Well, I drove from Northern NJ to Northern VA on Sunday night, and decided to take the shortest of the 3 route options...what a mistake! This navigation system is so woefully inadequate...just amazing. Not only did it add about 1.5 hours to my journey, I literally, I kid you not, was taken for 40 miles on 25 mph side neighborhood roads. I didn't even know there was a stretch of 40 miles of 25 mph roads in the United States, but my nav system found it. Let me point out a couple of things. First, our nav system does not provide the option for the shortest route. It only provides three route options, one of which is the shortest route. This shortest of 3 is not intended (from my conversation with Jag Corp) to be the shortest possible route, but rather the shortest of the 3 provided logical route options. I also think that the menu that pops up for traffic avoidance options is awful, and completely non-intuitive.

I can't tell you how many times my nav has taken me off an exit, only to go make a u-turn, and get right back on the same road I was on. When you drive through an area you're very familiar with, and the nav is turned on, you get a much better feel for just how inadequate it really is. Part of it is Navteq who makes the software, and part of it is the interface, and the features within the software that Jaguar has elected to implement.

I pray that the 2012 iteration of the XJ will offer a new interface entirely. Honestly, who of us wouldn't pay an extra $1,000 when we bought the car for a nav update to one equivalent in features to your off-the-shelf Garmin that has internet connectivity? Where you can email directions to your car, have access to every point of interest, yada yada yada. Went out and bought a wireless enabled Nav for my dashboard, and now have a $115k car with a portable nav stuck to my windshield...ridiculous.

So, my caveat to you...on a relatively long drive, do NOT choose the shortest of the 3 provided routes.

Oh, did I mention that my nav is batting about 20% on telling me there is traffic ahead, I ignore it, and then there's no traffic ahead. And an even lower % batting average on actually informing me when there is a traffic issue. I thought the Merc nav was awful...whole new world with this one.

For those of you who hate anyone bashing Jaguar, let me throw in a positive. The speakerphone is the best of any car I've ever driven. No issues with people hearing me, or hearing others. It's not great, just better than Merc & BMW in the lux segment. So when I have to call the police because my nav takes me on a nice stroll through MLK Ave, and I get shot at, they will hear me loud and clear.

 

I have to agree! The drivers manual is no help at all. My biggest complaint is that if you decide to take a different road than what it's telling you that it doesn't automatically adjust to that road and direct you from there. It keeps telling you to U Turn at the next exit and the next exit etc. to get you back onto the route it selected.

One thing I discovered that was my fault. There's a submenu that I think is preferences ( I might be wrong not being in the car) that lists "Major Highways", "Toll Roads" & "Restricted Roads" and I pressed "Major Highways" thinking that it would take me on major highways and it did the opposite. It wanted to take me on every back road there was to get there. Once I unpressed Major Highways it was o.k. I pressed Toll Roads thinking it meant I didn't mind toll roads and it did the opposite. Avoided all toll roads making the route extra long. I wish there was a more in depth manual for the damn thing.

 

You know, I really don't understand what's so difficult (or expensive) about putting a first class nav system in a car--this is not new technology. I have a 7 year old Garmin Street Pilot on my motorcycle that has worked so flawlessly that I have never even considered an upgrade and I have used it effectively all over the USA and Europe. It uses the same Navtec maps that almost all nav systems use with Garmin's proprietary Mapsource software that does everything well and the UI is very friendly--it has numerous preferences, auto recalculates when you get off the route, has adequate POI's, etc. It is also totally programmable on my PC to download to the nav unit and share custom routes with riding buddies.

Jaguar needs to take a serious look at their suppliers and get up to speed on what's out there for what is probably the same cost.

 

It could be patents. Jag needs to get a company to develop the system for them, or pay big bucks for existing technologies maybe. It has been said in some car magazines that the Jag electronics are at least 10 years behind others. I don't think it can be that bad, but based on forum posts it for sure needs improvements. I don't know what prevents Jag from buying updated technology from some Japanese company for example. Could be a matter of pride... If they want to keep the knowledge of these systems indoors, Tata needs to invest some serious money in brains to develop a center console system that is up to par to this beautiful machine.

 

I so agree. But I have never had a car where a less than a $100 Garmin didn't do better than the in car system. Plus I can update the maps on the Garmin.

First day I had the car coming out of Dallas I gave it a shot. Completely lost and I knew where I was going. It did, however, get me to the new In N Out Burger completely by accident. lol

Also in my home area I am completely off the map. This means they failed to license the next level of maps from Navteq and that is not a technical issue that is a cheap issue. Jag didn't want to pay for the level of maps that includes my little town and more rural areas.

 

Misery loves company, so I'm glad to see others share in my experience. To me Googlemaps is the gold standard, and I'd love to see Jag incorporate their features with some kind of wifi Nav set-up. Garmin has a better overall interface, but as far as quality of mapping and accuracy of directions...Google owns the space IMHO.

 

Well it's probably a good thing my Nav doesnt work over in Germany. I argured back and forth with them why they would make a system that couldnt use European maps when a 400 dollar Navigon system could. Over here in Europe we are not too fond of Garmin. They are actually crap systems. I had one that I spent 800 dollars on that had world maps and while Garmin kept the maps updated they didnt keep the software updated. I just use my iphone 4 and the Navigon App. Works beautifully. I don't put it in the windshield though.

 

Kid,
Nobody minds you talking bad about issues the car has. That is different from "the member whose name I will not speak" does. Discussing the good and the bad is what this forum is for. Constantly bashing is not because it doesnt really contribute anything.

Not only do I wish they would redo the whole interface I hope they allow us to be updated as well. I wish the car has a sim chip or wifi where updates could be pushed to the car and take out having to go to dealer all together.

 

I was wondering when they updated maps...... Is it possibly on your yearly maintenance visit???

 

I called Jag and had what seemed to be a very nice rep who promised me a follow up on why my nav would not find my home town like my phone and the cheapest Garmin. She called me back to say she was following up.

Have never heard from her again. I think Jag knows they were cheap in their licenses and did not want to take up the tiny little hard drive they promote for music storage. And Expat there is no reason you could not reload your system with Euro discs. Navteq shows discs for our cars for both Europe and Mexico at a very large extra cost but they are available.

 

I am being told because it is hard drive based for one and that the US system and European map set is non compatible. I have spoken with Jaguar DE, Jaguar NA, and Jaguar UK.

 

I have written extensively on the subject of the lousy NAV units in the Jaguar. Like the rest of you, my $200.00 off the shelf portable GPS has taken me EVERYWHERE to include dirt roads in farm country and NEVER got me lost, while the Nav unit in my 08 XK in comparison, is pretty much useless.....

Well, the positive (if you can call it that) is that Jaguar is not alone by any means. I have friends that own everything from Chevrolet to Lexus, Lincoln, and Volvo. ALL of them tell me how the NAV units built into their cars suck, suck, and suck more...

The question I hear more than any other from each and every one of these folks is, "Why did I spend $XXXX.00 extra for this crappy NAV unit in this car?

 

Well I guess the good thing if you can call it that is that ours is standard.lol

 

I think because most center console systems are not just navigation, but a plethora of other car control systems, they can't just insert a garmin system in there. Now, it would be nice if manufacturers would team up with those companies that are specialists in nav systems and get them integrated in their nightmare center console systems, even if the system would have to display something like "powered by ........... " - in the end it doesn't matter who makes it, what matters is that it has to work and not send people to dive into swamps when they're trying to find their grandma's new house.

 

Actually one manufacturer has done this, Jeep has teamed up with Garmin for their navigation system. You can order the standard navigation system on the Jeep Grand Cherokee or you can upgrade it to a Garmin based system.

 

The Jaguar NAVs are a pain. How many times have you gone through all the voice commands only to be told at the end the NAV caution has not been accepted, and have to start all over. Why not design it so the voice system will not engage until after the caution is accepted? A 5th grader could have thought of that. When it does finally work, I think they generally work fine.

 

They must have fixed this on the new XJ--you cannot enter an address with the voice commands if you have not accepted the caution. It tells you this and cancels you out when you try.

 

Our Jags are not the only ones that have the caution. It's prevalent on a lot of cars and portable systems. The manufacturers covering their asses. It's just one or two extra steps (push NAV & push the caution) then speak. We have a wonderful and beautiful car let's not get pickyuny.........

 

I have no experience with the Jag nav's yet so I can't comment on their reliability. I just want to say that the shortest route is not necessarily the quickest route.

 

I bought an XJL VIN in the 17000 range with all of the updates AFAIK that will let me input all of the address by voice command, then erase all my input-ed data when I go to enter the completed address into the NAV as a destination because I had not yet accepted the caution. It's happened twice now (yes, yes, fool me once...your fault) where I had to re-enter all of my data, and it's really really irritating. My android phone is far more user friendly for voice data input for Navs. One of the few things I don't love about my new Jag so far.