I've had three or four incidents when my navi got lost here in Los Angeles. Once it was while downtown which is understandable since it's full of short, one-way streets all very close together. But the other times it was in a sprawling, suburban area.

In all but the downtown instance, it took between 2 and 5 minutes for the navi system to find itself.

Is this indicative of a problem or just par for the course?

(No, I do not have tint on the back window, before you ask. )

 

I haven't experienced this problem on my '05 TL. I'm based in West L.A., but have gone to downtown LA and throughout L.A., San Berdoo and Riverside Counties using Navi for court hearings and appointments.
My Navi didn't get lost even in the midst of downtown among the high rises between 5th and 9th St., bounded by Figueroa and Hill.
The only time my Navi has been lost is when it is in a covered garage; it reacquires within a few seconds.
Maybe check your Navi settings?

 

I am in downtown San Diego and have traveled back n forth to LA, I have never had any problems that were not caused by myself. Like I placed the foil windshield screen on the back deck area and that thouroughly confused the GPS. Other than that no errors, you may want to have it checked out

 

I live in the Manhattan area and park my car in a multi-level concrete garage. When I first pull out of the garage, the navi is frequently not entirely clear on where it is. It's in the right neighborhood, but it shows me plowing through the middle of city blocks, and doesn't track to the roads. Eventually, it gets straightened out and starts tracking correctly.

I have concluded that the navi takes a while to acquire enough satellites and until it does, it navigates from the last known location. Once it gets a few satellites, it starts tracking the exact location. Next time it happens, I'm going in to diag mode to confirm this hypothesis.

I can confirm what others have said about driving in environments with lots of little streets. Driving in Manhattan's financial district is nothing but pure comedy. Maybe I was driving on a day when the GPS accuracy was way off, but the navi thought the car was in the river. I am happy to report that it was NOT.