GNPeden (74.242.43.129) - Thu Nov 20 14:40:20 2008

I purchased a Toyota 2009 Rav4 Limited on Nov 10, 2008 with the Toyota navigation system. When I came near my house, none of the streets east of the main highway (including my street) appeared on the navigation system. I could not even enter my home address. This is a college town with a population of about 50, 000 and is about 200 years old. My particular neighborhood is over 15 years old and next to the university. By using the navigation arrows to move around on the screen, I was able to determine that an area roughly the shape of a triangle about 30 miles on each side was completely void of data. This includes half of another city that is larger than the one I live in, a fourth of a smaller city, and an entire Army base. All of this information is found on the navigation system in my Infiniti G35 and on my handheld Garmin. On November 11th I reported this problem to Bridgette at the Toyota Customer Experience number (800-331-4331). Toyota was able to reproduce my problem and agreed that the system was faulty and of no use to me. I was assured that they would call me back by the close of business the next day (Wednesday) with a resolution. After not receiving a call, I called back on Thursday and was told Bridgette would call be by close of business. This continued until Toyota finally called me on Wednesday November 19th. All that I had asked to resolve the problem was for Toyota to provide me at no cost the updates to the Toyota navigation system as they become available until my area is covered and purchase an aftermarket GPS system for me to use until it was corrected. Their only offer was a $250 credit for future Toyota parts and services!

I refused the offer and I'm starting an arbitration process.

Lessons learned:

1) The Toyota navigation system has some serious flaws. Even if the area where you live is covered, what areas that you may want to visit or travel through are not covered?

2) Even after admitting that the system does not work as expected (even older systems that I have used cover this area flawlessly), Toyota will not work with you to correct the problem. So buyer beware!

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