Saturday, January 22, 2011

The optional Honda CR-V EX-L in-dash GPS system has a snazzy touch screen, voice command activation, and GPS functions like most other navigation systems. Honda claims its "Bluetooth© HandsFree Link©" navigation system is fully Bluetooth© enabled and dealers laud it as "state of the art, 3rd generation" hardware and software. But, Honda, usually at the top of ratings, has missed the mark on this equipment.  American Honda has elected to mislead buyers by not advising them at the time of purchase that the Bluetooth© in the CR-V and Civic navigation equipment lacks several basic Bluetooth© features. Instead of pricing the deficient CR-V NAV less than similar, fully Bluetooth© enabled GPS equipment in Honda's higher end models, like the Pilot, it is offered at the same price, $2000.

Only after the sale do owners discover that their cell phone is "not compatible" with certain basic Bluetooth© features, when, in fact, no cell phone offered by any carrier in the United States is compatible with fundamental functions, such as "Caller ID." Although this information is transmitted by most cell phones offered by virtually all wireless carriers, the Honda CR-V NAV system cannot receive it and simply emits a voice announcement of an incoming call and displays an icon, not the name and number of the caller, as do most other Bluetooth© enabled systems or portable devices.

Bewildered new owners in search of why there is no display of incoming caller information, since this is described in text and graphically in Honda operation instruction materials, including in the "How it Works" section of the "Bluetooth© HandsFree Link" ("HFL") section, are eventually directed to a "My CR-V" website specific to each individual vehicle. Here, owners are taken on a futile trip through a compatibility grid only to discover that their cell phone and/or wireless carrier is "incompatible" with transmitted caller information and other basic Bluetooth© features, shown as "unavailable." When confronted with the glaring discrepancy of explicit descriptions, in Honda instruction materials, of features that are beyond the system's capabilities, Honda denied that any discrepancy exists. Honda representatives would not put that denial in writing, however. When asked for the maker of a cell phone that is "fully Bluetooth© compatible" with the CR-V's and Civic's NAV system, Honda declined to respond.

Purchasers of Honda CR-V's and Civic's are not given information that the Bluetooth© enabled NAV system, though impressive looking, does less, but costs the same, as equipment in other Honda models and/or inexpensive portable GPS devices. Post sale, this inadequacy of Honda's NAV system is deceptively revealed to the hapless new owner as a "cell phone incompatibility" issue despite the fact that no cell phone in existence is compatible with all Bluetooth© features. American Honda indicates no updates to the CR-V/Civic NAV system are planned to make the equipment fully Bluetooth© enabled, at this time.