Another new guy question;

Soon to be the proud owner of a new 09 3LT Cpe!

We are picking her up tomorrow and for now I only have a faxed window sticker in my hand.

I have some questions about the factory Navigation unit. I did a search first but could not find the answers, so I'm hoping that my new friends here can help me out!

Ok,, I have Garmin Nav units for my Auto and Harley and a Lowrance for my boat

No complaints, all great units!

How does the Factory C-6 unit compare to the high end Garmins and do we know who is making this unit for GM?

Is the factory unit upgradable for Firmware as well as updated Mapping?

Thanks!!

I hope I can sleep tonight, I feel like an 8 year old on Christmas Eve.

 

after using garmins u will hate the factory nav

 

Congratulats on your new ride. My '07 has factory nav, I never use it becuase it is so cumbersome to use.

 

Ahhh why did you have to tell me that.

No problem I guess.

I take it you can do other stuff on that big screen though?

With the radio etc?

My favorite Garmin in the Zumo that I have on the Harley.

Bright and Accurate as hell.

It came with an Auto and Bike mount from the factory, and takes but a few seconds to swap from bike to vehicle.

I didn't really want to turn the interior into a TV studio but what the heck the Zumo isn't that big.

 

Be patient and spend some time learning how to use your factory nav. It might be frustrating at first, especially if you're used to a Garmin.

But the factory nav has some nice features and it is very nicely integrated into the Corvette and its HUD.

You'll get a manual with the car, but you need to spend an hour or two playing with it to get to know its features. I'd suggest sitting in your garage in the car and reading the manual thoroughly. I use mine all the time and I like it a lot.

Ray

 

 

Its not so bad once you get use to it.

 

The biggest difference between a Garmin and the Factory Nav is with the Factory Nav you need to read the manual. Anyone over the age of 5 can work a Garmin and they are the best portable Nav's made. But, you will find after reading the manual the Factory Nav is very capable unit. And very cool looking unit also.

 

Thanks guys!

I would say that I should be about 50% familiar with some of the interior options.

My last Corvette was a Pewter 02 Cpe

I imagine the User manual to this car is about 2" thick

So do we know who is making this unit and are it's firmware & maps upgradable?

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Corvette. Your question about the Navigation unit will undoubtedly spur some passionate commentary. I will add my .02 to the fray. The reality is that the factory navigation is a very powerful, very competent system. The downside is that it is a very cumbersome, complicated unit to get comfortable with.

A little history and I'd like to say that I'll keep this brief but I'm an engineer and I've simply learned that I'm unable to do that and I just have to live with that cross. The factory navigation unit remains effectively unchanged (long story) from 2003 when it was developed and it was integrated in to the Corvette in 2004 for the launch of the C6 late in the calendar year. You are looking at five year old technology. The units are manufactured by Denso for GM. Comparing a 6 year old technology to a new top end Garmin unit as you can imagine will yield some interesting results.

Here's where it gets better. If you invest the time in to the learning curve for the OEM unit you will be rewarded. If you elect not to you may simply become another of those that opine in threads like this about how horrible the unit is. Honestly, the choice is yours.

The factory navigation unit is the centerpiece of the Corvette center console. It offers a large (albeit lower resolution) LCD display. It controls the audio for the car with a nice responsive touch screen. It integrates with the Head up display and offers turn by turn navigation instructions directly in your field of view. No Garmin will do that in the Corvette. The navigation database is DVD based. The information will range from excellent to poor seemingly depending upon your geographic location. I live in the northeast and it is very accurate and has caught up with progress and new streets with each generation. Others have not been so fortunate. I have never had it give me a wrong bit of information. Again, others have not been so fortunate. There are some things that you as the user need to do correctly in order to have a good experience with the unit. Learn how to set up your preferences. Learn the differences in what the shortest, normal and fastest routes mean. There is a good section in the navigation manual about this. Learn how to change regions on the unit (this will prevent a fair amount of aggravation later on.) Here is a copy of the 2005 manual that you can download for reference in PD format. This will let you preview the features and learn a little about the operation of the unit. Use it to prevent early onset frustration.

http://www.theredlion.us/C6%20NAVManual.pdf

As I stated, the factory navigation unit is very powerful but it is not "intuitive". It can do almost everything that the Garmin unit can do but it is a little harder to do on the factory unit. The Garmin portable is engineered so that a school child could operate it. The factory navigation unit is not targeted at that audience and as such has not garnered a very good reputation. It can be frustrating, this much is true but honestly it has garnered a reputation that it has not earned with such telling criticism as "it sucks" and "it's crappy". That is just not true.

 

The units are made by Denso. The firmware is upgradable by the dealer only. The maps are on two DVD's and are updated yearly or so.

I really like the nav unit in my 09. It is nicely integrated into the car and the HUD display is very nice. Once you learn how to use it, it is very usable. Plus the convience of having the radio and NAV is really nice. I don't like the look of all the add-on units with suction cups or whatever.

 

I've owned a couple NAVs in other GM products and didn't like them and I knew the book from cover to cover. One main disadvantage of the OEM NAV is that it is not easily upgradeable. I have no trouble getting frequent updates with my Garmin 880 or any other Garmin model I had. To me the factory NAV isn't worth paying $1800, with no 6 disc CD changer, or aux hook up and paying a bunch to upgrade the map later on. A lot of GPS units use a similar map database so mapping isn't the issue (although GM charges you 3x for their version), it is the software that in 5-7 years will be antique.

 

Ray gives good advice. I have used Aircraft handheld Garmin, panel mount Garmin, Magellan, BMW, Mercedes, Acura, Lexus, Cadillac's Alpine and the Corvette's Denso unit.

They all have their quirks. They all have their proponents and detractors. If you take the time to learn the software and understand the limitations of the NavData suppliers, I believe you will be happy with the unit. If you don't take the time, I can guarantee you will not be happy.

Oh yeah - Welcome to the forum and to Corvette ownership. Remember to wave :

 

It's all in what you get used to.... I use the one in the vette at times.... its not as good as the one in my Lexus... the Garmin's are a bit easier to navigate through.... just gotta keep them all up to date... I like having the built in NAV...

 

Thanks for the WELCOME and really great info!

I believe I know what to expect now, and I will take the unit for what it is and it's learning curve.

From what I can tell so far, it kind of mimics my Digital Camera's.

I have a 12mp point and shoot and a 12mp SLR.

Most of the time I can't tell which one I used to take a certain photo but the journey to get there was a little different with each one.

The countdown to 1300 hrs tomorrow is getting painful

 

 

 

The factory Nav works okay, but you can't see it. I have both a Vert and a Coupe...the angle is wrong or something as light always washes out the resolution you need to see the screen w/o holding your hand to block the sun or lean down to see it...neither a good solution. It's a disappointment on an otherwise extraordinary world class automobile.

 

I HATED the nav when I first got it (coming from using garmins). After learning it, it has almost all the garmin featues, and several not in the garmin. The glaring omissions are you cannot find POI's near your route. You kind of do that manually and see what's near you. There is no traffic.

The plus side is it shows up on the HUD (way cool), it lets you search in more flexible by field ways (heck you can even search by phone number).

The down side is it's really unintuitive.

As for seeing it, I have the same problem. I pumped up the brightness to 3/4's maximum, and the contrast to 3/4's maximum (off the screen/sound button), and that seemed to improve things for me.

 

One irritation with the factory unit is the inability to enter destinations while you are moving. A while back I figured out a decent solution that is pretty easy. If it turns out this is bothersome to you as well, here's a link you might want to read:

http://www.kawal.net/navigation.htm

Enjoy your new Vette.

Ray