GPS doesnt recalculate...

It's a fact that the prii nav can't find it's way out of a wet paper bag but it is acting unusually negative for you, I'd take it to the dealer and request a loaner car for the duration of the replacement of the unit or DVD that's defective. Then I'd grab a Garmin Nuvi and use it for any important directional intelligence.
Toyota is an excellent company and the prius is an outstanding car, breath slowly and let it's good Karma envelope you.

 

I have a 2010 and mine recalculates fine. If you steer off, it does try to get you to take the originally presented route. After a few blocks, or so, sometimes more, it finally realizes I am not going to go that way and it plots a new route. There is no "recalculating" message visually or audibly. I always hated that on my Garmin anyway.

Tom G.

PS: Now that I think about it, the screen does say "Calculating..." very briefly. I don't think there is any audible "Calculating" from what I can remember. I have the voice guidance turned off.

 

what he said ^^

 

Mine chooses another route as soon as it realizes I am not on its first chosen route. It continues to choose the next available route until I finally get back on the original route.

Not sure what is different about yours. Like you said, I do not remember a setting that lets you select this. Have you taken it to the dealer?

 

Correct me if I am wrong. It may be possible that the road constructions or closed roads are not programmed into the system so it gets confused and demands you to continue the same route as originally calculated (like telling you to u-turn and such.)

I have not experienced the same issue, but it does take few moment for the system to recalculate a new route.

 

I don't have the answer but I think I understand the question (and the PPs don't)

Assume you're not in a familiar area. You find a road closed. You don't know an alternate. You don't want to take the time to go to the side of the road and attempt to use the GPS as a map and find your own alternate route.

Some GPS units have a detour button. Sometimes you can indicate how many miles you need to detour. The GPS will calculate an alternate route, skipping the area you need to detour.

Without the detour function the GPS will frequently get you back on your original route too soon.

I don't have factory nav so I don't know if it has a detour option.

 

I'm pretty sure I stumbled upon a similar setting, but it wasn't so much a detour setting as an "avoid road" setting. The down side to closed roads and detours, is you usually don't know where they'll take you or if they'll get you back to the road you wanted to be on before you're getting off that road.

That being said, I'll usually zoom out just a little and scroll around the nav screen to see which road seems to make sense to get on next. Either that, or I'll just take a random road and see what it does - it's like an adventure!