sv_ted

I was in Palo Alto yesterday in my 2013 RDX with Tech and wanted to go to the Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Center. This store has been open for about 10 years. There is also an Apple Store in downtown Palo Alto a mile or two away. I was stopped so I was able to do a search in the Nav for Apple Store (don't get me started about having to be stopped). It told me the nearest one was 15 miles away in Burlingame! It was unaware of the two Apple Stores in Palo Alto and the one in Santa Clara that are all much closer than Burlingame. Most of the time when I try to use this Nav system it is either not up to date or impossibly locked while moving. Acura should be ashamed though they are probably laughing at what crap they are able to sell! Otherwise, I love the car but come on Acura make some effort on the Nav.

Luckily I have a smartphone that has so far always been correct.

P.S. I also sent this rant to Acura Client Relations

Type X

We had a similar situation trying to find a container store in NJ.... it said the nearest one was in california...

sv_ted

I tried the same Apple Store search in my wife's 2012 Camry Hybrid. It listed all of the local stores. Is the Acura database really more than 10 years old?

davisinla

Not very impressed on day one.

We purchased an RDX yesterday and, at the dealer, we entered the info for "home" into the nav. As we approached, it started taking us on a very roundabout way towards our house - it eventually told us something like the streets near our house were "unverified" and "not digitized". WTF? Our street was put in about 13 years ago. Others have been here for decades.

Our 5 year old Garmin rarely has a problem and is much easier to program. Not very promising for a "tech" package. What gives with Acura?

5 Acuras

iTrader: (1)

As you can tell from my screen name I've owned a number of Acuras including a 2014 RDX AWD Tech and haven't experienced any Navi issues in any. Except the 2014 requirement that the car be stopped for most functions, which is safer but hard to get used to. Distracted driving is dangerous, I've been at too many crash scenes caused by texting/talking/etc.

davisinla

That may be true, but I think it's safer for the passenger to enter the address manually than for the driver to do it verbally - at least when I'm the driver.

dc5k20z1

the nav blows

sv_ted

I was at the dealer today and was told that there is no update for the Nav on the 2013 RDX. I also tried my Apple Store search on a 2014 MDX. All local Apple Stores were listed. That does not make it up to date or better than the 2013 RDX except in that one case. Hopefully, it is better.

GEORGEMC22

Can you not do most of the nav functions by voice command? And thereby not have to be stopped. My portable Garmin has this capability.

George

sv_ted

One more frustration with the Nav: Yesterday I typed in Bose Store (while stopped) and was told the nearest one was 730 miles away. I was actually just a mile from one at Stanford and ~40 miles from one in San Francisco. Pathetic. This is not easy to test before buying the car. Acura should offer a free update to a recent and complete database to all of the suckers who bought this terrible database.

az99

I am a first time Acura owner with a 14 RDX Tech. The Nav system in this vehicle is by FAR the worst GPS unit I have ever seen. It will add 100 miles to a 300 mile trip. It will add 5 miles to 4 mile trip home. It will route you off a main highway down a cowpath with lots of stops thru town.
This thing is a disgrace. I would expect far better performance than this from a no name $80 throwaway portable.
I certainly hope the Nav is not an indicator of the overall vehicle.

GarrettinSF

Worst nav system I've experienced. I keep hoping the Siri Eyes will eventually be implemented and allowed on 2013 models via an update. The voice recognition has never worked (I'm a West Coast guy with no real accent, college educated, clear diction, never had a problem with any other voice recognition and yet the Acura Nav has yet to understand what I have stated.

The scroll wheel for entering addresses is slow and time consuming.

The number of clicks to input an address is mind-numbing.

The difficulting to adjusting a route prior to embarcking is just silly.

Too me, the Nav has been the most serious ding on an otherwise great vehicle.

davisinla

Agreed. If it would just allow manual input by the passenger, it would at least be somewhat functional. But trying to use voice commands is infuriating - and way more distracting than spinning the wheel.

If I had know just how useless it was, I would not have purchased the tech package. What a shame that Acura considers it worthy of a "tech" package.

mindanalyzer

I agree that the NAV is awful. I am coming from a 2009 chevy avalanche and entering addresses and such was very easy and intuitive. Here, everything is very cumbersome, first street (ie SW), then house number (ie 1234), and the Nav is going to list all the possibilities in your city (very often it does list everything but the address I am interested in). I mean, what is this? Just enter a damn normal address in the USPS format and that's it; the system then runs a validation and if the address is valid, then start the navigation.

The NAV response is SLOW up to the point that I normally lose my patience when using this thing. Something else, have you ever tried to move the cursor to another area while driving? If you see me doing that you would laugh. Around 20 seconds + or - trying, obscenities start coming out of my mouth ...

Most of you can still access the voice commands while driving. In my particular case I am screwed double because my RDX does not "understand" what I say because of my spanish accent. Well, at least I have siri setup in spanish and in that area all is good; Siri understands my cuban-spanish accent perfectly.

Now the most important factor: Accuracy!!! The database is so outdated that this is not even funny, they charge $149 for a update DVD which is ridiculous,
the route calculation software must be flawed too because it takes you to very weird routes. I am very disappointed with this system and have started using Apple Map navigation through my iphone

My experience with my RDX has been 2 sided. I love the powerful 3.5L engine, the reliability of the brand, the manners under acceleration, interior luxury, cargo area & functionality, car design, etc; ... but I abhor the constant shifting at low speeds in traffic (causing lurching), the humming/rumble noise/subtle vibration when coasting at city speeds and the the Nav performance.

I have one question that might appear out of the context, but believe me, it is not: What you guys think of the 2014 bimmer X1 xdrive28i fully loaded (with M sport pkg, lightning and ultimate pkg)?

mindanalyzer

Well, I brought my RDX to a nearby dealership for service and complained about some of the issues that I explained here in this thread and they had my car for 2.5 days. When I got it back I was surprised at how well & smooth the car rides, I don’t feel the low speed lurching that much and the VCM crap has been hardly perceptible.

I dont know exactly what they did. In the service report sheet they specify that the customer complains about vibration at 80-90 mph (dont tell the cops) and that the service technician found that the wheels were off-balanced and that it was fixed. It also specifies that the customer complains about a subtle VCM vibration (Humming/rumble noise) and that the service technician found the car to work under normal specs. The service advisor told me that they were going to apply any available software update (nothing is mentioned in the service report sheet), she told me that they had taken advantage of the occasion to replace the brake pads (don’t know reason) as if it was something unrelated to what I was experiencing. Well, I hope that the fixing of the VCM vibration is not related to a computer reset because in that case I know that I will have it back in a week or so. Ah, something else, they seem to have adjusted my steering wheel, it feels much stiffer and nice now

The RDX feels much better now, and rides much better (night to day) that my dealer loaner (2012 MDX with tech with 15k miles).