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Is the Navigation SD card worth the money?

86K views 41 replies 24 participants last post by  2017mazda3 
#1 ·
I just got a 2016 iTouring and I'm wondering if it's worth the money to buy the SD nav card. Right now, when I need directions, I use Google Maps on my iPhone and, when I'm out of cell-phone range, my trusty old Garmin GPS unit that I've had for years. How does the quality of the maps and the turn-by-turn directions with the built-in system compare to what I'm already using?

Obviously, it would be less of a distraction to simply look at the built-in infotainment screen instead of glancing down at my phone or my Garmin, and it would mean one less device I'd have to deal with. But are there any other advantages to the SD card? In other words, is it more accurate... does it have more features... or better maps... or is it easier to use than my Garmin?

Thanks, guys, for your input.
 
#2 ·
I wouldn't buy the navigation. Waze has way better traffic information, and it doesn't bother me at all to look down at my phone. If the voice recognition worked, I might use the Mazda nav, but I can't find anything by voice. The whole infotainment system is more annoying and distracting than useful.
 
#3 ·
voice works fine for me - there's ways to make it easier - basically "train" your voice so that the system recognizes the commands
there's a tutorial/FAQ on the connect site

yes google maps, waze etc all work fine
here at least though, you could get a ticket for distracted driving unless it's completely hands (and eyes) free - no looky, no touchy
basic fine is $300 lowly Cdn dollars

could also use a phone mount near info screen - there's some that attach to vents etc - then google or waze is in your sightline, no looking elesewhere
 
#4 ·
My Navigation system works very well. I get turn by turn voice directions. The only problem is Mazda disabled the WiFi option. With that option you would have gotten Traffic Updates and Gas Pricing. But that never worked since day one. Yes, you can enable the WiFi option yourself if you choose to, but you still won't get Traffic Updates or Gas Price updates.
 
#11 ·
You would think that with a retail price of $400 USD for the SD card, the <SARCASM> kind and generous </SARCASM> people at Mazda would give you traffic updates and gas prices -- especially since there are a number of apps, including Waze and GasBuddy, that give you this info for free.

I decided not to buy another VW because although I really liked the car, I hated the company. I hope I don't start feeling the same way about Mazda.
 
#5 ·
I say worth it if you can find a good deal on the card on ebay or something. I have seen a lot.

My S-GT was missing the nav card in mine. Got my 2014 S-GT with 17k miles for 18,500. Was a quick trade after work. I was tired. I was not happy after figuring out the next day.

I purchased a SD card on ebay for 80 dollars. It works great and I am able to update with mazda toolbox. I also made a back up copy and keep my original mazda card safe. But you have to make sure it is not locked to another mazda or buy brand new and seen deals on new one's on ebay for mid to low 200's. I sort of took a chance. But the reviews for previous buyers not having any problems sold me.

The navigation works good. Still getting it down. I like the mazda controls and touchscreen option as well. Yes your phone works good but most places now you cant mess with your phone unless taking the chance for a ticket. Either way you would normally set it up before you move.
 
#6 ·
The navigation works good. Still getting it down. I like the mazda controls and touchscreen option as well. Yes your phone works good but most places now you cant mess with your phone unless taking the chance for a ticket. Either way you would normally set it up before you move.
I think the Mazda controls, including the HVAC controls, are dangerously distracting.
The other issue I have with the Mazda navigation is that it doesn't boot up for almost a full minute after I start the car. By that time I want to be moving, and I typically can't get it to find my destination unless I stop. With Waze I can get a traffic report an hour before I leave. If there's a wreck on the interstate here I can leave early or take the backroads. That's saved me form missing appointments a couple of time recently.
The phone navigation is easier to work than the Mazda, and the chance of getting a ticket for using it is zero, unless you hold it up to your ear. It plays directions through the stereo as well, by bluetooth.
 
#7 ·
Can't comment to much because still getting it down. Car has been in the shop awhile. I do like the mazda controls in the middle so far. I can do a lot without distracting myself. Still learning to use it though. Once I do will make it even easier. For HVAC it has not been to much a problem so far it seems.

I like having everything at one center point. I sync my phone and run everything through mazda. No nav on the phone and the rest on mazda connect.

The ticket part is from being distracted from the phone by looking down at it or messing with it in your hand. Its a safety thing as well.
 
#8 ·
The Mazda MZD-Nav is (by European professionals) considered the best on the market these day's. It's accurate, super fast and the best OEM-system i ever had.
I recently had the chance to compare it with a brand new BMW 5 exec. and a Volvo XC90, Mazda beats them all.

I use it with the additional trafficservice Europe ( 3 years at € 60,00) and the info is superb, proposals to avoid congestion are the best i have ever seen. Re-routing is ultra fast and accurate, try that with a phone!

Nothing wrong with a phone with Waze or Here, but there's nothing wrong with my bike, still i prefer my car.....
 
#13 ·
I decided to go for it, and picked up the SD card at my local Maz dealer for 50% off -- $200 plus tax. (Thank you, Costco!)

Popped the SD card into the slot and the system found my location instantly. None of that "searching for satellite" nonsense that I often get with my Garmin. At first glance, the maps don't look as "pretty" as Garmin's or Google Maps', but I guess the real test is how good the directions are. I need to pick some really out-of-the-way destination to test it out.

At full retail ($400), I wouldn't have bought it. Even at the Amazon price of $300 (Robot Check), I would have said "no." But for $200, I couldn't resist.
 
#14 ·
I decided to go for it, and picked up the SD card at my local Maz dealer for 50% off -- $200 plus tax. (Thank you, Costco!)

Popped the SD card into the slot and the system found my location instantly. None of that "searching for satellite" nonsense that I often get with my Garmin. At first glance, the maps don't look as "pretty" as Garmin's or Google Maps', but I guess the real test is how good the directions are. I need to pick some really out-of-the-way destination to test it out.

At full retail ($400), I wouldn't have bought it. Even at the Amazon price of $300 (Robot Check), I would have said "no." But for $200, I couldn't resist.
Think you made a hell of a deal!:smile2:

Future use will make you even happier!

Highway-exit's are shown as pictures including tree's etc, so even on the visual side nothing is wrong with this system.
And (at least in EU) system is exact onto the meter!
Be aware that system is looking different when a destination is entered (like the auto-zoom function on exit's and crossings.
 
#17 ·
I paid $300 for mine. Too high but for me, still worth it.

I'm a real estate appraiser and may have to find 15 residential addresses a day. The nav system makes it easier and quicker than my previous systems.

Its not perfect, tho. It doesn't like doing U-turns. Even if the new destination a block in the other direction, it may give me a route that is a mile long in order to avoid the U-turn. But if you look at the screen, you can avoid the roundabout route. It recalculates the route speedily.

I wish the voice were a bit less verbose in some situations. After I say, "Drive to address," the system comes back and says, "Say the address, city, and state. do not include the zip code, you can also enter the address from the screeen, do not pass go, ...." I may have paraphrased a bit but when I'm ready to say the address, I don't want to wait for the same instructions each and every time. I end up having to press the talk button on the steering wheel a second time to cancel the nav's instruction speech. Maybe a minor annoyance but it gets old fast.

Its great when I hear, "Your destination is 400' on the left."

A perfect system would allow me to enter the addresses on my desktop and upload an optimized route of all 15 properties to the car. Some day.
 
#19 ·
I paid $300 for mine. Too high but for me, still worth it.

Its not perfect, tho. It doesn't like doing U-turns. Even if the new destination a block in the other direction, it may give me a route that is a mile long in order to avoid the U-turn. But if you look at the screen, you can avoid the roundabout route. It recalculates the route speedily.
I know that on my old Garmin, you could go to "preferences" or "settings" or whatever it was called and indicate whether or not you wanted to allow U-turns. It worked quite well in helping you avoid the situation you described. I haven't checked, but I'm assuming that our Mazda Navteq system doesn't give us that option, right?

A perfect system would allow me to enter the addresses on my desktop and upload an optimized route of all 15 properties to the car. Some day.
I agree. That would be a VERY cool feature, indeed.
 
#20 ·
Car nav vs. Phone nav

I drove an Acura for 14 years and loved the nav system (it was pretty unique when I got it in 2001). When I bought a Hyundai last year I decided to skip the nav and use my phone. I regretted it ... I just found it tedious to have to mess with my phone while driving. I never found a phone mount I really liked. Keeping the phone on for nav drained the battery pretty quick, so it needed to be plugged in all the time.

But, different strokes for different folks. I know some people prefer to use their phone for it, and that's fine. I don't drive in a place with horrendous traffic, so I don't really need Waze or whatever to alert me to traffic problems.

Anyway, that Hyundai got totaled and I replaced it with a new Mazda, and this time I got the nav option. I know I overpaid for it (I didn't research that element ahead of time and didn't realize how much cheaper you could get it). But I don't regret it.

Some things I really like about the Mazda nav over my old Acura nav:
* Updates are cheaper (Acura wanted a LOT for updates, which were only available every few years)
* The more specific lane info helps when navigating unfamiliar complex interchanges.
* The speed camera warnings are nice, and the "you're speeding" notification if sometimes handy.
* My favorite thing - the status bar shows you the name of the next street you're about to cross, even when you are in non-nav parts of the infotainment system. Great when you're looking for a street and the sign is unlit at night, or obscured by bushes.

Only thing I liked better on the Acura nav is it had physical zoom in/out buttons. The Mazda nav doesn't really have a way to zoom in/out when you're not navigating a route. Well, it does, but it seems really inconvenient, almost impossible to do safely while driving. (If I'm wrong about that, someone please clue me in).

By the way, how did Costco help you get it for $200, when you got it from the dealer? Pretty good deal!

Oh, one last thing, for people who REALLY want to do nav on the cheap, find the "enhanced compass application" thread here. They're putting together a do-it-yourself mapping system. Not as full-featured as the OEM nav, and you have to be willing to hack your infotainment system, but it's free.

Mark
 
#21 ·
By the way, how did Costco help you get it for $200, when you got it from the dealer? Pretty good deal! Mark
I was wondering when someone was going to ask me about that. ;)

I'm a Costco member, so when I started looking to buy a car, I checked out their car-buying service (costcoauto.com). I entered what make I was looking for (Mazda, obviously!) and my zip code, and they gave me the nearest Mazda dealer that participates in their program, which happened to be the closest dealer to my house.

There's a "special Costco price," but because it was the very end of the year (12/30/2015) and the dealer was anxious to sell cars to bring up his yearly total, I actually managed to get a price that was slightly better than the Costco price.

After I bought the car, Costco asked me to answer a brief survey about my experience at the dealer. After I did that, they sent me a coupon good for 50% off any part or service, up to a maximum of $200. Since as you know the SD card lists for $400, it seemed like the perfect way to use my coupon. So I did!

Obviously, to get the coupon, you need to sign up for Costco's service *before* you buy the car, so it's too late if you already have your car. HOWEVER... if you're a Costco member, you can always download a coupon for 15% off all parts and service (good only at participating dealers, obviously) anytime you want. So any time you're going in for service, or there's a part you want, just download a coupon and you're good to go. Not as good as that one-time-only 50% coupon, but still a pretty good deal IMHO.
 
#26 ·
When I bought my new Mazda 3 a few weeks ago, I went in with the intention of getting the NAV card, even if I had to pay the full $400 price for it. I had two reasons for this. First, my Garmin partially broke several months ago. By partially I mean that it still functioned and charged, but was impossible to connect to a computer to update. It seemed that the USB port got messed up. Considering that some major highway junctions in my area have experienced a complete redesign, this makes it effectively useless when I need it most. Second, I drive quite frequently and do not want to use all of my data plan on navigation through my cell phone. Over time, the built in navigation will save me money since I do not use as much data.

It ended up working out for me as I negotiated with the dealer to get the card at a great discount, by playing the "I''ll buy the car right now if it comes with the NAV card" game. They added a few hundred to my trade in and charged me a discounted rate. The overall cost was less than $100.

After using it for a few days, the major problem was lack of access to functions once you get moving. I know how to leave my home and work, and can start on the initial driving from any current location prior to needing directions, and it sucked having the type a new destination feature locked out. Thankfully, the Infotainment Project thread provided great instructions for eliminating those restrictions. With all functions enabled while moving it works much the same as my cell phone navigation, only it is a much cleaner built in system without having to use a mount or picking up my phone all the time.

Getting full controls while moving is essential if you decide to change your location after you are already moving, or inputting a detour and customizing your route should you run into an issue. It would suck to need to pull over on the side of the highway just to tell the system that you want to avoid a certain highway due to a major accident and not have the NAV system constantly adjusting your route back onto it.

After using it for a few weeks I definitely think it was a worthwhile investment. I can deal with having gas prices shown on the display. Since my refuel rarely exceeds 11 gallons, a $0.05 difference in price would only cost me an extra $0.55 at that stop. I can live with that.
 
#28 ·
I would say worth it. Not much experience with mine so far but less crap to deal with like cables. I prefer the all in one advantage. Nav has been great so far. love if you got HUD that turns are displayed on it.

Bought mine used and did not come with a nav card as the S-GT should of. I had to buy an unlocked one online at ebay for 85 bucks. got lucky. It was my fault for not checking the car thoroughly when I bought it.

Shop around for the card. Seen some legit one's online like at ebay for under 300 dollars. Mostly coming from dealers. There have been some unlocked. Mine came from overseas.

Also make a backup copy of your SD card using mazda tool box and tuck it away. I use my backup in my mazda.
 
#29 ·
I am trying to buy one, they said the updates are for 3 years only after that you have to buy a new one. Is that the case with you guys as well? Will the navigation still work after the 3 years of updates? Can we purchase individual updates?

Also can I turn on navigation and at the same time stream music through my phone via bluetooth on the car speakers? Thank you!
 
#30 ·
as today we wrote it doesn't worth to spent a cent on map ( card ) for MZD, all are linked for free over the net and forever. even you can hear music , answer phone call , just i added utilities to ux folder and modify data.zip . it work like any other IGO Primo or nextgen on other platform.
even if you want police women give you blink eyes when you approach speed camera :nerd:
 
#33 ·
Just my 2 cents...

I've been using my phone as navigation for a long time. However in my state they are pretty hard on using your phone while driving regardless.

So I wanted the navigation and there are a couple of things that I noticed that stood out.

Pro.. it is nice to be able to free my phone up/or not drain it while driving. This is especially noticeable when I'm navigating to a place far away. I used to look at the map to get myself in the general area and then use the navigation when I got close. With the car I just start the navigation from the get-go and it doesn't matter how far away I am.

Con.. the largest flaw with Mazda navigation is that it can't search. So I have to use my phone to get the address of a place, and then type that address into the navigation. This by far is the largest WTF and I really hope some future update fixes it.

Pro.. when you have navigation and you're not using it, it displays the upcoming street at the top of your screen. Believe it or not I find this really handy for even when you're driving to places where you basically know where you're going. In the last couple days it's been extremely foggy where I live. And I've actually been using that feature to know when my turn is coming up because I can't see very far in the distance. I have to say this is a very nice feature although many people may not even notice it.
 
#40 ·
Con.. the largest flaw with Mazda navigation is that it can't search. So I have to use my phone to get the address of a place, and then type that address into the navigation. This by far is the largest WTF and I really hope some future update fixes it.
Actually there is a "POI" search, at least on mine.
On the other hand, seems not to cover every single thing I would find on Google Maps though. :)
 
#35 ·
I think you made a good choice. As I mentioned above, you will find yourself using it for things other than Navigation. Just yesterday we got hit with a heavy downpour. the freeway was so bad with all the rain + kick up from the cars in front, and reached over and pushed by Nav button so I could see how close I was getting to my exit.
 
#38 ·
Thanks! Ya I definitely like the street feature. One big plus for me is listening to music from phone while navigation screen is on and turning off navigation audio. I haven't tried it yet but looking forward to it.

I do everything on the go, have any of you unlocked the feature that allows to type address while driving ? What's the best way?




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#41 · (Edited)
I don't know what they did with the last firmware update (OS says 59.00.502) but the Nav is incredibly slow now. I'm in North America. Voice address recognition works decently but is really slow now. And Nav is slow to call out turns now. I've missed freeway exits because it told me to exit after passing the exit. Not worth it.
 
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