I have a 2007 G35x (navi/tech) with XM - now on the 3 month trial. Live in the NY metro area. The map shows the traffic on my route but has never rerouted me around any traffic - even though it shows the red blinking arrows on my route. When I ask it to reroute me around the traffic it always tells me the same thing - no alternative route found - even though I know there are at least 5 alternative routes around the traffic! I checked and all of the appropriate boxes are checked to use the traffic information to determine the route. I called XM and they were completely worthless. Have a call into my dealer but they will likely be just as useless.

Anybody??!!

 

XM nav traffic was COMPLETELY useless down here in Miami. only 1 time did it inform me of anything worth noting which was some road construction that had been going on for about a year already.

never told me about traffic, accidents, or any other construction. from what I understand, the nav traffic only works as well as the local systems that monitor the roads, and apparently they just dont do that down here all too well.

i'd just not renew it if i were you.

 

I live in Ftlauderdale and work in Miami, and everytime there is an incident on the highway it usually always shows up on the screen. Every morning when i get in the G and let it rest at idle i check the nearby traffic and its usually correct. I however dont take into account going a different way i just get the heads up

I take i-75 to 826 everyday of my life

 

Driving in NY, you should know that there are no better routes, period.

Unless the highway is closed up ahead or something -- and XM has been notified and updated -- it will never tell you to go some other route.

I've only had NavTraffic re-route me twice in the last 10 months... once it was when the FDR was closed because of an accident and another was the other day when the GCP was closed and I was headed up towards the triboro.

If it's just slow traffic, you can manually ASK for a detour and chances are the thing will just tell you that there's no better route... I'm surprised it doesn't laugh at me when I ask.

 

Maybe your car actually has to drive on some other roads around your route to work, heres why I think that:

When I picked up the CR-V for my girl, and we would use the nav to guide us to my parents house (we already knew how to get there, NJTP to GSP), we would try to change the routing en route, to no avail, the directions would just say the same exact thing. One day going up there, we took as many side streets as possible, then pulled over, and input the directions, we were right by the NJTP entrance, and it routed us up a different way (Route 130, Route 1). Now, when we are on the NJTP and there is heavy traffic, and we re-route the navigation, it now gives us non-highway directions. Just a thought.

 

orange county, CA... XM Traffic = USELESS CRAP! even the xm radio sound quality stunk! When I got the survey for NAV and Radio.... I TORE IT APART!

 

viguera:

I hate to disagree but there are many alternate (not necessarily better) routes I could possibly take if I knew there was serious traffic on my route. For example if my route normally takes me down the Bronx River Pkwy but there is an accident, it should offer to take me down 87 (Deegan) to avoid the accident. It has never (not once) done this despite the fact that I have been sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and the red arrows on the map have been blinking. If XM Nav doesn't have the ability to do this then it is almost completely worthless to me (and probably to most others) and I will not continue the service.

 

If you ask for a re-route through the menu, it'll re-route you.

Also, check the XM Site - some markets XM NavTraffic isn't available yet.

I find it outstanding in DC.

Additionally, use your map! If you know how to read a map you can re-route yourself! Basic man-skill!

 

i've had it work a few times in the LI/NY area... if you state it to go as the fastest route then it'll still recalculate to that.... too bad the nav traffic can't show side streets but it does only so much.

viguera is my feedback king thats why i gave him lifetime xm in his G

 

And we don't even have it in Canada...

 

Canada? Where's that? LOL.

XM Traffic is pretty damn amazing in LA... down to the foot almost, when displaying an accident.

 

On the Westside of LA, I have noticed that the traffic doesn't even show up at all on the 10 between the 405 and 110 and it sometimes doesn't show up on the 405 between Sunset and the 105. I also find that when it does show the lines, they are not even accurate.

 

XM Traffic is very good here in Houston. It's great on weekends to see where the road crew close various routes for maintenance. The Houston Transtar traffic monitoring system (which surely provide the data for XM) is top notch.

Only gripe--the update has a 10-15 minute lag. At certain times (6am coming in on HWY 290) it's too late to give you a chance to jump off onto a side road.

 

I found the XM Nav traffic to be somewhat useless....its not that it didn't work here in the DC area, it did...it just didn't provide any real advantage to just listening to the traffic report. Since i don't set home or work as a destination on my nav system in the daily commute, i would often find myself manually scrolling up the map as i drove. (as all of us nav owners know...thats quite a pain in the *** while driving since infiniti locked out the scroll feature when the car is in motion.) With that in mind, i would typically hop in the car and just listen to the local news radio station to find out the traffic conditions rather then tormenting myself with the endless button pushing. So i didn't renew my xm subscription at the end of the 3 month trial.

I will say that i think the "detour" feature of the nav system is very very good. It has bailed me out on a number of occassions. Obviously, that requires you to enter a destination as well. but just last week i was driving to see some friends, got stuck in a fairly bad traffic jam...hit the detour button and 10 minutes later i was cruising down a two lane road...fantastic.

 

XM Traffic has worked great for me in Northern VA/DC. I commute in and travel around the area a lot and have frequently been routed around traffic. If its a longer trip I always set my route before hand but I cant count the number of times it has helped me. If I have the NAV zoomed out I can often see the accident symbols before I normally would think of looking for them as I'm just not going to listen to the XM traffic station for an hour or two straight. It also helps in my normal commute when I'm approaching a major highway I can see the traffic flow far enough in advance to continue on side roads if I need to and not need to worry about crossing four lanes of traffic to get off.

Eh, to each his own I guess, it works for me.