I passed on the Nav system (I love my center speedo), so now I'm thinking that I might get an external unit... That way I can take it to other vehicles as well... Does anyone use an aftermarket system (the Megallan or the one Bimmian sells for example), and if so, what are your imopressions on value, setup, viewability, etc.?

Thanks!

 

check out the navigation and audio forum.

 

Thanks - didn't even know we had such a forum. Doh!

 

well, im gonna post my response here even though you learned about the nav forum. I have a Garmin Street Pilot c330 and love it. Its never led me astray. 4+ hours of internal, rechargable battery life, as well as a cord to plug it into the cigarette lighter. For about $400, its a great piece of equipment.

 

I'm thinking about one of the higher-end TomTom's or Garmin's with the MP3 player built-in. People seem to really like the Garmins overall...

 

Then move on up to the Garmin Nuvi 350. They have all those extra do-dads in them, but still use the same map software that mapquest uses. If I'm not mistaken, Garmin and Magellan both use the mapquest software, where TomTom uses their own.

 

I also have a Garmin C330. It's been really great except unlike the factory nav it does not have arrows that show the turn i.e. show which of seven different streets to take as you are approaching them it just says "take street on the left" etc. The factory nav is better in this respect. When it comes to entering in information and finding destinations etc. the Garmin is conservatively 1000x better than the factory nav.

In addition it is about 1/4 of the price of a factory unit, moveable from car to car, has a very long battery life. I had mine on for 6-7 hours without charging during MTTS because I had the radar detector plugged in. Very cool. One thing that annoys me though is mounting it on the windshield, it cannot be mounted in an easy to reach place that doesn't block the drivers view if you are right handed. In addition it is relatively deep. So therefore my recommendation would be....

A new Garmin Nuvi which is very slim yet the same software and interface. Good luck.

 

My Garmin C330 has arrows that point the way and it repeats the turn instructions as you approach a turn so it is easy to know where to turn. You can update the software to the latest version for the newest features. I find the C330 very easy to use. I have it stuck in the center of the dash and pushed down low. It does not block my vision and is easy to reach. My view stays towards the road as well. Of course it pops out of the holder if you want to hold it in your hands and push the keys with both thumbs. The speedometer cover is plastic and slightly concave, so not as good a seal as on the windshield. If the unit fell from the speedometer it could land face first on the shift ****. The C330 can go up to 8 hours on the battery. The Nuvi is nice but costs a lot more.

 

where are u guys pulling 8 hours of battery from? Mine lasts me one tank of gas (i recharge everytime i fill up). thats on 70% brightness and 2 bars from the top volume

 

The one time I had my C330 on for the longest was at night, so it automatically went into dark night mode. That could be the contributing factor. I also keep the volume up near the top. When I use it during the day I usually have the brightness down around 70-80.

Oh and the one time I had so much trouble with the lack of, I should have specified separate, arrow display was in Washington DC with all the traffic circles where there would literally be 8 different exits. That and I was still getting used to the timing of the unit (had only had it a few days at that point). I still think its great though.

 

We actually have both. My 05 MCSC has the factory NAV and we just put a NUVI 660 in my wifes 06 MCSJCW. I attached a quickie pic of the 660. ON the whole I like the integrated display of the Factory NAV, but the user interface is much better on the NUVI. Especially if you want to find a store or resturant.

I bought the 660 on sell at Circuit City after factoring in the price of the traffic receiver and a 10% coupon I had it was only $80 more then the 350 with the same options.

 

I have the Garmin 660. It's fantastic and it does have arrows for the turn directions. The screen is incredibly clear and positioning couldn't be more accurate. Amazon have good prices on GPS systems.

A friend of mine installed an extra 12v outlet in the back left side of the euro parcel shelf. I therefore have the GPS on the bottom left corner of the windshield with the power cable tucked around the edge of the dashboard and down the 12v oultet. It's a very neat install with no cables draped across the dashboard. Fortunately I'm ambiddextrous and so I can operate the GPS equally well with both hands.

 

I have the TomTom One! Works well so Far!

 

I have a Garmin Streetpilot c550 and I love it. The only differences from the c330 is bluetooth which I love and a couple other things which are useless to me (mp3 player and traffic receiver).

But I have had mine now for about two months and I can't believe how usefull these things are.

I purchased a mount from Proclip USA based on a tip from someone on NAM (simple 1 minute assembly with no screws) and I will have it hard wired one of these days.

 

I've got the TomTom Navigator that works with my Treo 650. I travel by air a lot, so the little hockey puck receiver is easy to carry on the plane and use with rental cars, and it comes with a pretty nice cradle to hold the Treo on the windshield. Of course, when I got my used Mini, it had the on-board nav system, but I still like the TomTom better. Only problem is I seem to always get a phone call on the Treo right when I need the nav system's directions.

 

I love my Garmin Nuvi 350. It's easy to use and runs a long time on the internal battery. I mounted mine (as someone here on NAM suggested) on the bottom of a plastic glass that I stuck in the large cup holder. Works for me.

 

I have had a Garmin 2610 Street Pilot for 2 years. It's a fantastic tool, and has served me very well on multiple cross-country trips. From all my reading, Garmin seems to have top-notch technical support. I have to remember to update the latest changes for the new year.

 

I hacked up a OEM cup holder to make my Garmin Nuvi 350 mount


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...armin+nuvi+350

Since those pictures were taken, I've added model airplane wheel collars to keep the Nuvi mounted without coming off. I still need to modify the end of the existing cupholder that attaches to the bracket because it swivels too freely.

I had the factory nav on my 2003 Cooper and though I modded it with the latest software and did the British Female voice mod, I don't miss the lousy accuracy or lack of touch screen on the OEM unit. The one thing I do miss, is how simple it is to change the option to avoid highways on the OEM unit--takes more menu changes on the Nuvi 350--harder to do on the fly.

I added a 4GB mini SD card, filled it with MP3's, added the Aux port to my 2005 MCS headunit, and voila--I have a nav that's superior to the factory unit.


Richard

 

I picked up a Tom Tom 910. They had a problem with the mounting bracket but they have corrected that. Great unit and it has Bluetooth in addition to Nav..

 

I have a Magellan 760 in mine on a Panavise mount and I really like it.

 

I'm using an IPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion.... fully funcitonal ipaq with windows mobile 5.0 and built in Nav(actually its more a nav unit with pda built in rather than pda with nav) Nav software is TomTom 6 and works fantatstically... lots of options for setup/function and I can choose voices. You can set it up for a trip on your computer and sync in the data, run upgrades from website. It tells turn by turn and mounts easily to the windshield. I have it in the lower left corner and can reach it just fine. Has the new SIRF III antenna system which is built in, no need for pod.. but also has an option for external antenna if you needed it (I haven't). Last you can use the AUX input to transfer voice through the headunit as well as play any of your mp3s...

Can you tell I just got it and I'm loving it??
BTW I was going for the Garmin C530 (no mp3 but wanted the better performin SIRF recievers) when I found this Travel Companion, since I was hankering for a new IPAQ I immediately jumped on this (impulse buy but totally worked out!)

 

Getting transferred to the Netherlands last February convinced me to get some form of GPS nav. I selected TomTom because its a Dutch company (go grass-root businesses!) and for the 3D presentation of driving information. I started with Navigator 5 running on an iPaq HX2415 as I felt that the price-point traded off with the capabilities and portability of a PDA quite nicely. This worked fine until I became frustrated with having to switch maps so often. Being in southern Netherlands, I'm five walking minutes from Germany and 20 driving minutes from Belgium. Therefore, I've gotta switch between the Benelux Plus map and the Germany regional map. Tedious but lazy. What I wanted was the seamless maps I'd seen in the Go 700 a co-worker had. The size of the 700 threw me off but I found a steal on one on eBay. I was quite happy with the Go 700, even after another co-worker showed me his 910. I even laughed at the idea of playing MP3s on a GPS. And the cost!!

Time goes on and I was getting tired of deciphering the native radio stations. I was also concerned with the safety of fiddling with an MP3 player connected to the Aux port whilst driving, so I started looking into an iPod with ICE link as an alternative. That was ~$250 for an iPod, another ~$150 for the ICE link, then whatever for the installation costs. Put all that together and I started considering a 910.

Go eBay!! Found one for $470!!

So, after all of this, I now have a street-level GPS system which covers all of Western-Central Europe and North America, with an add-on antenna, it'll help divert me around traffic problems, and it gives the driving directions and ~1800 of my favorite MP3s over the HK speakers!! Another benefit is that my wife's Grand Caravan has its own GPS now, too! (Guess which one!) For what its worth, in my research on the 910, there were problems with the mounts that TomTom managed to rectify only after many replacements were sent out. I've been lucky in that I've not had any problems with mine and I actually like it a whole lot better than the mount for the 700.

I'd had a Garmin 76SC before that was phenomenal for hiking, rafting, etc. It didn't stay quite on the roads; however, it wasn't a true door-to-door navigation system. Regardless, I recently went to Riga, Latvia and Garmin was the ONLY system which had street-level fidelity!

All in all, I'd have to say that I'm very happy with my adventure. Sorta expensive but worth it. The 910 completely meets my requirements and I will be disappointed once I return to the States because the traffic component isn't available there.

Now, if I can convince TomTom to put some better MP3 controls and options in their OS....

Hope this helps and enjoy!!

Cheers!

 

Just bought a Garmin nuvi 660 preloaded with City Navigator - North America. I live in the southwest portion of Denver, Colorado, so the street-level maps and the highway mapping will be very useful to me. Originally I didn't get Nav option (on 05 MCS) because of the price and desire to share a nav system with my other vehicles (same with satellite radio). Due to snow in Denver, I haven't actually driven the MINI with the new Garmin yet, but I have tried out the suction cup mount on the speedo (see photo) instead of the windscreen, which is too far away to read and control, in my opinion. I have extra mounting hardware, so I will be exploring other possibilities, especially something on the right-side downtube (maybe using a cupholder bracket), as seen in other posts. I'd rather not mount it atop the dash either. I plan to use the external power (cig. lighter) adapter during most trips. As for the nuvi 660, which I've used a only a couple of times in another vehicle, I am very impressed with the ease of control of the many funcitons and options. I bought a 2MB SD memory card to load MP3s into, plus a few photos, etc. The 660 won't really get a decent test (by me) until I take a long trip. But, for now, I can't say enough about the 660. In the photo, the 660 is ready to navigate, currently receiving the satellite signals INSIDE the closed garage! Now if the deep snow would just go away...

Rick

 

Bought my Nuvi 350 almost 9 months ago, transfer it between 3 vehicles, and LOVE it!! Garmin regularly emails software updates, and sent me an updated map package on a DVD... Real easy to load. Mount it in the lower left corner on the Mini's windscreen, and have a dedicated hard wire connection hidden away that stays in the Mini... In my opinion, the Nuvi series is the best bang for the buck!

 

I also have a Garmin Nuvi 660 - it's terrific. My only complaint is that it doesn't use waypoints/breadcrumbs - you are only allowed one route segment and you can't later download a route track to your computer. All in all, however, it's fantastic - easy user interface, mp3 player - which I have playing through the aux port into the stereo, and excellent bluetooth for the cell phone.

My gallery has photos of my Nuvi 660 install.

Dave