Originally Posted by scruffydog

yea, a lot of people don't care about it either, they look at the price difference of almost $2000 and right away think to themselves that they can get much better deck, iphones, tom tom, etc..whatever. Not a lot of people at this point are willing to pay attention to the details of improvement these factory OEM NAV over the years.

The Nissan NAV is by far one of the best integrated NAV system, I've ever seen. Your after market NAV or iphone can prolly do phone dialing, bluetooth, but the factory NAV will always top it because it has other things integrated in it such as the climate control and the touch screen with an keypad, and also steering wheel control. Not to mention, the placement of the screen in respect to the driver's pt of view. All aftermarket radios/nav systems, not to mention portable ones are just plain ugly and will never look flush nor ever look like it was designed to be built in with the car.

I've had this conversation with so many people that don't believe in factory NAV. They bash on it before knowing the time and effort a car manufacture spent making it as user friendly as possible. Speaking of price alone, you may think right off the bat $1800 is a lot, but in reality, it's a lot more than $1800 (Invoice $1600), the NAV unit alone is ~$4000 if you ever break it, and it doesn't even include the other stuff like GPS antenna which is a lot better reception than yours(~$70), Faceplate ($300), keypad (~$300), front control panel (~$600), touch screen ($800), wiring harness (~$100+), climate control unit (~$300+), brackets (~200+), bose audio sound system ($???)...and i'm not even done yet, but i know for a fact, you're paying a lot less than what they'd be charging you if you were to break it down to it's actual value ($7000+ easily).

Also, a side note, did I forget to mention that factory NAV uses your car's vehicle speed input to determine/calculates your car's position if your GPS reception ever get blocked by tall buildings or whatever? And with an aftermarket NAV system, you will always get more glare from the sun than you would with a factory NAV, which is designed to be embedded/recessed in so sun will hardly ever shine directly at it. Also, with a Factory NAV, you'd never had to worry about people breaking in your car trying to steal it as it is fastened into your car's center console panels VERY well. As oppose to you leaving your tom tom, iphone, even your aftermarket deck, someone can steal it within seconds or minutes if you left your car unattended (whether if you left your windows down or someone broke into your windows)

Then again, to me it's worth it, because I know all the features there is in the factory 370z Nav. Built in HDD, ipod interface, plays DVDs, XM traffic, SUPER high RESOLUTION, Zagat guide, weather forcast, and so on. I have an iphone and I admit that it can do a lot, but sorry a phone will never compare to factory nav system. Not to mention, your iphone's actual cost is $600 (which is almost half the price of the NAV) and you still have to subscribe to the service....in 2 years time, you're already paying easily over $2000. Even for the NAV system I currently have in my Lexus, it's worth every penny as I can also play movies, climate control integration, voice command, steering wheel control....that whole built-in look will always top any after market NAV system.

Sorry to ramble on and I don't mean to put my frustration on you or anyone, but I think if people start realizing this and willing to pay for these in their cars, the prices will come down significantly.

I was once really excited about the 40th anniversary edition because the pics I've seen previously had a NAV built in, but i was very very disappointed to find out the US version is the only one that doesn't come with NAV. It's because Nissan figures people in US prolly won't want to pay the extra $$$ to have the NAV since most people prolly don't really care for it. Also, they're only making 1000 units, so they kept it simple, 1 configuration, base on majority they made the decision to not make it with NAV. Stupid Nissan! Their reasoning is probably because they figure the price of the limited is already hitting $40K and if they want to keep it under $40K, they better not include the NAV, otherwise, even though it's a limited 40th anniversary edition Z, not a lot of people would care to pay close to $43K for a Nissan Z. There are much better options/competition out there than to get a Nissan brand car~which i'm very sure that's what Nissan Marketing in US thought. The Z's goal was to keep it cheap and affordable, less than $30K. Most Z owners would pay around low $30K, if you are spending more than $40K, there's more luxury brands out there. I've had an offer for a fully loaded G37S with NAV for less than that price - and i'm sure you get more respect than you would with a Z. But I guess they don't care to cater to people like me (which aren't many) who would love to pay for a fully loaded 40th anniversary edition with Nav + Nismo performance parts (only if they have that option), I'm all in to pay $45K for a top-notch stock Z that performs well and looks well (no need for aftermarket B.S.). Then again, they would only do that in Europe as this car is already waaayyy over priced there and they have a lot more competition as an import car. And for Japan, their Nismo 370z has everything! Leather, NAV, red stitch...you name it. That's what I want....but then again, it's Japan =(

Either way, I already have a Lexus and I want the Z because I know it's a much more fun of a car than the G37S or any car in that class/price range. So Z it is I'm gonna get, but no I'm not gonna get a 40th. The 40th isn't that hard to find. I've called up multiple dealerships and they all will have at least 1 or 2 by late February. But i know for a fact they're gonna jack up the price big time and you won't be able to negotiate to pay less than it's MSRP.