5thGenRams Forums

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

NAV the worst GPS ever? Serious routing issues

JeffK2019

Active Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
53
Reaction score
69
Points
18
Age
58
So one of the reasons I ordered the 12 inch UConnect system is that I drive a lot for my job and use GPS almost daily for client visits, etc.. For years I have suction-cupped a Garmin GPS to my windshield.....was glad I could get rid of that approach.

Sorry to say my GPS experience with the Uconnect system today was total garbage.

Scenario #1
Roughly 3 hour trip. 4 or 6 lane highway most of the way. Have made this trip before but always put into my GPS in case I get on the phone and would miss a turn, etc.. On Freeway almost 2 hours into trip and NAV has me exciting highway into a mid-sized city - I was on the phone at the time, had plenty of time for my appointment, and figured it must be a traffic re-route or something. 3.5 miles later and 14 stop lights, it loops me around BACK ONTO the same highway to continue my trip. There was no traffic. Seriously?

Scenario #2
Now that I know the NAV might be a little crazy - I fire up my Garmin (which was tossed in the center console) and fire up the GPS/Map on my iPhone. Leaving client I hit HOME button - all 3 GPS systems start calculating my return route, again about a 3 hour drive. Leaving client - iPhone says turn right, Garmin GPS says turn right. NAV/Uconnect says turn left. What? I check time to my destination - Uconnect system has me arriving 44 minutes later than both my other GPS units, both of which were within 1 minute of each other.

How can a system be this far off or mixed up? Luckily I know the area and could tell pretty quickly there was a problem. But how could I ever use this outside my normal travel area with any confidence?

Crazy experience. I have not researched yet to see if others have same situations but will look into it.
 
So one of the reasons I ordered the 12 inch UConnect system is that I drive a lot for my job and use GPS almost daily for client visits, etc.. For years I have suction-cupped a Garmin GPS to my windshield.....was glad I could get rid of that approach.

Sorry to say my GPS experience with the Uconnect system today was total garbage.

Scenario #1
Roughly 3 hour trip. 4 or 6 lane highway most of the way. Have made this trip before but always put into my GPS in case I get on the phone and would miss a turn, etc.. On Freeway almost 2 hours into trip and NAV has me exciting highway into a mid-sized city - I was on the phone at the time, had plenty of time for my appointment, and figured it must be a traffic re-route or something. 3.5 miles later and 14 stop lights, it loops me around BACK ONTO the same highway to continue my trip. There was no traffic. Seriously?

Scenario #2
Now that I know the NAV might be a little crazy - I fire up my Garmin (which was tossed in the center console) and fire up the GPS/Map on my iPhone. Leaving client I hit HOME button - all 3 GPS systems start calculating my return route, again about a 3 hour drive. Leaving client - iPhone says turn right, Garmin GPS says turn right. NAV/Uconnect says turn left. What? I check time to my destination - Uconnect system has me arriving 44 minutes later than both my other GPS units, both of which were within 1 minute of each other.

How can a system be this far off or mixed up? Luckily I know the area and could tell pretty quickly there was a problem. But how could I ever use this outside my normal travel area with any confidence?

Crazy experience. I have not researched yet to see if others have same situations but will look into it.
Did you pick shortest route or something like that as default vs fastest??? It can make a HUGE difference.
 
So one of the reasons I ordered the 12 inch UConnect system is that I drive a lot for my job and use GPS almost daily for client visits, etc.. For years I have suction-cupped a Garmin GPS to my windshield.....was glad I could get rid of that approach.

Sorry to say my GPS experience with the Uconnect system today was total garbage.

Scenario #1
Roughly 3 hour trip. 4 or 6 lane highway most of the way. Have made this trip before but always put into my GPS in case I get on the phone and would miss a turn, etc.. On Freeway almost 2 hours into trip and NAV has me exciting highway into a mid-sized city - I was on the phone at the time, had plenty of time for my appointment, and figured it must be a traffic re-route or something. 3.5 miles later and 14 stop lights, it loops me around BACK ONTO the same highway to continue my trip. There was no traffic. Seriously?

Scenario #2
Now that I know the NAV might be a little crazy - I fire up my Garmin (which was tossed in the center console) and fire up the GPS/Map on my iPhone. Leaving client I hit HOME button - all 3 GPS systems start calculating my return route, again about a 3 hour drive. Leaving client - iPhone says turn right, Garmin GPS says turn right. NAV/Uconnect says turn left. What? I check time to my destination - Uconnect system has me arriving 44 minutes later than both my other GPS units, both of which were within 1 minute of each other.

How can a system be this far off or mixed up? Luckily I know the area and could tell pretty quickly there was a problem. But how could I ever use this outside my normal travel area with any confidence?

Crazy experience. I have not researched yet to see if others have same situations but will look into it.
My Nav does the same. Are you aware that the Nav is capable of three routes? I was not initially. Also what options are checked. I do not have the truck now so I can not give you specific details. I carry the Garmin also and the wife uses Waze which seems most people prefer. I don't have confidence in the system. $800 option on my bighorn. Are we both doing something wrong?
 
You're not wrong, nav sucks. Maps are way out of date. It probably had you going around a construction detour from 2015.
 
You're not wrong, nav sucks. Maps are way out of date. It probably had you going around a construction detour from 2015.
Mine had directed me to jump off highway and take local streets, no idea why. Fortunately I was evaluating the GPS at the time and knew my way. Hope some updates or something so I can have some confidence and leave on trips without my Garmin.
 
You're not wrong, nav sucks. Maps are way out of date. It probably had you going around a construction detour from 2015.
Maps are old but not that old. They are still Q2 of 17 which is ridiculous. I’d get it if they were Q2 of 18. But if you go back to when they started producing and selling the trucks the date makes sense. What I hate is that they haven’t given us all a free update!
 
Maps are old but not that old. They are still Q2 of 17 which is ridiculous. I’d get it if they were Q2 of 18. But if you go back to when they started producing and selling the trucks the date makes sense. What I hate is that they haven’t given us all a free update!
The map file might be dated 2017, but I've been on roads that have been updated since 2015 (physical location shifted and speed limits changed) that are not reflected on the built-in maps.
 
The map file might be dated 2017, but I've been on roads that have been updated since 2015 (physical location shifted and speed limits changed) that are not reflected on the built-in maps.
The posted speed limits in the maps SUCK all around!
 
So one of the reasons I ordered the 12 inch UConnect system is that I drive a lot for my job and use GPS almost daily for client visits, etc.. For years I have suction-cupped a Garmin GPS to my windshield.....was glad I could get rid of that approach.

Sorry to say my GPS experience with the Uconnect system today was total garbage.

Scenario #1
Roughly 3 hour trip. 4 or 6 lane highway most of the way. Have made this trip before but always put into my GPS in case I get on the phone and would miss a turn, etc.. On Freeway almost 2 hours into trip and NAV has me exciting highway into a mid-sized city - I was on the phone at the time, had plenty of time for my appointment, and figured it must be a traffic re-route or something. 3.5 miles later and 14 stop lights, it loops me around BACK ONTO the same highway to continue my trip. There was no traffic. Seriously?

Scenario #2
Now that I know the NAV might be a little crazy - I fire up my Garmin (which was tossed in the center console) and fire up the GPS/Map on my iPhone. Leaving client I hit HOME button - all 3 GPS systems start calculating my return route, again about a 3 hour drive. Leaving client - iPhone says turn right, Garmin GPS says turn right. NAV/Uconnect says turn left. What? I check time to my destination - Uconnect system has me arriving 44 minutes later than both my other GPS units, both of which were within 1 minute of each other.

How can a system be this far off or mixed up? Luckily I know the area and could tell pretty quickly there was a problem. But how could I ever use this outside my normal travel area with any confidence?

Crazy experience. I have not researched yet to see if others have same situations but will look into it.
Hi, I’m having the same problem with my GPS unit in a 2019 Ram 2500. The route home from across town wants to take me through town instead of taking the faster freeway route. Once on the freeway, the gps wants me to turn at every exit and go through downtown city center. Did you get a solution to your problem? GaryI
 
Nav 8" screen couldn't find Clifton Park, NY and than totally crapped out on me. Did come back but lost ALL my locations for the the last year and a half. When Nav came back lost my back up camera, which came back the next day but not my Nav entrees. $800 shot. No faith in this Nav and I carry my motorcycle Garmin as my insurance.
Don't see much help from the dealer unless it is happening at the dealer.
 
Hands-down worst Nav system I've ever used.. always leave one running on my phone just to double check.. because Andriod Auto doesn't work worth a damn on this thing either.

The best mine has done so far; it told me to bang a U-turn and go back up the off-ramp it had just sent me down.. there was no on-ramp to get back on the hwy at that point. ...it routinely tells me to keep one direction, yet the screen clearly shows you need to keep the other way.
 
They're all like that to some degree. I've had the GPS tell me to get off the highway because of an accident ahead. Since there was nothing on the radio about it and no brake lights in the distance, I ignored it. If there was an accident, it was long cleared up before I got to the location because we blew through at 70 mph.

I've also had it think I was on the parallel frontage road and try to direct me back onto the highway I was on.

My wife's car isn't much better-- it seems to think the 4 lane street we use to get to our neighborhood is unpaved or something, and always tries routing us around the other way in, until we're on it and past the point of turning anywhere else, then the dominatrix recalculates and guides us in the right way.
 
I only used it twice so far, and it worked perfectly both times. A lot better than in my other vehicles. The volume only seems to come from the driver’s dash speaker, which is fine, but wondering it that’s how it’s suppose to work...
 
Glass half full you can still use CarPlay and Android Auto on your big screen kinda. Yes you put too much faith in oem navigation offerings particularly after you have used and seen the above.
 
Glass half full you can still use CarPlay and Android Auto on your big screen kinda. Yes you put too much faith in oem navigation offerings particularly after you have used and seen the above.

I didn’t know people still used in house nav always CarPlay google maps Waze or android auto


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So my 12" gps in my Rebel is now trying to get me to exit off of major highways when there is no exit. I figured this is a safety concern for the company and some idiot will listen to the gps and drive off of a bridge or a cliff. I talked to my dealer, they were not interested. I called UConnect, they said it was not them, they directed me to Navtech, they said it was a company called HERE. So far, they are all blaming one another and said they cannot help. It is so sad that these vehicles have very little support. Shouldnt Ram have one place for us to go to get answers. They should be trying to fix this safey issue, not me.
 
I have an aftermarket Kenwood in mine with Garmin navigation. No crazy routes but it doesn't know many locations, much worse than my portable Garmin. I need to try updating the maps again. First time totally didn't work. Android auto works, however.
 
I have the u connect 4 in my 19 Rebel with 12 inch screen. it worked fine until they did the reboot to fix the W33 recall. My wifes Buick isn't any better. The nav system in my ford has been the best i've seen as far as factory installed systems. But by far my suction cup Nuvi has worked the best. it's a little pricey to update maps but if you need it for business it's tax deductible. by the way ,my Nuvi is 15 years old (insert emoji here) WTF , FCA?
 
Old post, but I don't even have Nav on the Ram, still there is no way it can be worse than the one on my Harley. The only thing that the Harley Nav can find is the closest dealer so you can buy crap.:)
The Nav in my 19 Ridgeling sucked as well. Google maps is my new Nav, if I don't have phone signal I must be somewhere rural and can figure it out.
 
Mine has been fine. Never really had issues and it has always led me the correct way. Really not worse or better than all other vehicles I've had.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top