Is NAV activation worth it?

[EagleChief]

We have the Nav in my wife's Durango and I can't stand it. It will not find addresses about half of the time, and when it does, it will usually route us out of the way to get there. We use our phone, or a stand alone TomTom for accurate GPS. The TomTom stays in my truck (2014 BigHorn) and gets used when we go out of town. For $120 about 6 or 7 years ago, the TomTom has been great. And, it gets free updates as well.

The OEM Nav is a $150 update about once a year. And, at that price, you get map updates that are 6 months old already.

 

[Kenneth1977]

I have only used mine about three times to me it is just a lot easier to use my phone because the few times i did use it i about put my fist though the dang screen so to me the nav is useless .

 

[aladin_sane]

Definitely hit this dude up if you decide to activate!!

I contacted that source today, and sadly, he is no longer able to provide this service. Anyone else know a source?

 

[McBroom]

$600 you answer that question for ya self???
I know you can get a Megalan for $125 at Walmart


I Love My 2018 RAM 2500HD 4x4 Off Road. 6.4L. USMC (ret)

 

[Jared4.7]

I contacted that source today, and sadly, he is no longer able to provide this service. Anyone else know a source?

Dam, thats a bummer! Didnt know that.

 

[corneileous]

Updates are overpriced and the data is usually at least 12 months old.

They charge for map updates? That’s pretty lousy.


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[aladin_sane]

Dam, thats a bummer! Didnt know that.

Wish i had pulled that trigger back in december when i first made contact

 

[corneileous]

The first trip I went on since having my new ride, we went down to New Orleans. I only used my Nav once, maybe twice and so far I’m not really all that impressed with it. Primarily because it’s just so much easier to whip out the iPhone and open up either Google maps or Apple maps. Besides; unless there’s an unlocker mod that I’ve yet to find that let’s you use the keyboard while in motion, I don’t have to deal with that restriction resulting in having to talk to my radio, with my phone. That, and like somebody mentioned, I think the factory Nav prefers routing of shorter distance over quicker time because when it came time to go home, that’s when we had the longest trip and the way it wanted us to go was like little over a half hour longer than what google maps routed us. Lol. On the way down we stopped In Bossier City one night, Lafayette the next, Baton Rouge the third night, New Orleans the fourth night and back in Baton Rouge the last night so that wasn’t bad, all them little short trips but when it came time to leave, I don’t know what it was thinking. Lol. It was fun watching it recalculate all the time and kept slowly shaving time off.

Oh well, I’m afraid that by finally getting to reach that luxury of having the NAV in my beloved Ram, will be when I no longer need it ‘bout like it was in my old Ram when I finally got that fancy, in-dash 6-disk CD changer when I stopped listening to CD’s probly 4, 5 years before that. Lol. That’s my luck....[emoji41]


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[aladin_sane]

I got an email from FCA yesterday offering $150 off of Nav activation. I may end up doing it.

 

[TomT]

As a backup, it’s ok, but almost all smartphones will be better.

Side note: If you buy a GPS app that allows offline maps, then it will work even if you are out of cell coverage. The GPS radio in your phone works independently from the cellular data radio. Even though they are often built into a single chip.

 

[corneileous]

I haven’t tried it all that much but I think you can download map data in google maps for offline mode too...


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[chrisbh17]

2 of our 3 vehicles have Nav systems, my RAM is capable but I didnt purchase it.

Ive used our other 2 vehicles for several long trips (vacations, etc). While the built in nav systems are nice as a fallback, I find myself using Google maps on my Android phone just because of the ability to adjust for traffic. The ETAs are much more accurate, the green/orange/red lines indicating when you are coming up to traffic are much more useful, etc.

And obviously their data will always be more accurate because it can be updated without re-installing, etc.

I tried to get the dealer to throw in the nav activation for me when I bought my truck, they said no. Unless I can get it really really cheap (like, 100 or so), Ill never activate it myself.

 

[TomT]

I haven’t tried it all that much but I think you can download map data in google maps for offline mode too...

I think Google limits that to city-size blocks of data. That could have changed though as I haven’t used the feature in a few years.

I like to use my cell-enabled iPad as a NAV screen on longer road trips.

 

[corneileous]

I think Google limits that to city-size blocks of data. That could have changed though as I haven’t used the feature in a few years.

I’m not sure. I know I’ve used google maps and even Apple maps on trips with intermittent service and it’s never skipped a beat.

I like to use my cell-enabled iPad as a NAV screen on longer road trips.

I’ve heard of people doing that. I haven’t tried it with mine yet cuz it’s the 10.5 iPad Pro. lol. Little big for the dash....[emoji41] That, and I didn’t get one with a SIM card. Didn’t need to because at the time I had personal hotspot enabled.

That’s at least one nice thing about having Apple car play capability though is that with it I can project Apple maps onto the 8.4 screen from my iPhone.



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[TomT]

I just prop it up somewhere that I can see it. LOL

I always paid for the cell option on my iPads. Even if I didn't activate the cell service the GPS radio was active. Of course I'm a professional Apple geek so I use my iPad via cell all the time.

 

[corneileous]

I just prop it up somewhere that I can see it. LOL

I always paid for the cell option on my iPads. Even if I didn't activate the cell service the GPS radio was active. Of course I'm a professional Apple geek so I use my iPad via cell all the time.

I’m kinda sorta somewhat wishing I would’ve gotten the sim-enabled iPad but I just wasn’t sure how much extra it would have cost me to add it to my phone bill. My series 3 watch is only costing me 10 bucks. Not sure if that would be the same for the iPad.

I dunno...if anything, if it ever came down to it, I would just re-enable my hotspot since it would be very, very rare that I would be somewhere with my iPad but not with my phone...lol.


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[aladin_sane]

I went ahead and activated the nav in my RA3. Only then did I learn that it has a much clunkier voice interface than the RA4. Why in the world would they do that?

 

[TomT]

I’m kinda sorta somewhat wishing I would’ve gotten the sim-enabled iPad but I just wasn’t sure how much extra it would have cost me to add it to my phone bill. My series 3 watch is only costing me 10 bucks. Not sure if that would be the same for the iPad.

You don't have to add it to your plan. You can activate the sim on a month by month basis. Higher up front cost though.

Ok, threadjack over. LOL

 

[AngryRams]

You can get a new doubedin that's light-years better than the uconnect stuff and use Android or carplay.... Better sound too.

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[corneileous]

You can get a new doubedin that's light-years better than the uconnect stuff and use Android or carplay.... Better sound too.

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I’m pretty pleased with the Uconnect on my 18 so far but one of them Tesla-style radios would be pretty neat. They just ain’t cheap.


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