A friend and I at work have been looking into after market DVD based navigation systems. My TSX has navigation and I'm all set, but I'm looking for an after market system for my girl friend’s vehicle. Also, my friend at work has been trying to hunt down a decent navigation system for his new 4runner.

I've been to alpine's website and they only have one system, I've been to Kenwood’s page and theirs is expensive as hell, and last I've seen a few decent looking systems on pioneers site. So far I've found little to no information that helps me decide what is best.

Has anyone purchased an after-market navigation system, or know of any good brands. Can the system in the TSX be purchased from a retail store, or something similar to it?

If anyone has purchased an after market system, how hard is the install...can the navigation antenna connect to the cars antenna?

I think the voice recognition part was developed by IBM. I'm not sure about the rest of it, though.

People on here have been making a lot of Bill Gates jokes about the Nav, so I've assumed some/all of the stuff in there is Microsoft.

Alpine Electronics... http://www.alpine-usa.com

It uses WindowsCE as the Operating System and some other custom ASICs to do the rest, but if you look at the systems offered by Alpine, you'll find one that's similiar.

From all the reviews I have read, this seems to be the top pick. If you don't care to have DVD capability, it is a little $$ though still less than Acura's factory system.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,92955,00.html

It retails for $3500, but on E-bay there are 3 or 4 reputable dealers selling them brand new for under $1,900. Just do a search for "pioneer nav"