This is for people who haven't ordered their car yet and are still on the fence about getting this system...

I drove down to the LA area last weekend (I'm from the SF Bay Area) to visit a friend. We decided to go clubbing Saturday night and had to drive from Rowland Heights to somewhere on Santa Monica Blvd off of 101. We had bought pre-sale tickets and had to be there by a certain time to pick them up.

After dinner and coffee, we head out on Hwy 60 with enough to not have to worry about getting to the club late and losing our tix...except it started to rain and we hit traffic that was just crawling. I mean, going 1-2 mph for a couple of feet and then stop. Looking up the stretch of Hwy 60, there were nothing but a string of tail lights in all four lanes. At that rate that we were moving, there was no way we were going to make it in time.

My buddy (who bought the tix) started to panic and said "can't that thing tell you to take an alternate route?" I told him probably not, and if you wanted to take an alternate route, it'd help if you were from around that area...I mean, it's not like it can read your mind or anything.

My other friend who lives down there didn't know the area well enough to offer any suggestions, so I just continued crawling along and assumed that we were screwed as far as the tix were concerned.

When you're using the nav system to go somewhere, it takes you off of map view and has a different screen that looks like this:



A thought occurred to me after my friend mentioned the whole alternate route idea. I press the Previous button to switch the route view to map view and zoom out. Zooming out and moving the joystick showed me that I-710 was somewhere up ahead and that the next exit led to a major road that eventually connected to the 710.

Anything was better than what we were sitting in at that point, so I fight my way over four lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic and hit the exit lane of the closest exit. I take the route that I had figured out in my head, even though the system wanted me to go back. When I got close enough to the 710, it re-calculated where I was, told me to get on the 710 and from there it was pretty much smooth sailing from there! Got to the club in time and everything was just fine and dandy [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img].

There ya go...something that you're not going to be able to do with those printouts from Mapquest [img]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/img].

BTW, I saw a CB coupe with aero (and possibly navi from what my passenger was telling me) on Northbound 101 near Santa Monica Blvd with a BO sedan right behind it around 10:30pm Saturday night. I was the BS coupe one lane over to the right if either of you two happen to read this board.

G35c 6MT/BS/G/Prem/Aero/Nav

 

Actually, it is possible to tell the Nav at that point in time "avoid this road for X miles." I don't remember how to do it, and my car is still in the body shop until tomorrow, but I do remember that it's possible. Then you don't have to find your way off the road first.. you can have it tell you where to get off (no pun intended).

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

I do remember seeing something like that in the manual briefly as I was flipping through it to learn how to save an address in the the address book, but I never bothered to learn how to use that feature.

There's probably a lot of other interesting things that I can do with that system that I'm not aware about, but unfortunately for me, I'm not the type of person who reads the manual first [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img].

G35c 6MT/BS/G/Prem/Aero/Nav

 

Actually the nav does has an alternate route option such as if you need to detour for traffic. It will figue a new route for you. I used it once. I just cannot provide you with instructions while at my desk. But you can either play with it (how I found it) or just read the manual that comes with it. It really has some great usuable features if you know how to use it. I am still finding out cool features, like nearest restaurants of a particular variety or just punching in phone numbers for directions. I highly recomment getting it.

 

How about buying one of those PDA with Nav. for $500.00. You can then save the $1500 to go to more clubs and have additional uses of the PDA.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

Yah ... it really saved me yesterday ...

I get lost.

but, with it .. NEVER again. ... and I love the autopopulation of addresses after it gets a idea of what it is you trying to input...saves alot of time.

MIND YOU... it took me through one of the worst areas of Toronto I have ever seen.... I was pretty nervous of gettin jacked.

HAHHHAHaaa

yah.

later fellas

 

With that philosophy, why not just buy a used Mustang with a big engine. It can take you to the club just as well as the G. The point is, if people are willing to pay the 35k for a G35 luxury car well as performance, they may wish to consider the nav with it's function at your fingertips. So, if you were looking for luxury then the nav is a nice touch. If not, thats okay.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

With that philosophy, why not just buy a used Mustang with a big engine. It can take you to the club just as well as the G.

<hr></blockquote> With that philosophy you should buy one of these:



If you have the money to spend $2000.00 for a $500.00 system then go for it

I think we all agree that the G35 is a great buy for the money. But I think $2000.00 for a $500.00 Nav system is too steeeeep. That’s not a great buy for the money. Unless you’re a traveling salesman, and have use for it every day. I’ve been driving for 20 years now and know of only twice when it may have come in handy. So I spent an extra 15 minutes at a gas station. That would make my time worth…..$2000/0.5hours = $4000/hr.

The question was, “is it worth it”? I say NO! NO! NO!

Pro’s: 1. Good system.
Con’s: 1. Can’t take it with you. 2. Too Expensive. 3. Pricey updates. 4. Can’t program it thru your computer. 5. Doesn’t keep appointments. 6. Can’t play games. 7 Can’t store pictures. 8. No internet access. 9. It’s too dumb to figure gas mileage right. 10. You don’t get an extra 2 cubby holes for storage. 11 ....................

 

I don't dispute anything you are saying. Though the G is my transportation to work, it is also a toy. And not the most practical as compared to other choices. So, I treat the nav as an extra toy. So, let's just compromise and say, if you have the extra dough and want a cool toy that is useful, being price independent. And objectively not a great value at 2k. But I do not regret getting it. I just like watching occasionally, the map scroll down as I drive.

 

NAV System CONS:
1. Price
2. Loss of a cubbyhole (who cares?)

NAV System PROS:
1. No more Paper Maps!!! (I used to always have half of dozen of these laying around the car)

2. Fun Factor (I use the maps occasionally, but I use the Trip Computer, MPG guage, and MPG Histroy chart all the time).

3. Cool Factor (every single person who's been in my car has thought the Nav System is the coolest item in the car - they esp. love the 3D view).

4. Resale Value (G's with the Nav will sell for more than G's without it. Maybe not $2k more, but even if it's just $1k more, that makes the original Nav cost only $1k)


G35 6MT/DG/Fully Loaded

 

I love my Navi and I now wonder how I ever got by without it. You can very easily tell it to give you an alternate route without looking at the map. I usually just will ask it to recalculate the route while minimizing freeway time. It will tell you the shortest time without being stuck on the highway.

My main complaint about the Nav is that you have to stop the car to use a lot of functions. I've gotten around this because I usually go to the same places, so I just have things in my previous destinations and that gets me by if I'm going to my gal's place from some random place and I need to know how to get there.

The only other thing is that often the shortest time isn't the most practical time, so if you are somewhat familiar with an area, the NAV is better suited as a rough guide rather than an exact route, otherwise you end up having to make additional left turns in busy areas and doing things that ultimately consume more time than if you simply took a slightly longer route.

A very useful tool is to hit the "route" buttom and use the turn list to see where you are going, or to simulate the route so that you can see where you will be going in advance.