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Ancient Nerd · 27th December 2006, 11:02

Voice activation

Mostly this is pure gimmick. In practice it is quicker and more reliable to use the conventional controls. The main exception is for POIs that you use enough to justify learning the correct command. In my case Find nearest petrol station is 90% of my usage. The remaining 10% is Go home although mostly I use the manual controls even for that. The joke command is What is the time, which speaks the time that is permanently visible on the dash display.

General Satnav

Not a bad system overall but:

As with other OEM systems, you can't add POIs e.g. speed cameras
Supplied POIs are often of poor quality. I think Honda just licensed a few at random without bothering to look at the quality e.g.
- Restaurant data is totally useless. My nearest Indian Restaurant is over 50 miles away, ignoring the hundreds that are closer. There is no fast food in the UK - nearest McDonalds is in Calais!
- There is a non-existent Honda dealer within a mile of home. I'll use them for my next imaginary service.
- There is a petrol station shown within a mile of home that has never existed.
Some of the navigation options are quirky, although not a problem once you've read the manual carefully and used it for a bit.
Some route finding is really quirky. For example, I have a local route where instead of turning left onto a busy A road, I am told to turn right (across the traffic) and then to do a 360 degree turn at a roundabout half a mile down the road.
The map display is really basic. If you are used to the 3D view given by TomTom, then you will find nothing as effective here. If you are expecting the general geographic information provided on VDO Dayton systems (e.g. urban areas, rivers, lakes etc) then mostly they aren't there.

On the other hand, coverage is good (full European maps), TMC data is provided by RAC/Trafficmaster - far from perfect, but much better than the alternative data provided by AA/ITIS.

Conclusion: if it comes as part of the car (EX), It's a good deal. If you have to pay for it as an optional extra, then buy a Tomtom

27th December 2006, 11:02	#2 (permalink)
Ancient Nerd Triangular Exhaust Join Date: 5th May 2006 Location: Norfolk Posts: 347 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader: (0)	Voice activation Mostly this is pure gimmick. In practice it is quicker and more reliable to use the conventional controls. The main exception is for POIs that you use enough to justify learning the correct command. In my case Find nearest petrol station is 90% of my usage. The remaining 10% is Go home although mostly I use the manual controls even for that. The joke command is What is the time, which speaks the time that is permanently visible on the dash display. General Satnav Not a bad system overall but: As with other OEM systems, you can't add POIs e.g. speed cameras Supplied POIs are often of poor quality. I think Honda just licensed a few at random without bothering to look at the quality e.g. Restaurant data is totally useless. My nearest Indian Restaurant is over 50 miles away, ignoring the hundreds that are closer. There is no fast food in the UK - nearest McDonalds is in Calais! There is a non-existent Honda dealer within a mile of home. I'll use them for my next imaginary service. There is a petrol station shown within a mile of home that has never existed. Some of the navigation options are quirky, although not a problem once you've read the manual carefully and used it for a bit. Some route finding is really quirky. For example, I have a local route where instead of turning left onto a busy A road, I am told to turn right (across the traffic) and then to do a 360 degree turn at a roundabout half a mile down the road. The map display is really basic. If you are used to the 3D view given by TomTom, then you will find nothing as effective here. If you are expecting the general geographic information provided on VDO Dayton systems (e.g. urban areas, rivers, lakes etc) then mostly they aren't there. On the other hand, coverage is good (full European maps), TMC data is provided by RAC/Trafficmaster - far from perfect, but much better than the alternative data provided by AA/ITIS. Conclusion: if it comes as part of the car (EX), It's a good deal. If you have to pay for it as an optional extra, then buy a Tomtom