Prius 2010 Model Sat Nav Problem

[michael searle]

My Prius has been at dealer for a dash rattle fix, but after leaving the sat nav hasn't worked correctly so not sure if its been disconnected, anyway the sat nav is all over the place totally out of sync, even showing me I'm driving in the sea! Can anyone advise what to do, is it a simple reset? I've looked at calibration and tried that but it is still out of sync. Thanks in advance.

[Chris Dance]

I would recommend taking it back to the dealer. If you try to fix it the dealer could say it is your fault!!

[Sooty]

I totally agree with Chris.

It could be that they have disconnected the GPS sensor.

Take it straight back

[Opifex]

Agree with the others, let the dealer sort it out.

Another warning - when it's working again check that all the settings are correct. I once found the settings had changed and I could only put it down to the Battery being disconnected at the garage.

[kithmo]

I don't know if it's separate to the normal aerial but it sounds like maybe the GPS antenna is not connected.

[michael searle]

Thanks for comments, car is going back to dealer tomorrow, ill update with result.

[michael searle]

Car back to garage today, confirmed GPS lead hadn't been refitted correctly, all ok now, thanks for advice.

[AcademyOfRock]

I have had endless problems with my new Prius:

I recently bought a new Toyota Prius from Beadles, having owned two previously and swapped to Toyota due to poor service from BMW. Compared with the last two cars, I'm afraid that this Prius has regressed, speaking electronically.

It has the facility to connect my iPod, yet on a number of occasions, the car has 'frozen' my iPod solid, so my only choice has been to reboot the iPod. It has also destroyed some of the files. The service centre has not been able to locate the cause of the fault. Worse still, since they cannot locate the source of the fault, Toyota GB's customer relations department have gone into denial over the problem. If there's one thing thats much worse than having a problem, it's when customer relations people attempt to rewrite the story for fear of legal problems that they think might occur if they told the truth! OK, the ability to connect your iPod is not life threatening, so why am I writing this?

The satellite navigation is a permanent liability on this vehicle when all previous models were fine. Toyota have redesigned the system and the screen is approximately 10% smaller than the previous model. This seemingly small change has big consequences and I'm astonished that it was not picked up in focus groups and so on which are all part of the design process.

In brief, the sat nav, when set on the 'shortest route' i.e. the 'straight line' option, does some very strange things. I spent two hours going about 5 miles in Wales recently, when the sat nav took me on a 270 degree excursion when there was a perfectly good trunk road available. This included a trip through an unmade road and a farm. As I was not familiar with the area, I trusted the sat nav and travelled approximately 30 miles on this straight line option, eventually arriving back nearly at where we had started. The impact of this was that a 5 hour trip turned into a 10 hour one as we hit traffic on the M25 on our eventual return.

Toyota's Sat Nav System in operation

It has on several occasions advised me to take diversions due to 'traffic congestion' when there have been traffic lights ahead. As a result, I have no faith in the system. It is making me late for important business meetings and I regard punctuality as key in all my business dealings.

I was late for an important business meeting as the sat nav did not recognise an address in Tunbridge Wells recently. The address was an established building and not a new build. Toyota themselves have acknowledged that the system does not find 55 Calverley Road in Tunbridge Wells, but have then moved back into denial when I asked them to put it right.

55 Calverley Road - It's just an illusion according to Toyota's customer service centre

I don't want to fall into the trap of saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' as innovation is continuous in mist companies these days. But the previous models worked just fine in terms of navigation and the new system is a retrograde step, which Toyota needs to learn from. At this point in time, this will be the last Toyota I ever buy. The petrol heads may well say, "but it's not the engine". Yet, the electronic features of a car are now as important as the engine imho. I may be an unusual buyer as I buy a 'stereo system on wheels' rather than an 'engine'. I certainly don't want a car that destroys my record collection and makes me late for business meetings. I like it even less when I as the customer get caught in the 'crack in the pavement' when the Service Centre say its a matter for Toyota and Toyota say it's a matter for the Service Centre. What say you Toyota?

[Chris Dance]

I never rely on the Prius Sat Nav alone. I always get an AA route as well. I had problems with the Sat Nav on our previous Gen 2. It routed us from Hereford to my home town in Bucks via Birmingham, it took us to a farm track with deep tractor ruts at Great Missendon and in Chichester took us into a builders yard on our way to Brighton. On the oxford ring road it kept returning us between two roundabouts. The Gen 3 Sat Nav is better but I cannot bring myself to rely on it after my experience with the Gen 2. I did re route once and got in a worse traffic jam in a town than if I had stayed in traffic on the motorway. I am told that in the Buckingham Palace area of London sat navs do not work??? My advice is do not rely entirely on any Sat Nav.

[AcademyOfRock]

Hi Chris,

My previous sat nav was fine. I would not have bought the new car if it had been worse than the previous one. There's no point in having the car if this piece of equipment is not fit for purpose. What is the point of printing out google maps in a car that's designed to do the job for you?

Toyota will not admit to there being a problem and this only increases my resolve to send the car back under the trades description act.

Peter