Just bought an Accord 05 with Nav.

The way I thought about it is this:  I'd guess the value of the Nav
upon resale / trade depreciates maybe $200-$300/year.  For that price,
I thought it was well worth it.

That said, for me the Nav is great.  Even if I generally know where I'm
going, I sometimes program the destination in the Nav during rush hour,
so I can turn when I see traffic into unknown side streets and rely on
the Nav to get me where I want to go.

I also like how the voice commands control the temperature and radio.

My only gripe is that its path decision logic seems to prioritize large
roads instead of obvious small-road shortcuts that exist.  It does this
much more than mapquest or randmcnally.com

Also, it is fully integrated with the XM and radio, so it would be a
nearly impossible to change to Sirius or an upgraded radio head unit if
you wanted to.

But in my mind, given the $200-$300 per year, I'd definitely choose
this again.

-MVL

I have a 2004 Acura TL and 2005 Honda Accord neither with NAV, wasn't
readily available in my area when I bought TL ( chip shortage they were
claiming,89 Acuras on lot onlt 6 with standard tranny had them ) . So
figured that never had one who cares and for 2k who needs. After first year
and hearing everyone rave about Nav systems I bought a Garmin Street Pilot
2620 for the car. Like so many, couldn't live without it now. My unit is 1k
bought on sale for 800, has 2 gig hard drive builtin all US and Canada. Plug
it into cigg lighter put it on dash board ( incredably stable on beanbag
mount, also has permanent mount included ) and off you go. My concern was
that if it operated like Mapquest always giving strangely convoluted
directions that it would be worthless. Thankfully operates great and all the
routes are right there with what I would have done. Now more than confident
that it knows better and drive never lost. Has all the trip stuff too.

http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2620/

I don't drive in strange areas much but found it worth it just when you have
to bypass something or do go into an area you don't know. Cruised from San
Juan to Norfolk Va. rented a car to drive home to NY. Took Garmin along, got
into rental, plugged it in hit button twice and it took me right to my door.
Found me a nice restaurant along the way.

Drove a friend to LGA, on way home bumper to bumper do to an accident. Got
off parkway with no concern and let it find me another way. In meantime had
it take me to nearest Dunkin Donuts to get me stabilized. Obviously I am pro
navigation. Even my wife who often belittles my needs for " toys " says best
" toy " I ever bought.

The only question now is to stay with portable or next trade get one built
in. I think I will probably get one built in just for the coolness of it all

George in NY

Maps are fine, but there is nothing like a Navigation system on a 3 or
4-thousand mile trip through many cities.  Anyway, I can't read a map
and drive.  And maps can't find hotels, Office Max stores, etc.  Even
in a city like Las Vegas, I find it indispensable.  Las Vegas has an
unbelievable number of dead-end streets.  When you are trying to find
a store, the nav leads you around all those obstacles.  There is a
great deal more to the nav system than just a map.  It gives you
average and instantaneous fuel consumption, distance to next turn, a
calculator, an appointment calendar, current altitude, current
location by latitude/longitude, etc.  It's full of goodies.

Dick

i got a magellan sportrak map a couple years ago. holds 5Mb worth of
info, equivalent to the whole LA region of SoCal, from encino down to
irvine. every street, points of interest, etc.

it has a built-in "basemap" of every major freeway in the nation. so
even with no "map" loaded, you still have a basic idea where you are.

course, you can set up different "blocks" of regions, like LA,
riverside/OC, las vegas, etc and load as needed, when needed. works
excellent on land and water, on foot and in whatever car or vehicle im
in and only cost $150.