As I am sure many of you know Acura has ditched the touch screen navigation for buttons (and lots of them). A lot of people complained about finger prints with the touch screen. Of course now people are complaining about too many buttons. Of course Acura could also go along the lines of BMW,Audi, and Mercedes navigation's but they get a lot of negative reviews for being hard to use.

Option 1: Keep it the way they have now. In all their redesigns they should just keep a lot of buttons, and put the navigation set back so they wont get fingerprints.

Option 2: Go back to touchscreen navigation's. This way you could get rid of all the buttons used for the navigation. This would also free up buttons some of the A/C or radio buttons on the navigation screen.

Option 3: They could do something a long of I-drive, or Command system but that leaves them up to a lot of bad reviews. It does give it a very clean look, but will probably make the user interface harder to use.

For a comparison's Acura's over the year.

TL

2G


3G


4G



TSX

1G


2G



I would do the RL and MDX but you guys get the point.

 

My vote is for the 3g TL. Such a sweet and functional interior. Shame they had to ruin it (but hey, at least they ruined the whole rest of the car too)....

 

I voted touch screen, but also like the pop up nav screens. When you think about it, navi is only needed about 1% of the time, for me anyways.

 

I use navi lots more than 1% of the time. My 03 CL-S had a nice enough navi, my 04 TSX's navi is fanastic, but I'd gladly trade voice commands, real time traffic and weather for touch screen control.
I've used navis in Mazdas, Infinitis, Audis, BMWs and Mercedes - the OEM navi system in my TSX is better than any of them, IMO.

 

acura has some of a best navi's they ahve always been on top of their game, software wise.

i think dropping touch screen's is BS. everyone is doing it. there should be no other choices in anyones mind. touch screen FTW.

idealy a multitouch system like on the iphone.

also, i wanna add, pop up screens are the 2nd stupidest thing to a non-touch screen

 

Let me add that Infiniti's nav in my G37 is nice in that there is touchscreen, buttons, and a dial controller. To me that kind of redundancy is useful in fitting any type of scenario....

 

I loved the touchscreen in the CL-S. It seemed very fast and easy to use. I remember being really frustrated with the 2G RL's lack of touchscreen and having to enter the letters in w/ the knob. I only used each for a pretty limited amount of time.

both were probably better than my mom's IS250 navi though. I still don't quite understand how to cancel a point on that one. I only used it briefly as well, but between me and my friend (who is used to the lexus navi in his RX450h), we couldn't figure it out in like 5 minutes. At least the touchscreen is easy to use, but I thought the user interface was pretty bad.

 

8 inch VGA touchscreen

 

8 inch High res 16 : 9 video screen with 6 buttons and then Knob.

Buttons:
Map/Guide
Menu
Cancel
Setup
Info
Audio

Then knob (like the one on the MDX/RL where it is positioned low)

Then throw in the added features of the Command/Idrive/MMI system such as being able to control suspension, see engine codes, etc.

 

i found that quite funny

 

I think the knob is cool. I cant stand anything touch screen. The screen gets finger prints all over. IDK i just dont like anything touch screen, especially when it comes to my phones. And the phones now a days, majority is coming in touch screen.

 

I liked the 2nd gen TL.

 

 

I think the people who were complaining about fingerprints need to either A) wash their hands more often and/or B) quit being lazy and clean the screen more often. While the placement is better now with regards to keeping your eyes closer to the road while glancing at it, I liked the touchscreen better...much less clutter.

 

They should never have gone away from touch screen. I absolutely hate the extra buttons.

 

Touch Screen, the 3G TL Navi was PERFECT!

 

i like a combo of both, buttons and touchscreen

 

and even though i don't use the navi that often, i still like having the radio, cd, a/c, trip computer, etc all integrated onto the screen.

 

Don't have it myself, but that would be the only reason I would want it...I guess I just need a touchscreen to run a car PC with software that integrates those things.

 

I voted touch sreen.

 

yea, i barely use the navigation itself.

but i still like having the screen there for all the other utilities as opposed to a popup nav.

however, the new acura interiors are still gorgeous in my opinion.

 

I like touch screen but also like a lot of buttons.

 

Definitely touch screen, and combine it with a higher line of site and shade as in the 4G TL and 2G TSX. The Navi on my 2G TL is hard to see in full sunlight.

 

That's the 3G TL Navi- which has a touch screen, joystick, buttons and also voice commands with functional redundancies for ease of operation.

 

I still love the 2G interior...

 

+1.

+1.

 

I barely have any sort of fingerprints on the touchscreen after driving my RL for a year. You guys must have some greasy prints.

 

and i keep a small microfibre cloth in my car to wipe it down if necessary.

the only thing i really dislike about the 1g TSX navi is the joystick/square.

if it had the touchscreen plus a real joystick, i'd like it more.

 

I never got it either but a lot of people dont like the touch screen for some reason.

 

WHO DOESN"T LIKE A TOUCH SCREEN? WTF???

 

See post 11. Some people just dont like it.

 

Touchscreen > *

I have become so used to having the integrated navigation system in my TSX that it is now a prerequisite in any future car I purchase. From that perspective, no nav system I've tried matches the touchscreen nav in my TSX.

The G37's nav was pretty good, but it was a little too recessed to use the touchscreen comfortably and I didn't like how you can't adjust your route while in motion. I have loathed the 1G iDrive system in the 335is I've driven, but recently I tested out the 2G iDrive and could actually deal with it. It still was not nearly as intuitive as a touchscreen setup, but it didn't make me want to kill myself either.

 

I've owned both the '04 TL with NAV, my wife's '05 Lexus RX 330 with NAV and current X5 and 550i with I-Drive, I can tell you that the touch screen in the TL (or any older generation Acura) is the best and most intuitive to use.

Having said that, touch screen does have its drawbacks. With touch screen, you'll have to take your eyes off the road for a longer time in order to hit the right button. Some even require you to reach over, cause more distraction. Therefore, Lexus locks everything once the car gets moving so you can only perform limited function.

With I-Drive like systems, the screen is in the field of vision. You only have to glance over real quick to make sure you're in the right place and use the knob (next to you) to guide you. It does take sometime to get used to all the menus but once you're familiar, it becomes a second nature. Of course, I-Drive still needs a lot of work but I believe it will be the way of the future.