This hits the nail on the head. My thoughts exactly. The best one out there is Google Maps on an Android phone. The real-time traffic layer is awesome. The 3D buildings and location names is great. Google Maps is just hands down the best navigation system out there. Chevrolet should team up with Google, like Ford did with MicroSoft and have a system that works through your cell phone/OnStar signal, that refreshes the map data and layers just like Google Maps. Smart Phones, have become hand-held computers, with internet access. The system in your car should be the same, but better, with more RAM, storage and a bigger screen. You should have expandable memory, via Micro SD cards, just like your phone and it should interface, via BlueTooth with your phone. And it should run Google's Android Operating System. You should be able to dock or connect your phone, lap-top and tablet PC with your car's system, pull up data from your car, all of that jazz. Why are automotive systems always so far behind the curve? Even the aftermarket systems. Pioneer and Kenwood's offerings are lame too.

They should do it like the cell phone companies do, where you get a new one every 2 years. I'd pay $250-$500 every 2 years to swap out my head unit for one with all of the latest technology.

 

It is a POS!

 

What year BMW? My 2010 6 series was a dream and very easy to use with great graphics. I could actually zoom out and see Texas and Mexico and Im in Fla.

 

No way!....

I've read and re-read the Forum's guide to the NAVI a few times....and it is still the worst NAVI in existence....PERIOD!

My Garmins don't even come with a user's manual...they are intuitive and do not need a volume of instruction!...you want to go somewhere, you enter it....simplicity!

Updates are relatively inexpensive and no need to have discs!

 

I hate to say it but my 07 Jeep Wrangler's Nav runs circles around my 11 GS. It has a hard drive, you can import music, it has Gracenotes database to identify music on CDs, and the Nav is decent with Sirius traffic integrated. GM could and should do a lot better on it's flagship sportscar.

 

Again the Garmins are great units and are very easy to learn & operate. Yet, as you can clearly see from several responses once you read the manual it is a decent unit. I understand your bar being high due to the ease of operation with the Garmin. All I can say is what several others have said. Once I read the manual the stock unit works well. At first I thought the unit was a POS until I finally read the manual. I was also pleasantly surprised at some of the options the units has.

 

Problem is, GM is stuck with the same suppliers they've had for years and years.
But with that being said, it is a very powerful unit and has an infinite amount of options.
It does everything I need and more, and has always redirected me when taking a wrong turn.
I agree with most people not liking it.
Problem I have is when I haven't used it for a while, then it takes me a minute to remember how to use it
It's simply not user friendly but I would not say it's useless.

 

'05 745i...nav is really poorly done and with brand new nav disks for it, still worthless. My corvette's nav is a dream compared to the bmr

 

We have factory nav in two other non-GM cars, plus two Garmins, and a cellphone nav. And factory nav in our C6.

All of them have advantages, none of them are perfect.
The C7 factory nav will be better, but that's not a choice right now.

After using it for a while and reading talon90's tutorial, then comparing to our other systems, I have no desire to replace my C6 factory nav with anything else.

 

When I saw this post I thought the very same thing as dgrant3830. I have a 2011 BMW 528 and the nav is miserable. While it is not as user friendly as a Garmin, the nav on my C6 is far superior.

 

no issues with my nav.