If you choose go with a portable GPS unit, is there any benefit to ordering the $900 nav option. What do you give up if you forgo nav? Adam
It's been almost 10 years since I last bought a new vehicle. Back then, Navigation systems were $2,000.00 options, more or less. This was before the world changed when Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. That of course led to Android, and Google Nav, which makes my $2K nav feel like a Fischer Price toy by comparison.
Talk about Monday morning regrets in hindsight. I used to kick myself for wasting the money on the built in nav... until I discovered something:
It is extremely useful to have the in car nav tell you where you are at all times, while your phone nav is telling you where it would like you to go. It is also useful to change destinations on the fly in the phone nav (or Garmin independent nav), using voice commands for safety of course, while still maintaining a real time bearing on where you are right now in the car nav.
There just isn't enough screen estate on the small portable navs to do it all. And in the case of Google Nav, it will zoom in when you need to make a turn, and sometimes it is helpful to be able to see a zoomed in as well as a zoomed out view simultaneously.
Back in the days of fold out maps, this happened automatically with our eyes and arms. We could instantly scan the paper map for what we wanted to see, and move the map closer to our face to zoom in. Kind of dangerous to do while driving though.
Then, when Thomas Guides came out in the late 70's or early 80's, that carried us through the 90's, we had to flip pages back and forth to see the area view, versus the closer city view. Most of the time, the places I wanted to go were somewhere in the spiral spine of those books, in between pages.
So now, with two "liquid" map screen displays, each zoomable as desired, and each location aware, I can allow the screen that is giving me actual directions to zoom in or change screens at will, while the main screen stays steady on my course at the zoom level that gives me a sense of bearing.
And, should I decide I need find my favorite coffee shop prior to getting to my destination, it is easier to deviate one of the screens to the new destination, without losing my place or perspective of the main destination.
Probably not 2K worth of convenience, but for less than half of that nowadays, I'd probably go for it again. Having two maps has provided unexpected benefits that escape my memory as I'm typing this... which is probably the main personal reason why I eventually found two navs useful!