bbbradley

What's the price difference between the two versus what is the cost of the hand held you'd buy instead?

Hand held units offer similar performance, but don't offer the slick integration of a factory unit. If you want to use one GPS for multiple cars obviously the hand held makes sense, if you like the built in aspect the factory is the best option.

Functionality wise, you'll have to try out a few to see what you like better. I like the Garmin we have but I'm sure others prefer a different interface.

Long term, the resale value of a car with a nav versus without will likely be minimal due to the ever improving technology.

Meltz

But first a question - what's the price difference between the two cars? The reason I ask is that it's easy to retro-fit the Nav into a non-Nav car, especially if it comes with the Symphony sound system and it'll cost you between $1100-$1500, depending on where you buy the Nav.

I have both a Garmin Nuvi 360 and the Nav+. The 360 now resides in my wife's Mini, but I've used it enough to get a good feel for it. So to compare:


Garmin 360:
Pros:
1. Portable - you can use it in rental cars when you travel, or you can use it while walking around a new city.
2. Price: at a few hundred dollars, it's much cheaper than the Nav.
3. Touchscreen: makes it easy to use
4. Easy to upgrade: you can connect it via USB to your PC and upload any software/firmware upgrades from Garmin.
5. Bluetooth - you can tether it to your phone for handsfree operation.

Cons:
1. Portable: you're either stuck (ha!) with the suction cup mount, or buying a more permanent mount (I recommend Kudausa.com) and then always putting away the unit to not tempt thieves.

2. Difficult to integrate with the car: you can hardwire it to the car for power purposes, but that's about it. It's also not as clean a look as the factory nav.

3. Limited speaker volume. This is a personal preference, but I find that if I'm listening to the music, the Garmin instructions aren't loud enough to hear. If you turn the Garmin volume up too high, the instructions get distorted.


Audi Nav+
Pros:
1. Clean integration. Obviously it fits very nicely with the look of the interior, and works perfectly with the steering wheel controls etc. As mentioned above, the stereo volume lowers during nav instructions, which is quite helpful. And it puts the instructions on the information screen in the gauge cluster. Plus the steering wheel controls work seamlessly.

2. Plays mp3 files via SD cards. This is a pretty handy alternative to Ipod integration.

3. Provides alternate routes. Maybe the Garmin does this too, but the Audi Nav makes it more obvious. When it calculates the route to your destination, it provides 3 options from which you can pick. Kind of handy if you want to say avoid highways.

4. Very clear voiced instructions. I find the voice prompt to be easier to understand than the Garmin's.

Cons:
1. Price: Whether you retro fit or get it factory installed, it's expensive.

2. Not as upgradeable as the Garmin.

3. No touch screen. The interface is pretty easy to use, but it's not as easy as using a touch screen.


On the whole, I'm pretty happy with the Nav+ in my A3 so far. I like that it's easily available on demand, provides good, clear instructions, and it's pretty easy to use. I'm also loving the SD card option - why carry a bunch of CDs when I can put all of them on a single SD card?


Sorry for the verbosity, but I hope this helps.

Buddah

due out later this week or next week

huge flat panel; new software with community map share......

e6tme

Thanks for the input. The price diff in the cars is $3060 (but I should mention the car w/o NAV also DOESN'T have Bose Audio).

I guess I am leaning towards the NAV equipped car.

Discounting the Bose upgrade, the price delta is roughly 1800. Add in the cost of a portable aftermarket nav unit for say $500 with all accessories and everything, the real delta is roughly $1300... and I guess I am willing to pay $1300 for the integration and added functionality.

Looking at it this way, purchasing the oem NAV+ aftermarket doesn't seem like that good of a deal. If it costs in the $1500 range before install, versus the real cost of the factory system at around $1800, seems like a negligable savings of a couple hundred... unless I am missing something?

Meltz

Actually, installing an OEM Nav+ in a car with a single din concert head unit (I assume that's what the first car has) is rather involved and would cost even more money. I don't think it's worth the trouble, but someone (with more patience and confidence in his ability to use a dremel tool than I do)documented this upgrade.

I also don't think you can separate out the Bose upgrade in your calculations. Either it's $3000 more for the car with the Nav, or it's ~$500 for a portable unit, or ~$1000 for a single din nav, like the JVC (KDNX5000) or a Pioneer AVIC-N2.

If you're sold on the integration of the OEM Nav, then go for it. But it might be worth going back to the dealer to see if you can play with the Nav system to make sure you like it.

Koonts A3

Love my Garmin Nuvi 350! the best part you can move it to any car your in. If you have a installed unit that is what you have! What if you ride with a friend and get lost all you can think is what IF!>>!??!