Touch And Get Lost Sat Nav On Yaris

[arthur256]

I have a late-2011 Yaris T-Spirit CVT which came with "free" Touch n Go. I found very quickly that the included SatNav is poor. It began by demonstrating that it was obviously out-of-date, with many rural roads treated as "unknown" which had been completed by early 2011. (Notably between Nottingham and Newark on the A46). I enquired about updates as I could find none, and was told it might be some time, and would cost over £100! We also found that the guidance was often too late to take a junction, and sometimes ambiguous or even blatantly wrong.

I discussed with my wife, and we were unhappy about relying on it whilst touring Scotland. So I bought a Garmin Nuvi 52LM, which includes "map updates for life" and at a price similar to what Toyota charge for a single update. We had a good holiday, with no SatNav problems.

My Yaris lease expires this autumn, and I was hoping to have another Yaris, but the Touch n Go SatNav problems have seriously put me off the idea. Unless of course Toyota is planning a better Touch n Go SatNav in the Yaris.

--
Arthur

MOD EDIT

Title changed to remove swear word as this is a family friendly forum

[Heidfirst]

Touch & Go is supposed to have 2 updates a year (although it doesn't seem to have had over the last year). Certainly updated since 2011.

I haven't experienced overrunning a junction but I do sometimes question it's choice of routes (especially Eco where it has a tendency to take you down very minor routes imo).

& T& G has been replaced by Touch 2 &Go http://blog.toyota.co.uk/toyota-touch-2-faq#.U6rEH01bwZk

All car manufacturers charge a lot for their updates (Toyota are by no means the worst, in fact they are possibly one of the better ones). There will be at least 1 extra step/margin in the chain compared to buying an update direct from a device manufacturer.

It's part of the cost of having a convenient integrated system but you can always carry over your Garmin.

[FROSTYBALLS]

With any 'lifetime maps' service provided by sat nav manufacturers, there are limitations - for example see the following extract from Garmin's Lifetime Maps service:

'A product’s “useful life” means the period during which the product (a) has sufficient memory capacity and other required technical capabilities to utilize current map data and (b) is capable of operating as intended without major repairs.'

The Garmin 52LM has its memory capacity on an SD card, so is expandable should one run out of memory capacity, but some sat navs have internal memory only, and due to limited capacity do become unable to accept map updates after a relatively short period of time.

Built in sat navs are expensive to update, and that is just one of those things.

If you're looking to change your Yaris in the Autumn, bear in mind that the facelifted Yaris should be out by then.

[Berisford]

The current SatNav / Touch & Go / bluetooth device is very poor, promises so much yet delivers so little. I'm just glad I didn't pay the extra for the SatNav or the DAB.

Only time will tell if the new one is any good, but on past efforts, I doubt it'll be up to the job.

I wonder if Toyota ever do any 'field' tests, customer feedback trials? Based on the poor user interface in all aspects of the Touch & Go I have to assume they just approach ICE manufacturers and ask for a bit of kit that looks the part at the lowest price.

[Flt.eng]

I have just taken delivery of an auris exel 1.6 petrol auto & the only problem I have with it, is the

satnav. Firstly the screen is impossible to view in any sunlight & the contrast / brightness control is

useless. The screen just hazes over in any sunlight.

I agree with you that the instructions can be very poor. Telling you to make a turn at the very last minute.

It' a shame because after having to change my Lexus ct hybrid ( physical reasons getting in & out ) I'm

delighted with the Auris in all other respects. In fact the ride is so much more comfortable.

I hope the agents will have some answers. I realise the satnav will never be as good as the Lexus.

But I should be able to see the screen & be able to indicate I'm about to make a turn in good time.

[Catlover]

I cant see myself ever buying a car with built in sat nav and that is because of the cost of updates. In fact when I was looking for a Yaris to buy 2nd hand, if it had a built in sat nav it put me off and I looked elsewhere.

I bought a Tom Tom last Oct/Nov with lifetime maps, so 4 updates a year i think they do.

I picked up my Yaris on the first day of our hols, drove 80 miles to the dealer in Sheffield I was buying from, in my "old" car with our holiday stuff. Changed it all over to the Yaris and drove down to Kent.

Soon found that sitting the Tom Tom on the dash in front of the steering wheel (instruments still in centre of dashboard), not only did the steering wheel obscure a major part of the sat nav, the sun was also shining so much on the screen it was difficult to see anyway.

Wife came up with the solution - I lift up the lid on the large storage bay directly in front of the driver and place the sat nav in their. Well protected from the suns rays, but still picking up reception and also nearer to the charging point.

Probably the best idea wife has made regarding cars!

[FROSTYBALLS]

"I bought a Tom Tom last Oct/Nov with lifetime maps, so 4 updates a year i think they do."

If your TomTom doesn't have an SD card slot where you can expand the memory, and just relies on an internal memory, then, depending what mapping you have, it will have a limited life due to the fact that the internal memory isn't large enough to cope with the size of updated maps, voices, etc.

[Catlover]

Cant remember how much memory on my Tom Tom but I remember I am only about half used, and updates are not full loads, just added info so should keep me going for a while yet.

If the sat nav lasts just 3 years I will be happy because by them there will newer models out by then that will be faster and smarter, so just buy a new one.

[arthur256]

Thanks to those who responded to my initial post. Seems I should not definitely rule out another Yaris yet!

--

Arthur

[FlukemanStu]

Yeah, I have a TomTom 25 starter with lifetime maps. I just put it in the drink hole resting on a bobble hat, I don't use it often. Internal satnav update costs put me off a built in one.

[Catlover]

Hey Stu, thanks for the tip on the bobble hat. Now I can have a place to store my bobble hat (case I break down on a M-Way and its blowing a gale) but also my sat nav moved about a bit when I went round a tight corner, so its solved that as well.

[Madasafish]

I use an elderly Garmin with lifetime updates. Works perfectly well.

I always - ALWAYS - do my own research for anything I spend lots of money on. Satnavs installed in cars by makers tend to be poor VFM and expensive to update.. and not very good. I would not spend money on buying a car with one.

[Devon Aygo]

I have a late-2011 Yaris T-Spirit CVT which came with "free" Touch n Go. I found very quickly that the included SatNav is poor. It began by demonstrating that it was obviously out-of-date, with many rural roads treated as "unknown" which had been completed by early 2011. (Notably between Nottingham and Newark on the A46). I enquired about updates as I could find none, and was told it might be some time, and would cost over £100! We also found that the guidance was often too late to take a junction, and sometimes ambiguous or even blatantly wrong.

I discussed with my wife, and we were unhappy about relying on it whilst touring Scotland. So I bought a Garmin Nuvi 52LM, which includes "map updates for life" and at a price similar to what Toyota charge for a single update. We had a good holiday, with no SatNav problems.

My Yaris lease expires this autumn, and I was hoping to have another Yaris, but the Touch n Go SatNav problems have seriously put me off the idea. Unless of course Toyota is planning a better Touch n Go SatNav in the Yaris.

--

Arthur

MOD EDIT

Title changed to remove swear word as this is a family friendly forum

If you renew your lease with a new Yaris then the new Yaris being launched in July will be fitted with Touch 2 a new version of Touch, see info here: http://www.toyota-europe.com/innovation/toyota-touch-2.tmex

[MikeSh]

I use satnav so rarely these days I don't even have one. I have an Android smartphone and Google maps navigation is pretty good (for free) and kept updated (for free).

The only downer is if there's no data connection where I start (well, try to) a new route. But I always keep a paper road atlas in the car in case of technology failure anyway.

[Catlover]

Mike, how much does it cost you for data connection over a journey say of 50 mile, thats 100 mile return.?

[devonkev]

I also agree the sat nav is the only real gripe I have with the car.Last week driving between Great Torrington & Barnstable came across an Island the voice told me to take the second exit while the graphic on the map showed the third exit. I also find the glare on the screen a problem & wondered if people with tinted windows still suffer from this problem ???

I also drive a 2010 renault traffic sport & have to say the built in Tom Tom powered carmanat sat nav is head & shoulders above this toyota offering. Costing only £20 a year for 4 map updates , if you time the special offers right & I can't honestly remember any errors in the mapping bearing in mind I use it every day.

[MikeSh]

Mike, how much does it cost you for data connection over a journey say of 50 mile, thats 100 mile return.?

Well, it depends. I have a PAYG contract which gives me up to 20MB a day for 20p, but 20p/MB thereafter.

Usually I load a route before leaving home, so it caches the route maps and uses very little data. Even starting away I usually use less than the 20MB, but I am aware of the useage and usually turn the nav/data off once I'm in territory I know, like back on the main road home.

A couple of months ago I was away overnight and the next day I left my data on (which included e-mails, a bit of browsing and some background syncs) and used the nav for a rather tedious couple of hours (prob 60-70 miles) at the start of the journey home. I later found I'd used 30MB for the 24 hours, so a couple of £, but not all of that was nav. (Given my car's fuel consumption it's usually cheaper to pay for data than get lost )

If you pay more for data it'll cost more of course. On the other hand a couple of years ago I was on a contract with, I think, 500MB a month included, in which case it costs nothing extra until you go over that. I use this particular PAYG with my occasional nav use in mind - I think it is cheaper long term than having a monthly fixed contract (I hardly make any calls or texts).

Back to your question though. I honestly can't say with certainty, and Google do change things periodically which can throw a spanner into the works. Best guesstimate for 50 miles return from scratch (given that the return should have the maps already loaded) 15-20MB. Usual disclaimers, etc, :P

[Lorna2]

I'm happy with my Touch & Go. I've never had any problems with glare on the screen. I haven't done any updates to it, might get round to that some time, though probably not. I had just the Toyota Touch when I got the car, but I got the Touch and Go installed later, for work. Its been very useful since that, for moving house to a totally new area. I wouldn't be without it. I prefer having it built in than having wires trailing round and I don't like things stuck to the windscreen.

[MikeSh]

Well, I retract some of my recommendation of Google maps for nav. It let me down today.

SWMBO is on holiday in a very not-spot place in the Yorkshire Dales and I went there today. Knowing there'd be no network at that end of the route I downloaded the the map area for offline use, and also Maps supposedly downloads the tiles for the route and a bit each side at the start, or at least ahead, to allow for dark areas. So far, so good. Tootled along for about an hour and then I notice the phone has gone back to the home screen (don't know why). Not an immediate problem, I'm on the final few miles and all I need is help through some fiddly bits right at the end. So I stop at a convenient point at the edge of town and restart Maps, but it won't plot a route 'cos the network is unavailable . (I think it needs to use the Google servers to calculate the route initially, so if it can't connect it's basically knackered).

I couldn't find any way to persuade it that it was actually the same route it was running a few minutes ago, but fortunately I had the map because I'd downloaded it, and the GPS was showing me where I was on it, so I was able to navigate the last mile or so 'manually'.

I used to print out paper copies 'just-in-case' but hadn't used them for so long I gave up. Shoulda seen that coming I suppose

[karris]

I have a Touch & Go and suffer with the glare problem. It has also let me overshoot junctions a couple of times before it announces the turn, and at roundabouts, the arrow seems to lose where you are, particularly on big roundabouts. Other than that, it's pretty good, as I think all satnav systems seem to have some problems now and again.

[wittgenfrog]

The whole Touch 'n Go system is at best mediocre, at worst a complete rip-off

As far as I c an (be bothered) to tell the system uses QNX RTOS and TomTom Maps, though like I said I can't really be bothered fully to check this out. Needless to say it fails completely to integrate properly with my Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 930), despite the latter fully supporting bluetooth 4.0 etc...

The only highlight is that the Media Player is quite good, and intelligently implemented.

SWMBO has just bought a Nissan Note which has a much superior system, with a higher-resolution, brighter & more legible screen a faster SatNav (less lag\overshoot) , voice-control of certain functions, and is all-round more effective & user-friendly.

As others have pointed-out a £500 Smartphone is likely to have a superior display, and a much better Navigation application. If you have Nokia "Here" (Nokia Lumia built-in, or download for Android) it downloads offline Maps so you don't even need a signal for it to work.

The whole business detracts from (but does not spoil) my enjoyment of the car: an excellent vehicle which has lived-up (so-far) to my expectations of providing reliable, economical and comfortable commuting & local driving.

Toyota needs to wake up & smell the coffee. It's ridiculous that they are fitting this old-fashioned proprietary and highly incompatible system in what is otherwise the most technically advanced Super Mini available. Modern ICE (now "Infotainment") systems should be at the very least compatible with the top bluetooth 4 smartphones , and ideally integrate fully with them enabling features such as screen mirroring etc.

[arthur256]

Thanks to those who responded. I have ordered an Auris Hybrid Excel, so it will be interesting to see how the updated satnav compares. I will still keep my Garmin Nuvi 52LM ready for use!!

[Heidfirst]

The whole Touch 'n Go system is at best mediocre, at worst a complete rip-off

As far as I c an (be bothered) to tell the system uses QNX RTOS and TomTom Maps, though like I said I can't really be bothered fully to check this out. Needless to say it fails completely to integrate properly with my Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 930), despite the latter fully supporting Bluetooth 4.0 etc...

TnG is a Harman unit with maps by Navteq (i.e. Nokia ...).

Windows Phone sales are ~2.5% of current market share so in overall terms of phones in use it will be considerably less than that.

[FROSTYBALLS]

After completing a questionnaire for Toyota at the tail end of last year on the Touch 2 (including with Go), I they now use TomTom for mapping.

[wittgenfrog]

Thanks for clarifying.

Like I said, I really couldn't be bothered to dig too deeply.

My point about incompatibility is not that it doesn't work with Windows Phone, but that there is a "compatibility list" at all. There is no technical reason for this, it's just laziness on the part of the developer.