2003 MCS- what do I do with this old Nav system? It's useless to me. Anyone ever just use a big suction cup mount on it to hold a phone or a tablet?

 

Somebody here mounted a phone or a mini tablet in that area.

 

I was going to go with the first option below, but lately I’ve been thinking of just going with a 3D printed phone mount in front of the screen and Bluetooth interface for the audio since I only drive the car a few times a month now.

Here’s one using the factory system and screen with a few interfaces to display the torque app. Not sure if the AV input and other adapters he used are still available. Also, someone here just recently ordered one, or something similar, and had problems with the order so be careful when sourcing the parts. I think the factory video interface for the backup camera and the aftermarket AV interface both connected to the harness at the DVD drive for the NAV.

Also, it might be possible to make an AV input adapter using Arduino but I’m not sure so you’ll have to research that one.


Here’s another where the screen and circuit boards were gutted and a 6.2” screen was installed with some kind of control unit. You’ll have to be careful going this way as many functions of the car are controlled by the center cluster and the car might not work like it’s supposed to with the circuit boards removed.

 

Yes, I've seen both of those, and am considering something less invasive.

A well-designed tablet mount would be perfect.

 

Here's what I did, thanks to @scoubt and his 3d printing skills (OK, here's what he designed and I bought from him).

R50/R53 Upgraded Nav system! - North American Motoring

It keeps all the other functions of the NAV module in the dash (including fuel gauge, etc), and installs an android phone in the place of the screen. Been running it a few months and am pretty happy with it.

I'm also the guy with the recent experience with NavTool. I got my money back. He wouldn't even provide an address to ship it back to him. I'd encourage people to look at other options.