Electronic gps, touchscreens etc...reliabilty? maintenance cost?

The screen might also be used to hide the upcoming crash from the passengers. If ya can’t see it coming, you’ll never know what hit ya.

VDC Driver, It Must Be Nice! I’ve Heard Of New Cars Because Of Full Ashtrays, But Lacking A GPS . . . ?

When do we get to help pick out and your new car and help choose the options?

CSA

CSA

I think that you misunderstood me (not to be confused with “misunderestimating me”, as GWB famously said).

When I buy my next car in approximately one year, I will be replacing my '02 car, which I bought in December '01. At that point, the car will be about 9 years old. I never previously kept a car longer than 7 years, so the length of my ownership of this car is a bit unusual, even for me.

Anyway, in an attempt to clarify the situation, I will not be buying a new car next year because of a lack of GPS in the current one. I will be buying a new car because…well, because I have been a good boy and I deserve one!

And, since I am at the point in my life where I don’t feel like depriving myself, I plan to get one with “all the bells and whistles”. Thus, the new one will undoubtedly come equipped with GPS. Being the frugal sort that I am, I don’t want to spend money on a portable, aftermarket system now, and then not use it in just one year.

This is a tough issue for me. I normally like to have separate systems for each function so that I can get the best performance from each. When they are bundled together, you often get one or two best-in-class features and then the rest are mediocre implementations.

Initially, I was against the manufacturer based GPS systems because they were often outdated by the time they were delivered, required dealer visit and $$ to upgrade and they suffered from the other issues the OP mentioned (expensive, easy to break etc).

A co-worker has a Lexus SUV that has built-in GPS. But it also uses this large display for the back up camera and that’s a real bonus IMO. But all of the electronics are controlled through this same interface and some schmoe at the car wash apparently leaned on the display and damaged it. The cost to replace was, well, astronomical and quite painful. Take the good with the bad…