Anyone recommend a non-factory NAV system?

Hmm.. I considered a Garmin autorouting GPS- I've used one before and I do like the operation of the units, but IMO, *NONE* of them look like OEM.. The very fact that there's an addition "pod" on the dash (that's not even the same color) is in my books, the very opposite of looking like it "came with the car"..

I looked at trying to find a Prius NAV from a wrecked car, but 1) I've got a 2001 Classic Prius which doesn't have the wiring harnesses, etc, and 2) I'm in Canada, where the number of Classics sold can pretty much be counted on your hands and toes.. Although I'm quite hardware saavy, I really don't want to have to rip apart a dash and do all sorts of rewiring.. Car interior wiring is simply not designed to be worked on after being installed- there isn't one operation with interior wiring that isn't completely awkward for the person doing the work..

I also considered getting the Coastal MFD video modification and a thirdparty GPS, but IMO, it's about $200 too expensive for what you get and as mentioned above, I'm not crazy about having to take apart my dash to get the MFD out, and then having to send it away for modification (not to mention the shipping and customs hassle that would result from this back and forth shipping operation)..

While being able to use the MFD and touch screen would be nice, what I ended up settling on was to purchase a refurb Pioneer Nav unit, and one of those rear-view mirrors with integrated LCD displays.. I'm still waiting on delivery of the nav unit, but I've got the mirror in place, and it's the same color as the interior and blends into the interior very nicely.. With the nav installed under the seat and the replacement mirror/monitor, the setup really should look OEM- no extra boxes on the dash, there's a convenient steering-wheel mounted remote and the Pioneer nav even has voice activation.. This is the kind of setup that really "looks like it came with the car"..

 

Until my Prius Nav, I used my Treo 600 with a GPS dongle and the Mapopolis software. My son uses the same setup with his Tungsten C. I like having my PDA, phone and GPS all in one small box. It keeps me from looking like I'm wearing Batman's utility belt.

Here are my comments...

The Treo's resolution is barely adequate. The Tungsten C looks great (and even allows a 3D view of the map, really cool).

The routes produced by Mapopolis are as good and many times better than Yahoo, Google, Mapquest, and MS Streets and Trips. Especially the latter!

Long routes take too long to work out on my Treo (NJ to VA took 15 min). The Tungsten cuts this down dramatically.

I love the fact that I can bring it when I travel. I just hook it up in the rental car and I'm all set.

You're limited by what you can fit on your card. My 256M SD card can hold several states (or CA and one or two others). You need to keep lots of free memory because Mapopolis copies the maps it needs to RAM for performance.

As for accuracy... I've got no complaints. The MPH display is right on. It found a 4 MPH error with the speedometer on one of my cars. However, it's only as accurate as the maps. Traveling in NM the roads were sometime off by 100 feet! I sometimes missed the turns because of that. I've never had that problem anywhere else.

As a last note: I find it frustrating that no mapping software can find my house. My road is shaped like a J and I'm near the end, but the they always put me at the head. I have to set a geo mark for my house because they can't deal with my location.

 

I got a Garmin Quest. It was really good. Color, voice capabilities, and cigarette lighter power adpater with a bracket for your windshield. I just saw it on sale at Best buy for around $399 when I paid about $500 for it a year ago. It is, IMO, faster, flexible, and accurate at coming up with routes. I like the fact you can load up just the cities you want. I was able to load up all the cities from Sacramento to El Paso (and a few extras in case we took a detour). it is about the size of a large cell phone. New maps cost about $70 but I am not sure how often they are published.

It has excellent resolution and can get down to 20' on the display I think (I do not remember, I gave mine to my sister when I got the Prius Nav, which I now regret). It also has trip meters, spedometer, altimeter, night and day funcitons, and many other beanies.

 

Magellan 700

My choice is the Magellan 700. Costco sells it for under $1000. I've used it for a couple of years and have found it to be wonderful. We just returned from a 5 day trip to the New Orleans area. It was so easy to ask for a list of restaurants, pick the one we wanted, and be on our way.

 

If you load up just the destination county and starting off county, and the "major roads" for the states in between, you might be able to trim that 15 minutes to less than 1.

 

Ahh. There's the rub. How many people have all the counties memorized in their neighboring states (or even their own)? I find that the weak point in their whole product.

 

Do you regret getting the Prius navigation system, giving away the Garmin or both?

 

I regret giving my Garmin to my sister. The Prius Nav is not as up to date or flexible. There are many places where the Garmin was able to direct me where the Prius either has a blank space or no voice direction. If anything I would have kept the garmin to augment my Prius. The garmin I could enter in the name of the place and it gave me a list with directions and distances. The Prius does not do this. I have to chose one, look at it on the map, then select another (by starting the whole process over again).

 

Re: Magellan 700

I noticed that Costco.com is now marketing a couple of Tom Tom portable systems (one even has a bluetooth car kit built in). Does anyone have experience with Tom Tom GPS? Seems like it might be a good option for my other car and the portability would be a plus.

 

If you have access to a laptop computer(microsoft style) you can pick
up a copy of microsoft streets and trips with a gps module. It cost $120
at best buy and it works great.

Even if you have to buy a used pc ($300 to 400) this set up would be cheaper
than a lot of the Garmin products.

I am a courier and use mine daily, I just took a trip to Hannibal,Mo from
Minneapolis,Mn and found this device to be invaluable.

Tom H

Prius 2003

ps This last trip was 1290 miles in 5 days and I averaged 49 MPG.

 

I've used the TomTom. I recommend it for its simplicity and ease of use. The touchscreen makes inputing destinations easy. The included car mount it easy to transfer from car to car. The suction cup that allows you to attach the base to a window is very secure. It can calculate routes very fast. Best of all, IMO, is the use of an SD card to store detailed maps of the states you want. You can store the entire US if you get an SD card that has the capacity. The only complaint is that it doesn't always give you the easiest route. But it will still get you to your destination.

I plan to get one when I get my Prius.

 

I have also heard good things about TomTom. They really honed the user interface in Europe before marketing in the US.

As for routing, Of all the routing systems I've played with I've found that Mapopolis was the best. There were numerous of times that I disliked the routes with MS streets and trips, mapquest, yahoo, street atlas, etc. but Mapopolis usually matched and sometimes found a better route than the one I was thinking of.

Just about all the routing systems buy the same maps from Navtech, so I'm surprised that one would be better than another. There aren't many mapping games in town. Tiger (free from the government) and Navtech (commercial) are the two top ones for routing.

My company buys very detailed maps (I'm not sure of the source) for their military work, but these are extremely expensive and comes with lots of usage restrictions (security clearance, etc.). They need to buy these in relatively small regions and there are large holes in the data where it hasn't been mapped yet.

 

They may use all the same maps but they all employ their own route finding algorithms. My thesis dealed with vehicle routing problems and I was amazed at the level of research done in this area and how difficult it actually is.

My Prius Nav comes up with some crazy routes sometimes but I think this is due to the default restrictions I have set (not to mention addition of new roads or not knowing that military bases have most of their roads going off-post closed).

 

The funniest mistake I remember was when I went to the Large Antenna Array in NM. The GPS turned me down a road that looked fishy, but I followed it. The pavement got worse and worse until I found myself on a dirt road with cattle grazing.

I found out that this used to be a major road, but it was given back to the farmers at least 50 years ago! Now it didn't go anywhere so I had to backtrack 10 miles to the right turnoff.

It's a good thing it was a rental car.

 

Get a color screen PDA (Toshiba is what I use now) that is Pocket PC based. Buy a GPS Compact Flash sized card (with PCMCIA or PC Card adapter) on eBay for $125.
This way you can use the GPS in your laptop or PDA.
I used TomTom's demo and the voice sounds good, but I prefer Mapopolis' price($100), features and 1 year updates with purchase.
Toshiba e755 *+(400MHz, WiFi, Sd AND CF slots).

 

I have used the Garmin iQue and like it. It is a chore to use with a Mac and you have to be willing to do a bit of work to get it to work. The best rout for setting up the data base is to borrow a Windows Box and build your data base move the files to the Mac and sync it. You can use VPC but expect to wait for several hours while the data base is built. I did it once for a 256meg chip and it took 10-12 hours. Garmin is not a Mac friendly organization. The iQue works well, and you can use the map and data base as a phone book to look up addresses and phone numbers anywhere. I got turned around in a strange city last year walked to the center of a Plaza turned on the GPS, found my position and got to my destination that I was walking to. Battery life as a hand held with the GPS on is very very limited, in a car it is no problem as it is plugged in.

 

I've been using Mapopolis on my Palm for several years. I didn't have GPS, but loved having all the detailed maps available. Recently I upgraded my Palm to a T5 which has Bluetooth. So, I downloaded some GPS enabled demo maps from Mapopolis to try and borrowed a friends Bluetooth GPS receiver. I used this set up to go to a NWR in Deleware yesterday. It worked quite well. Additionally, I purchased ahead of time a product called Outdoor Navigator from Maptech. $20 and you have access to contour maps for the nation (58,000 of them). The product also works with GPS. I downloaded the maps for the NWR and was able to to see where I was in the refuge.

All and all, a very nice, flexible, setup. Mapopolis and the T5 don't yet play nicely sometimes, though. That was the only issue.

 

I test drove an 05 BC package Prius this past Thursday and I was not impressed with the navigation system. The TomTom was much more intuitive and easier to use.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mkaliski\";p=\"87794)</div>

Add my endorsement to the Garmin iQue 3600. I have hauled a trailer all over the USofA (about 30,000 miles worth) whilst using my iQue 3600. It's never let me down. Great GPS + Palm OS5. Discount GPS stores are selling for around $400. Another $100 + will be needed for dash mount kit and a min of 512meg SD memory card. Or get a bundle fro about $460. See:

http://www.nextag.com/Garmin-IQUE-3600-BUN...ARE-PRICES-html

The Prius dash works out just fine with the iQue 3600 dash mount kit.

Denny_A