Updated Navigation System

[Pamela]

I called my local dealer about updated the much flawed Navigation system on our Prius 2001 model. It takes us on wild goose chases before delivering us to the place we want to go. Anyone had experience with this? Our local dealer doesn't seem to have a clue.

[Orf]

Originally Posted by Pamela

I called my local dealer about updated the much flawed Navigation system on our Prius 2001 model. It takes us on wild goose chases before delivering us to the place we want to go. Anyone had experience with this? Our local dealer doesn't seem to have a clue.

You should be able to buy a new CD from the organisation that made the original disk. No guarantee that it will be any better but these companies do issue update disks every so often containing new data and corrections that they have received from users.
It is always a good idea to notify them when you find an error. Their web page should have a link so that you can tell them of errors.

[Pamela]

Well, the dealer got back to me after calling Los Angeles (we're in San Francisco area). He was told that an update on the navigaton system had been issued in 2004 and that another is due to come out in June of this year (2006). It costs just under $300! I asked if that was due to some difficult installation process. The answer was no. It's just another CD. It is installed directly into the system located in the trunk of the car. Needless to say, I'll wait until June rather than purchase the one issued in 2004. Then again, I may just tough it out and use a map...

[Orf]

Originally Posted by Pamela

Well, the dealer got back to me after calling Los Angeles (we're in San Francisco area). He was told that an update on the navigaton system had been issued in 2004 and that another is due to come out in June of this year (2006). It costs just under $300! I asked if that was due to some difficult installation process. The answer was no. It's just another CD. It is installed directly into the system located in the trunk of the car. Needless to say, I'll wait until June rather than purchase the one issued in 2004. Then again, I may just tough it out and use a map...

I suggest you consider a new CD (in June) because these new ones do increase the detail presented and also increase the areas covered. They also correct errors in the system and let's face it, who wants a system that gives you the run around.
Having said that, it all depend on how much you use your nav system.

[Pamela]

Well, it seems that Orf and I are having a conversation about the navigation system.

I moved out to Northern California three years ago to marry my high school sweetheart. Naturally, I needed to work as well. My vocation is writing marketing articles about luxury real estate - houses and estates that are impossibly expensive for us lowly folk.

San Francisco's Bay Area is comprised of San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Contra Costa County, Alameda County, Solano County, Santa Cruz County, Marin County and according to some stretches as far north as Napa County and Sonoma County and as far south as SAnta Cruz and Monterrey County. It is a huge geographic area with many connecting main highways and bridges, including the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, which is about 25 miles south of where we live in Novato, Marin County. Marin is where the hot tub was born. It also served as home to a lot of musical artists, including the Grateful Dead.

Imagine me, fresh from South Florida where I had three counties to deal with most of the time and highways that run a straight shot north south east and west (easy to get around and difficult to get lost) coming out here. Yikes! Thank God for the nav system. Without it, I'd have been late for countless appointments, wasted tons of gas and frazzled my nerves to a fairthewell.

But, the navigation system that came with the car is rife with problems. When I head out to East Bay area towards Oakland Airport, it wants to send me to downtown San Francisco. It has a lot of mistakes in that part of the area and it has misled me a number of times. It also doesn't have some of the newer developments that have been built in recent years. So, we shall see...we plan to move to Puerto Rico, where we lived and met in school way back in 1963 for our retirement in a couple of years, so we may just do with the system we have.

We heard about the Aussie cyclone. Hope all's on the mend after that horror. We've got experience dealing with those storms!

[Orf]

Pamela, you obviously need a good nav system for doing your job. Unfortunately, they do come up with poor route sellections at times. I know, it has happened to me with my StreetPilot III.
From what I gather the 06 Prius Nav will calculate three different routes based on some criteria that I cannot remember. (I pick up my Prius in about two weeks). You can then select the one you want to use. I do not know if the June issue for the 04 Prius will give the same options as the 06 but it should be better than what you have.