Does anyone have any experiences to share about the MIO Knight Rider GPS?

I think you might wait a little while to see what happens with Mio's parent Company MiTAC's purchase of Magellan. The experts seem to think that the Mio line, that has been slipping in sales, may be completely dropped and MiTAC may just concentrate on the new purchase of the Magellan lines name recognition to try to salvage something.

As I said, I've only ever been interested in Garmins up to this point, so I knew nothing about the other brands. Okay, so my new dream will be to have Garmin buy out the MIO name (and product line), and re-introduce the KR unit...Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? Thanks again!

Don't hold your breath on that one! Don't see it happening.

Bob

http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/mio-knight-rider-...

Yeah, I guess anyone (like me) who actually enjoyed those campy KR episodes just can't get that whole KITT idea out of our heads. It doesn't help either that I worked for GM at the time of the show, and have owned an '84 LE and '89 GTA--neither of which had turbo boost.

Maybe I'll still go ahead and pick up a KR MIO unit. After all, they probably won't be on the market for long, and once they're gone, folks will be bidding them up on eBay!

you make a wild, spur of the moment purchase. On vacation today, I came to my favorite site--POI Factory--and began looking around the forums as usual. Something made me think about the MIO Knight Rider GPS again, and before I knew it, I was on the RadioShack site reading reviews there. Worse, RS seemed to have the lowest price I've seen on the thing yet--$199.99. I guess that "under" $200 number got to me and then it was on to see how I could get my hands on one!

It turns out that while the RadioShack website said "not in stock", that devilish RadioShack has a function on their site that allows you to check local stock at brick and mortar stores--brilliant! Within a few minutes I was out the door to a store that had but one left in stock. Actually, there were many stores in the area that had none, so the "scarcity" of the thing only drove my consumption behavior even more.

The only disappointment is the fact that the box is shrink wrapped. Now I have a different dilemma: do I open it up and play with it (which is really what I bought it for), or do I leave it un-opened in box for some future eBay sale someday? [NOTE: That was the central story line and problem of Toy Story II.]

Thanks again to all who responded to my initial post.

I don't know what you ended up doing, however Gpsr's know the first time they acquire satellites thus making the unit instantly a used unit.

So even if you had shrink wrap equipment and re-wrapped it, the manufacturer would know it was already out of the box, and the person registering it would be in for a surprise when the warranty starts the day you plugged it in, and it acquired for the first time.

So if you want to play, you have to pay the price.
So it is said.

What my dilemma was, either use it or keep it sealed for future gain, not play with it and put it back.

What I have decided though, is that I won't cheat myself out of the fun, and I will not only use my KR GPS, I will consider buying another for that future gain!

Have fun with it NEOhioGuy, and let us know how you like it!

Variety is the spice of life, and believe me life is good in the GPSr industry. I have several different models from differnt manufactures now as well as Garmins, and use the all at one time or another. And of course my Favorite are Navigon products, and it looks like Garmin likes them lots also.

That’s the opening audio (with flashing red lights) in the original KITT’s voice as it fires up and loads its maps on the way to the home screen. Not only pretty cool, but something I still haven’t tired of in several months of use. So what else about KITT that makes it a comforting guide to me and formidable foe to bad guys all around? Well, to the bottom line first: I’m glad this isn’t my only experience with a GPSr—it isn’t that good of one. That’s not to say that it can’t find its way around, it just doesn’t know many POIs, nor is it particularly easy to use in comparison to my Garmin 200W. So what are some of the details?

The Good

• It’s KITT—the real KITT. Although others have said that he sounds a bit lower in tone (maybe older), I don’t find that distracting, since this is the only officially licensed GPSr with the real KITT’s voice. So if he can now be registered as a “classic car” (25 years old or older), than so be it.
• The sidebar nav items can be viewed as dropdown boxes so if you want them you can have some useful (IMHO) info on the right hand side of the screen that doesn’t intrude upon the display at all. These items include Distance to Goal, Time in minutes to Goal, Current Speed, Estimated Arrival Time, Current Time.
o For me, those are all valuable, particularly since I’m able to do a quick, continuous comparison of the clock time between what it is now vs. when I expect to arrive. Sure, I could look at my car’s own clock and compare against a GPSr ETA, but that requires a look away.
o Current Speed is also useful on the main screen (unlike my 200W), especially since I know my car’s speedometer is off by 4 MPH, and also when paired with the speed alert warning that goes off at a user set speed (I set 70 MPH).
o Other sidebar items include Signal Strength, Battery Charge, Sat acquisition, but I don’t find those useful when actually driving.
• The next turn box in the upper left hand corner (similar to the Nuvi 7x5 series) is handy.
• The suction cup seems to stick better on the windshield than my Nuvi’s. Not a small item when you consider the inconvenience of having the cup let go and drop you GPSr on your dash while going 65 MPH.
• I’ve noticed (sometimes) when going down a non-highway that the bottom banner will display the address of the building/house that you’re in front of as you drive. A downside of this is that the GPSr has a lag in acquiring its position, so when I actually watched it a bit, I realized that I was already past the addresses it claimed I was next to. Still, I suppose that if you were stationary, it might give you an accurate read.
• I read on a MIO forum that KITT’s engine is the same as their MOOV 300/310, so if that’s a good unit, then this should be comparable in capability and useability.

The Bad

• The map is really too small—and especially the car itself—to read easily. So much detail is packed into it, with small images, that one occasion I was driving along and couldn’t even see the car among the POI icons, roads, and street names. As a navigational aid then, the fact that its user-friendliness is low (at least compared against my 200W) is a troublesome thought were this my only unit.
• The POI list is woefully small.
• Finding a POI is very awkward. There are too many screens to navigate, starting with selecting a state through a dropdown list. KITT lacks a keyboard. So it goes something like: pick list for state, scroll down to find state, click on either POI by name, POI near you, POI by city. Scrolling through the list of states is most annoying. I’ve discovered what I think is a “shortcut” for me. At the list of states screen, I click on the “go to end of list” button (1 click). Then, I hit the “up arrow” button in quick succession 3 times, and Ohio appears at the top of that screen. Then I select Ohio. Of course, the 200W would take you through a sequence: “near here/somewhere else?”, then state, then city, then an alpha keyboard. The difference is the alpha keyboard. It just seems easier to use.
• Speaking of the keyboard, KITT has tiny buttons that are hard to hit accurately.
• Still speaking of the keyboard, it has an annoyingly slow response. You hit a key, and nothing happens—then it appears on a screen above the keyboard. Or, if you are impatient or think you didn’t press the key, you do it again only to find two of the same letters in the display and then have to backspace one out.
• The list of POIs to choose from appear to have no rhyme or reason in their order. So say you want to find all the Shell gas stations in Ohio (at least starting from near you), the list shows “Shell” and a city name on the second line—fine. But the list doesn’t appear to show you those in distance order from nearest to farthest. Nor is it in alpha order. Bottom line? You have to go through the entire list just to be sure you didn’t miss it since you have no idea why it is ordered the way it is.
• No Turbo Boost (okay, that was to say that I’m tired of listing the bads)
• My son noted: It’s the same voice as Mr. Feeney from the show “Boy Meets World”. Once you have that in your head, it’s hard to get rid of the image.
• My daughter noted: It doesn’t do the “woo-woo, woo-woo” sound as the lights go back and forth. That is the killer—how hard would it have been to get the original guy to record that sound?

Thanks for the comprehensive review NEOhioGuy.

Sounds like they could have designed it better, but still sounds like a lot of fun!

I can Understand the voice being lower 23 years does things like that he now 82
William Daniels (voice over work, 84 episodes, 1982-1986)) K.I.T.T.

NBC is trying to “save” Knight Rider by some pretty novel means. According to Nick, NBC is in negotiations to bring both “The Hoff” (David Hasselhoff) and the original voice of K.I.T.T. (William Daniels) back to the show. Not just back for a guest cameo, but back on a permanent basis.

This past weekend I drove to Detroit to see KITT at the Detroit Autorama. It was sort of like, "KITT and I go in search of KITT." I must admit however, that I only took KITT along for a photo-op, getting my picture taken holding KITT the GPSr, in front of KITT, the car. Unfortunately, they also had the current "KITT" (imposter Mustang), which I asked the photo taker to try to keep out of my picture.

I must also admit too, that I used my Nuvi to actually navigate with, and it performed well, getting me back on track after a few road closings I encountered. I just didn't have the confidence in KITT to use him; very sad.

BTW, the weekend was a great blur: I took in the Mototwn Museum, The Automotive Hall of Fame, the Ford Rouge tour (watched F-150s being assembled), the Autorama, the Henry Ford Museum, and even Tony Packo's for dinner on the way home. Not bad for a round trip in 39 hours.

I'm glad you had a good time in the short time you had.

I would love to go to the Detroit Auto Show. Haven't been to the Ford museum since I was a little kid. Will have to make a trip down there sometime that's not business.

I'm hoping that with future updates maybe KITT will be more reliable.

I bought the Knight Rider last week. It was on clearance and actually ended up the cheaper than the other 4.3" name-brand GPSes. So unlike most people, I didn't pay a premium for KITT; quite the opposite. This was also my first GPS.

I didn't find it hard to use at all. Okay, the POI lag sucked, but once I faved all my regular POI's, it wasn't really an issue. I also ended up changing the voice to Samantha (TTS) and removed the intro voice clips (it didn't have my name, grrrr), so that now, it now sounds like a regular GPS. Oddly, I later re-enabled the lights, which I actually kind of like.

Maybe it's just me, but this device works just fine as a first-time GPS. In fact, I'm quite delighted by it. Startup is fast, route calc/recalc is fast, screen refresh is fast enough, the voices are clear, and the screen is bright. The mount is solid, and I love the way the charger is integrated into it. Really, I only have one complaint that's Mio's fault: You can't add custom POI's. This is just a bizarre limitation, seeing as how other, similar Mio models can.

My other complaint, which isn't really Mio's fault, is that a number of streets in my area should be partially one-way, but aren't.

Actually, I'm glad to hear that you enjoy it. Many of the attributes you list I also liked about the KR. However, having started with a Garmin (which many say is a simple machine to use because it's so basic), I simply find the Garmin more user-friendly to me. Maybe it's also a bit of your "first love", so that even if I switched to a TomTom that I would find that hard to use (but many agree much more customizable and "advanced").

If there are still two key differences between my Garmin 200W and the KR, it would be that the Garmin appears to have a less crowded map, which makes it easier for me to quickly discern what's important while navigating. The second difference would simply be the number of POIs. While I didn't know that you couldn't add POIs to the KR, had it been my first, I might have checked for that exact feature.

After all, one of the great benefits of POI-Factory is the great work that folks have done to improve both POI accuracy as well as POI quantity. I travel all over the US and have added 600,000+ POIs beyond the built-in ones. Those are indispensible to me, and have extended my use and satisfaction with my GPS many-fold because of them.

Best wishes to you to keep using KITT and enjoying it! BTW, if you don't really use the KITT voice, do you have the real deal?