Long-Term Road Tests

Will do. I received my order confirmation via e-mail last week. I haven't received the disc yet though. Since I'm military with a different state of residence than my duty station, my vehicles are registered in my home state. That also means that most of the time official stuff from GM that is sent out to me goes via the registration address (aka my parents', for now), then on to me. This may have happened with the nav disc, even though I gave them the mailing address when I was on the phone placing the order.

Please keep us posted on the nav update, Jerry.

Well, you DO get 2 free annual updates with the GM 900 vehicles that have navigation systems. I just ordered the first of my two free discs for the 07 Avalanche last week. (btw, there IS supposedly a very recent update, as in within the past few weeks)

oh please, after all that money the navi package cost u should not have to buy anything else with all that money you spend it should tell u who lives in da house (lol)

Yep. Just about all of the e-maps we use, be they software, online or in-car, come from the same data set. The errors I described above repeat on Microsoft Streets and Trips, Mapquest, and a host of car navigation systems, built-in or aftermarket.
 
I still use paper maps from AAA, Thomas Brothers, and DeLorme, and I have yet to buy a navigation system for my own cars. It's the unfamiliar off-the-beaten-path places I want a NAV system for, yet these are the places where errors are most commonly found.

altimadude, go visit your favorite web-based map service and print out a map. Then look on the bottom of the map at the copyright. The half dozen that I tried all say "NAVTEQ", same as what you'll find on the Tahoe.

Maybe a back-up map is required...you know, the one's made out of paper. You can buy an Atlas every year for $20 at Wal-mart.
You can also print from searchable web-based map services (although it's well documented that they are not very reliable 100% of the time either).
But I guess it's uncool to look at a map rather than beating and curseing at your dashboard. (So last century)

That is a great comment, Dan! Going off what you said, the LT Audi Q7 probably wouldn't be able to navigate you and the rest of the Edmunds clan over that same bridge as well.

A disc update might not do it. NAVTEQ's datbase is full of obscure errors, especially in rural areas like Big Bear. Many of the ones I am personally familiar with seem permanent.
  
This bridge over the Rouge River in Oregon is locally famous and has been around since the 60's, but wasn't in the Commander's database. The NAV system wanted to route me 20 miles downstream to the next one it knew about. Same goes for our long-term Tahoe.
  
Getting to my parent's house, NAVTEQ-based mapping software always tries to route me across a particular stretch of private property, but doesn't know about the main public road that has been there for 50+ years.
  
In a Glendale Arizona neighborhood I used to live in 8 years ago, map systems powered by NAVTEQ thinks that a cul-de-sac connects to a road behind a brick wall. It doesn't. But to this day, this is the routing I'm always presented with.
  
But I've found a link on NAVTEQ's website that allows one to report such errors. I don't know how quickly they respond to such reports. Perhaps I'll ask them.

I was just trying to say that it's probably only a "mere" software issue. Who knows how old the disc is that was supplied with the Tahoe. It may be quite a bit older than the manufacture date of the Tahoe.
 
I shudder to think how far behind Subaru's DVDs may be. However, an updated DVD is available through Kenwood as of a few months ago. It's only $238.
http://store.kenwoodusa.com/subaru/
 
Back when I used to work at a BMW dealership, people would call with inquiries on how they could obtain updated discs. We would refer them to NAVTEQ ( http://www.navteq.com ) where an updated disc appears to be $199.
 
On NAVTEQ's site, they appear to be the CD/DVD disc supplier for the following manufacturers.
 
Audi
BMW
Chrysler
Dodge
Ford
Mercedes-Benz
Jaguar
Jeep
Land Rover
Lincoln
MINI
Mazda
Mercury
Porsche
VW
Volvo
 
GM's supplier is probably further behind the ball. :shrug:

I think the point is that neither the Q7 nor the Odyssey needed a disc update to find a road that, most likely, was not built in the 2 months between the introduction of our Tahoe and the Q.

A DVD disc update will probably solve this.