Eclipse AVN2210p user reviews

Pros Lots of cool junk in one unit

Cons None of the junk works properly

Summary Perhaps I purchased a lemon.

I am disgusted.

I am lucky if I get to listen to one cd song. My unit will start to play a cd and then just stop. Once stopped it does not eject the cd. It takes an average of ten minutes to get the cd out (lots of on/off, resetting, and button combinations). Once it actually spit the cd out at me (airborn). I think it is trying to kill me.

The TomTom unit is another delight. Mine turns on/off with the ignition fine, but then if you stay and watch....it turns back on a minute after you have turned the ignition off and exited the vehicle. It does this posession behavior every time the ignition is turned off and so the internal battery is always near dead. They do not send all of the software on cds in case you need to reformat and reload everything, which I have had do do twice in the one month I have owned it. Luckily I did follow the instructions warning me to backup everything prior to updating. I have had the problems where it does not show the detailed streets, asks for setup parameters whenever it is turned on, and does not respond to the eclipse deck.

I like listening to John Cleese and Sylvia tell me where to go (downloads), but I really purchased the unit to listen to cds.

I have wasted so much time installing, setting up, and troubleshooting this unit. Do yourself a favor and avoid this first generation disaster. I have been putting it off, but I think the only thing left to do is remove it from my dash and set it on fire. At least I can look forward to life after the AVN2210p. I always thought Eclipse decks were some of the best, guess not. I would take my JVC deck from the early 90's over this (it played cds for over 5 years, just a little skipping).

Good Luck,

Mike

Pros It's a tomtom indash with iPod control

Cons Very poor reliability, engineering and support

Summary I bought this less than a year ago because it’s TomTom in the dash. Circuit City installed it with the speed sensor, steering wheel controls, iPod interface and aux input.

Don't expect the CD to work for more than a week. The store warned me of this and they were right. I didn't care though

The iPod control is not very. You work up from the root directory of your iPod to select music. Once you make your selection, it returns to the root directory. Every time you start the car, it begins playing the first song on your iPod. It does NOT continue playing what you were listening to when you got out of the car. This gets annoying.

I like this device. However, there is one thing I cannot live with. Poor reliability and worse support. Search the net and you'll find that several people who own this run into issues that appear to be related to the navigation portion locking up and then resetting. Once it does this, it will repeat it every 5 minutes or less. Your radio will keep working.
I, like many other people that own this now have a nothing more than a radio in my dash. TomTom will help you on the phone once. I would not hang up until it works. They’ll give you a reference number but when you call back, they refer you to Fujitsu. Fujitsu refers you back to TomTom because it’s “software related”.
The SD card, where TomTOm’s software resides, grows file errors that eventually corrupt too much data on the card for the program to work. You can restore from a previous backup and it’s still there. You can uninstall aspects of the program and re -install with TomTom Home. However, your options are limited without phone support. You simply don’t have permission to re-install the corrupted files. I have stable copies of the files if you need them and know what you're doing.

Despite all the glitches, the thing that kills it for me is reliability and absolutely no support when it fails. It will fail. When you call within the warranty period, they will take your call once. Don't take my word for it. Do web searches to verify this.

If anyone knows of a class action lawsuit, please contact me. I'm in.

Pros Easy to use TomTom navigation, good price point.

Cons Glitchy, Unusable bluetooth, Poor quality USB port

Summary I loved this unit at first. On paper it does everything I wanted. GPS navigation, Bluetooth, USB, Sirius Satelite... all for $500!

My first unit would not take destinations for navigation. My second unit worked for about 3 months and then began to lock up and cycle boot.

The mic on the unit is so poor quality that EVERYONE complains if you are using the bluetooth.

The 4 gold connectors inside the USB port are not flush mounted, so if you are not careful you can bend them, and the entire unit must be replaced.

SPEND THE EXTRA $$$. GET THE KENWOOD DNX5120 WITH GARMIN NAVI

Pros detachable face is nice
nice having Nav, Radio, and CD in one aftermarket unit
Tom Tom makes a Great paper weight

Cons Problematic software updates
Reboots during driving
poor customer service on the part of TomTom and Eclipse

Summary I have owned for about a year, during which it only worked properly for 2 months. All the problems started with the software updates using the TomTom Home product. That lead me to a nighmare of bugs, bug fixes, reboots while driving, etc Calls to the TomTom & Eclipse support desks where each company would refer you to the other. After writing the CEO and Sale VP at TomTom, I got a good response with over 4-hours of phone time that resulted in reformats, updates, software patches, etc. The result? A non-functioning unit and guess what....they refered me back to Eclipse. This product is a tragic comedy in the making. I'll be going with something other than the Elcipse TomTom product in the next few days as I use the navigation system for my line of work. I've wasted enough time dealing with this paper weight.

Seriously, save your money and time and look at another line of in-dash nav systems.

Updated on Aug 19, 2009

*SATISIFIED CUSTOMER UPDATE* - After a few rounds with TomTom Customer support I went up the food chain a bit. Once escalated, they handled me like a priority customer. The end result, I now have a fully functioning TomTom/Eclipse product. If I could I would raise my ranking to 3.5 stars out of 5 . Seeing I had to deal with the Eclipse/TomTom finger pointing I cannot rank it any higher. Customers should not have to go through that much hassle.

With the lastest software updates & functionality, this puppy works great. The new version also has a HELP feature that gets you to the nearest hospital, etc

The only downsides, the small screen (but I knew what I was getting, so it's hindsight now) & manual for the Eclipse radio was lacking (I still have not figured out some of the radio's features).

These all in one units are great! No suction cups or wires. You can take the Tom Tom with you so you don't have to worry about theft. The TomTom home software is pretty easy to use too.