Porsche navigation unit
 

Just ordered Boxster s for April delivery and I'm looking at the options. Plan to spend time touring North American so considering the Navigation unit. Does anyone know if it's simple to use without requiring the manual. Would it be better to get a portable or is the Porsche unit OK. I've only seen two systems, a Nissan and GM. The GM was crap and the Nissan was OK.

airboxster, the Nav unit is very good...and yes, the manual will prove helpful.

The 2005 PCM works pretty well. I'm one of those people who will only refer to the manual if they get stuck. I'd rather just play around with the equipment to figure out how it works. It's pretty easy to use.

With that said, my advice is to be comfortable that you'll be using the nav as something more than a toy. My wife and I have been looking for a new home and it's been great in getting us to open houses. Otherwise, I don't use it most of the time, because I rarely take long trips. I set a price limit when I decided to buy the car, and the PCM was a big chunk of my options. If I had to do it over again, I'd think about applying the money to full leather or some other mechanical goodies that I'd enjoy on a regular basis.

I agree with longislander1, the PCM is a very expensive option ($3,175). Someone could spend this money differently, on options that are used more daily. Besides, MapQuest is free, and works very good. Plus, there is nothing wrong with getting lost, and driving your Boxster at the same time!

I sprang for the navigation when I ordered my M3 some years back, and always felt like it was money wasted. My wife has a Garmin Street Pilot c320 portable in her car. It of course would have to be stuck somewhere in your cockpit as opposed to being mounted in the dash, but it's darn nice and $500.

If you reall want the creme de la creme consider this aftermarket Eclipse double-din dash unit, same unit as used by Lexus:
http://www.eclipse-web.com/avn/avn5435.html
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-CwQtElM5Klg/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=099AVN5435&g=0

tmc