I just received a new nav unit today and I'm playing around with some ideas for where to mount the thing... The only thing I'm pretty certain about is that the stock mounting hardware is going to be fairly useless... Before you jump on me with "Buy the Pioneer Z1" or "Buy an Eclipse!", here's the deal: I recently purchased and installed an Eclipse 5495 in my wife's car, complete with back-up cam and the whole shot. Spent a lot of dough on that setup. Since my car is a vert, and I am really quite happy with the sound as it is, I'm leaving the stock HU.

Anyway, here are some possibilities I am considering... A velcro mount right in front of the gauges. I use the HUD most of the time anyway, and on the occasional situations when I need nav, I can just pop it into place and off we go.



Another option would be right in front of the traction control. This would require some sort of custom mount in order to pull this off. I'm also not crazy about the screen being so far away from the windshield.

The dash top method would require some work, and while it looks okay in person, it seems like it's real out of place in the photo.

I'm also exploring the possibility of mounting it to the passenger or driver side visor, and using the power in the visor to power the nav unit. Only trouble here is that the speaker for the voice directions would be blocked in the back.

The last solution I am considering would be a mount that place the nav unit right in front of the main HVAC center vent when in use. This actually looks very good but my picture didn't turn out well enough for me to want to post it.

So... What do you guys think?

 

put it in front of the guages, use your HUD for driving

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, after a little more investigation, I don't think that's going to work all that great. There's not quite enough of a ledge available in front of the gauges without the top corners of the nav unit pressing against the clear plexiglass of the instruments, and that's a deal breaker.

For now, I think my two best options are:

A~ Velcro it to the middle of the front bar of the convertible top, between the visors. This actually provides an excellent viewing angle and it doesn't interfere with the mirror at all. This would mean top up navigation, only. Which is probably how I'd most often be using it, anyway.

B~ Fabricate a clip to attach to the center AC vent. If I can figure out how to fabricate a simple friction fit clip, I can attach the nav mount to it and again, it will place the nav in a really nice spot for viewing, without interfering with the airflow. I think this is the option that's most attractive to me right now. I just have to get my hands on some raw materials to be able to start fabricating something.

So far, my efforts to find a suitable air vent clip have been unsuccessful.