How to use Navigation
 

I finally drove my new rx8 tonight! It's awesome really. But I was playing around with the nav system and maybe you guys will have some answers. Does the stock nav have GPS? If so, is it something you need to subscribe to/pay monthly for? I was trying to input directions to go home (just for fun), and the guide kept directing me home from Florida, and I live in California! I changed the are to "West America" or whatever. But it still gave me directions from this random place. How do you reset this? Or how do you initiate a starting point. Example, if I'm in the middle of nowhere, or lost, and wanted to get back home, could I just put in my address and expect directions from wherever I am? Or is like, the car has no idea where it is, and all the nav is really, is just a map that you need to keep looking at. Maybe someone can just explain to me how to use the system correctly and all the features I might like. There's nothing in the owners manual...

That happened to me when I moved from California to Connecticut, since the car was on a trailer and not turned on. There's no monthly fee, though. I was able to reset the position by using the steps in this thread:
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=17919

After I did that, I drove in four or five circles...and it put me in Wisconsin or something. I did those steps again, and it got it right. So it took me a couple tries, but I did get my vav to update correctly. Congrats on the car!

I did it in a parking lot so I could do the driving in circles thing. I don't know if that is really required, but it did seem to work for me! The guy at the dealership told me that should work by itself...but it didn't until I reset the entire unit, and then drove in circles...

Thanks. So about the GPS. Does the RX8 have one? Where can I "look" at it to know that I actually have it. And is it always on pretty much? How reliable is the reception? Any extra stuff I need to do to keep it up to date besides buying the newer DVD for 200 bucks?

Oh, quick question, how do you know if your car has the Bose system in it?

1. What the hell. If it doesnt then tell me how can the "NAV" even guide you to anywhere, use some logic and common sense buddy.
There is an update disc, but I think you can get it from someone .... its not worth the 200 cost.

2. Look around and see if you can find the word "Bose" inside your car. If yes then u have it, it no then u dont (If you have NAV Im pretty sure you have BOSE installed, but both suck anyway so it doesnt matter)

You can see the hidden NAV area (w/ GPS calculated speed) by using the following instructions.

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...4&postcount=16

Okay, thats exactly why I was confused. Of course my logic thought, "How can this thing give me directions if there's no GPS?" But then I read somewhere about the 8's system that even without GPS, the tires like track where you're moving so that the nav knows how far you've driven, if you take a left or right turn, etc. So I thought maybe some nav systems don't come installed with GPS. But I finally figured out how to use it, and it's working great actually. Except that the area around my house just had construction done like over the past 2 years. The 8 was telling to get to my house on streets that don't exist anymore! Haha, will this be a recurring problem, or is it really uncommon.

That'll be recurring around new construction that has hapened the last few years unless you get the new DVD. When you're on one of the new roads, the nav shows that you are driving around on a blank screen

Yep, it's called dead reckoning. See Owners Manual, NAV SYSTEM section, pgs 34-35

Aight thanks for all the help. My 8 is a 2004, and the nav starts up with the Mazda logo (sometimes actually). Does this mean I have THE newest DVD, or just a "newer" one.

All of the NAVs use GPS when they can - none are installed without GPS.

Sometimes you'll see a "GPS" on the right-hand side of the screen among the other indicators when the system has acquired sufficient signals from the satellites.