The factory navigation can be retrofitted.

997.1: http://www.suncoastparts.com/product...997ELECTRONICS

997.2: http://www.suncoastparts.com/product...9972electronic

I have a 997.1 and use my navigation all the time since I'm constantly going to new places in LA. It may not be as advanced as a $100 Garmin or whatever is available on a phone, but I still prefer a built in navigation. I don't like the looks of a Garmin unit on the car's dash and having to put it away each time I park the car to prevent theft. I don't like the small screen on the phone navigation.

 

+1 for me too.

 

On a 3 year old C2S the Nav adds about $450 to the trade value. To me this means you would have to go a hell of a lot of unfamiliar places to justify the option over using an "ugly" Garmin a couple of times a month.

 

I talked with my home dealer and and on pulling up the VIN, the tech said the PCM installed in the car is the basic and cannot be retrofitted, unless you replace the whole PCM.

 

You don't need NAV to get that in the '09+ cars.

 

I like the NAV on my 997, especially how the display in the tach can show upcoming turns and other info instead of having to look at the screen. But as stated there are a few aftermarket devices with touch screens, NAV, bluetooth... everything and factory looking bezels too.

No one mentioned your ideal color combo with red interior and favorable pricing and trade. That's a major plus that is hard to duplicate. You can add NAV and as most said, you won't use it much anyway.

 

Thats really the big reason I am tempted. My car did not depreciate and have a little equity on it for d/p. Its hard to believe it.

 

Well, yes, that would make it worthwhile I'm sure. Getting lost even once for the lack of it I mean. Never done that, but I'm sure its annoying. At least. (No experience to judge. Boy Scout merit badges in navigation, map reading and all that sort of thing, back in the early Cretaceous of my youth.)

We got our car off the lot as well, and I considered the installed NAV to be a plus, but I'd only ever used a NAV in an Acura. They have an excellent database and a transparent interface. With this unit, I detect a certain culture conflict. I'm sure it would be more obvious how to use the thing if I'd been raised in the Falklands like the programmer.

I see someone says the data is useful in South Jersey and I have to wonder if that means the southern shores of the Jersey Islands, because i haven't found anywhere in Southern California that the data is reliably correct, let alone useful on the rare occasion they guessed right.

I keep trying it in the hope it will come good, and I was willing to pay for a database upgrade at this last service until they quoted some outrageous price akin to buying Autocad. For the first time. Without a professional discount or even a "nice smile" bonus thrown in. This can't possibly be a Carrera-unique database since it has so many off-road features available, so the upgrade price is unconscionable. Especially because my Droid Incredible phone access to Google Maps.

On a recent trip, I had to use human navigation knowledge to take over and correct the onboard NAV three times. The week before that, just trying to find a small business from its address, it happened also. The system turned me down a small road and just said "Destination on your left" or whatever the words are. That would have been nice except "the destination" by its interpretation of the address was a medium-sized industrial park with three entrances and no visible signboard directory. "On your left", huh?

Even fifteen years ago, our Acura sedan would guide through the small private roads of such a location until it said "on the left" only when we arrived within twenty feet of the front door and were ready to park. Of course, the Japanese have the world's worst street navigation problem to solve in Tokyo, so they build good NAV systems.

I share the feeling that a Porsche with a Tom-Tom on the dash looks ridiculous. I figure if my own intuition ever fails me, I can call up help on my smart phone, but I'll just do without NAV until that shocking day arrives. I'll probably keep turning on the built-in unit to mock it while traveling. Gives me something to do in heavy traffic.

Would I order it? Of course not. Do I care, either way? Hell no. This is a Porsche. So Marketing told them Americans need cupholders and get lost going to shop. Who cares from which dimestore they shoplifted the unit? It's a bloody Porsche. Just run up through the gears once a day and try to remember what use you thought a NAV might be.

Gary
Gary

 

Sorry, Cindy needed me. What I started to say was that I'm a little more harsh than most because such things are my business. I worked on the original GPS team for awhile. Suppose they developed this just for the sports car line and included features like recognizing I've entered a race track venue and shifting to automatic lap statistics when I roll onto the course. I might scoff at the labor-saving effort (not having to pull the lever to mark start-finish for the sports chrono that is), but at least that would show willing. More usefully, they could license use of Google data and have something I can rely on to be right to five nines. (That is, 99.999% of the time.) Either way, a unit and database unique to Porsche sports cars would have a certain element of perverse pride as well as justifying the upgrade price because the low volume of sales would make it more reasonable.

But no. This is at best a unit developed for all Porsche cars which is why it includes off-road navigation aids. Quite possibly, it is a unit developed by some European supplier for manufacturers who don't care enough to bother. That means the number of upgrades to be distributed is quite respectable in volume. The upgrade price could easily be in line with the rest of the software business. Most likely $49 for ordinary cars at that volume, and no more than $200 for a Porsche.

Gary

 

Gary....I have to say my Nav has never lead me astray. I use it all the time for business meetings or new locations I have to go to and it's wonderful. I really wouldn't be without it.

It's so interesting how one person's idea of perfection is another's idea of "a long way to go"....I guess that's good or everyone would be buying Porsches and somebody else might be married to my wife

Tom

 

OP you have a great taste in color. I have an Arctic Silver with Carrera Red interior, wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Porsche Nav's are ok, but after the novelty effect wears off, you will find it lacking a lot of features compared to other factory navs (specially some Japanese ones). Plus like few posts above, I only drive my 911 to places I know. So unless if it's a daily driver or you tend to explore unknown places a lot, the added resale value is negligible compared to what you put in. Most people buy Porsche for its performance, not creature comfort. So I doubt the lack of nav will hurt your resale demands.

 

i paid 3K total to get stock NAV integrated into my car and love it. Here in MA driving around towns close to Boston with no NAV is no fun. No matter how good you think you know local roads it is always a challenge. Plus to have map in PCM is nice and I like to keep stock electronics to preserve original looks. I do not care of any specific 'features', in 90% of situations I just need to see a map with me on it to find out where did I get. Only thing that annoys me a lot is that 'live traffic' system which is supposed to work over FM radio does not work in USA at all. In Europe it is very handy to open up a map and see right away where you have a gridlock. But not here apparently.

Some like more modern central units from Pioneer or Kenwood but I do not think it suits 997 car.

 

Mine did. So I just use its map. My Garmin btw looses signal in downtown Boston between tall buildings - 997`s sensor does not, it is very handy.

 

no nav in my 997.1 and I've never missed having it. I generally use my smartphone and prefer to look up directions before I start my drive.

 

I think a lot of people that buy cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Acura, etc second hand look for a nav in their car and it's a good point to have for resell purposes. With the Porsche I would feel that it wouldn't be a deal breaker.

I was thinking I needed a nav but at the end of the day I opened up to not having one because to be quite honest I use my iphone all the time or I know where I am going. Don't go very many places I am not familiar with. I have used the navigation in my M5 a total of 4 times in 4 years and it's not worth it.

We got the option in the wife's benz but she doesn't even use it at all. But with that car at least that upgrade did come with more such as a hard drive for her to save music, Ipod connection system, satellite radio, and upgraded audio interfaces etc. So it was a bit more than just a NAV for 3K.