06 Rx400h - Nav Display - Can It Be Updated?

[hh1015]

Hello,

I have a 2006 RX400h, which I purchased in July 2007, and I love it. I just had it in for scheduled maintenance on Friday, and had the dealer shuttle me over to the local mall while the car was being serviced. The shuttle vehicle's GPS display was WAY nicer than mine. Crisp, clean, beautiful font... just WAY nicer. Their map just displayed much better than on my vehicle. Almost as if my screen has a lower resolution & is all pixely in comparison.

My question is this - if I upgrade the Map portion of my Nav with a newer Map DVD, will that make my display prettier, or am I just stuck with this old, ugly display? Every time I look at my GPS now, I feel like I got jipped. It looks like a kindergartner scribbled the street names & stuff. Is there ANY way to fix this... ?

[mrc88dal]

Sorry to say you're stuck with the display as is. I just upgraded to database 8.1 but the generation disc on the 2006 RX400h will always be gen.4. It may not be as pretty but it's still extremely functional. On the bright side, my 2006 has almost 50k and has had no mechanical problems so you made a good decision buying a used 2006.

[hh1015]

Sorry to say you're stuck with the display as is. I just upgraded to database 8.1 but the generation disc on the 2006 RX400h will always be gen.4. It may not be as pretty but it's still extremely functional. On the bright side, my 2006 has almost 50k and has had no mechanical problems so you made a good decision buying a used 2006.

Thanks for the reply - at least now I know. I'm at about 46k miles myself, and have not had ONE issue with my car. Love everything about it, besides the display, which is clearly a very minor issue - just thought I'd ask. :-)

Thanks!

[Jim Nazium]

What? lol, You mean you actually like the way the voice recognition works? And the fact, you are locked out of most functions while the vehicle is in motion?

Have you driven an ACURA / BMW / MERCEDES Lately? The Acura in my opinion, has the best Navi system on the market. With Voice Recognition that actually works on 1st attempt, even with the sunroof open.

It just makes no sense how p!ss poor the vehicle Navi is for the Lexus products.

Cheers,

MadloR

[SOMEONE ELSE'S GOT MY NAME]

What? lol, You mean you actually like the way the voice recognition works? And the fact, you are locked out of most functions while the vehicle is in motion?

Have you driven an ACURA / BMW / MERCEDES Lately? The Acura in my opinion, has the best Navi system on the market.

. . . . . snip

Don't know about the ACURA, but the BMW SUV? Our neighbor whines about getting only 14mpg. At 1/2 the mileage per gallon as our 400h, a nicer NAVE seems like hardly a tradeoff IMO.

As for lockout issues, the Locpic cured all that for us.

[benfb]

What? lol, You mean you actually like the way the voice recognition works? And the fact, you are locked out of most functions while the vehicle is in motion?

Have you driven an ACURA / BMW / MERCEDES Lately? The Acura in my opinion, has the best Navi system on the market.

. . . . . snip

Don't know about the ACURA, but the BMW SUV? Our neighbor whines about getting only 14mpg. At 1/2 the mileage per gallon as our 400h, a nicer NAVE seems like hardly a tradeoff IMO.

As for lockout issues, the Locpic cured all that for us.

What's the Locpic? I searched the rest of the furum and couldn't find any other reference. My wife has a 2006 400h and there's two things I'd love to do for here: unlock the nav while driving and give her quality Ipod integration.

[Gryphon]

They are referring to this company:

http://coastaletech.com

Tom

[benfb]

They are referring to this company:

http://coastaletech.com

Tom

Coastaletech looks interesting, but their price is around $200. There are people on eBay making similar claims for $30. What's the difference? Anyone have experience with either?

[tommygunn]

I have a 2005 Acura TL (in addition to wife's 2008 RX400h); the Acura package of navi, XM, voice recognition, etc... is WAY better than our Lexus. There is no comparison. When I did my post purchase survey w/Lexus, I told them they were WAY behind Acura in this feature.

The 400h is a great car; but I am still having trouble with the navi system (even after reading the manual). On my Acura, within 20 minutes, I was an expert. Never a problem.

I have never experienced any other mfg's navi systems, outside of these two.

[05silverls430]

I had an 05 TL with nav, and both my wife and I now have the gen 4 nav in our '05 LS430 and '06 RX400h. I agree that the Acura was better, but not that much better. I've also driven and used the current gen nav in the new LS, RX and other models. The graphics are much better (more detailed and crisp), but the interface is much the same. It looks like the 2010 RX is going away from touch screen, as a lot of manufacturers seem to be doing these days (the new TL doesn't have touch screen, I'm almost positive). I'm not thrilled with the nav in our cars, but I'd much rather have it than not. I've heard that Nissan/Infiniti have some of the best nav systems on the market, and recently have seen comments in a car magazine that I read about how good some of the GM systems are (which surprises me).

I'd upgrade our cars to the current system in a heartbeat if it was possible and didn't cost an arm and a leg...