UPDATE: Thanks for all the replies, they were really helpful. She’s going to use her phone.
My wife started driving, but her car doesn’t have a Car Navigation system.
There are way too many options on Amazon, anyone can recommend me anything between 1man to 2man? Good enough to drive around our city. (Needs to be in Japanese).
(Don’t recommend google maps or phone apps please).
8 comments
Get a good phone mount, and the Navitime app. 600 yen per month subscription and monthly updates, versus 200K buy in and 20K per year for annual updates.
If she wants a larger screen, an iPad mini is still cheaper than a dedicated navi unit, and you can tether it off your phone or get a cheap MVNO SIM.
Are you looking for a on dash mount or in dash mount. If in dash is the car 1din or 2din? For in dash pretty much any of the alpine navi are good. The higher end Panasonic navi are also pretty good.
> anyone can recommend me anything between 10man to 20man?
Pioneer Carrozzeria is hands down the best.
Panasonic is trash. Clarion is worse. Fujitsu Eclipse used to be excellent (#2 to pioneer) but they got bought by someone else I think. Not sure how they are today.
Personally I use Navitime, same as Hoon. It’s very good, but in an area with a lot of tall buildings it’s not as good as an in-dash unit. I’d take a modern Pioneer over Navitime (assuming you don’t mind paying for the head unit and then paying for updates), but would take Navitime over Panasonic, Clarion, or anything else except maybe an Eclipse if they’re still good.
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Edit: Added the original quote & budget so that my reply makes sense.
For that price you won’t be able to buy anything remotely decent.
I won’t recommend a phone app as you requested, but I will say I majorly regretted buying a car navi (unless I just got unlucky with the particular one I chose). It was so old, slow, and difficult to use. I paid for it and here it sits in my car unused because it’s so much easier and faster to use my phone
The Navi systems are so sluggish and have terrible UX. I know you’re anti apps but it really is the best option. I’ve been using google maps for two years – driving regularly and on quite a few long distance road trips across Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. Only once have I ended up heading towards a road too narrow (in Tokyo), and it was easily avoided. I don’t drive a Kei.
I like the Toyota branded Navi. I’m very happy with mine though since I bought my car used, it’s the basic model. I may upgrade later on to a nicer model
I found the phone apps fall apart in the tunnels. Other than that they are ok. I still ended up with 30man pioneer with beautiful touch screen like an iPhone. Has all the great stuff but overkill. Maybe a 2nd hand pioneer from Mercari?