Don't get me wrong, I love my TCH. I have only had it a month, (that may be the problem) and am thrilled with the efficiency (averaging over 40 mpg) and most of the technology, but when it comes to the bluetooth phone and navigation systems, what a pain in the you know what. I have been studying the manual and working with it for a month now and am about to just give up. Half the time when I want to use the phone it's faster and easier to just pick the phone up and make the call instead fighting with that voice recognition. As for the navigation, I haven't even tried voice commands. The bluetooth has taken care of that. I have been trying to use it even to go to locations I know of just to learn how to use this thing. Honestly I have a Garmin I was using in the older car and it's so much simpler I'm ready to just plop that on the top of the dash. For a car that is so well done I must be doing something wrong. So let me ask, is there some sort of steep learning curve that I should stick with till I get or did most of you all just give up on this? Rick

 

For the voice recognition, there are two workarounds,
First, if your phone has voice recognition and you are comfortable with it, then just pick up the phone, and have it voice dial and then let the blue tooth system take over.
The other work around is to speak very clearly with different accents for each name, for example, I say "An-DREW (spoken slowly) home" and then "Andy cell". Since I already have Andy cell, I then added "Amy car". Since I have that name, then it's "Jamie cell phone", etc. and the system works perfectly.
As to voice number dialing...don't bother. Just clearly program the top 20 people for voice dialing and use it that way.

 

I just sync the phone to the bluetooth...pick up the phone, choose who I want to dial and talk. The amount of time you fiddle and get frustrated with operating the voice recognition, you could of finished the conversation with the person you're trying to talk to.

 

I use voice dial-by-number all the time. I find that it works perfectly if you say the number naturally, as if you were just saying it to someone in conversation, letting the numbers run together. If you try to speak too clearly, separating the numbers, it often makes mistakes. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but it works well for me like that.

 

Yep I loaded my phone book into my car and set up the speed dials on screen. Then i don't have to talk just point and touch.

 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. It wasn't easy but I have now managed to get the phone so it is at least acceptable. As for the navigation, forget it. An example, this afternoon I was going to a friends house and on the way I thought I would stop at Radio Shack. So I did a search for Radio Shack. I knew where a couple stores were located but I wanted to see if there was one closer that I could stop at on my way. First it came back with there was no Radio Shack in my area. So I specified the town. It still couldn't find one. It said the nearest one was in a city 128 miles away. There are at least 5 in and around the city I live in. After twenty minutes of playing with that thing I said the heck with it and just drove the 3 miles out of my way to the one I knew off. I will continue to play with this as it cost a lot of money but I'm not going to go on trip without my old Gamin. Unbelievable!