Been reading a few complaints here and there about the Nav
system not recalculating after a route deviation. Is this a
widespread problem or are most people happy with the
performance of the NAV? Is this a first-rate NAV system?
I loved the NAV in my Acura RL. It was flawless.

Also...

How many total presets for XM and FM/AM radio stations?
Would like to know how many presets for EACH that are
easily accessible from the touch screen.

Thanks

My NAV system has been flawless after 2 months of driving in and around Southern California - including areas with new construction. For example, in an area of Oxnard, CA with a newly constructed road, it told me to turn onto "Unnamed road". The road did have a name when I looked at the actual sign on the road, but my parents live in the area and told me the road had only been completed a few weeks prior to my visit and the street sign had only been up for a few days.

Total presets...hmm...don't know 100% for sure off the top of my head, but I believe you can have 6 "favorite" screens, and each favorite screen has something like 6 presets. Any preset can be XM, FM, or AM.

My NAV system has been flawless after 2 months of driving in and around Southern California - including areas with new construction. For example, in an area of Oxnard, CA with a newly constructed road, it told me to turn onto "Unnamed road". The road did have a name when I looked at the actual sign on the road, but my parents live in the area and told me the road had only been completed a few weeks prior to my visit and the street sign had only been up for a few days.

Total presets...hmm...don't know 100% for sure off the top of my head, but I believe you can have 6 "favorite" screens, and each favorite screen has something like 6 presets. Any preset can be XM, FM, or AM.

I agree with these observations. I've never had any NAV problems. Total presets to any channel (AM, FM, XM) is indeed 36 -- six per page -- and you can set whether you want to see all six or fewer pages, for example if you only want to see three pages you have 18 presets.

I cannot recommend the NAV.
This most certainly is not a "first rate" NAV system" in ANY event.

1- It is not fully integrated into the entertainment center. It does not mute the radio before it speaks. Helping to save this rather obvious faux paux is a hard button that allows you to Repeat the last command. You do have a volume control for the NAV that can be set quite high. It seems to be"relative" to the regular sound. So......I believe you must have the radio on for the nav to work.......And if you turn the music down to 0, you will not hear the NAV.
2- Mine also has a problem recalculating the route. Takes forever to do so.
3- the unit has avery splashy screen, It IS big, but that adds very little to the NAV experience.
4- It IS integrated to the point where it does a good job of dead reckoning. However it NEEDS to do this since it's sensitivity is very low. You could lose SAT in a heavily wooded area or a downtown urban area.
Mine will not work in my garage, whereas an aftermarket NAV will work in my garage, living room, under tree canopies, in cities, etc.
The Caddy NAV is not Sirf 3.
5- Many of the features you may be used to on another NAV are not present. You cannot change voices.Not even Gender, much less accent.
You cannot enter custom POIs. You cannot change the symbol for your car. It doesn't have a currency converter, language phrase translator, calculator, etc, etc.
6- Although I have never had a problem with accuracy, be advised it does not support WAAS. And First Rate NAVs do.


Now lets get back to the real question.
Is it a decent, if basic, NAV?
Yes.
It is in many ways equivalent to $99 NAV......with a big screen.
And it's built in.
That's pretty much it's claim to fame.
And that of course carries a LOT of weight.
I am disappointed in the NAV, but I do enjoy it's looks and it's basic performance.
Although it's operating system is probably very different than your Acura, the map is likely the same.

But if you are more interested in the prowess of a NAV, You should buy a Garmin for less than $500 (I paid $300 for a Nuvi 3650 years ago) and use it in several cars or even on walking tours, etc.
I now carry and use the Garmin when on trips.
(Right at the moment the voice has died on my CTS NAV, but I am sure that it is just a failure that can be fixed. I will take it in one of these days)


I LOVE the preset system on this radio which works like PJL said. I have two screens of 6 presets.........Perfect for me!

I am with Southern on the NAV. Fantastic screen! Great graphics! So so integration with the car.

But what is most disappointing is it takes forever to recalculate routes and often fails to do so. It is not what I expected from such expensive unit. I already complained to the dealer. They will look into it. I am sure they will be unsuccessful. I will complain to the GM as well. They can fix this bug through the software upgrade. When they do it it will be quite OK NAV system.

I know there are many people who think this is a great system but my experience is different.

You can preset 36 stations - AM, FM, XM.

My experience with the NAV is that is does indeed reduce the volume of the music for voice prompts when the level of the music is high enough to the point that you cannot hear the voice prompts well. If the music is not too loud, the music level stays the same. If the music level is too high, the music level drops when the voice prompt begins, and then goes back up when the prompt is complete. Also, during a voice prompt the volume control on the steering column will allow you to increase or decrease the voice prompt while the prmpt is active. Overall, I like this feature more than a mute of the music when the voice prompt begins. I also like the integration of the map screens with radio functions and status.
I am pleased with the unit, especially the integration with the XM traffic and weather.

You can get XM Weather on this unit?

You can get XM Weather on this unit?

Heck, yes! You can either view current conditions or the 3-day forecast - for the area you are traveling in. Would be nice to be able to punch in a zip code for weather anywhere, but I suppose you could also wish for currency converters, calculators, and video games for the kids in the NAV unit too.

Maybe because I don't have a lot of experience with portable units I am more than satisfied with this NAV.

I would be satisfied with the unit if it did not fail to recalculate routes when you need it most....imagine driving 11:00 pm in an unknown city and missing a turn....and the NAV fails to recalculate the route....when I know where I am going I do not need NAV. This NAV is the first system that fails to do it, and I used many of them....simply put - GM needs to fix it. Unless someones expectations are different....

Would be nice to be able to punch in a zip code for weather anywhere . . .

I have entered a destination and selected "weather along the route".
rg

Added bonus, I guess . . . with the xm trial subscription, sign up online and you can listen to xm on your pc.
rg

I used the NAV today and it worked great. I drove 400 plus miles with 2 different destination's and both were on the money. I did miss a turn, and it recalulated pretty fast. Don't get me wrong, I did have recalulating problem's a few times in the past, but today it was right on the money. I own 4 different NAV's on land & sea. A few months ago I ran my Garmin 660 right along with the NAV in the CTS, both were on the money with directions at almost the same time.
Yes I wish it would mute the radio when it gives direction.

No problem with my NAV yet...but I wish I could get rid of all the GM Dealership icons from the screen as I drive around! The dealer says they have to stay. Bummer......

No problem with my NAV yet...but I wish I could get rid of all the GM Dealership icons from the screen as I drive around! The dealer says they have to stay. Bummer......

I believe you can turn 'em off when you set which POI categories get filtered out.

After reading this and a few previous threads I used nav to traverse the northwest suburbs (of chicago) to get from work to a restaurant 26 miles away. it worked just fine. I made a few "wrong" turns and it recalculated based on location and direction to get me where I wanted to go. even changed the route when I got too far away from its original plan. seems okay to me. Then I turned up the audio pretty loud and guess what? Nav *lowered* the audio volume (not muted, just turned it down a bit) so I could hear the guide voice and that silly bong. I would call that integrated.
rg

I wouldn't. Would you call it integrated if the BT comes that way?

...Nav lowered the audio volume... I would call that integrated.

I wouldn't. Would you call it integrated if the BT comes that way?

sorry, I'm not sure what the question means.
rg

BT=Blue Tooth. This is a wireless interconnect generally used by cell phones. CTS doesn't have it. BUT they are supposed to get it soon. ONE of the things it will do is mute the radio when a call comes in. Completely.
They do this for two reasons.
1- so you can clearly hear the other party <--------- this is the reason NAV is supposed to mute.
2- so your radio doesn't trigger the Transmit function.

The point is, that on every other factory NAV (Well, except maybe for other GM......but that would surprise me.) the radio is muted when the NAV speaks. Just like BT. AND just like Onstar.
The theory being that if you are using the NAV, you don't know where you are, and the turn directions, are more important than a couple of seconds of music.

I have a RAZR w/BT and hope to get some kind of upgrade. different topic, plus I have no idea how BT will or will not get "integrated" into audio.
this thread and two from December had many complaints that I will summarize: "the nav is not integrated, it does not mute audio when giving directions". I tried it and found that nav does turn down the audio, if audio is loud enough to make the directions hard to hear. therefore I say they are integrated; if they were not integrated that would not have happened.
is this conversation related to a definition of "mute" or of "integrated"?
rg

I don't think there are two definitions of "mute". And "turn down the audio", however slightly, is not one of them.
But you win. I am not going to set here and argue semantics. This forum is not set up for this and I refuse to continue.

thanks. I am ready to do the same.
best regards.
rg