I had an experience this morning that almost had me running back to the dealer to scream at someone, or look for the closest Lexus or Audi dealer to discuss trade ins.

After a morning appt. at the dentist (so I was already in a good mood), I needed to stop at a post office. No problem, thought I, as I have the Acura Navigation System. So I went into the system, selected Places, Community, then Post Office. I then opted for Distance to Travel and picked the closest one (as dentist office was not in the same 'hood that I live in).

On the first try, the Navi brought me to a mailbox in an industrial park. Not exactly a post office.

I then went through the same experience 5 more times. At some locations, there was a mailbox, others had nothing, but NONE WERE POST OFFICES.

Exactly what criteria is Acura using to determine what a "Post Office" is? A drop box? A Postal vehicle once had a flat tire at that location? Are there any other categories of locations similar FUBARed? If I look up hospital will it send me to a vending machine that sells band-aids?

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Is it that Acura outsources the Navi data to some other crappy company? It makes me question whether I even want to bother with Navi on my next vehicle, or if I should look at other brands.

Also, if anyone has an e-mail where I can send in a detailed complaint, please post. All I could find on Acura.com was a customer care phone number.

 

I find the POI functionality completely useless in my TSX. I use my iphone to look for the address and then just punch it in. It could also use a few more navigation methods like "Fastest route" or "shortest route." Throw on top the craptacular bluetooth implementation and you have a winner!

Otherwise i love the car

 

There is some adjustment for shortest/quickest based on highways or direct routes, etc, but I get what you're saying.

The navi is produced for Acura by Alpine, isnt' it? I thought I remembered calling them about which version software I had.

Pretty damned funny post, btw.

 

Here in Atlanta, sometimes direct route is not the fastest and changing it to maximize freeways just makes it longer but not really any faster or slower. Sometimes the route requires a combination of freeways AND direct route. "Fastest route" on the garmin i have has been by far the best method i've ever used.

 

There's no way that Acura is the one who made the decisions on points of interest. The maps are most-likely created by Navteq or Teleatlas. I can almost guarantee that you would find this problem with every gps unit on the market.

 

lol it can't be made by navteq.. I own a navteq for my corolla.. and it blows dick.. it add easily 10% distance on every trip with stupid pointless turns or exits

 

Seriously, the amount of runaround you sometimes get. One of the funniest is when I used to live in Crystal City, VA, right outside DC. Anytime you put in an address that went along Hwy. 110 to points north and west, the Navi wanted you to cross the 14th street bridge into DC, make a u-turn, then head back into Virginia.

 

I got one for you, going down route 1 in va towards 66 w, it has you get off at this exit right before 66 and when you get down to the end of the exit, its left and right turn only lanes, but the nav says go straight right BACK on to route 1 and get off at the next exit.. does it every time .. I fell for it the first 2 times lol wasn't paying attention..

 

Its all done by Navteq, call them if you want to complain.

I've never had a problem finding post offices on my old Navi (its an '02 RL with a 2008 disc)

Some areas seem to be mapped far far better than others in my experience. Restarants are poorly mapped for me for example.

 

so i guess i should be happy that i didnt get the tech. package?

 

lol I use my iPhone for all my navigation purposes. Although I didn't mind using the nav when I had a tech as a loaner.

 

There are a few nit picks here and there but in general this is one of the best nav systems out there. All the reviews say so too. I'll tell you it is far superior to the one I had in a Corvette I was renting out in California a few weeks ago. Sometimes that thing would have you do a u-turn rather than a left turn, it was amazing. I use the TSX nav on an almost daily basis here in Chicago since I've had the car in January, to do things like find nearest Arby's or gas station or parks, etc., and I can't say I've ever had even one problem with it. Perhaps I won't be using it to find the nearest post office though!? LOL.

 

yep navteq :o(

http://www.navigation.com/is-bin/INT...onMenu=YES#a28

 

Yes, as other have pointed out, it is Navteq who does all the mapping.

Also, instead of going through several menus and screens, why didn't you simply use the voice commands and say, "Find nearest post office"? Much easier that way.

 

Yes, and I don't think that I would do it again. Really the only feature I am now totally in love w/ and found that I wouldn't want to do w/o is the backup camera. The navi is okay, but...I am not totally sold on it and it's made my drives a little more confusing a few times now.

(Truth be told it has definitely saved me some time too, though).

 

I love the navi and the backup camera, worth 3 grand in time saved not getting lost and smacking into cars backing up lol

 

Once coming back to Indy from Chicago....the Navi unit made you get off the Dan Ryan....make a left.....then another left back out on the Dan Ryan in the opposite direction....only to bring you through a loop of highways....to COME BACK TO DO IT ALL AGAIN! I only fell for it once....I immediately recognized the exit off the Dan Ryan it had me get off to begin the whole loop-de-loop....so I just proceeded in another direction when I found US41 and then let NAVI remap it from there back to I-65 where I was trying to get to from the get go.

 

This is my first Acura, and what I find interesting is that my $130 navigon GPS actually speaks the street name and the exit# and road ie exit 9 towards Brewster, is there any way to get the Acura Nav system to give you more info?

 

Hit the setup button. On the right hand side, set the Guidance Prompts setting to max. It will say street names.