Okay, I gotta say, all I've heard about is Nav nav nav nav. So:

I notice that there is not an intuitive CD player/radio interface on the face plate for the AVIC-N3 (or any other for that matter). So, I was wondering, is the CD player interface easy to use, or do you have to look at it too much? I'm talking for standard audio CD's and/or MP3-CD's. Also, does the factory lockout still let you navigate tracks or files?

Mike, I suggest you go to Best Buy, or your favorite electronics store and play with the unit. Since many of the questions you ask, will be determined by just playing with the head unit.

You can easily control the head unit from the faceplate. You can pause it, switch tracks, ATT, change folders on MP3 discs, displays the name of the songs, and that's all without the screen open. With the screen open you have even more control, and if the tracks have the names programmed in, you can even see a list of around 6 songs listed to just click the song you want to play. It's very friendly for both MP3 and CDs.