I use the Navigation on my 2015 Mazda 3 everyday. It's the most functional car GPS I've ever used and has way better directions for me as a new driver than Google Maps.

For example, a mile before a left turn it'll tell me to bear left instead of the way google suddenly springs it on me half a mile before a turn on a super busy road during a traffic jam.

Instead of having to glance at my phone every little bit it displays the directions on my heads up display along with the lanes that I should be on to make the turn. It also knows how to deal with music already playing on the car speakers by muting the driver side of the music while reading directions so my passengers can keep listening.

Along with all of this, even though it's quite fiddly to view it, if I connect my phone to the car and have internet on it can grab traffic data to overlay onto the map, so I get the best of both worlds. <3 Mazda

The concern isn't a current model-year vehicle, it's the replacement time of cars (and appliances in general) vs technology. Presumably, a 2015 car should be good for at least 10-15 years. How will your car's navigation system stack up in 2020 (just 5 years away)? Will it still be your go-to choice? I think the claim is that mobile technology improves much faster than the replacement/upgrade cycle for cars, so a car's internal navigation becomes amusingly obsolete much sooner than the car itself.

Maybe if the navigation system were designed to be replaceable, like the radio.

My wife uses her phone in cars with built in GPS because the mfgr assumes cars can only carry one person at a time, so for "safety" they lock out GPS access unless the car is in park, even if the operator is sitting in the passenger seat. So I drive and she navigates with her phone, or her phone talks to me, or whatever.

Another thing I've noticed is take anything fast, implement it in software, and latency becomes a killer. Software is so terrifyingly slow compared to hardware. Its hard to believe that people who write disgustingly slow UIs are in the same industry as people who write anti-lock brake code or real time fuel injection code.

    > I'm using google maps on my phone anyway due to the
    > better interface and constant updates.

And live traffic without paying a subscription (except for data)!

Though I generally use Waze for plotting a course to an unfamiliar destination, I still heavily use my car's GPS nav system.

Rather than relying on it for guidance, I use it as a reference for routing around small inconveniences (road work/construction, accidents, etc.) on familiar routes. I've found it quite useful in this regard, and the large screen size definitely comes in handy for at-a-glance usage.

What kind of navunit do you have? I wouldn't count on mine for anything helpful and it requires a sat radio subscription to get traffic updates.

Ford Sync. Whatever generation they were selling in 2013.

I don't really rely on it for traffic information or anything, just maps. If I'm driving on local 'main' roads and visually pick up on indicators that there's something inconvenient ahead, I'll use the nav unit to identify appropriate sidestreets to take instead.

I do appreciate my car GPS for when I'm outside of cell range though (which is frequently--mountains and radios don't work well together).

A mistake I'll make only once: driving to Montreal only to realize my phone was useless once I got to the city limits and needed to figure out how to get to my hotel.

If you start the navigation ahead of time it'll keep going even if you're offline. It caches the route and gps waypoints. Worked great on my trip from NYC to Quebec City.

Ah, that's good to know. I didn't do that since I know how to get to Montreal itself easily. From my front door: left, left, right, straight * 3 hours.

A one time mistake, for sure, though!

Which aren't much good for finding most POIs.

If you know the address or cross-streets it is very easy. You can also ask for directions. Believe it or not people managed to travel to and around unfamiliar cities just fine before the widespread use of GPS.

Believe it or not "I got lost when I realized my GPS was useless" does not imply "I starved to death in the cold Canadian woods after wandering aimlessly for 4 days."

I found the hotel just fine! It was just a bit of a "should've seen that coming" type of moment, is all.

OsmAnd (http://osmand.net/) downloads OpenStreetMap data to your phone for offline navigation on Android (there is also an iOS version that has maps but not driving directions yet). IMO the OsmAnd navigation UI is better than Google Maps, the search far worse.

If you're on Android, Nokia's Here application has fantastic offline navigation maps.

I believe those maps are what my car uses.

My car connects to Google for POI lookups over GPRS. However, it can't retrieve traffic data nor update it's maps. Android Auto is a nice alternative, but I'm an iOS user. ::Shakes Fist:: C'mon automakers.

There is Apple CarPlay as well: http://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/

I love my built-in GPS in the car. For one, it displays directions in between the gauges, for another, it does a better job of unobtrusively providing audible directions without interfering with music.