GPS NEWS: Comparison of Top Automotive GPS Units

The folks over at BusinessWeek online took a look at several of the Automotive GPS recivers oon the market and came down with some decent observations that we thought we would bring along to you. Most of us are aware of the player in the market, especially the ones that have come out recently; Garmin Streetpilot 2720,the StreetPilot c340, the Cobra Nav One 4500, but the author adds in the system on an Acura RL - the first car to use the Traffic feeds.

In Eurpoe, traffic feeds are more common and are on many more roads than the US. "The U.S. and Canada are playing catch-up because they have no national network of sensors to monitor roads. Instead, the traffic data signal must be pieced together from a mishmash of public and private sources, including news helicopters and police reports."

"I tried out two kinds of systems: those that come with or can be built into cars, and portable ones that stick to the windshield and plug into the cigarette lighter. I ended up with a favorite in each category. One is the navigation system that comes standard in the Acura RL, the $50,000 flagship of Honda's luxury brand. The other is a big-screen portable from Cobra, a relative newcomer to the navigation business.

The Acura system recognizes more than 500 voice commands, plus every city and street name in the U.S. That means you can enter your destination, for example, by saying "Two-Oh-Three North Broadway." The others require you to touch a keyboard shown on the liquid-crystal-display screen, or worse, pick out numbers and letters by turning a knob.

Acura's was the first to incorporate traffic data when it came out last fall, and it's even better in this month's 2006 model. Acura changed the colors that indicate roads and traffic flow to better distinguish the two. (Earlier, it used a red outline next to a red road.) One quibble: To avoid traffic, you have to call up a separate menu and locate the "detour" button.

Pioneer's AVIC-N2, an entertainment and navigation system designed to replace the radio in your car, comes in a close second. It lists for $2,200 but you can find it for as little as $1,300 at some Internet retailers. You'll also need to buy a $300 Pioneer satellite receiver to get the traffic data and pay several hundred dollars to have everything installed. But it's cool: The wide-screen, 6.5-inch display pops out of the dashboard at the push of a button. (You can also play DVDs on it.) You can store and call up to 100 destinations by voice, and when it encounters congestion or a traffic incident, the system asks if you want it to offer an alternate route."

He indicated that he liked the idea of the TomTom GO 300 - a portable device tha tcan be easily moved from car to car, but cound that the screen was hard to see and that "display washed out in bright sunlight, so you'll have to rely solely on its voice during the day."

He also tried out the new Cobra Nav One 4500 (See our related post on the Cobra Nav One 4500). He said that he "preferred the Cobra, mostly for its big, bright 5-inch screen and its built-in radio receiver." The Garmin receiver is $200 extra and needs to be installed between your car antenna and radio, which could be a hassle. Who knew that it would make using the Streetpilot 2720 so difficult. So much for out of the box and go.

September 2, 2005

GPS NEWS: Comparison of Top Automotive GPS Units