How Many Dealers Know Anything About Hdd Sat Navs?

[Geordie Mick in Wigan]

Last summer I had a choice of new company car, from a list of various, with the exception of Ford, Toyota being the 'less prestige' but the sheer amount of kit in them Vs zee Germans just could not go unnoticed, so after having a BMW, Merc and Audi's delivered to my house for trials I still fancied the Toyota, but repeated attempts to have one for a 24hr test drive failed, I had to settle for a quick blast up one junction of M6 in a T4, but that said it was enough to convince me my head was agreeing with my heart.

It had the £1500 optional HDD sat nav/10Gb hard drive/reverse camera, which I would have to pay for myself, over the three year lease. So I (in a time of recession) was keen to support the UK car industry and ordered the Avensis, I was asking for more than the spubik info/tech specs about the HDD kit than was on the Toyota car configurator but nobody could supply me with any.

Arval did what they do and bought if from someone 350 miles from me and it was delivered 3 days before the 59 plates came out, even though I was told it wouldn't be, obviously dealers clicking up rebates.

So, fast forward a couple of months, i'm getting to grips with the HDD unit and realise that it's a complete waste of money.

It will only allow you to record tracks by inserting the original disc, which is fine if you have them, I stopped buying them years ago and have £400 of legitimate music I've bought off iTunes, if you burn a disc it then it will recognise the text when playing back, but as soon as you record it the track info is lost, so you have to MANUALLY type all the track info in, which is a real pain. If you have an album that doesn't fit onto one disc then when you record the second disc it stores it as a separate album, so add both to a playlist, yes but then when on playlist you can't search for a track, you can only toggle up and down the list with steering wheel controls.

If you have a disc full of various artists and record it onto the HDD, when you change the artist on one track it changes the rest of the artists too, so you can't have mixes, again they could be added to a playlist but then you can't identify a track without toggling up/down.

Now, 'just use the aux jack' I hear you say! I tried to buy the USB conversion kit but that's not available with the unit, it uses a CDC input which the B9012 doesn't have, why would you want a CDC with a 10Gb HDD?? I'd spent hours recording discs so when my Mrs drives my car she can listen to music without having to take my Ipod/iPhone

When I contacted Toyota GB I was advised that the reason they've done this is because of copyright issues, which surely has to be a load of B0110cks, you can drop a load of 'stolen' MP3's onto a disc and play them on the normal CD player, my colleague with same car (less HDD) does, they had little knowledge of it and told me the firewire port behind the screen was to update the Greencote database at service intervals, which my dealer can't do because they haven't a clue about it. I loaded one of my Mrs' CD's which was about three years old and wasn't on the database, so it's obviously way out of date.

Last month the bluetooth started to become really poor and I booked it in and they said all they could do was replace the whole unit, which they did, and it was fine with the new unit in. Problem I have now is that all of my music has gone and the sat nav is out of date. Went back to the dealers and they insisted it's as simple as buying a new DVD, but when you point out it's not DVD based they look vacant. I've had FOUR dealers look into this and NONE have discovered how to update it.

I cam on here and found the link to the map updates website and my unit is on it, but says 'you dealer will be pleased to help you update your sat nav' :ffs:

The sat nav is missing roads that have been built for years, it keeps sending me down motorway slip roads only to send me back up the other side, instead of keeping you on the motorway, the car was delivered with 08/09 version and 09/10 is out now, and I think the least Toyota can do is update it for free, providing they can find a dealer who can.

I know they're all busy with the recalls but it's no excuse to ignore people who've bought their most expensive models, especially ones who've fought toot and nail to get the vehicle serviced(130K in three years) at the Toyota network when Arval demanded it went to Nationwide Auto centres.

I'm just wondering where to take this now, feel like I've wasted £1500 and could of put that towards a T Spirit instead

I'm sure a letter to Toyota GB will end up at the bottom of a pile of letters from 000's Mr and Mrs Smith OAP's who are complaining about their recalled car that does on average 1500 miles a year and never gets out of third gear, and sees a dealer once in it's lifetime.

Any advice opinions appreciated.

PS, apart from that the car's a cracker and love it to bits

[Geordie Mick in Wigan]

Answer my own question here:

Spoke to someone reasonably senior at Toyota, apparently they've NOT YET developed the hardware/software to update the units, all of 14 months after starting to sell them, they say it's completely reasonable to take 18 months to develop updates, even though there's a new version of map out now, but they have no way of getting it onto the B9012 unit, I bet Lexus has?!

Absolute joke, just credit checking Toyota UK and seeing if any of the Directors have declared their home addresses at Companies House, if they have they're all getting a letter, especially seeing as the letter i sent three months ago hasn't even been acknowledged.

So, they can't update the map database and the 'Greencote' database for updating the music system is all but useless. Someone's head will roll if I get my own way. :censor: