Cavi

Okay, finally installed and working, I am not thriled with the mounting so I will not post pictures until I go back and change it.
As for the stereo, the GPS works great as does everything. sound is great. Unit is easy to use.
My complaints, first, the clock is real small and tough to read, I would have liked a larger clock so I could just glance and see it.
Second, the screen does tilt but only out wards not negative so glare is a major issue. The kenwoods tilt negative which really helps.
Last I would like one button to just scroll through my main components, as it is the mode takes you to the gps, and the home goes to the main screen but then you have to select audio, then finally your sources. One button to swap between main audio sources would have been better.

tampatopless

My son's Pioneer had the same layout. Bluetooth was awesome and unit looks great. But graphics are lousy and, as you said, you have to go through a couple of screens to do something simple.

And what's the deal with the preset radio stations identified by the call letters? Who the hell knows those things? I mean, don't most people identify a radio station by the numbers - 103.5, 93.3, whatever. Not WDZZ or WWTF.

Oh, and for the genius engineer who laid out the touch-screen radio presets on the RIGHT or passenger side of the screen, nice move.

Are the high-end Pioneers like this? I would have been pissed if I had dropped $1,000 for a HU like that.

Cavi

I would be also, but I just swapped it for a kenwood, that for me had way more issues. one other complaint about the pioneer, and the kenwood for that matter, the boot up time is absurd. Seems to me that they could boot up the music instantly like normal radios and if it took longer for the GPS then fine, but give me my music immeditly...

Cavi

well, I went back to the installer today to tweak the install, end result I am glad I stayed. It turns out that he had goofed and installed the trim plate upside down which is why the console would not sit flat. With me there I saw this and corrected it and the unit now looks factory, it is even flush!!!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32617789/stereo.jpg

Grimlock

I recently put up this review of the Z140 on Amazon:

Summary
I've had this installed for about two months now. I am overall very happy with the unit. I installed it with an Alpine 5-channel amp, component speakers, and a 10" subwoofer in the trunk of my 2003 Corvette Z06. The sound quality is great. Originally I had a Pioneer AVIC-X940 installed, but the shop I bought it from said I could upgrade if I wanted in the first month. I wasn't happy with the screen sensitivity on the AVIC-X940, and wanted the additional features of the Z140 (live FREE traffic updates, HD radio, larger screen, etc.) Obviously those issues are resolved by upgrading to the Z140.

I also really like the "AVIC FEEDS" iPhone app that is completely free. I can do a search for a location on my iPhone using Google, and it will save the contact information (address, phone number, etc.). That information is auto-populated once the iPhone connects via Bluetooth right into the contacts. I use this all the time and it rocks!

Potential issues
The unit is a bit slow to start up when you first start your car up, but it isn't a big deal to me. Music starts in maybe 10 seconds (whatever you were playing last) and it takes another 10 seconds or so for the interface to load. Voice control is useless in my car due to the loud exhaust. As others noted, they removed some navigation searches via voice control (POI and addresses), but this isn't an issue for me since I am not using voice control.

Overall
I would give this a 4.5 out of 5. It isn't perfect, but it is pretty darn good. If voice control is you main reason for buying this, then you may be disappointed.

xcutter

You would think that they could of positioned the clock in a better place. I find that annoying on my Z130BT

T_Vert

Do you guys know if there is a way to change directions in the GPS while driving or must I stop? Also, any way to have it display the names of the cross streets I'm driving by?

Thanks much.

Dave

dougj1985

Dave,
If you have not done so already you can bypass the lockout feature on these headunits with some simple rewiring. Generally it involves popping out one wire in the large wire harness and moving it to a new pin. In my headunit, an older AVIC-F900BT it was just as easy as grounding the parking brake wire.

If a professional shop did the work for you, it may be worth a a drive back to see if they can bypass for you. Most shops will.

Take a look at this video for some simple instructions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQjgow3_tn0

The unit comes programmed with a lock-out feature because Pioneer believes that a distracted driver plugging in new directions is dangerous and they dont want to assume any liability for accidents involved in navigating their GPS units.

Older units like the F-series and some early X and Z series have been hacked and modded through the software to disable their nag screen features and lock out features. Modding the software involved booting the device up in service/test mode (WINDOWS CE believe it or not!) and then loading new files on to the hard drive to load the Pioneer software without all the restrictions. I dont believe the newer Z140 and X940 series have been hacked yet since they use newer map software. All the information you need for these units can be found @ www.avic411.com . A great resource for all pioneer gps headunits.

Concerning your second question about displaying cross streets.....without having played with the newest headunits I dont know, but the F-Series always suffered from this as well. If you are zoomed out a good distance or so, names dropped off of streets. Zooming back in restored the street names. Once again a simple hack to the internal files disabled this behavior and once again displayed the names of all cross streets no matter what elevation your map was at.

T_Vert

Thanks I'm going to have to search around that site. I've zoomed in to .1 miles and still don't get all streets.

Dave