Adding Nav to a non-Nav Touring

[chibbell]

Just picked up the Z this week (MB, Touring + Sport) and have been thinking about adding an after-market nav in place of the small storage area. I just couldn't bring myself to pay an extra $1800 for the stock nav.

I stopped by Car Toys last night to get a feel for the shop and see what they could do. I've heard some horror stories on the net but they were very helpful and knowledgeable. They weren't slinging me any BS and weren't pushy at all.

I'm looking for recommendations on the Nav unit itself. In an ideal world, it would simply be a Nav and DVD player. I don't need bluetooth or any other options as the stock system meets my needs well.

I'm new to the aftermarket arena but have been doing some preliminary research. I don't think such a device exists - they generally have a ton of features I don't want.

It looks like I may need to go with a portable unit and forego any notions of playing DVDs. We're considering a Navigon that perhaps flips down when you lift up the compartment lid.

Any ideas? Anyone have any experience with Navigon? Would love some help and I'm willing to be a guinea pig for the rest of the non-nav touring owners.

[SoCal 370Z]

Did you get the Touring model without the nav, but with the Bose system?

[chibbell]

Yes. Sorry if I wasn't clear. She's a Touring model, which has the integrated Bose system. I don't want to replace it.

[SoCal 370Z]

Options are limited and vendors like ProClip have not yet made their mounts for the 370Z. As of yet no one has made anything to replace or fit in the flip-up console lid area.

[SMcK23]

When I bought my '07 Z the dealer promised he would put in the best aftermarket navigation possible (after he promised he would install a factory unit into it, which he also said he found out was impossible) into the small storage compartment....when I arrived to pick it up the Avic-N2 was installed, but to my dismay not in the small storage compartment...the dealer told me it was not possible to put in there (probably a lie---but I'm not sure)....the model I had was a touring edition ithad the bluetooth and bose system...and when they installed the new nav they had to disconnect the factory bluetooth and eventually disconnect the bose system because it made a loud buzzing noise everytime you pusshed a button on the touch screen....boy had i wished i just bought an expensive portable nav and never missed with the "best" aftermarket one with all of the extras....so I think you are making the right move by going with the navigon

[chibbell]

Thanks for the info SMcK23. Sounds like you maybe had a crummy dealer who didn't know what they were doing.

The more I think about it, the more I think a portable unit will fit my needs. Easier to update. Easier to replace. Cheaper to install. More options when it comes to the storage area.

Now to decide on which unit. I like the Navigon's UI but don't want to buy a crappy unit just because it's pretty. Trying to find decent reviews of various units is hard. CNet's are all pretty old.

[arcticreaver]

i got touring without navi but with bose as well. i'm going to wait it out. the car is too new. hopefully a good 6 months down the road, there will be something that is good and affordable.

[SoCal 370Z]

Originally Posted by chibbell

The more I think about it, the more I think a portable unit will fit my needs.

I'm leaning the same way, but the 370Z is so tightly designed that putting it somewhere is going to be the trick. The best mount I have seen in one on the steering column of a late model Mini, but that's because the instruments are shared with the middle of the dash.

[HKYStormFront]

Originally Posted by SMcK23

When I bought my '07 Z the dealer promised he would put in the best aftermarket navigation possible (after he promised he would install a factory unit into it, which he also said he found out was impossible) into the small storage compartment....when I arrived to pick it up the Avic-N2 was installed, but to my dismay not in the small storage compartment...the dealer told me it was not possible to put in there (probably a lie---but I'm not sure)....the model I had was a touring edition ithad the bluetooth and bose system...and when they installed the new nav they had to disconnect the factory bluetooth and eventually disconnect the bose system because it made a loud buzzing noise everytime you pusshed a button on the touch screen....boy had i wished i just bought an expensive portable nav and never missed with the "best" aftermarket one with all of the extras....so I think you are making the right move by going with the navigon

sounds like they wired your N2 straight into the harness for the audio of the car which is the wrong thing to do. most vehicles that have a "brand name" (ie the Bose system in your altima, or in a Z) have external amps, usually under the front seats or somewhere remote from the head unit (usually a cd changer). whenever you hook in the aftermarket stereo, it's amplified internally and that signal goes to your amps and screws with them. this can be avoided two ways, either bypassing those amps all together and taking them out, or running the sound to the factory amps out of the RCA outputs that are supposed to go to aftermarket amps since that signal is unamplified

[HKYStormFront]

Originally Posted by chibbell

Thanks for the info SMcK23. Sounds like you maybe had a crummy dealer who didn't know what they were doing.

The more I think about it, the more I think a portable unit will fit my needs. Easier to update. Easier to replace. Cheaper to install. More options when it comes to the storage area.

Now to decide on which unit. I like the Navigon's UI but don't want to buy a crappy unit just because it's pretty. Trying to find decent reviews of various units is hard. CNet's are all pretty old.

your best route is probably to get a handheld unit (or possibly investigate getting a nav system through your cell phone provider if your phone is capable of this). or going ahead and replacing the head unit all together with a good aftermarket double DIN dvd/nav system. i have the pioneer avic-d3 and i love it. i've got it bypassed (VERY easy to do) so it will play dvd's anytime and the user interface is top notch. although it's not made anymore the replacements are pretty nifty too and most come with bluetooth built in, some with voice commands for hands free use. if you would like to investigate this route, check out avic411.com, that's a good forum for avic users, lots of info there

edit: you may be hesitant to replace your stock head unit so quickly after buying a new car but trust me, it will sound better than stock (when hooked up the right way, lemme know if you decide to go this way and i'll try to do what i can to help and get info on that) and be worth the upgrade, also it doesn't have to stay with the car if you decide to get another one a few years down the road so you can always keep the stock bose unit to put back in it. i've got my crappy single disc player that came in my truckup in the attic, it only stayed in my dash for 3 days while i waited on my dash kit to come in from crutchfield

[chibbell]

Originally Posted by arcticreaver

i got touring without navi but with bose as well. i'm going to wait it out. the car is too new. hopefully a good 6 months down the road, there will be something that is good and affordable.

I'm not particularly known for my patience. Once I have a wild hair about something it's hard to drop it. Is there anything out there for the 350 that was built for similar needs?

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

your best route is probably to get a handheld unit (or possibly investigate getting a nav system through your cell phone provider if your phone is capable of this). or going ahead and replacing the head unit all together with a good aftermarket double DIN dvd/nav system. i have the pioneer avic-d3 and i love it. i've got it bypassed (VERY easy to do) so it will play dvd's anytime and the user interface is top notch. although it's not made anymore the replacements are pretty nifty too and most come with bluetooth built in, some with voice commands for hands free use. if you would like to investigate this route, check out avic411.com, that's a good forum for avic users, lots of info there

edit: you may be hesitant to replace your stock head unit so quickly after buying a new car but trust me, it will sound better than stock (when hooked up the right way, lemme know if you decide to go this way and i'll try to do what i can to help and get info on that) and be worth the upgrade, also it doesn't have to stay with the car if you decide to get another one a few years down the road so you can always keep the stock bose unit to put back in it. i've got my crappy single disc player that came in my truckup in the attic, it only stayed in my dash for 3 days while i waited on my dash kit to come in from crutchfield

You're right. I am pretty hesitant to go with a new unit with such a new car. I'm honestly pretty happy with the bluetooth sycnh and the sound out of the factory BOSE system. I also like how clean and integrated everything looks. I can't really justify (especially to the wife) that we should put more dollars into it when we opted for the Touring (though we did seek out a base, there were none with the Sports Package in the area).

I'm heavily leaning towards a portable nav with a custom cradle in the storage area. Still...I would love me some DVD. Of course now we buy everything in Blue Ray.

[HKYStormFront]

yea that's another thing to consider is waiting to see if blu ray becomes the standard media for in car video anytime soon, only way to do it now is to hook up a ps3 and input the video but it would only be 480i to any head unit on the market today so what's the point lol. i took some pics of a volvo that had 2 HDTV's in it with a ps3 in chicago, the thing was wicked cool (it was a swedish generals vehicle from WW2) so that transition to blu ray has already started in some ways

[theDreamer]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

yea that's another thing to consider is waiting to see if blu ray becomes the standard media for in car video anytime soon, only way to do it now is to hook up a ps3 and input the video but it would only be 480i to any head unit on the market today so what's the point lol. i took some pics of a volvo that had 2 HDTV's in it with a ps3 in chicago, the thing was wicked cool (it was a swedish generals vehicle from WW2) so that transition to blu ray has already started in some ways

I doubt Blu-ray will enter into the car audio/video sector this year, if you want it you can do it besides using a PS3 but at what cost? Also, screen resolutions will have to be increased and do we really need more than 800x480 (or similar) in a car?

What we will see probably is a move to hard drive based systems, SSD drives are becoming extremely cheap and have increased capacity quickly, not beyond mechanical drives but maybe in 2-4 years.

[HKYStormFront]

agreed dreamer, there isn't much need for HDTV on a 6 or 7" screen, but as a storage medium it'd be nice to have 40gb discs full of music, i've got almost all of my mp3's on one dvd that i just leave in my avic all the time and just scroll through to find what i want to listen to when i'm not on random

[theDreamer]

Originally Posted by HKYStormFront

agreed dreamer, there isn't much need for HDTV on a 6 or 7" screen, but as a storage medium it'd be nice to have 40gb discs full of music, i've got almost all of my mp3's on one dvd that i just leave in my avic all the time and just scroll through to find what i want to listen to when i'm not on random

Yep, but I see hard drives being the next step in cars before Blu-ray even before just storage medium. I think Blu-ray is going to end up being a great home theater media, but outside that there are better products, hard drives (SSD, mechanical, flash, SD cards, etc.), media players (Zune, iPod, Archos, Creative, etc.), and of course just DVD.