Hello.

I've used TomTom Go 920, TomTom Go 710, Garmin 660, Magellan Maestro 4250, and the Navigator

I just think GPS is important because in California, the artificial intelligence has to be good in order to avoid 2+ hour trips for 30 miles or less, traffic can get PRETTY heavy here.

I really like the BIG screen of the Pioneer, and especially the little icons that show the speed of each highway. However, the Garmin 6600 is the best one since the AI seems very good, it has MSN traffic and weather, so with the traffic info, it picks the best (lowest time) route. Then, while you are driving, if you wanna change the route, it sais "are you sure you want to change the route? Even though there is traffic delay this is the fastest route to your destination", or something like that.

The TomTom has also traffic, but you must pay $100 for the antenna, if you use TomTOm in your PocketPC you must also pay, and the service is stupid, because it shows traffic, and drives you right through the traffic. However if you press the "Minimize traffic delays" then it will get the best route. I really like that, you can also click on "Traffic Details" and boom, you get a nice map with traffic delays, and by clicking on AVOID, you can avoid those routes.

So Garmin 6600 is the best one, and TomTom is pretty good, but only if you plan the whole route before you go, optimizing and avoiding traffic delays.

So, if I pay $1600 + $200 (XM antenna), and don't like the GPS I might end up with a whopping 7 inch screen monitor, plus the 3.8 screen from Garmin, too much hahaha

Now, I really like the views of the Pioneer, for the GPS it has like 4-5 different views, and I love the icons that show the speed of the highways, but how is the AI?

It guides you through the fastest route given the actual traffic conditions of the road?

Apart from that issue I will have to talk to the guys that will install that to see if they can connect my break to the ground and plug that wire in the radio to overall the parking-rule

So how is your GPS experience overall?

It would be awesome if Pioneer would have a SD slot and will run with Microsoft Windows Mobile, then I could install Garmin or TomTom for Pocket PC if I don't like the GPS software included.

I have both the Magellan 3050t and the AvicN2, both with traffic.

They are a little different, but both work very similarly with traffic.

Love them both in CA. Work very well....not perfectly, but well.

The N2 does the similar thing. Asks about whether or not you would like to change the route based on an accident, etc....and shows you the new route and possible addition of time and distance that would ensue.

I think I'm not getting the full experience with Nav Traffic. I've called XM 3 separate times to have them reset the signal and it still looks the same. The only differences I notice are the traffic colors (red, green, etc. overlay) on the roads. I never see any icons such as road construction, speed limits (mentioned above), etc. Under navigation, I never get prompted for alternate routes if there's traffic ahead.

I've gone through all the settings on the AVIC and selected all icons to be displayed. Also, the only icons available when selecting the Traffic settings menu are the 4 icons on the right. All others are dimmed/grayed out.

Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone had this problem?

Thanks in advance. -m

Btw, I have the AVIC-N3 with XM NavTraffic.

Turns out I did not have the data cable hooked up. It's obvious this was my problem. I will have this fixed and report back.