Hey all-
Last night I just drove home a '15 F-Sport white/black with 24k mi!

All seems well but it apparently there is no SD card. Where's the best source for replacement?
Thanks.

 

Best source is going to be a dealership. DO NOT buy a used one off eBay or similar site. Once a new SD card is inserted into a vehicles navigation system it will not work in another vehicle.

 

Thanks, appreciate the help. That card is only used for the nav, correct?

 

The SD card is only for the NAV, and contains the maps and all the POI information. It is the modern replacement for the DVD of a few years ago. You cannot copy music to it; that's what the USB ports are for.

 

Thanks, as I thought. I'll probably just use my phone for Maps but might as well get the card anyway... if for no other reason to stop at searching for a connection.

 

If you get the card, there is no need to use your phone's smaller inconvenient screen for maps. Once you have a nice big map right in the center of the dash, you will not go back to phone maps. Many users, however, will fire up Waze or Inrix for a second source of traffic data, as well as officer spottings, which no car built-in NAV offers.

 

Here's something I did not know until now: I just called my Parts Dept to ask about a new version of the SD card for NAV data. I learned that getting new NAV data is not as simple as with the older DVD systems: the SD Card part is $210, BUT: they have to order it, as they don't keep them in stock at the dealership (which makes sense, as they become worthless every year); they want payment at the time of the order, AND it must be "installed" by the service dept who use some computer device to register the card to the car. If not, it won't work, and, although the parts guy was not sure, the card probably won't work in any other car, so you can't resell it and you probably can't even use the previous card. The service charge for this is about $70.00. All in that's $280, and you don't even have a backup (unless the card can be copied, which is doubtful).

 

I always prefer to buy the factory navigation system with most of my vehicle purchases but it is due mainly to options/packages that come along with it and are unavailable unless you make the purchase. Although I like the bigger screen and convenience of using the factory navigation vs a phone, I still find almost every car manufactures Navi solution/system are far inferior to anything offered by Maps, Waze or Gmaps on a phone and aren't as easy to use either. These companies need to be more innovative beyond just introducing an ipod ready port for music and allow some sort of interface/access to those visual apps if not wireless screen mirroring itself.

I do understand the reason behind this is probably due to making more profits. I bet if a survey was done to capture a demographic of phone app users vs on-board navi systems (even in luxury cars) the phone app user group would be significantly larger.
I will be diving into this project over the summer to get wireless screen mirroring solution to work on our model with the use of some aftermarket part's I've been researching. Others have done this already from what I've seen online.

 

Test drove a used 2017 RC 350 F last week. Might of bought the car, except that it did not have a SD card. You would think that the Lexus dealership would of known it was missing, instead of me informing them. If they did not know about the missing SD card, what else did they miss during their very esteemed inspection?

 

 

I have given up on the Lexus infotainment system. I have also given up on Beatsonic releasing their carplay/android system for our cars I went with a Miracast unit from Amazon to mirror my phone on the car's screen. It works, looks and sounds great. The only downside is having to use a Samsung mobile mouse to control, and you also need to buy a video in motion bypass device...

 

Update: gave the dealership 5 days to put in a SD card. Called back after a week and they still did not have it in. After 10 days I called about progress of having the SD in, and they stated car was sold without the SD card. Oh well... Find another somewhere, which is hard, not to many RC-350 f's around.

 

Did you buy a Certified Pre-Owned Lexus (L-Certified) from a Lexus dealership? If so they have to give you a navigation system SD card. One of the checks on the 161 point certified inspection is to ensure the navigation system works properly. https://www.lexus.com/documents/broc...t-brochure.pdf
If the dealership won't give you an SD card I would get on the phone with Lexus ASAP.
MONDAY–FRIDAY, 8 AM–8 PM, ET
SATURDAY, 9 AM–6 PM, ET
1-800-255-3987

 

Did not buy the car. It was "certified Lexus dealer", and gave them a week to put a SD card in for the navigation system. One week went by, still no card... so no sale. Did call 3 days later, and dealership informed me someone bought the car without it.

It was a nice one that got away, but for the money they wanted, I thought the dealership could of been a little more helpful, and should of produced this little SM card ready to go within a week.
Plan now is to keep searching for another slightly used one, or wait and get a new 2018.