Hey everyone...

One feature I see very little discussion on is the navigation system. I'm very undecided if that is worth $1700 now, when I could buy something like a Garmin StreetPilot III for about $800-900 later on.

For those of you that have them, how good is the nav system in the mini? Ease of use, numbers of POI's, etc...

Thanks,

-Alex

 

Hey. I have a '03 MCS with the CD-based (the news ones are DVD-based) NAV. I live in Rome, GA which has a population of about 35,000 in the city limits so it isn't that big. As I thought, Rome was not considered an "urban area" by NavTech (the makers of our maps on the CD/DVD) and thus did not have any of the side streets (only had major roads which is like 10 roads in the city). That was kinda a pain cause if it does not know what road you are on it just has a arrow and distance to the nearest road it does know. BUT about a month ago, I got a new Nav CD!! (from NavTech for FREE, I think you get them for free for the life of the warranty) And now Rome has detailed mapping. Now every single (i mean even the smallest one lane roads) are on it. Now the smaller road don't have the street numbers stored in them so you can tell it to go to "24 Small rd Rome, Ga" but you can tell it to go to Small rd Rome, Ga". Now it is a blast to use cause I can (and do) go on these back roads that lead to nowhere (and are very curvy and FUN!! :smile:

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MOTOR ON!!

 

Ever heard of Mapquest.com? Its free too!


The NAV is a cool looking toy but unless you frequently drive into unfamiliar areas for work/business reasons or take frequent long road trips, I think the NAV is pretty much a moot point. I also believe it is brutally expensive, think about the kind of home entertainment equipment you can buy with $1700...even a pretty decent laptop like an Apple G4 power book.

If you like lots of gizmos in your car, you'll be pleased, but otherwise skip it and spend that money on a nice vacation, other mods or put it up in a savings account.


Also if you have to have portable NAV devices, look no further to Navtech for some cool looking devices that cost at least 50% less than the MINI installed NAV option and you don't lose the center speedo.

 

I have a DVD based NAV in my Murano. It was fun to play with at first, now I hardly ever have it on. New neighborhoods are going in all the time in So. Cal., So the DVD was already somewhat outdated when I got it. Have to deal the 'legal' screen everytime the car is started, limited access to functions if the car is moving. Most useful feature; being able to input a destination and save it, so the DVD can tell my hubby where to go pick up the kids if he's filling in for me.

I would consider getting a handheld tho, I like the portability feature (I'm a sucker for multi-functionality and portable toys)

Shelly

 

I am on my 2nd MINI, my first had Factory NAV. My 2nd Did not. I went with a Garmin 2610 Color Touchscreen NAV for my 2nd MINI. The factory has a larger screen but thats the only thing better about it. The **** interface is just painfull. The garmin cost me $800, it has an on screen keyboard for address entry. It has more listings than the factory one. It has a USB port so I can update the streets, I can log routes I take then download the info to my pc with position, speed, heading. The voice directions are clear. I have it mounted to the left of my wheel on the dash. The factory one is $900 of waste, use that money to get some nice Rims. The route calcuation on the 2610 is SO much faster. The factory nav does have dead reckoning, which means if you go into a long tunnel or underground it does an ok job at guessing where you are. I have found that I don't miss that feature all that much. Oh and the Garmin lets you drag the map around and zoom in like the screens in minority report, Imagine yahoo maps but with realtime update and you can drag it around with your finger then you click on a spot and pick "Go To" and you are on your way.

 

One of the main reasons I didn't get a NAV (other than price) was that it makes you MINI look ugly. Square screen in the middle of a round circle where your speedometer should be. Having driven old English cars, having the speedo in the middle was one of my favorite retro things in the MINI.

Besides, I find part of the fun in having a MINI is getting lost....

 

That's EXACTLY the type of review I was looking for (someone who has had both NAV and not).

I think I'll definitely go the route of NOT getting it. If I find myself lusting for some GPS goodness I'll just pick up one of the Garmin touch screens.

Thanks guys!

 

Plus you can use it (Garmin) in other cars, or even walking in the woods.

jc