I've been driving an 09 Tech CPO for about two weeks now, and I'm happy to be driving this vehicle for the next several years; I had originally wanted a base model for, as I'm a bit of a gadget geek, I didn't think the Tech package would meet my "interface standards". Unfortunately, after today, it won't.

Just sorta venting and sharing my thoughts/observations re some of the pitfalls of my 09 Tech package.

My loaner vehicle from the dealership today was an 2010 loaded MDX and now I'm spoiled; there is so much about this tech package I like more, and am confused as to why there's a difference at all. I'll outline a bit

1. Backup Camera -- when I put this puppy in reverse to park, I was surprised by a rectangular outline of the vehicle in the display; talk about ease, it assisted me in keeping things straight as well as judging my distance to the curb. This simple overlay enhances the value of the backup cam so much! I will miss it upon turn in....
2. IPOD Interface -- can you say voice control? How about simple items such as the Genre menu? Even scrolling through the massive number of artists in my 3rd gen touch accomplished easily. I can't navigate my ipod at all on my tsx; the buffering at the end of each screen causes it to be so slow, i'd never reach the end of the list.
3. HDD Playback -- sweet baby jeebus chris... I want. All i have to say
4. Phone interface -- on my TSX, it just feels that the HFL integration was tacked onto the Nav system; here it feels like it was designed with Nav in mind. The ability to dial a number from the console = slick, viewing imported phonebook entries and understanding what each number was (no icon deciphering), speed dial? I guess this is more akin to what a fellow member was posting to re the TL capabilities. It is so much more intuitive and glued together.
5. Screen contrast -- perhaps it was the dark color settings, but the screen and the maps seem so much vibrant; the colors really popped, and overall, it seemed that the menu's popped at you more clearly. It also seemed to be a tad more responsive

Am I upset with my purchase? No; am I regretting my decision for tech? No. I believe the existing tech in my 09 will still enhance the resale, and I do enjoy the nav, the traffic interface, and the phonebook integration as it is. I just don't understand why it is so much different on the MDX/TL...

Maybe Santa will bring a firmware upgrade for Chrismas.....

 

Dude...people like you are the type of people that car companies LOVE.

These are the type of people who jones for the next model year. LOL.

Let's say your TSX was loaded with all these features you crave on the MDX...but then you know the next years models of these cars will probably have even more of these wonderous techie doo-dads and then you'll wind up craving the new models over your current car.

 

haha i know what you mean, however, i have base model and yet, there are only little things i compalin about. 1st off, i LOVE the fact that it has a usb port for music. my music never sounded so mcuh better, even with the base speakers (which i think its pretty good). bluetooth is pretty good too, sure there is a 2 second lag when answering a phone, but that doesnt really affect anything...

the onyl thing i dont like is the ipod interface, how i cant scroll backwards or search by letter or w/e. but again, i guess i can live with it.

but i am kinda easy going with these stuff...and this is a HUGE upgrade for me cuz i came from a civic..so i guess it all comes down to what car your comparing to. which in your case, a fully loaded mdx

 

@ Coffee -- I'm used to "model years" where you can expect nothing much different until the next change in body/model". I do, however, see your point. The whole purpose to the loaner vehicles -- lure folks into upgrades or new purchases.

@ Ed -- I'm commin from a Hyundai.. so I know what you mean in terms of upgrade. At least you had a Honda...

 

Dude...if you came from a Hyundai then the TSX Tech must be like stepping up to $100 Kobe steak from McDonald's burgers.

 

HAH... I had a 2003 Tiburon GT; to its credit, leather interior, 6 speed manual, premium audio.... It was a comfortable car; however powertrain issues out the wazoo, when i started making my "second payments" in repair costs, it was time for it to go.

Can't compare ride quality -- apples and oranges. I don't think it is quite the choppped beef to kobe analysis, but yes.. it was a step up for sure.

 

Ed, I'm like you, I went from an '06 Civic to my Base 2010 TSX. The base stereo to me is great (I can barely turn the volume pass 20-25). I also like that I can easily plug in my Ipod now and listen to it (I just listen to all the songs sequentially, not much skipping around), whereas in my Civic had to burn all my songs on CD's. So to me the base is a really good upgrade that I am very happy with.

 

I finally got around to plugging in my IPOD into my TSX. It works remarkably well. It loads up right away and starts to play. I can scroll through the songs with no problem and there's no delay in switching between songs. The system also verbally reads back the song title to me which is hilarious. When I go to my other IPOD lists like Artist, Albums, and Playlists it takes like 2-3 seconds to load the contents of each list but after that scrolling though the lists and picking something is no problem and has no delay.



I have some videos on my IPOD so I haven't tried to see if those will play. Will try later on today.

 

@Coffee -- how large is your ipod? I'm on a 60gb Touch... lotsa artists (all tagged in ITunes) and it's tough to get down to.. say.. XZibit with all the other artists i have on there.

 

It's a couple of years old. It's the one that first came out with the video option. I have like 850 songs on there as well as a couple of movies. I didn't try scrolling all the way down to the last song. That's a lot of wheel turning! LOL. But when I scroll through the first 10-20 songs it works without any delay.

 

haha yeah, i had to burn CD's. but my stero is crap and takes forever to read teh CD. i cant even skip songs, or it takes natoehr 30 mintesu to go to it. somtimes if i go over a bump it stops. and if i turn off the car and turn it back on while the CD is playing..it tkae santoehr 45 mintuse to start again

 

if i want to get to the bottom of the list, i usually go to #1, press the first song, it plays. then press back on my steering wheel and it takes me all the way to the last song. then i use the knob to go to play list, songs, then i'd be all the way at the end, and start scrolling back from there

but if u want songs in the middle..well....

 

i like my tech, i mean sure theres some things that couldve been better like the ipod interface but that where you can just do smart playlist, but coming from a 2001 sentra se it was definitely a big upgrade.