When researching replacing the OEM navigation system, what other brands have people looked at?

Specifically my local dealer insists that the latest top of the range Pioneer unit is better than the Kenwood and has stopped fitting the Kenwood.

I am more interested in an excellent navigation unit (bright enough to see with the top down and good directions/user interface) than the best music sound, though that is not so far behind.

Any comments?

(On the subject of nav units, so far the latest OEM in Toyota/Lexus is the best I have driven, with about three bugs ironed out of it it will be hard to improve. The function it doesn't have, that I have seen in basic after market units, is an auto zoom, so it constantly adjusts the map scale to match current speed/intersection complexity, which might sound odd but seems to work (well, it does for me!))

(On the subject of nav units, so far the latest OEM in Toyota/Lexus is the best I have driven, with about three bugs ironed out of it it will be hard to improve. The function it doesn't have, that I have seen in basic after market units, is an auto zoom, so it constantly adjusts the map scale to match current speed/intersection complexity, which might sound odd but seems to work (well, it does for me!))

The Garmin has this feature. It is the one that Kenwood uses.

As far as comments about the radio part. I have had issues with Pioneer in the past. Nothing major, just the attitude that they shouldn't have to fix it. I had to fix my laser disk player myself because they refused to tell me where the repair center was located. They insisted that I take it back to the store that I bought it from. They refused to understand that the store was no longer in business.

I understand that everyone, even experts, have differing opinions. The installer that I used refers to Pioneer as toys. Although I did like the one with the hard drive built in for MP3s.

With GM cutting off new map releases, I spent some time seeing if I could easily hack the gm voices section of the map data file into a Toyota gen2/3 map disk (which otherwise works in our cars). While this could obviously be done, I simply decided it was not worth the effort since the nav itself is so bad.

After looking at what I wanted in a gps, and looking at a lot of choices, I spent less than the cost of a GM map update on a TomTom xxl 540TM. The TM means it has the traffic data receiver and lifetime map updates (max 4/year), along with other useful features.

I had an old Garmin I used before I bought the XLR. It and the current system use Navteq maps. There are a couple of blocked roads nearby that Navteq thinks are open, which means I either have to drive a bit before turning on navigation, or listen to the nav pester me over and over to take an unusable route. I've reported this 5 years in a row to navteq and also to garmin for the first 3. Never a response or fix.

Now, on the TomTom I can correct the map on the unit, and auto-upload the correction for verification. But even better, I reported the two blocked roads and a couple unpaved road errors to Teleatlas, and a couple of days later got back an acknowledgement that Teleatlas had verified the problem and would have the correction in the next map release. Even got an email from the guy at teleatlas who handled them, thanking me for the detailed reports I provided.

As just another option. I have an Iphone 4 and I got the gps drive app. It is better than my garmin and tom tom. Instead of preloaded maps every time you request a route it go's to mapquest and gets the latest maps. It works great. Voice guidance, traffic and I always have it with me. I installed an Iphone dock in the ashtray of the X and it works great.

monepit:

I sure hope the phone reception on your iPhone 4 is better than mine!!! I have almost thrown it out the window on more than one occasion especially when it hangs up in the middle of a conversation.

I am hoping that Apple and ATT will get this fixed soon. It's a very expensive Game Boy!!

I had problems too when I first got mine. Once I got the case for it it has not dropped a call since. It made a real differance. I really love it now.

Thanks for all the advice. Now it has been pointed out, I note that it is indeed Garmin in the Kenwood, somehow I missed that earlier.

Looking at the installation, the Pioneer takes a feed off the wheel counts, so it can continue to operate accurately in a tunnel say. So far as I can see the Kenwood does not. The Pioneer also incorporates accelerometers, so it tries to 'know' about hills and lane changes too. One of the features of a decent OEM unit is that it looks at each wheel rotation and can work out corners etc. from the differential counts, but the XLR one still seems to drift in cities!

Regards,

I'm looking for a good replacement for the Audio System as well. I mention audio system not NAV because I rarely use the NAV since my phone uses google maps NAV and I use that. I'm looking for a system primarily that integrates well with the onbaord systems if possible. Second item of importance is a built in hard drive for storing a music library. Last item would be an external music source input. It sounds like there will be problems getting all options to work well. I personally think the factory unit is absolutely horrible for a high end vehicle. The UI is the ugliest I've seen, obviously aimed at older buyers that may like the marbled look. Every time I turn it on I just go ugh, that's awful.

I have the new unit from Jeep and it is the best I have used so far. very accurate and easy to use.