emjay

I think the issue here is that it would be preferrable to have the option to access the system if needed. What i find the most annoying is being unable to chahnge which cell is connected to bluetooth. A bunch of times i have realized while driving that my phone is not connected because my wife's phone is still in the system. so i have had to take my cell out of my pocket, dial manually and drive with one hand to make a call. Certainly less safe than being able to make the phone switch on screen.

turbosw20

Yeh,It's a love it or hate it.Sometimes it will take me around the whole block instead of just doing a u turn or another route!

NXOwner

What I wish the nav system would have is the ability to choose a keyboard layout.

I don't like the "ABCD" layout and would prefer the "ASDF" layout, like the majority of compuer keyboards in the "English-typing" world.


.

roccjard

RXOwner,

Select MENU, then SETUP, the third line down will give you the option to select the QWE keyboard (which is what you call ASDF).

sf7307

Further questions about the Lexus Nav (in a 2007 GS350):

1) If the screen is locked out while you're driving, does that mean "voice" doesn't work either -- i.e. can you change the destination by voice?

2) People talk about "text to speech" on the Garmin Nuvi, is this something the Lexus has? What is it and is it important?

3) If you don't get NAV, do you get the rest of the digital/screen features - radio, cell phone, etc. through the screen?

4) I read above where someone said the "wrong" phone was connected to his bluetooth. Do you have to reset it every time (the car would be mostly mine, but would also be driven by my husband and my daughter). What if two of you are in the car at the same time with two cell phones with two different numbers. How do you make the switch from one phone to the other?

Thanks much.

sportsfan8

I don't know about anyone else, but I think the automatic "pop up" NAV screen that some of the other cars have is really cool. When the NAV is not being used, it's conveniently hidden away. With the Lexus NAV screen, when they aren't being used, they just look like big ugly black squares in the middle of the dashboard.

emjay

I can comment on #4, but I don't use the voice recognition (haven't really had the time to figure it out) and I don't know the answers to the other two. Regarding the phone, you can register multiple phones, but only one can be active with the bluetooth at once. When the car starts up it always tries to connect with the last phone it was connected to. So if someone else used the car last and linked their phone, you have to go into the menus and select your phone to link it via bluetooth. My problem with this is if I forget to do it when I start the car up, it can't be done while driving. You have to pull over and stop the car to change the phone that is linked.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Speaking as someone who has never owned a Lexus with Navigation since it still isn't offered by Toyota or Lexus in my state yet, I can see why some people don't like the fact that you can't enter an address or destination while the car is in motion. The Nav on our 02 BMW doesn't have any lock out feature. Most of the other manufacturers that I know of also don't have a lock out feature either. So far since navigation has been offered in cars, these other manufacturers haven't been sued to death yet so I don't particularly buy that as an argument.

Anyway, the past few weekends we had this thing called "Parade of Homes" in my state. This is basically an Island wide open house of new houses. My wife and I were able to find some tricky houses in certain areas simply because as we were driving to the general area, one of us just entered the address given in the news paper and we just followed the nav diraction. It really does come in handy because sometimes they just list the address or street name but you don't really know what are of the Island it is. It was easy to enter the address, then see where it actually was located, and then determine if we actually wanted to see that house in that area. If not, we just cancelled it and entered the next house address on the list.

For those people that travel a lot for business to different business or residential address I can see why they would want to be able to do that on the fly. I live in Hawaii all my life and even on our small Island I still find it usefull and it still helps me navigate to areas were I don't travel often. I can only imaging those people that use it for business in large cities would really want to be able to do this all on the fly. Also, I have bunch of addresses stored in the address book. All it takes is a couple of clicks to retrieve a prestored address. I can't see how different that would be from clicking on the radio presets, or changing the AC controls. Especially if you have a touch screen where the radio and AC controls are on a touch menu. You can't go by feel so you have to look at what you are pressing. That too me would be the same as pressing a touch menu button to retriece a nav address while in motion.


Anyway, I'd still get the navigation Lexus if/when it is offered to us in my state simply because I want the LCD screen. Now, if it were like the GS and LS where the LCD screen comes with the car with our without the navigation than I might opt to pass and go after market.

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

The lock out while driving stinks.
Some other auto companies do the same thing and others like Acura do not.

sportsfan8

I love my Garmin.

The G Man

Other than the lock out, the Lexus Nav is pretty good.

The G Man

It doesnt work on the lastest nav version.

ecount00

what doesnt work? looks like a prior post got deleted.

we installed lockpick the day we got the rx. other than needing to do that, it's been ok.

JasDmw

I think we need to put this in perspective; NAV is part of a pacakge. Wife and I like the NAV; it replaces our Axim with the GPS option. I find many more featues on the factory NAV than on the other. Also has much better turn by turn instructions and the graphics are much better on the larger screen. Sorry, have no experieince with Garmin, but I have a vent mount available for the Axim. We leave either the map on letting us know where we are and what's around or leave the information on.

Really like the back up camera and the integrated hands free for the cell phone. Can you do that with the Garmin? Have used the voice recognition once; also a nice feature.

However, the manual and instructions are pretty awful. Very thick manual with a lot of repition but not enough step by step detail. Have 2 LG phones, bought before the car, and find now we can't download the contact list. Supposed to be able to use both in the car, but seem to have a problem with Lady Leadfoots; the bluetooth connected once but won't now and the battery dies in under a day, standby only. Must be a phone problem. Also, find a lot of extra glare on the screen with the sunroof open making the screen hard to see.

filmteknik

Which Lockpick version is needed on an 2008 RX350 if all you want to do is use the nav in motion. (I don't think I need video / audio inputs for the LCD or stuff like that.)