Maybe the issues are with the navigation, maybe they are with me, but I sometimes find it REALLY difficult to find locations on the navigation. If I have a phone number for a place, great, no problem. If it is a specific name, no problem. But if I am driving to say, Paramus, NJ and want to find the closest Starbucks on the way, GOD HELP ME. The thing finds ones in Arkansas and California for me. I've tried using keywords and a few other ways.

Yes, I have looked here and also read the manual, but this is bothering me. I know the categorization is terrible (Dunkin Donuts may be in fast food or other) and Wal-Mart may be Wal Mart or Walmart and the system really doesn't compensate for that. It doesn't help you out at all.

So tell me, how do you go about finding a chain restaurant while en route to your ultimate destination?

As a side note, I have a 2006 TSX with the disk that came with it but will be picking up the newest version soon (I told the dealer I wanted the newest disk when I bought my car). Any chance it compensates for this....at all?

 

I have a 2006 as well and have found the same issues. I am chalking it up to the disk being out of date for some locations...the kicker is the ~200 bucks for an updated disk!

 

Honestly, I'm not thinking out of date information is the problem with my issue, although the information certainly is out of date. Remember, the disk included with a model is shipped when first new models arrive at dealers (which is usually end of the previous year). So, I'd guess the information is gathered somewhere around a year prior to that. A lot of things change in that amount of time. So if my guess was correct, our disk with came with our 2006 model car has information from late 2004.

But I think my issue has more to do with lack of proper inputting of information (Wal Mart vs. WalMart vs. Wal-Mart) as well as lack of an easy way to just find the nearest location when in the middle of a trip. But like I said, maybe I am just doing it wrong...?

 

No, they just don't have most retail locations. Think of how incredible of a volume of data it would be to know every retail store at every location?

I agree, I think its a bad feature of the disk, one that I could have done without entirely due to its sporatic and inconsistent coverage. However, there are always a few gems. Maybe it can't help you find the closest Wendy's or Wal-Mart, but being able to say "closest chinese food" while on a road trip and having it give you options (not just 1) is nice.

The Zagat rated restaurants are the easiest to find, since they are all (mostly) there.

 

Can't you use a burned copy of the DVD for the navigation? If a friend has one, let's say, in his RL or TL, can't you just burn a copy?

 

Wow, I honestly did not know this or even think of it. What is the point of having some in there and not others? Is that why I get a Starbucks in California when I am in Rhode Island? C'mon, that can't be right. Why bother being selective with these things?

As for being difficult to input, couldn't they use the yellow pages? I mean, I assume it isn't one guy doing this.

Anyways... if anyone knows of an easier way to find some location while you are enroute to another, please let me know.

 

I find that the problem is with the user. You have to type the exact name and spelling, or at leat the way the navi wants it. Like you said, there is no room for error. When I type the correct name, then I get the close destination. Its a pain but I have gotton use to how it works.

 

I figured that the user was definitely part of the problem. But there is no way around Dunkin Donuts having different names and you not knowing them all (i.e. Dunking Donuts/Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins, etc.) How do you get around that?

Also, what are the steps you use to input something like that? Do you just hit places and search by name? I'm really looking for steps people use that get it done.

Thanks.

 

Brian,

Have you tried searching locations along your Navi's calculated route? It can suck, because the pathfinding can be a little wonky, but it does work.

I find the search mode best for your need. Select a catagory (banks or whatever) and select either proximity or location search. It gives you either database stored locations by distance to travel or around a selected city/town/village...

Overall, I hust don't search by name of a business because there are so many different ways to list them. I either do catagory or address...

 

i agree with you.. there are literally 5 dunkin donuts on a road that is maybe 2 miles long and it doesn't even list any of them.. there are maybe 15 best buy stores in my state yet the nav only list 1 of them..

sometimes i am on the highway trying to find the closet dunkin donuts and it's like 30 miles away.. when in reality there is a DD's every 1/4 mile. and when i do find some dunkin donuts they are scattered in like 6 different categories on the nav.

 

I would like to see a 'google-like' search that understands that when I type "Frys" I really mean "Fry's" and I want to find the NEAREST Fry's not the Frys Corporate in California or some Fry's Restaurant somewhere on the east coast. The difficulty in finding local places and the very dated database is the biggest disappointment in the Navi. But if you can happen to find what you want in the database it does get you there fairly well.

Funny the database doesn't have the local Lowe's or Home Deport which have been there for years, but did manage to find a hole-in-the-wall Mongolian bar-b-que place. Makes no sense.

 

I'm not condoning doing this, but it is possible as long as your friend who has an RL/TL uses the same color DVD in his Navi as you do. I use a backup copy I made of my v4.55 white DVD in my unit; I keep the original stored away.

 

It violates the license agreement just like copying any software.