For instance, instead of finding ALL Chinese takeouts in your vicinity or ALL gas stations, they’ll “find” just the ones who paid to be “found”.

Where ever I travel in the USA, I always bring it along. What I love most about it (besides actually finding my way anywhere) is the absolute confidence I have driving with it on unfamiliar roads. You can not get lost. If you miss your exit or maybe traffic moving at a crawl and you have to get off this road,
NO PROBLEM…”Recalulating”. It’s WONDERFUL!!!

Where is there a Gas Station or a Hospital or a Chinese Take-out around here????? Just ask the GPS, it knows.

I would NEVER buy one of those built in NAV units. First of all, most are $1,000 or MORE for the same thing you can buy for $200 to $300, and most importantly, you can not take it out of the car. I don’t really need the GPS when I drive around my town, but I sure do need it when I’m away from home driving a rental car.

If you think using a MAP is just as good, well I’ve got a real nice bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you cheap…..

I recently had my car broken into and in addition to the windshield, there was a lot of damage to other parts of the interior. Noticeable scratches on the door panels, the center console, instrument panel and speedometer face from all the flying glass when they broke the window to get in. Those cheap plastic interiors in modern cars.

I actually use the route planning functions on a very limited basis. The unit will often choose routes not amenable to pulling a large trailer. However, with the destination plugged in, the units will handle shorter term navigation quite well.

“We should legalize the theft of GPS units, and tax it. People are going to do it anyway, this just creates a black market!

Oh wait, I’m thinking about crack…”

seeing as how i love both GPS *and* crack, you’re my new hero write-in candidate.

Oh wait, I’m thinking about crack…

i can’t remember the last time someone i know had a radio stolen. it seems the black market radio price is about $2 around here. not worth the time. that’s one BIG advantage of proprietary head units.

i’m looking forward to when iphones and other smart phones are as good as a tomtom or garmin unit. then it’s in my pocket and not on my windshield.
on the other hand, i’d rather have a broken window than be stabbed up close and personal like.

It’s a pain to mount/unmount it each time I drive, and the plastic mount is getting creaky too so it rattles when I drive.

Proponents will still argue that in-dash units still encourage thefts and that OEM units are overpriced and quickly become obsolete. Feh, I say. I loved the one in the Acura TSX — I haven’t found another nav system that will input addresses through voice recognition (except the Pioneer AVIC-Z1, but I’ve never used one).