C17chief

So I finally had a chance to really use it, doing about a 70mi round trip to an area I havent been to before. I noticed that the unit is anywhere from 50ft to .08 miles off. It's very annoying as the difference causes missed turns or totally missing a road you should of turned on and thought you werent up to yet. The closest, the 50ft, was a turn que at a normal 90* intersection. It said to turn in 50ft as I was making the turn. The furthest off I noticed had me going straight for another .08 mi as I was at the front of the line at the light on the street I needed to turn down. That is all but unacceptable to be usefull. I know you can adjust your position a little bit, but with the wide difference I have found, will it really make it more spot on, or is it just the nature of the Nissan unit to be significantly off like that a lot of times?


I have an HK Traffic Pro unit in my F150, and despite being a simpler unit with no map display, it seems SOOOOO much more accurate and easier to follow. It's spot on with all the distances in it's guidance. Another thing I have noticed too with the Nissan unit, is even the shortest time still results in pretty complex routes. On the HK, shortest distance is just that, and shortest time makes maximum use of interstates/highways, even if it does mean a few miles more. The Nissan unit likes to take shortcuts and sideroads all over the place regardless which setting you use. I dont mind that so much, but the accuracy kills me. What good is it when it's telling you to turn in half a mile as you are passing the road you need to turn down and stuff.

tototee999

thats the exact reason i didnt get the navi, when i looked at the 05 max i test drove the navi so that i can check out the accuracy.. and it was WAY off.. so i spent the extra 2 grand on the SL

enjoy your navi.. well as much as you can

jc53

I, frankly, haven't had any noticeable problem. I have even used it in Canada. The only thing that gets annoying is the voice guidance, but fortunately you can disable that.

Now as road patterns change (i.e. the big dig in Boston), then problems can arise. But updates are available if you want them.

blackmax4

I've had no problems with mine, it always gets me right to the exact location of my destination. If I remmeber correctly there is a setting that will allow you to adjust the calibration of the NAV, look under settings/Navigation.

scavynger

Yeah, no problem with mine either. It's accurate to the point where it shows me when I'm in the middle of the intersection.

Most likely a calibration error like stated above.

Automonjama

Best option on my car I will never own another car without it again.

C17chief

I completely agree. I'm in the military and move around quite a bit, and nav turns out to be a life saver when that happens. When I first moved to NJ, I could hardly go anywhere without nav for the first couple months. It sure makes things a lot easier.

I may dig into the settings and see if there is a way to totally clear the calibration and start from scratch. If not, I'll try scooting up the icon some in the adjustment screen. I actually tried to do the adjustment a few times on the way to work last night, but the red lights never lasted long enough for me to get through everything. If all fails, it sure will be a disappointment to live with the $2k nav system as is when the $500 traffic pro in my truck works great. It all comes down to the accuracy of the position. Even with the nissan's crazy routing, if the timing of the cues and position on the screen were better it wouldnt be so bad, but right now it is pretty worthless when you are farther ahead then the unit thinks you are by varying amounts. Its almost like it cant process everything fast enough or something.

Automonjama

I would take it to the dealer because i have not experienced this problem

RideTuner

iTrader: (13)

I don't have that problem. When the view mode switches from normal map to the close up view where the blue line turns green indicating exactly where you're located and where you to turn is accurate for me. I love in the Washington, DC area.

C17chief

well I finally managed to move up the position at one light with the adjustment screen. That consequently put me even farther back passing by roads when I am traveling 90* from the direction I was in when adjusting it, like I need to move it over to the side now. It actually showed me driving beside the road after the first 90* turn but adjusted itself putting me back on the road after a min or 2. So basically 1 direction is better although not perfect now, while the perpendicular direction is even farther off.

I'm wondering if it the adjustment screen was played with before being a used car and all, causing it to be a little out of whack in the first place. There doesnt seem to be a way to return to default on that adjustment screen, so who knows. According to the diagnostic mode how to on here, it looks like the initialization and the real specifics of the sat receiver and gps/gyro specs are in there. I think next time I jump in the car, I will try and reset the initialization and see how that goes. It should reset the system to a 'cold start' (or factory new in otherwords) condition, if it works like other gps systems. There is not much reason for any late model consumer gps system with WAAS aided by gyros to be any farther off then about 12ft or so. I'm thinking something has to be jacked up with the initialization/calibration, or some kind of setting with it and not hardware.

C17chief

I re-initialized it last night. Worked like a charm. The position is right on now.

irlnd32

Just a quick question, is the Navi something that has to be done at the factory or is that something that the dealer can do, I am saying this because I didn't get it as an option but have been wishing that I did lately. Any help would be great.

C17chief

You probably could retrofit it, but the time and expense probably wouldnt be worth it. The GPS antenna/receiver is at the front of the dash kinda like the light sensor. The DVD drive sits at the bottom of the center stack, behind the storage compartment by the shifter. Keep in mind that not only is the screen different, but the control panel underneath is too. Since it is all right there, you probably could swap and add all the necessary parts without having to do any cutting or other major modification, but if the dealer wont sell the parts and install it as a kit, all the individual parts + labor will probably result in the cost being many times more then the option price on a car with it from the factory.

With lots of space on the dash and the long sloping windshield, something like a garmin street pilot and the like would work and sit really well sitting on the dash space right above the info screen. The street pilots are supposed to work pretty well and intuitively, and I've seen them on sale in the $500's at reputable online stores off and on. Something like that would be a better option than retrofitting factory nav, not to mention you could easily move it to another car of yours on a whim or take it with you when you travel to use in rental cars and the like also.

MaxMus

figured that had to be a car specific problem, because i don'thave any major issues with my nav.

and the one thing that I hate is fastest time and shortest distance are useless to me. it seems like the Navi is not intelligent enough to use the closest freeway to a destination, and would rather use a side street that has a maximum speed limit of 25 mph.

what's the logic in this. this thing constantly takes me through ghettos.

-AoW-JP

My first Nav system so I don't have much to base it off of. I do know they update the disks. I tested it out on routes that I knew first and it was very good. I knew a few shorter ways to go but only a block or 2 savings on milage. I give it a newbie A+. BTW the DVD ROM don't play DVD's. He he. I tried it.

Phil75070

I've got a Garmin 2620 that I use and about the worst accuracy I have seen with it is about 50ft. I would assume that the OEM nav unit gives multiple audio alerts for upcoming turns like the Garmin unit and there would appear to be little to no way to miss a turn unless you are not using your eyes as well. With regard to being .08mi off, is it possible that the street was "rerouted" somewhat recently? It could be a case of the map being off more than the accuracy of the GPS positioning itself.