I just picked up an excellent 1998 ls 400...20,000 miles, mint condition from an elderly neighbor. I'm looking for a nav. unit; I believe it was an option for that year. Any suggestions?

 

please search, you're going to need a lot more than just the nav unit to the system to work, and will prolly spend at least 1500-2000 in gathering the parts needed.

 

Consider yourself fortunate that your new-to-you 98 LS400 does not have the pathetic OEM nav. The 98-00 nav harddrive has only 2% the amount of storage I have in the 1-gigabyte postage stamp size memory card in my digital camera.

Although I agree that an in-dash nav looks cleaner, mounting a portable nav next to the radio works extremely well and can be inexpensive to do. Plus you will have much newer and far more complete maps than the last available (2004) nav update for the 98-00 LS. Unlike an OEM nav you can enter addresses while driving and hear turn-by-turn instructions that include street names. And unlike a portable nav on a windshield mount, a portable nav on a bracket is easy for the driver and passenger to reach.

I almost never remove my portable nav except to take it with me to use in rental cars. It is impossible to see my nav through my tinted windows with the windshield sun shield in place and through the "Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak" I throw over it each time I exit the car.

A Pro.Fit brand VSM Legend bracket with built-in swivel works particularly well for mounting a nav or other electronic device. The Legend bracket has an AMPS hole pattern which some portable navs, like my Magellan, fit. If you want a Garmin or other brand that doesn't have an AMPS hole pattern in its cradle, you can buy an aftermarket adapter for a few bucks. I mostly hid the power cable for my nav behind the trim and bought an extra cable to use in rental cars.

Of course you could instead spend a few thousand $$$ buying an aftermarket in-dash nav that also does iPod, Bluetooth, DVD and CD. You have lots of choices if you are willing to spend a lot of cash on a 10 year old car.

 

most portable navigations now have bluetooth and memory card slot to play music like an mp3 player..

 

wow! thanks for the info.