I took the plunge and ordered the map update, which will be installed tomorrow. I asked the dealer about a possible firmware update for the nav system as well. At first he didn't understand what firmware was. Then he came back and said that there was no update for 2009 - a brand new system in 2010 and updates for that one, but no update for 2009. I definitely have Bluetooth quality issues so I asked if anything would ever be done for us 2009 folks. He said the nav system used for the 2009 was now outdated and that Nissan has no plans to maintain or update it.

Check out the TSB thread here, there are several that deal with updates for the 2009 Nav unit. I hate it when customers have to show people how to do their job.

Here is the thread.

370Z Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) / Recalls - Nissan 370Z Forum

@Roadster4us: Unfortunately, there are several firmware and software updates for the 2010 and later models but no updates for the 2009. According to the dealer, the 2010 and later models come with a different software and hardware package and, although similar, they are not compatible with the 2009 models.

As far as I understand, they put the system into the 2009 while the "new" system was under development, then changed over in 2010 and dumped the "old" one (meaning that they do not support it any longer). So while there are updates for newer vehicles, none of them apply to the 2009 model.

It is possible to upgrade the entire navigation system in the 2009's to the newer system but it involves completely new hardware and is, as I understand it, very expensive (as in basically a brand new nav unit).

If anyone has concrete information to the contrary, I am all ears! I would love to have an update to my system but the people I have spoken to at Nissan so far have all said the same thing: no updates for 2009 and no plans to update anything ever again. :shakes head:

I did some searching around and it looks like what you found out is correct. Sorry about that.

No worries - it's all good. Just bummed about the situation. It's not worth putting the new nav unit in due to the high cost and it's a bit disappointing that they did not consider a reasonable upgrade path for the 2009's. Oh well...I guess we just live with it.

I have a 2009 370Z. I just got a letter from Nissan stating that my Nav system needs to be updated to the new version. Thru June 30th, they are doing a special offer for $99, regularly $149. You get a map activation code and then take it to Nissan Dealer and they complete the update install (where installation fees apply). Not sure how much but this service should be free. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Nice info Spidey! I'm gonna call my dealership and check that out

Unfortunately, the labor is not free. I got the same letter about 6 months ago and thought, OK $99 isn't too bad, so I called my dealer. They said that it would be about $250 for the labor. I was so thrown off by being told I would have to spend about $350 that I declined the offer.

I recently decided that I needed the update, purchased the code online, and brought it in to the dealer after scheduling an appointment to update to the 11-12 map set.

After bringing it in, the service tech tells me that they actually don't have the CD that installs the new maps yet and I would have to take the car back home. About a week later they call me and tell me that it's in and they can do the install for me. I schedule an appointment and tell them I will wait; they tell me that it will be about 90 minutes but that I should be prepared to pay for up to 2 hours of work for the mechanic. Between reading, I go out and check on the car every 20 minutes or so - nothing is being done. The car is not even on.

Finally, after 2 hours I go up to the desk and ask what is going on. They check with the tech and say that they haven't even started on it. A freaking SOFTWARE INSTALL! You plug in the downloading unit, push start, and come back whenever it's finished!

The guy looked sheepish and offered me a free rental for the remainder of the day. While I was waiting, one of the techs on his smoke break tells me that the last one they did took a long time. I asked him what, exactly, the professional mechanic does for the procedure besides push the download button. He told me nothing but he does need to check on the car from time to time to see when the download is complete. I asked him, since I was paying a large amount of money for this technician to do this work, if he exclusively sat in my car and babysat the procedure the whole time. The tech guy looked surprised and said no, they are doing other cars. So I asked him why they were effectively double-charging clients for their employee's hourly rate and that's about the time when he ran out of cigarette.

They finally called me that afternoon and "only" charged me $112 for the install. They said it actually took much longer but that they were sorry about not getting to the car right away and gave me a break.

The frustrating thing is that I like this dealer, the front service office people are good guys and they have taken care of my cars for almost 10 years now. They have never steered me wrong before so I tend to believe that it was simply Nissan's policy to create this bloated, overpriced installation process just to wring money from their customers. Given that they are simply loading new maps (probably under a single CD's worth), I can't believe the installation takes 2 hours to complete. Either someone is lying or Nissan intentionally engineered the process to be slow in order to increase service revenue.

I can tell you first hand that the process does take around 2 hours. There's actually 4 DVD worth of material that is being copied and processed to the navigation hard drive. The Navigation is not a real computer and processes pretty slowly, that's why it takes about 2 hours.

However, I agree that dealership should not charge 2 hours of full labor for the upgrade. Although the process takes 2 hours, it takes away only 15 minutes of a tech's time. Different dealerships have different policies for charging for labor, Nissan/Infiniti has no control over this. Many dealership charge around $100 for the update, you just need to call around.

Those with 2010+ NAV's have a DVD reader and can perform the update themselves. I'm be curious what the 2009 and earlier modes use to connect to the source data.

Kind of a catch-22 huh? If you already know the roads that the update will cover, there's a sense in which you don't need the update because you know the road :tup:

I'm more interested in the firmware update .... There was a TSB for the 2010 Roadster Nav that was taken care of by my dealer several months ago. How likely is it that my firmware was updated at that time? One hint, perhaps, is that it removed the clock from the top-right of the Nav screen.

Compact flash slot.

I know a lot of roads are changed or added each year, but I doubt it's really significant enough to she'll out this much cash for it. Unless you're constantly on the road going to unfamiliar places, chances are these updates are kind of a waste.

The TSB for 2010 is a firmware update. You can check the version in INFO. I may be wrong but I bet that the update reset your NAV to factory default settings which I believe turns off the clock. You should be able to go into settings to re-enable it.