I currently have a non-NAV Acura TL - 2004 and am planning on getting a TCH soon. I do not need NAV for navigating as I rarely travel out of the area where I live. I do use bluetooth and XM radio in my Acura and even without the NAV can see all outgoing and incoming phone call numbers below the speedo. The XM displays on the relatively large radio screen with the name of the song or artist. All of this while driving. The only real reason to get the NAV for me is to have more information displayed while driving than I would get without the NAV for these two features. It sounds like that is not what Toyota has in mind however with their safety lock-out. Would appreciate it if someone familiar with comparing these features in both NAV and non-NAV Camry would enlighten me. The "cartoons" of the gas consumption are not that big of a thing for me.

There are more things to the Nav than just navigation. I personally love the point of interest function. I get in the car, select the category I want (restaurant, art store, grocery, etc.) choose current position and off I go. Saves me a ton of time.

The other night, the boyfriend and I couldn't decide where to eat. Selected the types of cuisine we might be interested in, pulled up the list, found a restaurant we liked, pulled up their number, called ahead and off we went.

It's worth it. It adds a lot more fun and convenience value to the car.

I have to strongly agree. This function can often be more useful than google or yellowpages.com. Last week when my employer had an offsite meeting involving the whole firm, someone was looking for a close place to order out lunch to. This was somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient to do on the internet (unless someone can tell me a better site to look for restaurants of only a certain type that are within a certain radius of your present location). Being the geek that I am, I walked out the TCH and quickly suggested a few restaurants.

I wouldn't let the lockout preclude you from choosing this car. The lockout is VERY easy to override. Without a passenger navigator, though, it _is_ pretty dangerous, however.

GGal

when looking at there site, if you go to map updates, Toyota is not listed as a manufacturer for updates...
:-(

There may just not be updates available yet. There are no updates for my make/model/year yet listed from the company that supplies the map data for my hybrid ('06 Ford Escape), either.

- Shannon (Geeky, Wild Texan)

i am sure that is the case (no current update), but they do not even list the manufacturer...

To anyone who already has their TCH, is there a splash screen when you start that lists the version number of the nav? If not how does one access the version number?

The software is made by Denso(a Japanese corp) and the version is 5.1.

Link to My Hybrid Car News Web Page

Actually the company is Denso and YOUR version can be obtained in the setup information on the navigation display. It may take a few screen presses but it is displayed there. Most TCH were delivered with version 5.1 and that means 2005 version 1. This much I have determined. I believe the Lexus has the same version.

Not to be too anal but it is 05.1 same difference. Yes Lexus is using the same disc and yes the 05.1 software is the most current release.

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