Question of the Day: Which Navigation System Works the Best?
The idea of being able to get blow-by-blow directions from an infallible computer guide in your car is a great one in theory, though in practice sometimes it can be more distracting than it’s worth. That being said, which Nav system, OEM or aftermarket, do you think is the best to use overall? Which is the easiest? Which setups have steered you wrong? Share your thoughts, in comments.
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Comments
X3 SoB
A Rand McNally map and your brain. Honestly, my BMW has a nav in it, and it gives stupid, roundabout directions and has an irritating voice to boot. It really is more of a toy than anything else, and everytime you get in the car you have to "accept" a legal disclaimer because of it. Stupid.
dieselhead
Telenav in my Blackberry. I have it in every car I drive: mine, friends, rentals, etc. Easy to use, reliable.
AJ
Not Lexus, my roommate once had his step-moms SC430 for a weekend to drive home (actual home, not school home) from campus, so we tried to see what it thought was the best route...according to it, the best route included a street that is completely non-accessible through campus.
Dane
Rand McNally (sp).... Nothing beats the Focus ST170 and finding a lost road....
Andy II
Honda/Acura's navigation system is so intuitive and almost always gives good directions. The newer Acura models (RL, MDX, TSX) have both traffic and weather updating capabilities. And unlike the Toyota/Lexus nav systems, they let you put in information while you drive.
ZeGerman
I've been repeatedly impressed with my Friend's TomTom, although it was stymied by the mess up once when trying to get me back home to Brooklyn.
ZeGerman
Sorry for not paying attention to what I was writing (above). I've been distracted by those Ferrari GT sound bites all day...
Joshua
Definitely Rand McNally. Also, the "Hey, where's this road go?" method gets fun results too.
X3 SoB
My Nav is amusing at times, if you go in a direction that you know is correct but the Nav thinks is wrong, it will say "Please try to make a legal U-turn" in a petulent tone. When you get where your going, it happily proclaims "You have Arrived!"... I don't need a computer to determine that for me. ;)
selrahc1963
A good old fashioned paper map, the knowledge to be able to read that map, and a sense of adventure. GPS units are for lazy people in my opinion.
josh
I'm happy with my TomTom
southern
My Garmin Nuvi 350.
I bought a new Cadillac and sprung for two thousand dollars for the Nav.
It's"OK" but on the after market it would be worth about $99.95 except for that great 8" screen.......
So I decided to check out several of the OEM Navs.
They all suck.
None have the options of a Garmin, that BTW you can move from car to car and even use on foot or bicycle.......
The Garmin has user selectable voices, the OEMs don't.
The Garmin has user selectable accents and languages
The Garmin has programable points of interest
The Garminwill recalculate a route in 2 or 3 seconds....
The Garmin etc, etc
And it's not even the top of the line..........
Bottom line?
When I am lookiing for a strange addressm I take my $300 Garmin and set it next to my $2000 OEM nav.
I keep my Rand Mcnally in the trunk, because it doesn't do addresses.......
Technology is here to stay.
Ridiculous.
mbslrm
The thing I like about OEM navs, is that they have bigger screens and the fact that they are integrated into your car. This way, I have one big screen for everything. It really frees up space on the centre console.
Something I dislike about OEM navs, is that they are so confusing to order with some manufacturers. The one that comes to mind is Chrysler. When the new Caravan came out, I tried playing with the configurator and I got so lost. All I wanted was the price of the nav unit with MyGig. That's a $2900 option in Canada and the bean counters have decided to bundle it with other expensive options to make an überexpensive option.
One of my friends asked me to find the prices for a Compass/Patriot with nav. So I went to jeep.ca and played around with the configurator. The three top dealers ( I only checked three since jeep.ca was made by the laziest programmers) in my area didn't have a Compass or a Patriot with nav/MyGig. Simply terrible. It's one of the better nav/media packages out there and they didn't have it in stock. Do they NOT want people to buy it?
dante
The only ones I find useful are ones you can enter lat and long in to find a destination.
Jeb
I'm actually quite impressed with the Verizon VZ Navigator that's loaded on my LG enV (the 9900 side-opener with the QWERTY keyboard). It's got A-GPS so it can get a rough nav solution going just off the cell signal before syncing up to the GPS signal, and then it refines down to pure GPS accuracy. What I like best about it is that being a subscription service, Verizon has an incentive to keep maps and POIs up to date, not to mention software enhancements, and in fact the other day they released a version with active traffic monitoring.
This is in a CELLPHONE. Yeah, the screen is small, but the audio is clear and the screen real estate is used well. It's good enough to have replaced my previous GPS/PDA combo, and I always have it with me. $10 a month is a lot better IMO than a $300+ outlay on a standalone device that'll be out of date in two years.
Kent
The nav on my 2006 Audi A8L is very good; with a simple small screen that displays arrows and distances right in front of the driver AND a nice sized display that emerges from the dash in the center stack. Very good detail on the maps. Downsides are (1) the interface... though much better than BMW's idrive, it's still cumbersome in comparison to my daughter's Nuvi 660, which has a touchscreen. (2) There's no speech recognition for streets, so I must settle for "turn right in 200 yards" instead of the Nuvi's "turn right on Gloucester Street." (3) The voice is strained at times. "Yards" sometimes sounds like "nyards." Nuvi falls short of the Audi model because Audi's two-screen system is so well integrated into the vehicle, and the sound synchronization through the Audi's great audio system (even if I'm on the bluetooth cellphone connection, the radio or otherwise) is a whole lot better.
The nav on my wife's Buick Enclave is pretty good; easier to program than the Audi; but it also falls short of the Nuvi when it comes to interface, it also lacks audio recognition of street names, and the graphics are inferior to the Audi's and the Nuvi. Of course, its appearance and tactile quality is far inferior to the Audi's. At least it doesn't say "nyards."
MGBYG
Google Earth and my brain.
Steve C
I have an '07 Lexus IS with OEM Nav system. Positively worthless. Now they want $200 to update it with the new map information for '08. My answer:
I'm going to Radio Shack and buy one of the many good Nav systems and put it in my glove box when not in use. The over-the-counter systems are far, far superior to the Lexus system.
Russ Bellinis
I like the Garmin. The best thing about it is that my wife does not read maps, and does not know compass directions. I used to have to go to map quest and find directions there for her every time she needed to find a new location that she wasn't familier with. With the Garmin, she enters the address she want to go to and it directs her right to the location. If she makes a wrong turn, it recalculates in seconds and updates the directions. My friend just bought a better version of the Garmin than the one I have and he can plug his cell phone into it to give him hands free operation.
mike
My Nuvi 300W is simple and easy. portable too!
Dale Dunford
What the OEMs should do is agree on a standardized mount, on which we can place our own 3rd party GPS (Nuvi, Magellan, TomTom, etc) instead of these outrageously expensive nav packages. The OEM nav systems are expensive to buy and keep up to date. The portables have almost become commodities.
Likewise, all the OEMs should provide a jack input for our iPods or other digital music players. I dont need the geewhiz iPod controls and other nonsense that cost outrageously as well.
Jaylie
I use an old Garmin c320 left out on their nifty tripod friction mount (no stupid suction cup, no glue, no drilling) on the dash. No fancy 3D view. I'm not sure I need any more than that. I wasn't impressed with Garmin's newer NUVI's. Some OEM should seriously consider working with Garmin on their in-dash nav unit. They're about as fool-proof and (dare I say) accurate as they get, IMO.
I do have to admit that on one recent trip to Northern NJ, the unit led me down the Palisades on what looked like a mule trail. Got me there on time, but it was all the "adventure" that I care to take.
Bob Martel
I had a 2005 Acura RL with the best OEM nav system in the world! I miss it now that I have a Mazdaspeed 3 with their OEM system. I now wish that I had skipped the Mazda OEM nav system and bought a Garmin instead! I don't miss any other aspect of the RL, though. The Mazdaspeed 3 rocks!
carolyn
I bought a Nuvi a few months ago and it has been great. The Detour function is great- you just touch "detour' and it directs you right thru the detour and back to where you want to be. Loved that- beats trying to read the signs and it was fool proof.
Of course nothing is idiot proof- once I tried 'shortest distance' vs my usual 'shortest time' and apparently the shortest distance in my 45 mile commute would run me thru a trailer park....
Probably the best use I have for the Garmin tho has been the peace of mind I get when my 17 year old daughter is going someplace new to her- to have her able to concentrate on her driving and not worrying about finding streets etc is worth the $200!
quinn
The built-in nav on the Volvo S60 (navteq based) is great. Excellent UI and accurate. Great screen that rises out of the dash. Great controller on the steering wheel. Doesn't force you to park to make changes.
Also the recent Garmin nuvi (navteq) is very nice and calculates the route incredibly fast.
The Tom Tom (tele atlas) is very feature rich but has a much less usable interface. It also tends to create slightly longer routes with more final left turns. I like many of the extras on the Tom Tom, but the basics need to be improved.
A friend just got a Navigon and it seems like it is a nice mix of Tom Tom extras and Garmin (navteq) routing and usability.
Leo H
We use a Garmin Nuvi and with a resent 6500 mile trip we only had 1 mistake from it.
bepsf
Of the OEM Nav systems, Nissan's Birdseye system is the best...
...but I wouldn't spend $2000 for any of them.
I like that Volvo are offering dashtop mounts for Garmin units for half the price of an installed unit - but I still doubt that $700 is worth it when I can Google a paper map.
Wes
I have Magellan 300R with preloaded maps of the west coast (western US). I could have upgraded to the entire US, but I'm not planning on taking any cross country trips. It works well for finding local addresses and points of interest. I live in Vegas so it makes it easy to find off strip casinos and such. It is very simple to use, but the power cord doesn't stay in the unit very well so I have to carefully place on the seat or with the passenger next to me so it doesn't shut off. The other thing is it is no longer supported by Magellan as far is getting further updates, but it does do the trick. I've heard nothing but good about Garmin as well.
Lee
Infiniti's nav rocks.
Mark
The best nav system is the one you can take with you from car to car and costs about 1/5 the cost of a factory unit. Factory built in ones are so laughably stupid on a cost, functionality, and obsolescence perspective.
Dustin
My Garmin Nuvi was about $400, many OEM nav units cost $2000 at the dealership.
My Nuvi can be updated and configured to a very high degree of user preference. I can download POIs, icons, maps, etc. from the internet.
The only complaint I have is the lousy Nuvi windshield mount which falls off on the slightest of warm days.
OEM units look more in place with the design of the car's interior, of course, but sometimes the user interfaces make you wonder if a bunch of drunken monkeys came up with the system navigation menus.
Chris
Nissan and Infiniti's Navi is really good, XM traffic updates and it is really easy to use.
Bob
I use a garmin usb gps that connects with delorme software on my laptop. The laptop screen is far larger than any other gps screen, the mapping software is fairly cheap to upgrade since it is off the shelf software, and the list of gas stations, hotels, restuarants, and attractions are pretty good. While my software is a few years old, have to say the version I have does a pretty good job on routes allowing you to choose options such as shortest or quickest, and choose if you want mostly highways or backroads. The shortest route has on occasion taken me through some odd backroads (not always paved) but it always got me there. Plus since I use it mainly for longer trips it allows me to plan and route everything before I leave so all I have to do is click on the saved route when in the car.
jackrabbit
I've only used google map and Thomas Guide, but why would you want to use a nav and spend so much money when you can figure it out with your brain? Do any of these so-called Navigation system worth its money?
If I was going to spend money on a nav, I would get a Garmin Nuvi and spend like 400 bucks and save the 1500 bucks for set of new aluminum wheels and nice pirellis.
CARSON 44
Microsoft Streets and Trips, running on a laptop, with the GPS kit. It is absolutely brilliant.
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