Anyone have an aftermarket navigation system in their CL or any other car for that matter? Cost? Pics? Thanks

 

 

I have a navigation unit on my Odyssey. Before I purchased the van in 2000, I investigated what units were available on the aftermarket. I didn't see anything that had voice prompts - which are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

All of the units then available wanted you to read their tiny screens as you were barreling down the freeway. This is a great way to crash into the car in front of you.

The Honda/Odyssey unit speaks to you "Left turn onto freeway in quarter mile." You don't have to constantly glance at the screen (which does show a very big left arrow for those who were not listening). You can switch the language to Japapese, Spanish (the official language here in southern California), and French. This is extremely useful to me - since I don't speak any of those languages.

My research was done in early-2000. There may be other units available now.

One dealer offered to sell me an Odyssey without a navigation unit and then to install the navigation unit. Don't even think about doing that. Half the dashboard and half the wiring is different. I'm a pretty good amateur auto mechanic, but I wouldn't even consider doing that.

Don't limit your search to only car-installed units. There are some nice PDA-based navigation units that are out there. Unfortunatly, they are a bit on the clunky side, have a small screen, and don't have voice prompts. You need to have a PDA, purchase a plug-in GPS receiver, and purchase digital maps from a third vendor. None of the units work with my PDA, and the resulting units don't have voice prompts.

I'm waiting for someone to combine everything into a unit the size and shape of a cell phone. Some of the GPS receivers you see are almost there. With what I want you would download the maps (which take up all the room on the DVD) for only the areas you need. It would be more limited (you couldn't just up and drive across the country). But how often do you do that? What you probably need is a unit that would cover a 40 mile by 40 mile square around your home.

There are some units that plug into your personal computer and sit on the seat next to you. These assume that you have a portable personal computer, and you end up with a tangle of equipment on the seat next to you.

 

Synth - Nicky seems to recommend AutoSound very much. Check this thread and see if it helps.

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...threadid=92455

Without a job, I'm short on cash, but I think I'm going to really consider getting one installed once I get back on my feet. Feel free to be the guinea pig and get one installed from these guys.

 

I have the Alpine Navi aftermarket installed in my CL-S. I like it. Has voice prompts. Remote control. I don't have pic's tho.

I have one of the in dash units that has a slide out screen so I can retract it and pull the face plate off for security. I like it and I have the latest Nav software. Pretty accurate so far. GPS is mounted on the inside on top of the dash in the middle next to the windshield. It usually has 7 sat's found most of the time. I would recommend it. It is pricey tho. But then I wanted better sound than Blose. JM2C

 

hey, about how much will this cost with installation

 

I have CoPilot for my iPaq PDA. It has voice prompts, trip routing, detours, way points, etc.... Whats nice is if I take it into the city I can mark where I parked, then use the GPS on foot to search for restaurants, and bring me back to my car. Also great for rental cars.

 

Cost me about $1900 for the nav, screen and new dash piece.

 

how much did the gps jacket cost? what type of iPaq do you have (i.e. 36xx or 37xx or 38xx or 39xx)? How long does the battery last when you are using the GPS unit?

 

lol you like paul van dyke? some of his stuff is too soft for me

btw thats a FUKING awesome setup...how much did you sound system cost?

 

Crap... You moved the climate control buttons. How hard was that???

 

PVD is cool.....his cd's are soft but when he spins live he plays much more harder/high energy music. sort of like tiesto and george acosta.

the whole sound setup including the navi cost me about 4500

 

moving the climate controls isnt hard at all. the wires easily reach down there. just mounting and making the new face plate were hard.