WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA – A new report from J.D. Power found that factory navigation systems still cause a number of problems for users, mainly in terms of routing and ease of use.

On average, owners of vehicles equipped with factory-installed navigation systems experienced 351 problems per 100 systems (pp100) in 2011. The most common problems users reported were fairly significant, for example not finding a destination or other location. The survey asked users about six major system factors: ease of use; routing; navigation display screen; speed of system; voice directions; and voice recognition.

“Routing—the primary function of a navigation system—is obviously an issue and will continue to be,” said Andy Bernhard, director at J.D. Power and Associates. “However, for nearly 10 years, the importance of ease of use has been emphasized by owners, and the continued high level of problems in this area begs the question: is the industry listening to how owners want to interact with their system?”

Here’s a list of the frequency of the common problems:

  • Address/street/city not found (33 PP100)
  • Difficulty inputting destination (32 PP100)
  • Route provided was not direct (24 PP100)
  • Difficulty using voice recognition controls (23 PP100)
  • Map doesn’t show enough street names (21 PP100)
  • Couldn’t find desired menu/screen (19 PP100)
  • Map or point of interest search was missing points of interest (16 PP100)
  • Inability to view screen due to glare (14 PP100)

In terms of systems that performed well, according to survey respondents, the Garmin system in the Dodge Charger ranks highest in owner satisfaction with factory-installed navigation systems. Respondents said it performs “particularly well” in the navigation display screen, ease of use, and speed of system categories. The Hyundai-Mobis navigation system in the Hyundai Genesis Coupe is next, and the Garmin system in the Chrysler 300 series came up third.

J.D. Power said its 2011 U.S. Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 18,303 owners who recently purchased or leased new 2011 model-year vehicles that were equipped with factory-installed navigation systems. The company conducted the survey in October 2011.

0 Comments