What are you guys thoughts on the Alpine nav system? Is it a good one or would you suggest another? I was also looking at the Kenwood touchscreen? Which would be better for a in dash installation (just the screen itself). Just wanted to get you guys thoughts. BTW: I love this website. I should have found it a long time ago!!

 

Hands down, the Alpine is better than the rest...graphics, function, ease of use, etc.

We've installed them all, and the rest aren't even close...

Todd Matsubara
TM Engineering LLC
www.tmengineering.net

 

Consider looking at the new Pioneer AVIC-90DVD as it now has a larger point of interest database. Alpine used to be the only system with the InfoUSA database and this was a real advantage. I have the Alpine system in my RV, but plan on replacing it with the Pioneer. IMHO I don't find the Alpine routing very good and it's out dated for navigaiton systems features. The Kenwood touchscreen system is much like the Lexus navigation systems (probably made by Denso). Still the Pioneer with DVD movie playback, voice recognition and Cue real time traffic add-on module is the most state of the art.

 

Haha...the Pioneer AVIC-90DVD's new software has more Points of Interest (POIs) however they're only searchable via phone number input! What use is that? So, if you're looking for HOME DEPOT, you gotta know the phone number to find it in the Pioneer nav's database!

And, btw, CUE went out of business, so Pioneer no longer can tout a traffic information service feature. I wonder what their pissed off customers have to say about that?

DVD Video playback is cool, but how often are you going to watch DVD video in the front seat? It's a nice feature, but I'm buying a nav system to do exactly that - nav me around.

The Kenwood system is nice, but waaay overpriced. Denso makes the Kenwood system, along with Lexus', Cadillac and a Jaguars.

The Alpine system still tops both of these systems, as DW mentioned, in EASE OF USE, INFORMATION (POIs), and Alpine reliability! I also heard dealer cost was decreased, so you might be able to get a better deal on an Alpine nav now.

MMM

 

On page 51 of Pioneer AVIC-90DVD owners guide it shows how to search on point of interest (POI) name to set your destination. You need to select a POI catagory 1st, so searching by telephone number or by address is not the only way to set your destination.

Interesting to know Cue went out of business. I wonder will happen to the traffic data network they created?

 

Yes, that's correct, HOWEVER, this only allows you to search the NavTech POI database. You can type in MCDONALD'S and find it (a NavTech POI), but believe me, you won't be able to find something outside of NavTech's original categories, such as HOME DEPOT or IKEA or other InfoUSA category. In order to find the InfoUSA category, you need the phone number. Give it a try at your local car audio shop.

And regarding CUE - their operations have pretty much stopped altogether. Because they weren't able to achieve the volumes of subscribers they had hoped for, they ultimately were unable to pay the FM radio stations for using bandwidth to transmit the traffic info along the subcarrier frequencies.

CUE's strength, historically, was as a paging company - and they had a lot of business with trucking companies. But, times are changing, and there's more better ways to get data to vehicles nowadays besides paging networks. Unfortunately, utilizing their established paging network for traffic information delivery to replace their aging paging business was not enough to recover their lost business.

MMM