GT17V

Otherwise, it drifts off and then occasionally puts me in the middle of Manhattan and freezes there (while I am in Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn, or Queens).

I've had the exact same thing happen once.... I was in Philadelphia and all the sudden, the GPS is showing me in mid-town Mahattan. A quick restart and it never surfaced again.

Though recently, the GPS went haywire when my folks were learning to use their Magellan GPS in the car and I was on the NY Thruway.... first it showed me in a different location, and then the time setting was different. No biggy since I already knew were I was going. Eventually when I shut off the car....then restarted, everything was back to normal

try increasing the scale so that you can see the next turn on the map.

with most of the time, there is a difference in the VSS speed vs. GPS speed, with VSS being slower.

How does the D3 system take that into account?

so.. is VSS really necessary? Does it help on situations where you would lose a signal, ie. tunnel crossings?

Looks like it's Tele Atlas maps. No biggie.

I wonder how much more responsive is the MSN Direct is, when compared to XM NavTraffic? The NavTraffic isn't well integrated with the D3 when it comes to actually notifying of traffic incidents & reroutes. the D3 tells me of these incidents when I'm actually stuck in traffic and reroutes me back into traffic, which is kinda annoying to say.

If MSN Direct performs a lot better, I might have to make the switch.

so... why can't I search addresses in Manhattan? Manhattan doesn't really show up in the destination input screens.... yet, when I am in Manhattan, it displays : Street Name (Manhattan(New York))

.... it's pretty frustrating that it's easier to google map an address before hand than using the Nav itself...

other than the Manhattan issue... nothing much else.

Though I have to wonder, after I input the house number, it defaults to street name.... I find that annoying, since I have to press an extra button to search by city first. Annoying compared to my S-1.

...that's my rant right now

It seems like NavTraffic is a little slow when it comes to traffic incidents and updates. It would have been nice last night, that the system would of told me of the road closure of the helix coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel (NYC)......but it didn't and was stuck in the tunnel and battling through hoboken traffic... even after I got thru all that traffic, the traffic update never said a peep.

of course, it would have also been nice if the electronic road signs for the Lincoln Tunnel on the NYC side mentioned the road closure also...

isn't the point of getting NavTraffic was to avoid these situations? Especially on the major roads of the coverage areas?

the only real gripe I have thus far is the "Driver View" is useless. A nice birds eye view like the Z2 would be nicer.

maybe, steal a nice feature from the Eclipse nav units.... split screen view with both sides be able to adjust the zoom. It was a feature I liked on my cousin's 04 Camry with the nav system

Do you have any experience installing a back up camera on a 06+ VW Passat wagon? My installer out in Long Island feels guilty about the possibility of raking me over the coals to install one (and connect to a D3).

I was thinking of something nice and discreet, maybe one of the hitchcam products, either universalcam or unicam

P.S., I'm in NNJ, and can drive as necessary

the s1 uses Navteq maps.

the s2 uses TeleAtlas maps.

Don't quote me... but I don't believe you can mix and match S1 software with TeleAtlas maps

yep and Pioneer claims they are working on it.

I've been using a Panavise mount since I got it in Dec. Works fine. No need to worry about getting a signal.

I live near Morristown... but I take a nice drive out to Long Island....

http://www.nyautosound.com/

I just hope the buttons have a better tactile feel than the D1 and D2. That's the main reason why I never got the D2. The Z1 was just too expensive. So I have the S1.

The D3-- I hope the buttons have a nice feel to them.

IMO, the only things that seems to be inferior are:

1. N3-like operation of CD/DVD slot (I have an Ipod for music)

2. 1/2" smaller diagonal screen-- no biggy.

The tilt function & slide down screen adds complexity and thus additional costs.

the knob-- is that volume control also? -- if so, that is another benefit--- some people, including me prefer turning a knob for volume adjustment.

Looking at the price point-- I'll get one and leave the S1 for business travel use. Of course I'll wait until after the initial rush

First... the bluetooth...

I have Cingular, Siemens S66.... it works, and I transfer contacts one by one.

What I don't like:

1. No route summary

2. Night mode turns off the street names on 2D map

3. Auto-reroute is stubborn

4. No street names on 3D mode

5. No marking of places

To go on detail

1. Many in-dash systems as well as competing portable units, after calculating the route, will give you the route summary which includes each instruction. This can be important as you can tailor the instructions to force it to avoid certain streets & highways.

2. Self explanatory--- kinda annoying, so I leave it in Day mode instead and adjust the brightness accordingly

3. For the larger streets, it will constantly tell you to do U-turns until it finally gives up and recalculates a new route.

4. Having the street names, at least for the major streets (such as the ones displayed in the 700ft scale on 2D mode) can come in handy. Some times have street names on 3D mode can clutter it up too much. So... I would rather see it as an option

5. Many systems, you come to a place and mark it. You can get around this by making a route to it and it will be saved, then you can put it in your address book.

The above are the deficiencies, which are relatively minor, however overall I really like the S1. Icing on the cake is the $100 rebate from Pioneer. My original plan was a portable until I get the Z-1. Well... not getting the Z-1...

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