08' NAV system not worth it

its in poi under restaurants

 

For business address if you know there phone number you can use it to find there address on you nav. I always use there phone number because I hate to type name and address.

 

In certain instances, the Prius Nav system is next to worthless. That's why I'm picking up a Garmin Nuvi 750 to use instead. When I ordered my Prius I wanted all the bells and whistles. Too bad this lame nav system is part of the package. When asked about the Prius, I tell people that it's the best (of many) car I've owned. Then I tell them to avoid the nav system if possible.

Rotorhead

 

I have an 08 with the nav and my wife always jokes that I will never use it. I tell her that cause I am a man I don't need directions! When she isn't in the car I have used it, please don't tell!

 

Palmetto,

I took one of your examples, Lowes, in this case.

(I know absolutely nothing about this nav system)

I went to Destination, POI Name, typed in Lowe (not Lowe's, because there is NO apostrophe, hit list (looked thru the 6 names, Lowe Hardware, ahhh nope), hit Category, Shopping, Home Goods(?) and 192 Lowe's store popped up. Of course, I have the correct region setup.

I did the same for Grand Rapids, and it showed 2 Lowe's.

Probably not as easy as other better setup systems, but hey, I didn't buy it for the Nav, but for the leatherrrrrrr.

ZC1

 

Palmetto,

So again, I took the time to locate Ruths Chris steakhouse in Grand Rapids.
And I find the Toyota NAV highly intelligent.

You see Ruths Chris steakhouse is not exactly the healthiest place for a Prius driver and the Nav system intuitively knows this. So instead of locating the bad cholestrol Ruths Chris, it offers other much nicer places, ..like say ..McDonalds. What better atmosphere than Mickey D's? What better way to impress your spouse?

Anyways, How much is that Garmin?

ZC1

 

As far as searching for things on the Nav system I agree, it has something to be desired. But we needed to find an alternative route once while we were in a huge traffic jamb in Toronto Canada and the nav system re-routed us down streets we didn't know existed and got us to our destination earlier than anticipated. For all it's faults, it does have some good points. I particularly like the very large screen. I don't need my glasses to drive and I don't need them to read the screen.

Buck

 

On my 08 Nav in Denver

Press Destination,
Press POI Name
Type in Ruth

comes up with lots of Ruths.
Press category button
Press Restaurant
Press All

First on the list is Ruth's Chris Steak House (3)

Select Ruth's Chris
Shows one in Denver and two out of town.

That's one way to do it.

BTW, you might want to make sure you have the correct region selected in the setup menu. If you don't it won't find anything in the area.

 

all i can say is that if you are used to not having a nav system at all and
never have owned one period, it is quite nice!

so obviously my opinion on it does not go very far ;-)
i have nothing to compare it to.

 

The nav system is very picky about the spelling of business names. Plus, it often has different spellings for the same business at different locations. Thus, it is more reliable to search for just a partial business name. In my area, some Wallmarts are listed as "WALLMART" and some as "WALL MART". This is a bit annoying.

However, I have a Garmin Nuvi 250W (for my Suburban!) and it has a hard time searching for business names. I entered a campground name "Sunset Beach" and it searched for over 5 minutes and found nothing. Then I went back and entered the POI category 'Recreation" then searched for Sunset beach and it found it quickly. While, when I did that with the Prius Nav system it found Sunset beach in a couple seconds. The POI icons work a lot better on the Prius than on my garmin, and I really like the Voice recognition, now that I have learned a few key commands.

I think there are pro's and cons with every system, but I think Toyota's system is comparable to others, just different. (Albiet a lot more expensive)

 

Actually, I'm a bit burned out on hockey right now. During the winter months I am an engineer working in the TV trucks that broadcast the Avalanche and Nuggets games. Now that our season is over I've moved on to another losing team, the Rockies.
Best of luck with the Redwings. They looked unstoppable when they last came to Denver!

As far as using a partial search, I find that strategy works for all kind of searches including Google searches, not just the Prius Nav system. With any search you have to guess the most general combination that you can use that will still narrow the search enough to find what you are looking for. Things with dashes and apostrophes are particularly tricky.

 

I don't use the Nav because well, I haven't had time yet and I haven't even cracked the manual for it.
I hope to use the NAV later of course.
Another reason for the Lockpick 3+ is I wanted to have the video unlock features and an RCA video input, for an Ipod or a Zune.

Actually, I have a high end laptop with Microsoft Mappoint 2006 which can give me directions on the Go and my laptop has GPS too, so NAV isn't that important. I can read a map too (lucky me, heh)

The thing I really needed was those leather seats, and you had to take NAV to get it.

ZC1

 

With #3 you can add leather and go without the nav.

 

Oh ...and GO REDWINGS!

I'll be watching.

ZC1

 

You might want to wait for the Nuvi 880 (soon) as it has voice commands!