Bottom line -- NAV + BT worth $3K?

The extra $2500 to $3000 did not seem worth it to me for blue tooth and NAV. I work with differential GPS and expect greater precision. The "mapquest" navigation and maps operate on a "set mode" directing you to take longer routes when more direct routes are a better choice.

I have the 2005 AM package and everything works great (just turned 9000 mi). I don't miss having NAV or blue tooth one bit.

 

I had the same question several months back. I'm glad you've decided to at least get the sess fob - that's the best add on over all. my second fav - also my fiance's fav - is the lady in the dash. if you ever print directions from the web or have to stop and ask and if you do this with any sort of frequency you'll love it. I love the nav system and believe it is a lot easier to use built in rather than an add on system. I have not used the bluetooth yet but plan on getting a treo 650 in nov when my sprint contract lets me.
bottom line: i used to have to print directions a ton especially with my job and now i never have to and it's made life grand in that respect. I asked the same question to this board several months back and really if you have a partner with whom you argue about directions ever, then definately invest in it.

 

I struggled with the same decision, and settled on Package 4 (to be picked up on Saturday!). In the end, I realized that I could buy a pretty nice laptop, GPS software, and handheld GPS receiver for less money than the NAV, and that would give me a portable solution. I usually need better directions when I'm travelling away from home, which usually means a flight and a rental car, so the built-in solution wouldn't help me there at all.

I'm sure the built-in solution is much less hassle, but even if you use it once a week for 6 years, you're basically paying $10 a pop for directions, which seemed a little steep to me...of course, YMMV...

 

I will not own another car without EITHER or at least some equivalent!

the convenience of the phone and the nave system are a little much but check the specs, I think you get a little more than that, even if it isn't all readily apparent.

I've got almost 8,000 miles on an 05 salsa red and use the nav more and more. Its great for LA traffic for finding detours and new locations, or old locations when coming from a different direction. This city is HUGE and it all looks the same. I travel allot so the NAV is worth it, If you never leave a ten square mile area, yeah its probably overkill, but if you're on the east coast and travel from DC to Philly to Jersey to NY to wherever the frik you go on the east coast it would be well worth the piece of mind of always knowing what is around.

 

Well, if it had been an option when I bought my Canadian "B" Model in Dec 03, I would've added the Nav/Bluetooth.

But it wasn't available, so I picked up a Garmin Streepilot 2610 instead ($1100 cdn at the time).

Does the job just fine, and is arguably better than Toyota's OEM GPS system (better software updates, it's portable so you can take it to any car, can sell it off and upgrade without changing cars, etc). The only downside is that it's not built-into the car and it has a smaller screen.

The bluetooth would be convenient, but my pocketPC isn't really lacking in that regard anyway.

Dave

 

On our first Prius we got the works. On our second Prius we opted for the pkg 5. The Nav isn't really that great, though we have found it useful about half the time we use it. Never need it at all unless we travel. The bluetooth however is great.

The bottom line is this; 3000$ plus tax and finance charges. (whether you finance or not, the money sunk into the car still costs you.) Total comes to about 55 dollars a month on a 60 month note. We decided that there were other things we could do with 55 dollars a month that would have more impact on our lives.

Another way we looked at it was like this. We are saving 250$ a month on gas and maintainance, compared to the Ford Explorer that we unloaded. The payment for 60 months at 4.7% with 4000$ down comes to 405$ a month. The cost to drive a new car came to 155$ a month added to our budget. The pkg 6 would have been a difference of 210$. That's a 33% increase in the impact on our cashflow for a minimal gain in functionallity compared to the car itself.

That's my fuzzy headed logic. YLMV