New Car -- Nav system or not?

GladGradDad
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:36:28 +0000

Both of my kid’s smart phones have a better GPS than the one in my car! If you have an iphone or something similar - save the money and use the phone.

But don’t try to actually use an iPhone as a nav device while driving unless it’s purely a voice driven app. The screen is too small to really see much and forget about actually using the touchscreen while driving. It’s not worth totalling another car. An iPhone or other smart phone can be referred to offline though or by a copilot if there’s one. A friend uses his iPhone for nav but has an app to speak the turn by turn directions. I’ve referred to mine for directions before but only offline while not driving.



often Navigation systems in cars are not a single black-and-white add-on option

Because it makes so much sense that in order to have a nav system the seats need to be made out of leather, or there needs to be a sunroof, or it’s required to have a 12 speaker 500w stereo!

I recently drove cross-country and back with a Garmin that I didn’t take out of the console. I didn’t need it for anything since I knew where I was going and like to know beforehand rather than an exit or two ahead of time. I can see the utility though for someone who’s frequently going to new destinations.

Personally I don’t think the built-in nav is worth $1600 since they usually surround the up-sell with other options you might not otherwise get if they were standalone. It’s a personal choice though so I don’t think you’ll get a definitive answer here.

One other variable to consider is resale in that you might get some of that $1600 back for the higher resale price of the car due to the options, if there really is one, which would make the effective cost less than the $1600.