I currently use my garmin 296 for navi purposes and love it.

I am thinking that it is not worth me getting the navi in the TL since I have one I can take with me.

Does the acura navi do anything special navi wise or do any other functions?

 

I know its got the voice recognition system for some of the car's controls.
Not sure if that's important to you but a portable unit can't do that.

 

i have heard about that but what exactly can you control by voice?

 

• Voice command of phone, navi, HVAC, and audio system
• Integration of audio system with navigation screen.
• Solar sensing climate control.
• Convenience of not having to carry your Garmin GPS.

The way I looked at it was that it was a LOT of money, but it didn't look as bad when I amortized over the projected life of the car (10-15 years). It's a GREAT convenience and it also has a "WOW" factor if you like to impress people with your toys.

I also have an HP Ipaq with a CF GPS and Mapopolis software. There IS no comparison.

Hope this helps!

 

Can you please expand upon this? You obviously prefer one system over the other, but I am not clear which one you believe to be that much better (and why)...the iPaq GPS or the TL's NAVI?

Thanks!

 

i dont know about the system you have, but the TL NAV has awesome diagrams of upcoming turns. it shows you all the forks in the road and hilights which one you need to take so you know which ones to avoid. it also has a progress meter when you get close to a turn so you know exactly how fast it is approaching with a little bar graph. that helps for those of us who are more visual-oriented. telling me its coming in .3 miles doesnt do as much.

you can set the NAV to show ATMs, gas stations, particular resturant types (mexican, italian, indian, etc), shopping areas, etc etc.

its been pretty useful around town so far, and ive only gone on one long easy trip.

 

I also use a Garmin GPS on my motorcycle and the TL's navigation system is about 10 light years ahead. The display also doubles as a nice vide audio display. Along with the awesome voice command structure, the map display is very useful if you plan to leave your familiar surroundings. E.g., enter a telephone numnber of a business and you've got an instant route to follow. Great, btw, for finding an unfamiliar retaurant!

 

In addition to using the Nav for point-to-point driving directions, I am finding the most use out of the "find nearest gas station" or "Find nearest Italian restaurant" type commands (executed via voice recognition or manually). I am learning about restaurants near my driving routes that I never knew existed. Now, if they could only strike a deal with Zagat and get reviews added to the content.

For example, NAVI pointed out a relatively hidden Taco Bell location less than 2 miles from my work...and all these years I've been travelling over 4 miles to a different, highly congested location.

Also, the touch screen is used for the Audio controls...particularly nice are the XM station information, CD/DVDA changer info, sound adjustments for balance, bass/treble, etc.

I have no regrets paying extra for the navi - i think it, along with voice rec, take the car to the next level.

 

Sorry for the vagueness.

The Acura navigation system is superior in its convenience and functionality. Accuracy for both PDA and Acura system are excellent.

While the PDA navigation add-on works fine, it's something else to carry around, plug in, and stick a magnet mount antenna on my roof. Plus, the sound quality of the voice prompts isn't great, the speaker is on the BACK of the PDA (a poor design!), and making adjustments enroute is difficult because of the small screen and stylus. The Mapopolis software is nice, but due to limited memory I can only have a limited number of maps with me at any given time. I'll still use the PDA based system when I need it for driving my other vehicles.

The Acura's system gives you all the stuff I listed in my first post, plus the convenience of a nicely integrated package. The 8" diagonal touch screen is clear, the voice prompts are clear, and since the system is fully integrated, the navi mutes the sound system when making prompts. The screen can also be dimmed when your lights are on to prevent glare. The DVD contains all of the continental US plus millions of points of interest such as banks, restaurants, parks, and repair shops.

FYI, the PDA based system I use is an HP Ipaq 2215 with a 256 mbyte SD card, a GlobalSat BC-207 CompactFlash GPS unit, and Mapopolis PDA navi software. I've had the PDA based setup for around a year and I think it's great, but the convenience of the integrated system makes the $2,000 MSRP cost of the Acura system worthwhile.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reply or PM if you have any other questions.

Regards,

 

there is an address book that can be used to store places you commonly go to. i dunno if the garmin has that, i dun find it as useful because if i travel there often most likely i won't need the nav unless i am trying to find an alternate route. i one of the better features is previous destinations, sometimes you have to travel back somewhere and you can't remember the exact address. i used this a number of times.

 

You can watch dvd on that with my conversion module

 

TO add to all above, once you have the destination set, you can also call the destination from a hands free BT interface / voice cammonds to call there enroute. Also, if you have a phone number of the destination you want to go you can find the place and set route from the phone number.

With Garmin kind of GPS you do not carry whole DB with you, you've to upload whenever and wherever you are going. In-car DVD based system you have all the DB for all North America region already in the system and available to you.

 

Don't know if you guys seen this, but changes in the 05 MDX to navi is Zagat Guide. First, is this just an enhancment in the DVD, or does the software need to be changed for Navi, Can you upgrade the software in the 04 or 05 TL model to support this? Will the 05 have this features.. Geez.. I feel like Acura is a old batman movie.. Will he escape in time? Will robin find the bomb?

http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=265399

Zagat would be killer!!! It's great that Navi can "find closest Italian Resturant", but even better would "Find closest good Italian Resturant".

 

You might want to see a related Acura/Garmin comparison at http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89893 Essentially, my conclusion is that the user interface of the Acura/Alpine system is a lot better, but the underlying database and algorithms are more than a little bit worse. FWIW, I got the nav package; I don't keep my Garmin unit in the car as a source of second opinions; but the latter decision might be revisited. I hope this helps.

 

Just got back from taking my son to grad school at Cambridge/Boston MA. We did nothing but shop for 8 hours a day. The navi not only guided us to every mall (after we inputted addys from internet) but it also found restaurants for us. My wife summed it all up in one sentence............"We will never purchase another car again unless it has navi". It was well worth it's cost for this trip alone!

 

DO NOT BUY A TL WITHOUT NAVI. Check some of the old threads by people who now want to trade their non-navi for the navi. Not only is the navigation indespensible during travel, but, you get hands free link for your cell phone plus the other voice command structure. If you finance the car, check the difference in monthly payments comparing the two versions - I think you'll never regret your upgrade to the Navi TL.

 

buy a TL with Navi, sell the garmin on eBay

 

The voice activated hands free bluetooth feature is also standard on the non-navigation model as well.

I didn't feel that the navigation feature was worth $2,000 in my situation. I have a handheld GPS for the one time in five years I'll actually use it. I could see how the feature could be usefull for others depending on how you use the car.

 

What is the version of the Navi software you've in yours? I have 1.02 in my TL which is 4 months old but I found out that the latest is 3.3G How often does this change, feel like mine is too old based on the version numbering. I asked the dealer, they said to buy the latest if wanted at $185.

Any advise?

-B.