Car navigation systems

I don't know of any factory systems which let you customize in anyway (including custom POI). Use a portable unit such as a Garmin or install an aftermarket in-dash navigation.

Let's see - when you consider their cost - about $2K & inability to use databases which have been around for 5 years or so, their map update costs of about $200 - you've got to walk away with the opinion that they're not worth a SH_T!

Excuse that characterization.

Fred

I have had many high end portable Garmins, in-dash Alpine nav, in-dash 7" touch screen Kenwood/Garmin that loaded custom POI's from this site, Droid X with Google maps and now a factory GM built-in Nav.

My favorite Nav unit so far is the GM by a wide margin. The GM unit ran $1,750 but added many more items than just Nav. It also added Voice control for everything, XM, MP3, Heads up display of upcoming turn direction, the street name to turn on and distance to the turn plus radio station info, CD, MP3 and XM station display in the windshield heads up display. I very rarely ever have to look at the dash while driving and after having this for a while it is something I wouldn't want to give up and a huge safety feature.

Out of all of them my GM unit blows the rest I have owned away. It was well worth the extra cost and is so much more sophisticated in what it can do than any of the others I have owned and still own.

I haven't used my Garmin's even once since getting the GM Nav equipped car. GM 2012 Map updates are the same Navteq maps and version as the Garmin 2012 map update. After selling my previous map DVD version on eBay the 2012 update ran a net cost of $25.

The only thing I miss is the custom POI loading capability but the many other added advantages so far out way that it is a minor inconvenience.

I have a factory GPS on my 2011 Nissan Sentra for about 6 months. I have uploaded POI's to it. Works very well.

We just got a Ford Edge, it will load POI's and even has an SD slot that the Navigation can read the POI's from. Drop by your Ford dealer and take a look, it's a pretty nice vehicle too.