(scroll down to my next reply for pictures)
If you read my "Here We Go" thread, you already know that I decided to pull out the OEM Nav/Radio and put in an Aftermarket one... I went with the Pioneer Z2.
I LOVE IT. The system really works great, sounds great and is 100 times better than the OEM Nav/Radio. I should have done this from the start.
Bluetooth works excellent. I've successfully paired with my new iPhone (I am the geek at heart) and there's no issues what-so-ever. It works superb.
I'm really enjoying XM Radio and having MLB in the car
-- They have a great selection of channels as well, and the only regret I have is that I didn't switch from Sirius to XM sooner. I'm not a Stern fan, so no losses there. Plus I get Opie & Anthony instead
Nav system seems really good so far. No mishaps yet. Routing seems accurate and direct. POIs seem relatively up-to-date, but no nav system is perfect in this regard; It is MUCH more up-to-date than the Mazda system. The voice commands work EXTREMELY well... I don't feel like I'm ever fighting to get it to understand me. It's also very comprehensive, so I can do an addressed search by saying "Destination... Address... Placeville... First Street.... 123" and low-and-behold there it is right on the map. Finding POIs is just as easy... "Vicinity Search... Starbucks" and the closest one comes up. You can control other aspects of the radio with Voice as well... for example "AV Operation... AV Source... XM" and the radio switched to XM. Wanna dial a phone number via bluetooth? "Call... Phone Number... (515) 555-1212..." it confirms and dials.
I love the live traffic reporting, but of course there's really no way for me to know how accurate it is right now (I don't commute in traffic daily... only when we travel). I won't know until we go on one of our long weekends and actually HIT traffic trying to get out of the NYC area.
Update: 8/8/07: Now that I've had it about a month the live traffic reporting seems fairly accurate (assuming the area you're in provides the information properly). I've been able to avoid several back-ups so far. There are a few ways to get the traffic info... there is a button that tunes you into your local traffic station. There is also an area in the menu that gives you a list of traffic events and reports on traffic flow (sortable alphabetically or by which is closest). And, on the map itself, if you're on a road where the city/county/state provides the info, you'll see what looks like a traffic light letting you know what's coming up ahead, and color indicators on the roads themselves to let you know how traffic is flowing (green means good, yellow means slow - and you see the approximate speed - and red, obviously, means a parking lot, LOL).
The iPod controls are great. My only gripe is that they are a little slow to react (not as speedy as using the iPod directly). Part of it is that we have a huge iPod library (nearly 8,000 songs) so finding something can be a little time consuming... My husband's car is better with Alpines iPod Full Speed connection, but I will say, even that isn't perfect. The biggest problem with the Z2 is if you want to find a specific song (out of 8,000, LOL), but I never do that anyway. I can get around most speed issues by using playlists and smart playlists, and just having a little patience. To give you an idea, I timed myself doing a search by artist. I wanted to go to "Matt Nathanson" (as N is sort of in the middle of the alphabet). Doing so the normal way it took me just under 2 minutes. Not a huge amount of time, but it can feel like a long time compared to when you search on the iPod directly, and when you are hitting the scroll down button for what feels like forever.
Either way, it's SO much better than NOT having an iPod connector, or having to deal with a crappy FM transmitter, or having to deal with no way to search through your songs at all. The interface is sorted just like the iPod is (Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists) so you really can get to anything you want.
I haven't played with the hard drive music library yet. There is a way to rip songs to the hard drive and then using voice commands you can find anything. I may play with that more down the road, but right now carrying my 80 gig iPod around suits my needs just fine.
It also plays DVDs, but I haven't tried that at all (could care less honestly).
System sounds great... there are a lot of EQ presets, plus the ability to customize settings and save them.
There are two "issues" that still have to be "addressed". First is the Bypass (being able to control the Navigation System while the car is moving). The is a typical request people want when they have a nav system installed, because by law, the manufacturer has to make it so you CANNOT control the system when the car is going over 5 or 10 MPH. The Z2 can currently not be bypassed because no one has figured out how to accomplish it. My installer thought he could figure it out, but he couldn't... He hasn't given up though and we're staying on top of it, so if we get it done I'll let you all know.
It's not too big a deal to me right now because the voice activated commands work SO well that you can control most important things while on the move anyway.
UPDATE 7/24/07 -- see my reply below -- the Z2 is now bypassable, and I've installed the software update and it all works great!
The other "issue" is the steering wheel controls. The are multiiplexed (meaning at least part of the signal is digital). Tim has to figure out how to convert that signal back to analog and it's challenging... as far as we know, no one has successfully done it yet. If anyone out there has info, please share... if not, I'll let you know what we find out as time goes on too. Worst case scenario is probably that we have to wait for a harness to become available, which should be about the same time a dash kit comes available... predicted to be August.
Pictures below...
If you read my "Here We Go" thread, you already know that I decided to pull out the OEM Nav/Radio and put in an Aftermarket one... I went with the Pioneer Z2.
I LOVE IT. The system really works great, sounds great and is 100 times better than the OEM Nav/Radio. I should have done this from the start.
Bluetooth works excellent. I've successfully paired with my new iPhone (I am the geek at heart) and there's no issues what-so-ever. It works superb.
I'm really enjoying XM Radio and having MLB in the car
-- They have a great selection of channels as well, and the only regret I have is that I didn't switch from Sirius to XM sooner. I'm not a Stern fan, so no losses there. Plus I get Opie & Anthony instead Nav system seems really good so far. No mishaps yet. Routing seems accurate and direct. POIs seem relatively up-to-date, but no nav system is perfect in this regard; It is MUCH more up-to-date than the Mazda system. The voice commands work EXTREMELY well... I don't feel like I'm ever fighting to get it to understand me. It's also very comprehensive, so I can do an addressed search by saying "Destination... Address... Placeville... First Street.... 123" and low-and-behold there it is right on the map. Finding POIs is just as easy... "Vicinity Search... Starbucks" and the closest one comes up. You can control other aspects of the radio with Voice as well... for example "AV Operation... AV Source... XM" and the radio switched to XM. Wanna dial a phone number via bluetooth? "Call... Phone Number... (515) 555-1212..." it confirms and dials.
I love the live traffic reporting, but of course there's really no way for me to know how accurate it is right now (I don't commute in traffic daily... only when we travel). I won't know until we go on one of our long weekends and actually HIT traffic trying to get out of the NYC area.
Update: 8/8/07: Now that I've had it about a month the live traffic reporting seems fairly accurate (assuming the area you're in provides the information properly). I've been able to avoid several back-ups so far. There are a few ways to get the traffic info... there is a button that tunes you into your local traffic station. There is also an area in the menu that gives you a list of traffic events and reports on traffic flow (sortable alphabetically or by which is closest). And, on the map itself, if you're on a road where the city/county/state provides the info, you'll see what looks like a traffic light letting you know what's coming up ahead, and color indicators on the roads themselves to let you know how traffic is flowing (green means good, yellow means slow - and you see the approximate speed - and red, obviously, means a parking lot, LOL).
The iPod controls are great. My only gripe is that they are a little slow to react (not as speedy as using the iPod directly). Part of it is that we have a huge iPod library (nearly 8,000 songs) so finding something can be a little time consuming... My husband's car is better with Alpines iPod Full Speed connection, but I will say, even that isn't perfect. The biggest problem with the Z2 is if you want to find a specific song (out of 8,000, LOL), but I never do that anyway. I can get around most speed issues by using playlists and smart playlists, and just having a little patience. To give you an idea, I timed myself doing a search by artist. I wanted to go to "Matt Nathanson" (as N is sort of in the middle of the alphabet). Doing so the normal way it took me just under 2 minutes. Not a huge amount of time, but it can feel like a long time compared to when you search on the iPod directly, and when you are hitting the scroll down button for what feels like forever.
Either way, it's SO much better than NOT having an iPod connector, or having to deal with a crappy FM transmitter, or having to deal with no way to search through your songs at all. The interface is sorted just like the iPod is (Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists) so you really can get to anything you want.
I haven't played with the hard drive music library yet. There is a way to rip songs to the hard drive and then using voice commands you can find anything. I may play with that more down the road, but right now carrying my 80 gig iPod around suits my needs just fine.
It also plays DVDs, but I haven't tried that at all (could care less honestly).
System sounds great... there are a lot of EQ presets, plus the ability to customize settings and save them.
There are two "issues" that still have to be "addressed". First is the Bypass (being able to control the Navigation System while the car is moving). The is a typical request people want when they have a nav system installed, because by law, the manufacturer has to make it so you CANNOT control the system when the car is going over 5 or 10 MPH. The Z2 can currently not be bypassed because no one has figured out how to accomplish it. My installer thought he could figure it out, but he couldn't... He hasn't given up though and we're staying on top of it, so if we get it done I'll let you all know.
It's not too big a deal to me right now because the voice activated commands work SO well that you can control most important things while on the move anyway.
UPDATE 7/24/07 -- see my reply below -- the Z2 is now bypassable, and I've installed the software update and it all works great!
The other "issue" is the steering wheel controls. The are multiiplexed (meaning at least part of the signal is digital). Tim has to figure out how to convert that signal back to analog and it's challenging... as far as we know, no one has successfully done it yet. If anyone out there has info, please share... if not, I'll let you know what we find out as time goes on too. Worst case scenario is probably that we have to wait for a harness to become available, which should be about the same time a dash kit comes available... predicted to be August.
Pictures below...
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