Not sure how they get them. He sold others that have worked for buyers.

 

I find entering destinations into the OEM Nav system to be way too cumbersome and slow. Voice entry is even worse.

 

Nothing could be worse than the 2014 system. It wanted the zipcode before I could put in the street address. There were other pathways to get there, but this was horrible. Waze or Google Maps, we never use the OEM nav system unless we are in a rural area.

 

I agree that a phone Nav system is better than the Mazda system but the Mazda system is so convenient that I use it 95% of the time.

If I am on a long trip, I use Waze otherwise the Mazda system is on the screen while I am driving.

 

When I bought my 2015 Mazda3 in the pre-Apple-Car-Play days, I didn't want to shell out what the dealer wanted for the navigation SD card so I held off a while. I found a dealership out in Arizona that had all sorts of stuff on eBay for considerably less than what they wanted locally. I checked and double checked the part numbers before ordering and it worked out fine.

I've got built in nav as well as Car Play in my Sonata and most of the time I just end up using the Apple Maps. I had a terrible time when I bought that car deciding what trim package to go with. I knew I could use my phone's maps but the Boy Scout in me kept saying "Be Prepared!" and I worried about being lost out in the middle of nowhere without phone service and not having maps so I went with the one that included the nav system.

I think this spring when I trade that in for the CX5 I want I'm probably going to just skip the nav card and use the phone's navigation. Perhaps if I'm planning a cross country trip to Walley World or something I'd go ahead and add the card but I think for the most part I wouldn't need it.

 

I agree with your Be prepared sentiment. My 21 CX5 came with Nav but apparently the card is defective so I am pursuing a warranty claim. If the car did not come with Nav I would use the phone and offline maps as a backup.

 

Yep! I tell ya that is one thing Mazda did right and they get big points from me. Just needing a maps card that can be added at any time is100000x better than making navigation part of an expensive options package. That was one of the things that got me to buy my Mazda3 in 2015. When I got my Sonata in 2018 I had to go with the Limited model with the Ultimate package to get navigation and I don't even want to think about how much all that cost me. I really didn't need the sunroof. Or the heated and cooled leather seats. Or the wireless phone charging. (It's a great car but more than what I needed.)

 

Service determined the Nav Card was defective, got a new one. I do like that directions show up in the HUD.

 

Good deal. And that's kinda cool having it in the HUD.

 

So, where is a good place to buy that NAV card - other than the local dealership?