mac... its a pc... errr i mean a lexus! i was totally disappointed that we don't even have the option for the dvd nav. i too was mainly interested in the bluetooth, and the backup camera. besides, can't really get lost here in the islands, however, i do own a portable gps unit that i sometimes use in my car. i guess people in the northeast don't have the option for ML and we do, and we don't have the option for nav, and they do.

 

but he said it costs $53K to ship the car! let alone the cost of the car itself