I've always found the built-in Honda NAV systems somewhat of a pain to figure out. I've seen Garmins in action and they seemed to work great. Plus the portable NAV systems can be taken with you on trips where you rent a car. I'm curious which you prefer and why.

 

The NAV Sys that I prefer is portable. Why? Because I can take it with me wherever I go. That is whether I rent a car or not. I just do not like the idea of having to stop by the liquor store, Walmart, Grocery store….whatever….to ask for directions or to buy a map. Also, if my car has 300k with a nav system, and I am taking a 24hr drive, I would not risk getting stranded away from home.
I think Honda does sale a portable unit, I think they are overpriced. I prefer Garmin. Not fancy or anything….just get me from point A to B. The nice features I find useful are: Voice guided, able to load custom maps and Points of interest.

 

Here's mine;
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...solutions.html

 

Garmin all the way. Returned 2 Magellins which do not stack up to Garmin at all IMHO.

Mike

 

I think you'd be better off with a portable navi. Its only a fraction of the cost compared to a honda installed navi. And garmins and magellans are so easy to use with the touch screen(i dont know if the honda in dash ones are touch screen). But most factory installed navis have a safety feature where you cannot use it while you are driving. You have to pull over or come to a complete stop for it to be useable. Which is pretty stupid imo, that means your passenger cant even punch in destinations while you're driving. Like another member mentioned above, you can take it with you to another vehicle. And a factory navi also makes your headunit look way juicier to theives. LOL

 

$200 vs $1200... all i need to say... the only reason i would get built in is for the VSA

 

Portable FTW!!!

 

Meh I prefer built in. Just looks nicer IMO. More elegant and luxurious. I dont like slapping something on my windshield and having to reach for that tiny screen.

 

I have the ultimate portable GPS, on my blackberry. I always have my cell phone with me.

 

portable. so you can put it in every car you own

 

The Honda factory navi is touch screen and you can use it while driving. Also you can't use the factory navi in another vehicle without the pin#. A portable navi seems easier to steal if its just sitting on your dash.

 

Built in by far.
Looks cleaner, bigger screen, more features, ect.

 

the OEM honda navi sucks. if i were to install navi in a car, it sure as hell wouldnt be the OEM navi.

 

Oh really? I see, maybe its only BMW than. LOL. and I always take down my navi when i park. I just put it under the seat. I was thinking of getting an aftermarket in dash GPS, but not having front tint would attract theives who would get their grabby hands all over my dash. LOL

 

I have Garmin 2730, one of the few that work in bright sunlight.
as I also use it on my snowmobile and motorcycle.

+ it has XM tuner with XM nav-traffic (traffic jam re-routing) and MP3 player.

+ you cant just yank a built in unit, take it on a flight and pop it in your rental car.

 

LOL. yeah, the thing i hate is how in LA, the place you want to go, never has its own parking lot, you always gota park in a structure a block away or something. So i took my magellan with me to find the damn place. LOL

 

I bought a 140 garmin, i love it, I am a firm believer in not getting NAVi in new cars, not that i ever have anyway.

 

The OEM is nice, but not $1800 nice. My old school Nuvi 200 works just great. I hardly use it anyway.

 

I love these gadgets. Neither the Garmin Nüvi nor the Honda navi can find our home address. The Garmin will accept the address but take me another quarter mile down the road. The navi will let me slew the destination to the location of our home and then will enter an incorrect address. What an irritation. Both use the same map database, but display it differently.

The Garmin fits in a pocket if you want to take it with you. It can be plugged into the computer with a USB and updated. Doesn't have a compass, though, and when you walk with it it takes a while to figure out what you're doing. With the small screen, you have to keep it zoomed in to see your path. Great display though. The new ones (not mine) display the speed limit and duplicate the look of highway exit signs. The Garmin will get me where I want to go, but I never know where I am relative to any place around me. I know where I'm going but don't know much about where I am.

I love to travel. The Fit is going to be our cross-country car. With the Navi, I can easily zoom in or out to see where I am and can see points of interest. I like to use the "joystick" to slew the display to see what may be just off to the side of my route. If I see something displayed off-route, I can easily change the route to go to it just by touching the spot or pushing the button.

I can sit in the car prior to leaving and enter a list of waypoints or destinations for the day and go from one to the other. I can enter a lot of information by voice (my wife is not a fan of my doing this, at least while she is in earshot).

We live in the country. The navi gripes every time we get off onto "unverified" roads. The Garmin leaves me alone. The navi tells me how much time is left to the destination. The Garmin tells me what time I'll arrive.

The navi has very useful iPod integration features. The touch screen works well. I wish it had a rotary tuning knob for the radio. No problem integrating my XM receiver.

My Garmin 200 is strictly nav. Cost $149.95 at Target. Worth every penny.

The navi has a huge manual. The Garmin has a little brochure. Honda gives ten pages of lawyer talk and warnings at the beginning of the manual. More words than are in all the directions for the Garmin. Let's face it: you don't need directions to work the Garmin. It takes a while to figure out the navi.

The navi turns off and restarts to the lawyer screen whenever you turn the key off (like to gas up). The Garmin gives you the option of staying on and running on battery power for a while.

My wife likes to grab the Garmin and type in a point of interest when the whim strikes her. We don't have it mounted to anything in particular. She'll never talk to the navi, no matter how well it works. I'm sure she'll get used to entering points of interest in the navi screen--that's pretty easy, too, and the navi displays points of interest on the screen--gas stations, for example, if that's what you want.

The radio in the navi will increase or decrease volume depending upon your speed (road noise, I guess). It doesn't blank out the sound when navi woman talks to me, though (or I haven't figured it out yet).

On a recent trip to Chicago, we were standing on a corner waiting for a light. A large SUV pulled up next to a little car, hammered out the window and stole the GPS. The loss and the damage might amount to most of the cost of the navi.

And, of course, I wanted VSA. That's another post, though.



And--of course--the navi makes a terrific clock!

 

sounds like another downfall of the infamous iDrive...