rms427

The version I have is 04.2. It's difficult to understand that I would be out of the detailed coverage on a unit that cost $1,800. My $150 hand held covers the area. In fact I haven't found a location that the hand held doesn't cover. Overall the hand held unit is much better even though it isn't always correct. We used the hand held unit on a 6,700 mile trip and it worked in all areas. Every now and then we try the Lexus guidance but have found it to be so unreliable that we just don't bother with it. The screwy guidance I mentioned was in Los Angeles. I have also had trouble with locations in Sacramento, and elsewhere. As I said even when I am in an area that has coverage the guidance is often incorrect.

I have a 2004 LS430 which we purchase new. Overall we are very satisfied with the car except the navigation system has never worked well. It can't give guidance in most of the area where we live. Now we live in a rural area but our house is in a gated community with 2800 homes. The development is about 30 years old. It shows the roads on the screen but won't give directions. This area is about an hour from Sacramento towards Lake Tahoe. The road guidance we do get is awful. We were told to bring the car in and supposedly they updated the software under warranty but it still sucks. While driving in an urban area the guidance has had us make a right turn go down a few blocks, make a U turn and come back to the same road and then proceed the same way we were going. It has taken us off a freeway and run through town and then back on to the same freeway. The system is set for the quickest route. I would say the guidance gives us accurate directions about 20% of the time when we are in an urban area and just about never within 30 minutes from our home which includes two small cities. The system is so bad that I if we need navigation help we bring a hand held unit that costs about half of the upgrade DVD. I also hated the fact that the passenger couldn't input data while driving. I just found the fix to that on this forum so that does away with one problem. Do others have these problems? We just assumed the guidance system was crappy and stopped using it.