GPS Navigation has created a new wave of shitty drivers.

Rather than being observant and making visual landmarks in order to get around, combined with learning routes from a proper map, people just point the car somewhere and stare at a little screen instead of the road. If you're a real tool, you allow a robotic voice to tell where to go, oftentimes giving you a roundabout route anyways.

I was just in Toronto recently visiting family. I know the town a little bit, but not much. One day I decided to head downtown, without a map or anything. I have a pretty good sense of direction. What happened? I found my way, with certain base route knowledge. I ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS. HUMAN INTERACTION.

Later, I had to go get friends from the airport. I borrowed my uncles van, it had GPS. I decided to use it; why the hell not. It gave me the shortest route, yes. As the crow flies. I ended up taking a cross town route that was HEAVILY under construction, and was jammed with traffic because of the time of day. And it told me I was 25 minutes from the airport. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE I WAS and I knew I was at least an hour away. Foolishly, I continued to follow the advice of the robot. I missed the turnoff to the airport, and had to find my way back, while fighting the cyborg in the car which was changing its mind every 3 seconds on the fastest way to get back. I arrived at the airport late.

We once lived in a world without cell phones. Granted, everyone is expected to have one nowadays and to not have one is frustrating to others. But GPS is not even necessary. It doesn't even save time. It's just one more example of superfluous modern technology making people more lazy and stupid.

Save your dignity. Exercise your brain. Please don't buy a GPS.

I can live and navigate anywhere without GPS, but when I have it, it's an extra tool in my toolbox to make my life easier.

Most people just follow it blindly rely on it for navigation. That's not how I use it (when I'm in a vehicle that has it.) I use it as a moving map display to see what other routes I could use in case of traffic problems, or whatever.

I'm also a pilot and, while you don't NEED Gps in an airplane, and you need to know how to fly without it, actually HAVING it can be a godsend.

GPS in Metro Vancouver is pretty useless. Wait until they have live traffic information, that would be more useful. They already have them in major US cities.

^ Yah, Sirius LIVE. Unfortunately not available yet in Canada.

I was just looking thru the owner's manual of a 2010 Fusion w/ Nav and Sat radio, and you can see the examples of Sirius/XM Live Traffic and Weather updates on the Nav display, and it's EPIC. I can't wait for it to get here.

Nav is good for people who have no sense of direction, aka women. My mom definitely can benefit from a GPS.

I have never used a GPS before & i've never got lost so far, so I double i'll ever really need one. If I do get 1, it's mostly for show only.

I think in certain cars, the OEM NAvi seem to complement the dash layout... for example, take a look at the 04-08 TL without NAVI.. ugh.. can you say fugly boring dash? then look at the NAVI edition and BOOM BANG BONG, it's a hot looking interior! IMO anyways.

ALSO, on some or most OEM navi units, you can switch to audio mode and IF playing MP3s off a CD, you can get a track listing displayed on the screen and pick and choose.. rather than no display and 'cycling' through track by track.

GO NAVI!

nope, have an iphone if shit ever happens haha

Only reason I haven't bought one is that I just don't think I'll be using it often enough to justify spending $300.

I never really saw the value in a nav for myself.
I can see it being useful if you're some sort of delivery boy or taxi but its really not that necessary if all you do is drive your car to and from work.

only on trips really

why pay several thousand for an oem nav that will be outdated in a year when you can just buy the newest greatest one out for a few hundred, then get a new one if you really want in a few years?

=) ask yourself a question:

Do you always travel ?

If yes it would be nice to get upgrade the nav option OR a portable GPS is good enough...

If you are just a daily driver, going back and forth to work everday, shopping the grocery during the weekend.. I would save the money for other better stuff..

Third-party is what we use. My dad has a Garmin portable and we bring that along for road trips. But we only make 2-3 trips a year where we actually use it.

In the States (where we usually take trips), it's pretty slick since it has a traffic delay info and finds faster alternate routes but sadly that service isn't available here so there's really no point.

It came stock from Factory so I didn't have the option. I barely use it...

i rarely use portable nav just because it takes way too long to set up. ie mount it on the windshield, turn it on, set up nav program. find poi.

for vechicle incorporated nav's i would probaly leave it in map mode, and only use poi if i really have to.

and its also a pimp factor lol

I have factory nav in my 350z and a portable garmin for my beater. The portable garmin was only 200 bux and it is wayyyy better than the factory NAV. Mainly because the garmin does text to speech and has much better maps.

cant beat voice activated navi
useful on roadtrips/locating poi/alternate routes
if ur in an unfamiliar area and ur running low on gas
"find nearest gas station"
car: "now finding gas station

the car i had before had the factory nav in it and came with a lot of bonus features like bluetooth and voice recognition, (Acura TL) it's fun however, it's not worth the premium you pay,

I now use a garmin handheld which has maps to north america and europe and cost me about 1/10 of the price of getting a factory one

ive used it 3 times in my car's life and had it for 2 years.

werd. especially if your have a luxury car.

didn't opt for the the navi with the fx35 and now i'm having regrets. maybe its just me I don't like having extra non OEM looking things hanging on the windshield, not to mention you have to hardwire the power adapter.

I used it extensively on my trip twice all the way down to San Diego, Vegas, AZ and back.

I use my GPS almost everyday. I know my way around and have my regular routes I use to get places. With the GPS I can take routes that I didn't know about before that sometimes gets me from A to B a lot faster.

For me it's practical because I'm visting so many different job sites, suppliers, contractors and a like every day. I drive a stupid amount, I spend most my day driving around the lower mainland. Outside of work I don't really use it though.

if im headed to a place that i don't know how to get to then i just take out my cellphone's gps -- worth waiting a few minutes for a signal instead of dishing out 200-300 dollars for a gps system or worse yet 1000-2000 for navi in the car IMO. However, built in gps in your car does look very fancy :haha:

:werd:

the new iDrive is absolutely amazing. It's so much more than just nav, it's a full on entertainment system.... even has a DVD player!!!!

navi in vancouver is probably not really necessary.. the roads are pretty straight forward... nothing complicated like in big big cities like tokyo where everyone does have a nav.