JVC KW-NX7000 Review

I’ve had my JVC unit installed for about a month now and have driven about 2,100 miles including trips to the wilds of Vermont. If you’ll pardon the pun, I thought I would offer some feedback.
JVC KW-NX-7000 GPS / Audio and video system with Lock Pick Mini Cam 221, Pac TATO and Pac SWI-Jack, iPod adapter and Sirius tuner installed in an ’10 Prius III. I’m not going to discuss installation. I did that in another post.

I bought everything from SonicElectronix. Great bunch of guys. I decided to take a chance and saved over $200 by buying a refurbished unit. I see the savings is a little less now if you factor in that the new ones now include the optional Bluetooth adapter (that I didn’t want). In my opinion, the savings was worth it. It came in a brown carton instead of a printed carton, but was accompanied by all the wiring harnesses, screws, cables, brackets, etc. The unit itself appeared brand-spanking new. Not so much as a fingerprint anywhere on it. I don’t think the fact that it was a refurb was the reason for the outdated map database.

Top line- Although the unit takes about 5-8 seconds to start, the backup camera will come on as quickly as the car is ready and placed in reverse. If the FM radio or satellite was playing the last time you used it, they begin to play within 2-3 seconds. I’m not a big fan of Microsoft so the “Microsoft Automotive†logo that appears is a little disconcerting. Power, map volume, display and channel buttons are not touch screen so they’re always available. They’re backlit blue and illuminate automatically whenever a hand or finger comes within about 2†of the display- very cool. Others complain about the absence of a volume knob. Something to consider.

JVC attempts to cram a lot into the 7†display and most of the time they do it well. Some of the virtual screen buttons get pretty small for my fat fingers, but most of the time, I have no difficulty. You have control over color schemes, brightness, etc., but no way to upload or change backgrounds. Hey, JVC, would that have been so hard to do?

Audio quality with JBL amp and speakers- is, in my opinion nothing short of stunning. I’m not a young guy and I’ve been a music and sound nut since I was a kid. I’m not embarrassed to admit that in my life, I’ve made car purchase decisions on the basis of the sound of the radio. Previously I drove an ’05 Prius with JBL sound and it was a major disappointment. This one… I CAN’T WAIT FOR AN EXCUSE TO HAVE TO GO SOMEPLACE!

DVD Play- I’ve tried it out a couple of times and wowed my kids with it. Picture and sound are incredible. I grounded out the parking brake lead to allow the DVD player to work when the car is moving, but I can tell you that even with the best attempts at concentrating on the road, having a video playing on the screen while you’re driving is over-the-top distracting. As with the iPod, startup is very slow. From the time you select DVD until you get an image on the screen, 25-30 seconds can elapse.

FM Reception- I don’t think it’s as good as the factory Toyota radio. As discussed in another post, the whole subject is contentious. But if you’re using the factory antenna, it will be important that you power up the antenna amplifier. It’s easy to do but easy to overlook.
CD Play- If anybody ever does that anymore, the JVC works well. Unlike the iPod functionality, it’s reasonably fast too.

GPS Integration/functionality- Easy to use and fast. The database of points of interest is clearly huge, if a little dated. The screen displays highway speed limits but oddly not state roads of which Connecticut has a ton. The audio voice is female only, crystal clear and reads street names. It has a function that verbally warns you when you’re exceeding the speed limit. Thankfully, it’s adjustable or can be turned off. J The MSN Traffic function works great. It paints a different-colored stripe along your route if there are delays and places an easy-to-understand icon to tell you what the nature of the delay is. Note that I’m told MSN Traffic is discontinuing service in 2012 with no replacement (at least for this unit) in sight. I use the Toyota GPS in our other Priuses. I also have a Garmin around that I use for travel. The JVC GPS beats them hands-down with one exception. The map database dates back to 2007. You can buy an update for $140 from Navteq which I’m TERRIBLY resentful of. Further, as I peruse their site, even their latest update, allegedly released in November, 2009 doesn’t seem great. And is it just me or do you resent having to pay for updates AND help them update their road and POI databases? Isn’t that supposed to be THEIR job?
Backup camera- It takes getting used to but it’s terrific. It has an extremely wide angled lens so you get to see a lot of the far left/right rear. It paints distance markings on the screen which are surprisingly accurate. High coolness quotient, but what a JOB installing it.

Sirius integration/functionality- I would rate it a 9. It’s easy to use and easy to navigate. Sound, (what really counts) is amazing. I would rate the user instructions for it as a 1. The first page of the owners’ guide, in effect starts, “figure it out on your own.â€

iPod integration- While the functionality held promise, complete operation of an iPod right from the touch screen and the audio quality is superb, the operative word, unfortunately, is S-L-O-W. I’m using a 16 GB iPod nano with only about 6 GB / 1800 tracks on it. Anytime you want to make a music selection, the HU appears to have to load the library contents. The result is that you have to wait 10-15 seconds before you can actually do anything. If you’re in the middle of making a music selection and the GPS wants to tell you about a route change, you’re going to have to start all over again in your selections. If you have album artwork on your iPod, it will display on the HU screen, but the image is small and muddy looking- very 2002. Lastly, there is no way to alpha search your library. BTW, before I added the iPod cord and iPod, I plugged in a 200 GB hard drive into the USB cable. The hard drive had the same 6 GB library. It also was very slow but inexplicably the JVC HU couldn’t find all the music on the hard drive. I spoke to JVC support about this. They’re totally useless and had no answer.

Steering wheel control integration- While this has little to do with JVC and almost everything to do with the SWI-Jack adapter from Pacific Audio, I thought I would comment. I finally got the volume up/down to work but the programming is VERY difficult to follow. I’m sure I’ll get the other steering wheel buttons programmed eventually.