Navigation gripes

[Harlock]

Is it just me or is the navigation system in the 2015 Mazda3 a piece of garbage? It's totally useless compared to google maps on my phone. The interface is about 10 years out of date.

I assume the SD card is not keyed to your car as I see them for sale on Ebay, I'm probably going to sell mine. I just never use it. I didn't actually request it, it happened to come with a tech package that the car had preinstalled.

-M

 

[concept]

The NAV screen, without a specific route entered, is somewhat crude. BUT, as soon as I plug in a destination, the display is actually very nice, even when compared to the Garmin I have for the MX5 (on occasion). Quite a bit of information is displayed in higher resolution - much more than adequate for my needs.
By contrast, my phone screen is tiny. I'll take the Mazda NAV over the phone, any day.

 

[YelPro03]

The navigation SD card is keyed. Once you've activated it with your car then it'll have your car's VIN recorded on the card so it can't be used on a different car. I agree that the navi system (TomTom) Mazda uses isn't that great and the so called traffic update is essentially useless. My wife's Garmin with free lifetime traffic and map updates is much better in my opinion. Because the traffic report on her Garmin actually works the ETA is much more accurate than the Mazda's navi system. But hey, it's better than nothing and it does get me to where I want to go... eventually. My phone's navigation app is better but the screen is much smaller and I'll have to use up my data.