Installed: Pioneer AVIC-Z3

xravexboix · Posted: 8/20/08 11:54AM Post subject: Installed: Pioneer AVIC-Z3

So far, so good! This is the 30gb hard drive based navigation. 10 gb is dedicated to be a music jukebox (load cds and it rips them automatically). Good stuff! I'll post better pics later.

oboogie · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 180

Looks amazing!

ChelsDS · Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 2386 Location: SoCal

Nice!

I still have yet to see a headunit with a screen have good graphics :? Not ripping on what you have Jeff, just I'm obsessed with good graphics. Being a gamer does that.

pickledchang · Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 631

were you able to hook up the steering wheel controls to this? where did you purchase it from? did you look at the kenwood dnx8120 at all? what made you buy this over that if you did?

kris68 · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 78 Location: perth amboy, nj

I was thinking about getting a nav. system like this but I didn’t want to loose the steering wheel controls and ipod hook up and control since all my music is on it already.
Can you still use the ipod connect?

xravexboix · Posted: 8/21/08 7:32AM Post subject:

Chels: It actually has decent animations and decent graphics. It doesn't compare to my home setup though =D
40" Sony Bravia LCD 1080p, 60gb PS3, DirecTV HD DVR, Denon 7.1 Receiver and Harman Kardon Speakers. It gets the job done though =P

pickledchang: We've been selling the Kenwood DNX710EX (same as DNX7100) and I've personally seen over 50% of the sold units come back for warranty. Usually when you see something like that, it's a consistant failure (ie always the screen, or amp, or something). In these cases, they were all random events- one screen motor going bad, a few internal amps going bad, a few pre-amp outputs going bad, software freezing, etc... so we're getting rid of the units. They may have 'corrected' these int he new version, but I'm still very weary of Kenwood now. I am an Eclipse guy (all my Solara equipment is Eclipse except for the speakers), and they have also moved into the "was good" category.

The Pioneer unit actually surprised me. I just got to play with it last night and the voice commands and guidance are top notch. Plus the music juke box is awesome (rips your cds once you put it in). Since the unit is HDD based, the route calculations and other "searchables/processor intensive tasks" like that are VERY fast.

For the steering wheel controls, the PAC SW adapter is used. It maintains the controls w/ an easy installation. I bought it from myself =P We're an authorized Eclipse, Kenwood, Alpine, and Pioneer dealer.

kris68: The steering wheel control issue is solved with a ~$60 adapter. The iPod issue needs a new iPod cable that's compatible with the unit (about $50 I think). The factory cable is completely different in terms of how it links to the head unit. The Pioneer one is a USB cable (I think? haven't installed ours yet) one the headunit end and a long cable coming out for the iPod connection. Unfortunately the hole in the dash won't work anymore though. We took out the factory iPod harness and donated it to our team tech. He put a Premium Scion unit in his Sequoia and needed that cable. He was too cheap to pay the $80 for it... so he ripped it out from our car, lol. Same thing with the "AUX" jack. You need the AUX adapter from Pioneer to use it.

pickledchang · Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 631

sweet... it looks awesome man. i heard one complaint though was when you zoom in real far, the street names disappear or something. is there anything you dont like about it?

xravexboix · Posted: 8/21/08 1:39PM Post subject:

pickledchang wrote: sweet... it looks awesome man. i heard one complaint though was when you zoom in real far, the street names disappear or something. is there anything you dont like about it?

Yea, if you zoon too close in, the street names disappear... but it only shows major street names anyhow. It depends on the view though. If it's the 2d overhead, you see all the names. If it's the 3D, most of the minor names are left out and only major streets are displayed.

So far, I'm quite happy. The onyl thing I didn't like is that the "vehicle information" didn't feature everything found in the AVIC-D3. It has a speed meter and things like that, but doesnt' have the g-meter =P I know... completely useless, but it's still fun to have. Besides that, I wish the hard drive was more easily upgradeable. It looks like I'd have to get one of the Toshiba drives that are "shock proof"/automotive grade. I doubt SSD will work though.

pickledchang · Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 631

so the minor street names only disappear in 3D mode, and ALL street names are shown in 2D overhead except at the closest zoom? i wish there were a virtual setup of this thing, like a flash progam or something that simulates it, lol. i guess ill have to find one on display at a store or something.

xravexboix · Posted: 8/22/08 7:50AM Post subject:

hahaha we'll be installing a display unit soon. We just cleared out our last Kenwood unit, so I can finally redo our Kenwood display to a AVIC-F900BT and AVIC-Z3.

emsmith2323 · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 80

elpolloblanco009 · Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 123 Location: Hot Hot Hanford

It does have g meter, slope, side acceleration and a lot of other stuff. the ipod kit is more than just a usb cable it's an entire box that has to be wired up. And if you want a different hard drive there is a guy named geret on avic411.com that has them. It's the z3 software but the hard drive is larger and it gices you more room for music. the only major problem i have with it is the fact that the ipod interface is so freaking slow. it only displays 5 lines at a time (song, or artis or whatever) and when you push the down arrow it takes a second for it to load. I have like 800 artist on my ipod so that takes a while. If it had abc shortcuts or a search feature that would be baller. The blue tooth is great and the voice controls are nice once you've learned them.

xravexboix · Posted: 9/22/08 11:33AM Post subject:

Yea, I don't have an iPod so I'm good =P

Just realized where the g-meter was stored. wrote a small review for fun
http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=237560