I have the Garmin NUVI 660, its a bit more money than the TomTom but from all the research it seems to be a far superior unit.

 

I disagree...had the Garmin but sent it back. Here is why: The Garmin does not, like the TomTom, have the CURRENT TIME just above the ARRIVAL TIME. I LOVE that feature that was on my old prior-generation Garmin. I like to look RIGHT AT the screen and see that it's 12:45 and I should arrive at 2:10. Garmin requires you to change the screen to see that...the another maneuver to change the screen back.

Also, I found the TomTom "exclude" feature to be easier. If it routes me thru Elm Street but I know that Elm is under construction, I can just look at the route description, line by line in easy text format, and easily exclude Elm Street for a reroute. Garmin is more complicated.

Also the text line-by-line route is excellent on TomTom and not available on Garmin. When I program a route, for example, to go from Pittsburgh to New York, I generally know to take the PA Turnpike to Harrisburg then I-81 to I-78. I like the ability to glance at the route description to see if it's taking me generally that way. If it has me going thru Erie, I know something is wrong. It's much more complicated with the Garmin.

I've had both and TomTom is better.

 

We could argue all day about which is better...the point is they are all better than our very expensive OEM units.

 

The OEM nav looks really nice. Cars are a hobby as much as they are transportation. If the man wants to to indulge himself and install an OEM nav, then more power to him.

Maybe the next car I buy will have OEM nav.

I'm too frugal (and my wife wouldn't let me anyway!) to spend the money to do the major surgury to install an in-dash nav in my old 00 LS. And, you gotta remember that OEM nav is vitually free when buying 3 -4 year used car. They often don't add value and increasingly, OEM nav reduces a used car's market value.

IMO, the windshield is a bad place to attach a portable nav - I do that only in rental cars.

The same Pro.Fit Legend bracket I have my portable nav on in my 00 LS400 also fits the LS430. The power cable is mostly hidden inside my center console and plugs into an extension cable that is hardwired to the auxillary power port.

Mounted on the bracket instead of the windshield, my portable nav is almost invisible from outside the car due to the tinted window and especially when the windshield sun shade is in place. There is no telltale suction cup mark on the windshield that thieves look for. My wife can reach the nav from the passenger seat without stretching. She can't begin to reach it when it is mounted on the windshield. I can reach it without stretching or leaning forward.

There is a lot less glare on the nav screen when it's on the Pro.Fit bracket than when it is mounted on a windshield. The nav is easily removed from it's cradle which is attached to the bracket. I have an extra cradle attached to a suction cup mount and an extra power cable for use in rental cars.

I would imagine that just about any portable flat screen nav would fit on one of these brackets - Magellan, TomTom, Garmin.

 

Kansas, although your nav is not OEM it looks great in your ls. Very neat and tidy.

 

Haven't posted here in a while, but here's my Kenwood unit installed.

 

Nicely done, but it seems you also gave up your CD player, and your steering controls. I had considered replacing my CD player with an Alpine DVD/navigation unit so it could be hidden behind the access door when not in use, and depend on my Zen touch mp3/wma player and radio for my music needs. I do need to do some research to determine if the removal of the CD player would affect my ability to continue using my steering controls and or disable to OEM radio, which I do not want to loose. Has anyone looked into this?