HAVE JUST GOT RX300 SE ON 2001 CAN OR HAS ANYONE KNOW IF SAT NAV CAN
BE RETRO FITTED NOT GETTING MUCH JOY FROM DEALER SAYS NO CHANCE
SEEMS STRANGE THAT SCREEN AND BUTTONS ARE FITTED BUT DISPLAY SAYS
NO EXTERNAL UNIT FITTED
THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP OR COMMENTS
REGARDS BARRY

No it can't be retrofitted on MK1 Rx300 se I had one and got same answer from dealer. best bet is to get a hand held/portable sat nav and transfer from car to car.
Realspeed

Dealers won't do it but it is probably possible. It's something I am going to try at some point. The wiring is there in the boot although I think it needs an adapter cable to plug into the nav unit.

Even if it does plug straight in a new nav unit is about £2000 + £300 for the DVD and you will need an aerial.

Hey All,

I've just been reading your comments, I have a RX300SE with Sat Nav and would like to update the map DVD. Does anybody actually know what the latest version is and how much it costs?

The latest version is V1 2004/2005 and is about £300

Thanks Colin, can you only buy it from the main dealer or is there somewhere else that you could recommend??

Main dealer only.

You could always join our Gold membership and get 15% off the price and get it mailed to you from Chris Shipley so you don't even have to visit a dealer.

Having just picked up a new RX 300 SE-L on Saturday the SatNav is 2004/2005 Version 2 now.

Hi All - decisions, decisions, we are in the process of chosing and now are trying to decide between SE with Sat Nav or SE with parking sensors. Do you think Sat Nav is useful or just a great toy - our car will be used for school runs, shopping, football - is Sat Nav worth the money or just improving resell value

I'd go for SatNav - but I suppose it depends on the type of journeys you do. It's a very sophisticated system - traffic avoidance, finds hotels, petrol stations, restaurants etc from it's database. You can ring an hotel direct from the screen (if you have a Bluetooth phone) to make your booking and the SatNav takes you to the door! Loads of other features that I haven't got near investigating yet.

Parking sensors were quoted at £500+ each end when we looked. Seemed a lot of money to solve a problem I wasn't sure I had Plus you get a neat rear view camera anyway if you have SatNav.

As ever, you pays your money........

Hi andyj thanks for the reply - do you think the rear view camera is better than the sensors - is it really as easy as it looks?

Not wishing to answer for Andy but our own experience from just one day of having a demonstrator made it clear how easy having the rear camera made parking. I could park it easier than my wife's Ford Focus!

I spoke to a colleague who owns a 300SE with Sat Nav because we had the same dilemma. He said get it just for the camera. A lot of money for a camera I know, that's why in the end we waited for the 2005 spec to get the latest and greatest system as we thought we were going to get better value from the system with the improvements made etc. Then they went and put the price up by £1000, but we couldn't take a 2003 spec earlier as finance didn't really allow it at the time we would have needed to take delivery. Now we're waiting till 18th December. Every weekend we go out and end up finding examples where having the sat nav would make life easier and that's the whole reason for buying the Lexus for us in the first place. Plus resale values maybe an issue I've heard. I was told by some dealers (don't know if a line or not) that customers are specifically asking for used IS200's only with sat nav as an example. You won't get your money back but it will make it a lot more saleable in years to come. With the next generation RX supposedly out in 2007 that could be a bearing.

Yes there are also after market systems available for both sat nav and even reversing cameras now which have LCD displays integrated into a replacement rear view mirror, but the Lexus sat nav system is apparently the best system out there and it's so much better to have it integrated into the car. The reversing camera even helps by showing lines to indicate whether the car will fit in the space even before you've moved!

If you decide to not go for the system, after all it's a fairly significant amount of money, you should be able to negotiate the parking sensors to be fitted for free, at least with signifcant discount. They're fitted at the dealer by an after market fitter anyway. I've seen systems like this (admitedly not fitted through Lexus) for around £100 or so.

best of luck


D

I agree with Damian's opinion - the camera is surprisingly good. Haven't quite interpreted what all the lines do (you can remove them anyway) but the red one at the bottom is what you line up to the thing you are reversing towards. Once the line on the screen touches the object, you are 14 inches away! Had this demo'ed in the handover bay when we picked it up - me sweating that the salesman was about to splat our new rear end into the wall. Couldn't believe the difference between what seemed like close and the reality of the position.

Speak to a guy name Julian at NAV-TV in Cardiff, he may be able to help ...

A cheaper and maybe a better option for the sat nav would be to get somthing like TomTom Go or Tom Tom Navigator which is either a standalone or a Pocket PC version of sat nav. - From my experience it's got more upto date maps than the Lexus and only costs about £30-50 pa to get latest release.
Judge for yourself @ TomTom Nav3 or TomTom Go

My father has a Tom Tom Go, and my brother runs Navigator 3 on an Ipaq.

Both are good - but the sat nav in my IS, and GS is better.


If I had to make a choice - I would get the Lexus nav.

If cost is an issue, then the TTGo would be my choice