Did I hear my dealer correctly???Is there really a charge for the navigation system...a monthly one? a yearly one? Was I sleeping? Had I slept?......

 

No navigation subscription charge. If you sign up for Sattelite Radio, which is not available through the Acura TSX, you would have to pay a monthy subscription for that.

 

If you want the latest yearly cd, with all the new stores/roads, then you have to pay for it. You don't have to buy this upgrade, although your navi data will be a little stale without it.

 

The only charge for the Navi is the $2000 you pay extra for it when you buy the car. With it you get a DVD-ROM that is dated Sept 2002. According to the manual a new DVD-ROM comes out about every Fall (although it has been over 2 years for some cars I hear). The updates appear to be $152 according to the Alpine site where you buy them. You don't need to buy the updates of course, but as Shaf said the data which includes a phone/address/points of interest/as well as all the road data will start to get out of data after a while. Heck the current one still lists a favorite resturant of mine that has been gone for over 2 years now. There are many areas that are unverified that they need to verify and update as well.

Here is where older Acura owners go to buy their Navi DVD-ROM updates...

https://esales1.alpine-usa.com/dos/acura/dvdrom.htm

But they only list the one from 9-1-2001 and it is $152.

Same for Honda owners...

https://esales1.alpine-usa.com/dos/honda/dvdrom.htm

 

I wouldn't worry too much about updating your nav. I have a 2001 CL-S that I bought in April 2000 and it's held up fine from the original disc. When I test drove the TSX and played with that nav system, I found MANY upgrades in data from my system. I'm quite content with it.

 

Jason, will the TSX DVD-ROM Navi data disc work in the CL-S?

 

the only thing i hope they end up adding is listing of movie theaters. i think that would be very helpful...

 

Yet another salesman that doesnt know what he's talking about

 

I'm not sure but I have a feeling it wouldn't. It seems as though the TSX's nav system is far more advanced and with a different interface. Perhaps the software in the DVD-ROM is too advanced for the system on the CL. I'd ask your dealer or a knowledgable computer guy.

 

I've read in the Navi manual saying that you're not supposed to copy the disc and distributed in any way not even sharing. So has anyone out there tried to burn theirs.. :x

 

MzTSX- you naughty rascal...I was wondering the same thing, if only academically, LOL. It's not like burning a data dvd would deprive Metallica of more gold faucets in their cribs...snicker.

FWIW- I've heard that once the first updated disc is available for the enhanced voice actuated NAVI's, it will probably cost $300. The older system's $150 discs were around 4GB data, vs. around 8GB for the enhanced system's discs.

FWIW2- when I leased my '00 RL3.5, the salesman "told me" the replacement discs would be $50 (as if...). For folks like me who use the heck out of the NAVI, and need to access locations in newish housing tracts, the stale data is frustrating. The day I took delivery, streets w/in a few miles from Tustin Acura, that were three years old...were not on the disc. Same relative dillio when I bought the updated disc. I'd personally MUCH rather get fresher local (SoCal) data, than every ATM in Philadelphia...and wish Alpine (Acura's OEM) would partner with somebody like Thomas Bros. who update their mapping every six months.

 

$300 bucks.. thats a car payment.

 

Navi thinks my house is across the street ------------>

So what am I doing here?

 

The current TSX Navi DVD has just under 6GB of data. I stuck it in my PC and checked.




I thought $150 was a bit much for an upgrade but $300 is outrageous if that is true.

 

Is the area you live in considered a "verified" area according to the NAVI?

 

YES! So they don't have that excuse.

Pretty funny, huh?

I keep thinking that chick inside my dashboard will get the idea, but she never does.

 

You would think they would at least get the location of Ron Tonkin Acura's delearship correct! The dealership is located on the opposite side of the street than which they say it is located (if that makes sense). Similar problem to larchmont's.

-snap-

 

Surprisingly, the Acura dealship I purchased my car from had the same problem. It was located on the other side of the road and down several hundred feet.

$300 is a boat load of money for an updated DVD. That seems like a load of shit if you ask me. I'm not saying it isn't true, but that's almost 1/7 the cost of the navigation.

 

Be glad you don't own a Lexus - their nav system update DVDs sell for around $500 - $600.

 

Depending on how old your NavTech database is, there have een some pretty significant updates. Specifically, the NavTech database has at least two "layers" - one is just the basic street layout, so the system can plot your position on a map; the other is "routing" information which allows the system to calculate a route. Some areas, like the Tucson metropolitan area, did not have this second layer in the database. Thus, my 2002 IS-300's nav system could not calculate a route to an address in Tucson; this really sucked, since that's where I was living at the time. I'm told that later revisions of the database include full coverage of all metropolitan areas in the US.

Another reason to upgrade is to get corrected/updated data for roads that have changed recently. Nothing sucks more than trying to use your nav system to route you through an unfamiliar area, only to have it sell you to turn right onto a road that appears in the map database but does not exist in real life. I spent a couple of hours wandering around some rural back roads in Kansas because my nav system attempted to route me over some nonexistent roads (to avoid tolls on I-44 in Oklahoma); I had to actually buy a (*gasp!*) printed map to find my way back to the Interstate.

One of these days someone is going to develop a hack to import the NavTech database from, say, Microsoft Streets & Trips into the proper format for these factory nav systems to use, and then everyone will be able to buy the latest map data for $40 at CompUSA.

 

The main problem is that there is more than 4.7GB of data on the DVD-ROM (at least, there was on my IS-300's nav DVD). Too big for current DVD-Rs.

I know - I used to live on one of those streets.

The problem with Thomas Brothers is that they don't offer national coverage. While their map data for OC and LA is fabulous, they don't make maps for Peoria or Hackensack. NavTech offers a one-stop-shopping map database product that covers the entire country; which do you think Acura is going to choose?

 

For most portable NAV systems the software cost sometimes EQUALS the cost of the system (Garmin SPIII). Think about it - the electonics are fairly cheap - but it takes a lot of man hours to update the map info. The equation is a bit different in cars because the electronics portion is a bit more rugged and to make it look nice manufacturers have to add a few things to the car. Still that $2K you pay for the NAV is 1/2 profit and the other half is 3/4 hardware and 1/4 software.
The update cycle from Acura could be quite different than the map info producer.
The reason that the 3 year old road is not on your NAV is that it takes 2-3 years for the info to show on most databases (that's where NavTech gets it from) it takes another year for NavTech to update their info and then it takes another year before Acura buys it and packages it and makes it available to the end user. While the raw data from NavTech might be the same every NAV manufacturer converts it to their own most of the time proprietary format so importing from another database rarely works, unless like it was suggested above one hacks it. And of course as some older TL owners have found out, in a couple of years the underlying electronics of the GPS will change enough that your NAV will be outdated and the then current DVD will no longer work in your NAV. Acura will then say: "Why don't you buy our new TSX so that you can get a new NAV and no we won't give you any extra on the trade in of your NAV equiped TSX because the $2000 you spent a few years ago is worthless today".

 

I don't see why you couldn't do a disc copy of the dvd and see if it works in your CL, if not, you wasted a disc, if it does work then you have saved a bunch of cash. I'd like to know because I'd like to upgrade our 2001 MDX.

I also rip the tags off our mattresses.

 

personally, I think the converage for the current DVD in the Los Angeles region is quite good. The only problem I've had is locating cahing stores and fastfood places, but those come up so fast that it might be unrealistic to expect too much accuracy.