darth62

I love the NAV in my TSX and would recommend it to anybody. And, it seems clear that Acura's NAV is the class of the industry.

So, my question is this: Why don't other manufacturers source the Alpine Nav system? The Alpine system seems superior to those offered by competitors. I would assume that Lexus and Infiniti would offer Alpine-type systems in order to compete with Honda/Acura.

zzzed

the new chrysler 300 uses alpine nav.......lexus/ toyota are more closely attached to pioneer and eclipse-they acutally own part of eclipse,nissan and clarion are close...... they the use their existing vendors for their stuff.....alpine (alps)and honda go way back......

elduderino

Research the term "zaibatsu".

Nissan and Clarion have sperated some since Renault came in and forced some divestiture...supposedly now Nissan is not such a huge shareholder of Clarion Tokyo.
Fujitsu is not the only Toyota player, Denso also is big on nav for them...

Also, until an advantage is clearly a "competitve advantage" - (one that definitely results in more sales) then the engineers want to do it their way... watch how Ford and GM have been so different for so long, and now are starting to become more "normal" in things like radio operation due to external pressure...

An OE buying a part rom an outside suppler is a big deal - getting on the list is hard and the development time and program support commitment is very painful, so they don't swih like we might think they should...