In dash Navigation HU's. What's good these days ?

Me-262 · Post by **Me-262** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:01 am

Hey long time no see here, kids are keeping me busy. Anyway I have a Kenwood DNX5140 nav unit, does the job well and I like the Garmin Nav interface. Problem is the rear camera input is flaky and Best Buy says they'll refund me the entire amount so not bad after 4 years of owning it. So this has me looking at new nav units and I see they have all changed . I do have an Android phone so it would be nice to work with it but not cruicial. So long as I could make phone calls hands free (bluetooth ? )that will suffice. We don't get Pandora in Canada naturally so that's a nice option that doesn't do me any good.

Is Kenwood just as good as it used to be (that is to say its ok not great). I liked the Alpine units but their nav sucked, is it any better ? Is Pioneer still disco looking on the interface ? Any "new" features I should consider ? I have a pretty simple setup in the Forester these days. HU, ZX450 for front & sub in the rear factory location. What would be nice with kids, is the ability to play videos on a monitor on the seat headrests , controlled from up front , possibly though the phone if that's an option. My kenwood won't play XVID or anything, just retail DVD's which is a bummer.

Suggestions ?

Drock · Post by **Drock** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:58 am

I am using the new pioneer avicz140bh h/u. I love it. Tonnes of features, easy to use navigation. It's way faster than the older models. I thought I would miss havering the built in hard drive, but instead it has a slot for ad cards. And a 64 gig card holds a lot of music. I think it's very nice looking. It also has most inputs I can think of without having to buy additional hardware and special cables like alpine does.

Post by **ttocs** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:32 pm

seen some cool installs using mini-tablet pc's that could fit this bill and for a fair price too. Would need off-board amps of course but that is one of the few obsticles to get around.

brenzbmr@sb · Post by **brenzbmr@sb** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:17 pm

actually kenwood is releasing the new d series double din deck that has wifi capablities as well as FB, TWitter and other apps. i saw it at CES and its really superb.

Drock · Post by **Drock** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:56 pm

I've never used the Kenwood products, but pioneer has the same features. Check out their web site.

Post by **ttocs** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 1:25 am

one plus on kenwood is that they farmed their nav portion out to garmin who in my opinion has about the easiest to use system from what I have seen. Never been big on their menu system but I think like any deck there is a learning curve with it.