Sorry for all the new posts, but I have a lot of questions that are arising after a few days with the car. Does anybody know what is the date that the 2006 Civic Navigation system database is updated to currently? The POI's are pretty pathetic. I am running something like 2 for 10 in finding local stores. It could not even locate a major Walmart near me, that has been there for about 7 years. I live near Baltimore, so I am not in the country either.

I just traded in a gas guzzling 2005 Jeep in which the Nav system database was also pathetic when I got it. I think the DB was only updated as of 2003 even though the car was a 2005. It was also an Alpine unit using a Nav Tec database. They finally came out with a new disk in 2006 that was much better. Is everyone else finding this to be true as well? Funny thing is I have a $200 Garmin Blue tooth GPS for my Dell PDA that blows away anything I have seen in another companies system in a car so far for the database accuracy.

The current US CD version is 6.11, not that that means anything. They haven't issued a revision since the 2006 Civic started shipping, so we've all got the current one.

Here's another bit of amusement for you: They won't sell us the Canadian version of the DVD, and apparently it's copy-protected. I'm going to Nova Scotia in September, and once I get past a certain point, the Nav system is useless. I'll have to carry my old Garmin. You'd think that they'd at least include a basemap of major highways, but nope. Absolutely nothing there.

Current asking price if you need to replace a damaged DVD: $185.

Would-be hypermiler

With my other Alpine system you could call the 1-800 number and find out what year Navtech database the revision was using. When did the first Civic '06's ship? With the cars being made in Japan, I bet there is an even bigger delay in the software. For instance, if the Civics start shipping in late '05, I woud not be surprised if the data disk was updated in early '05 with an '04 or late '03 Navtech database survey. There was a huge improvement in my '05 Jeep's system when I purchased the updated disk early this year for $150. Needless to say I removed it from the car when I sold it to Car Max and will sell on Ebay for a $75 starting bid.

Yeah, you can go to this page to check on what's the latest version. I would guess that it's the '04 database.

Actually, if you tell me something you're looking for that's not on the Civic, I can check my Garmin's '04 database and see if it's in there.

Would-be hypermiler

My main point was just to see if everybody else is having a poor find rate for POI's. I may have just picked a poor grab sample, but 20% find rate is pretty pathetic. The Walmart is located here:

401 Constant Friendship Blvd
Abingdon, MD

The navigation systems are only as good as the database, and Garmin seems to be one of the best databases IMHO. It is in my Garmin Que database.

Lastly, is there any way to get the stupid system to stop bringing up Walmarts in California if I search via name? Why not just allow you to set the default state for a search and only give results in that State? I know you can do this for intersections, but it asks you to give the state each time. Why not set the default and force me to tell it a different state for the few time I would need it?