I have had a Garmin for about 3 years. Loved it. But when I bought my 09 Accord, I figured, why not get the factory nav. What a mistake. I have never seen such a weak gps system with weak maps. It is so bad that I mount my Garmin on the windshield and use it when I need to get somewhere. I run them parallel and the Garmin is tenfold more accurate at getting me from a to b. The maps are tenfold better as well. I can not go anywhere, cities included without getting the "route takes you into unverified area", on streets that have been there for decades. My wife and I just laugh when we see the Garmin route vs the Honda Nav route. It is not even close. I am so disappointed as I figured that a 1500 dollar factory nav would outperform a 200 dollar Garmin. Boy was I wrong.

 

Very few factory nav systems, from any manufacturer, are as good as a stand alone GPS. Anything that relies on maps stored on a HD is going to be less accurate. However, built-in nav systems do have some advantages, just not enough to justify their cost.

Mercedes has a nav system in one of their luxury models that only tells you where you've been, not where you want to go.

 

I think its a combination of software and cartography that results in factory navs being really bad. My garmin has 1gb of memory that contains everything, firmware, software, and maps. The DVD that contains the factory information is much larger than the garmin's, so I would have expected it to function at least as good. If I remember correctly garmin supplied Honda with a windshield nav that had the Honda logo on it. There is no excuse for a corporation like Honda, and yes as you eluded to other factory navs, to charge customers a few thousand dollars for a system that functions less efficiently, no much less efficiently, than a few hundred dollar garmin. If some factory would get together with garmin and install garmin firmware, software, and maps in their vehicle then I would be all smiles.
When I told my dealer that the Nav is absolutely deplorable, he responded by saying, Yep everyone says that. Thats not the Honda quality I thought I bought into. I then told him that I liked the location of the factory Nav screen, but the little suction cup marks from sticking my garmin on it are hard to get off...

 

I have a TomTom and hate having the suction cup marks on the window, not to mention it can be a far reach.

I bought one of those "non stick pad" things for like a cell phone and placed it on my dash. I then used the circular disc with a 3m backing that came with my TomTom and stuck it to the mat. Now, I can simply stick my TomTom of the disc, which is attached to the pad and it will never fall over, nor will it ever leave marks on the window. Plus it takes up less view space and is much easier to access.

 

I talked to the dealer, and he concured that the Honda Navs really suck. Wish he had conveyed that to sales, could have saved a bundle. Just last week I was going from Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island to a mall in Vancouver, 38 miles on the garmin. Just for ****s and giggles I punched the same mall into the Honda Nav. LOL...it told me it would take me over 10 hours. Had me go to Victoria, ferry to the USA, then drive up to Canada from Seattle, a total of 770 km, plus the ferry ride. Now this is ridiculous and not ever worth having.

PS: The garmin sticks well to the Nav screen (as it is most always off) and saves the sticky marks on the windshield. I should take a picture and post it on Youtube, a 200 dollar Garmin stuck to the screen of a 1500 Honda Nav system.

 

i love my garmin too. good to hear i saved some money!

 

I contacted Honda Canada and explained my woes, especially the 10 hour trip to go 38 miles. The rep emailed back that I should take it to the Honda dealer for a check. Not sure what that will accomplish, but I will as I am due for my first oil change in the near future. I intend to sit in a new Accord and input the exact same destination. This will tell whether or not it is a software/cartography issue or just the "system". Will post back the results.

 

I agree with the TM. The main reason I got the factory installed gps was cuz the dash on my 07 Accord looks so much sexier and I don't have to buy a pioneer in dash or whatnot. I got the converter so I can also watch movies with an external dvd player with ease. All in all, I guess I just didn't want to go into it and install the pioneer or whatnot and have it look out of place.

Now that I think about it, it wasn't cuz the gps was all that but what I had in mind afterwards that made me get it.

FAIL. lol

 

Well I went to the dealer and sat in a brand new Accord with the latest updates. Still took me on the all day trip to go 38 miles. The dealer admitted there is nothing they can do, contact Honda Canada. Honda Canada say contact the dealer. If I cant get either resolution, or admission from Honda Canada that their system (which by the way Honda Canada made a point of saying they didn't make it) I am going to post a Youtube video of the Garmins correct path, and the Hondas ridiculous one. I will stick the Garmin on the Nav screen of the Honda just to point out how ridiculous this is. Whether or not Honda made the GPS, in my mind, is irrrelevant, they wear the can as they made the decision to go with whom they did.
So end game is if you want to waste your dollars go with the HOnda Nav. If not spend a few hundred on a Garmin and you will save a fortune on gas and time.