Updating the 2012 PiP Navigation System (GPS)

I was able to negotiate a discount for both the media (10%) and the labor (50%) on the updates from my Toyota dealer. When I bought my car I was told the updates came via phone but that turned out to include only the phone portion of the Entune app. I assumed that his clear English statement "over your phone, for free" in reply to my "how do you get updates" question covered everything, my bad.

The map updates are ridiculously priced especially considering the initial cost of the built in system which is mediocre at best. You can buy a portable GPS with lifetime updates, traffic updates, etc for the price they charge for a single map update and that update for the Toyota will be a year out of date compared to the portable. My dealer doesn't even stock the updates, I'm still waiting for one I ordered a week ago.

 

Here's how you mount a nice 5-inch GPS. It doesn't block any of the windshield yet is in a position where your eyes are diverted from the road much less than the Toyota Nav display. The features are better and the display is actually easier to read in spite of the smaller size. The GPS has better contrast on the text and doesn't suffer from sun glare. As mentioned above map updates are free with some products.

 

The update ( or your current version ) is just a Navteq DVD. You stick it in the player. You can read up on PC how to change out to a newer rev/disk. They sell 'em on Ebay. Just make sure you get the correct version & rev. It's too bad Toyota doesn't do it the way Tesla does ... at the server end, with google maps. That way you're up to date on virtually a day to day basis, as well as traffic.
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The base model PiP has a flash based navigation system/head unit (the Advanced models use a hard drive based system). So there is no longer a "navigation dvd". When you purchase the navigation map updates, it comes on a USB flash drive.

There is a way to just purchase the map update on a USB stick. But you also need to purchase some kind of installation kit, from what I recall. Its detailed on this forum somewhere. From what I remember, it will still cost you somewhere around $200 to do the update yourself.

A quick search produced this result: 2013 Prius v Map HDD Navigation/Firmware Update When? | PriusChat

The "installation kit"I mentioned above is actually an activation key that you can purchase from Toyota if you have a TIS subscription. Its clear they make if very difficult for the average user to perform the update themselves.

 

I just went the map update route only to learn I had just bought a 2013 version map. I have a complaint in to Toyota Customer Service.

Toyota, price it reasonably, make it up to date and you will sell enough more to make it profitable. My dealer tells me almost nobody ever orders the updates the way they are priced now.

Oddly, the map updates for the Lexus and the Avalon are later versions.

 

It indeed is odd that the updates (primary cost = licensing from NavTeq) cost as much as a standalone GPS with equivalent map coverage.

 

I have a '13 and am considering an update......if and when one is available.
Please keep us updated on what you find out.

 

As I write this I am sitting in the dealership's waiting area. It has been quite an ordeal getting my GPS system updated. I have a 2012 Prius Plug-in Advance the HDD nab unit. I first visited Toyota of Fort Worth to see what their pricing and availability for the update was. They quoted the update key at $169 but needed to be ordered. It would take up to 10 days to arrive. I said fine lets go ahead and order it. However the parts guy informed my service advisor that he needed to check if the service department had an installation fee since it would require a master tech to perform the update. We go to the service department to speak with a lead advisor and recieved the shock of my life. $145 dollars was the installation cost plus tax. That's on top of the $169 plus tax that the update key is priced at. My advisor seemed shocked by the cost and asked me if I wanted to do it. I literally told them "$145!!, No way!!" and I turned around and left. To say I was livid was an understatement. The HDD units are the biggest rip off ever. If you got a DVD or a SD card GPS unit you should count your blessings!! I was at the mercy of the dealer network in order to get the update. I was driving home from. The dealer when I though of trying another nearby Toyota dealership. Luckily we have quite a few in the DFW area. I stopped by Freeman Toyota in Hurst and went straight to the parts department. I asked the lady go the had the navigation update key available and how much it was. She told me it was $182 (that included the tax) but it could take up to two weeks to get the key. I asked her if they charged for the installation. She said no, but went ahead and called an advisor to verify that they didn't charge. I think the advisor though I had a DVD unit(pop the disk and you are done) cause he told her it was free. She looked my vin and notice she did have it in stock. I went ahead and bough it and drove around to the service bay. I ask for the same advisor she had previously contacted. I told him I was the guy with the nab update. When he saw me holding the newer Nav key he had a "oh crap" look. He told me if they had advised me about the $99 installation fee for the newer units. I quickly pointed out that I was told just a few minutes earlier that there was no fee for the update installation. He hesitated and seem upset about the mixed up but he sucked it up and told me he would go ahead and take care of it. A stroke of luck saved me $99 and I get to have the updated maps for my upcoming trip to Canada. I can tel you that this experience left me with a bitter taste about Toyota and Toyota of Fort Worth. I blame toyota for the stupid design of the HDD units. There is no excuse for not being able to plug a USB stick on the center console and upload the update. BTW - I just got the car back and they were dumbfounded by the process. It took over an hour for the software to download and get installed on the car. The advisor flat out told me they don't understand why it is that way and it is why they haven't figure out how to price the installation. I feel bad because he knew it is an expensive proposition but the process is ridiculously complicated.

 

The reason the USB stick isn't just plug and play is because people would be sharing the software via internet or bittorrents. The software is actually uploaded via the Scantool.

 

Slightly off-topic, but I hate how Toyota seems to want to nickel and dime people for services. And this is probably another reason they don't want to invest in EV's, due to them needing less maintenance service done compared to an ICE or their fuel cell system. Which would then kill the dealership's service department.

I ran into a similar situation where I was debating whether to put TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) in a winter set of tires for my prius. Two dealerships I called quoted me roughly $450 to install and calibrate them. Though I could afford that, it seemed high for the TPMS in the prius which is just an idiot light (as opposed to other cars where the TPMS displays each tire's pressure and shows you on the dash).

If it was a one time affair, or the TPMS showed you each tire's pressure in the dash, I might have gotten it. But then I asked about what happens when I switch back to summer tires. They said it would cost $100 to re-calibrate the summer TPMS tires. It kind of boggled me that Toyota was too cheap to allow their cars (or at least the prius) to remember more than 5 TPMS id's (4 + spare tire). So going this route would have cost me $450 for initial install, then $200 a year afterwards.

When I inquired about cloneable sensors, where a tool could read the ID number in the TPMS, then copy it so that the winter TPMS set read the same numbers as the summer ones, they acted like I was high on drugs or something.

I then went to a local Goodyear shop to see if their tool could read the TPMS, and see if they could clone the sensors for me. Unfortunately their tool couldn't even detect my car's TPMS. Apparently Toyota must change their TPMS every model year to prevent third party shops from doing this kind of service much cheaper than a Toyota "stealership".

As a result of all this headache, my winter tires don't have TPMS in them, and I just live with the low tire sensor coming on and staying lit, and just check my pressure the old fashioned way every other week. I don't plan to update the nav unit either because of the ridiculous cost. I might update it once in a few years since my area is getting a lot of road construction done right now. So long as it doesn't tell me to drive off a cliff into the ocean.

Or I could just use my smartphone and an nav app.

 

It sounds to me like you are out $182 instead of saving $99. The updates are garbage and the nav is lower quality than TomTom or Garmin.

I don't understand how a dealership could be "out of stock" of software. It takes up literally no space. Even if they didn't have the software on hand, it should take them 1min to download it.

Navteq sucks, and the auto manufacturers should run that crappy company out of town. I'm sure the manufacturers get half the profits, which is the only reason they put up with irate customers complaining about the price and how literally any other option is better and way cheaper.

 

What I mean is, I found my own "stock" of the software for the Acura a few years ago. Glad I didn't pay for it because the the nav was just as bad as it was previously. It did update the clock with the new daylight wastings scheme though.

The distribution system sucks if people can download the product easier than the dealership can "stock" it and employ a Master Tech to install it.

 

Yeah, you would think the automakers would just store it on a central server located at their headquarters. Then when someone requests a nav update, the dealership could then connect online to retrieve the latest version, then transfer it to the vehicle via USB or a rewritable DVD.

Would save the hassle of having to print the DVD, stock it in a warehouse, then having to ship it to wherever. And it could easily be done in maybe an hour or two, instead of making people wait a week or two, then spend several hours getting it updated. And if they cut the price by 3/4, they would get a lot more sales.

But this makes way too much sense. Therefore they won't do it this way. Because it's not like customers have access to other navigation units or apps, right?

 

My Garmin is great with free lifetime updates.

 

Yes, but does it talk through the car's speakers, muting the radio when it does?

 

No. I turned the voice off the minute I installed it and have never used it since. If the voice were on I would have no problem hearing it over the radio.

 

With the HDD system on the Advanced, there is no DVD. The gigabytes of map data (for the entire country) are uploaded over USB, which is why it takes so incredibly long. When I had mine updated last year, no one at the dealership had a clue how to do it, and they wrote off the whole process, including the cost of the license key, as training. Unlike portable systems like TomTom which can download map data from the Internet, car nav systems are designed to be standalone. As cars become Internet-enabled, that will change.