The lemon and other remedies apply in the State of acquisition, in this case OHIO, and the car was used, a repo I think. In most states lemon laws apply only to new cars. None the less the warranty is good in USA and Canada and there is no reason that i can think of that the sytem cannot be repaired. They have changed multiple parts (the NAV unit, the voice unit, the radio) still not working...
I suspect software corruption personally.
This week thay are changing the disc (Nav disc) to see if that works, basically a keep replacing things approach...

The new NAV disc made no difference, as I suspected - I think it is just the map data base.
Well they are going to change the voice/nav unit, AGAIN. Apparently these are reconditioned units, not new, so that might have been the problem. The dealer is inferring that something might have been done to the car by previous owner etc that they cannot see, however this is an unsubstantiated claim and seems unlikly to me. OHMSTER: do you think your NAV hack possibly might have taken out some other circuit, holds a line low, or screwed up some peripheral part, or is it safe ? I did look at the plugs you change for the hack and there is no sign of alteration. I have not done this hack yet, since I didn't want the Infiniti dealer to blame the VOICE RECOG inop problem on my unrelated handiwork...

Steve,

Curious, but what part are they replacing when you say voice/nav unit? Are they replacing the WHOLE assembly in the glove compartment? Or only some component of it?
I do think the navi system downloads the phonetic data into the navi unit from the DVD every time the system loads (but of course, i'm not sure!).. but i'm wondering if the navi system is built in separate pieces and they are only replacing the controller/CPU/brain and not the actual DVD-reader itself? If so, perhaps there is something wrong with the DVD reader in the navi system that is causing this behavior? Just a shot in the dark -- assuming they haven't indeed replaced your whole navi unit in the glove compartment.

OK - after two replacements of the central Nav / Voice recog unit (I guess the first replacment was faulty), the stereo , the Nav DVD, and the Disc itself, we are now OK. I guess the "hrow parts at it"service approach finally worked. Night and day difference and now I can talk to my car. Nav hack goes in this weekend thanks to OHMSTER, and i can enjoy the functionality while driving, not while parked.
Thanks to all who chipped in, and I must say, the M45 is definitely th :)e nicest car I've had despite the issues.
Cheers,
Steve