Does anyone have an answer as to why there is no digital compass display in the 2008 LS 460 when the car is equipped with navigation? The people at Lexus say it's redundant because of the North heading up display on the navigation screen. Would it be too much too ask if the car would be equipped with a digital compass display as well, either in the instrument panel display or in the rearview mirror? The ES 350 has both.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Jimmy

 

hi,

there is a fully functional digital compass display incorporated into the navigation unit. it is one of the display screens that is available while viewing the "map." just hit the on-screen button that controls the type of window display that you are viewing, and choose "compass" mode. the other options include "single map," "dual map," "turn list," etc.

 

personally i wonder the SAME thing as well. the 2is, 3gs, es350 all have it, even if you have nav. i don't understand why they don't put it in the mirror on the 4ls as well

 

I wondered about this as well when I first acquired the car, and found that if you look closely but sideways at the cabin rearview mirror (right hand side), you'll notice the mirror has the compass built in; however I figure it is only activated on the base model that is not equipped with Nav. There should be a way to run power to the mirror to turn it on.

 

ah, now that's very interesting. running power into the mirror shouldn't be hard at all, and that's all you need to activate it

 

Which map is the "scrolled" map. I often get an error reference to a command only being available on the scrolled map, not the nav map.

 

My '07 ES350 only has the compass on the NAV, not on the rear view mirror.

 

rom,

please post back if/when you do this....thanks

 

That spot in the mirror is where the radar detector display goes.

 

OMG....is that a V1 integrated radar?

 

for the LS460/600?

 

I wonder if there's really a (disconnected) compass unit back there, or if it's just the window used when a compass is installed ...

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If you look at it closely, with a flashlight pointing at an angle, you'll see there is a LED character module in there. The square spot you'll see is a "weak" two-way mirror that reveals the LED when lit but is imperceptible when not - as in the LS's equipped with Nav. Now, I imagine for the sake of "economics of scale", Lexus must have felt it wasn't worth having two different types of mirrors in the base or upgraded models. So, I "hazard to guess" that all that's missing is a wire to power the unit. There's probably a wire harness back there (it needs power for the auto-dim feature) and it may even have a connector to boot. That's my take on it anyway.

 

That's not a LS...

 

oh...is it a GX?....can you get it for the LS?