Bought a Kenwood DNX9960 a few years ago and I have usually been able to find updated maps. Garmin released new maps recently and I was able to find them on the Kenwood forums. The maps are complete with the 3D maps, voice recognition and junction views.
Just wondering what others have found with their in dash nav units. Are there updated maps out there for Alpine, Pioneer and all the other decks on the market? The readily available maps for the Kenwood was a major factor in my purchasing decision.
End of month, I'm likely picking up an Alpine INA-W910. I chose primarily based on the following: it has super fast boot up time, particularly for getting to the back up camera, sounds fantastic "out of the box", no lag on the visual user interface touch screen, and from my experience very solid reliability.
Alpine, like other companies release new maps every 2 years or so. And to be honest, it was not a big concern of mine. I had been using an older Garmin with pretty old maps, and borrowed my dad's much newer Garmin with much newer maps one day. It had lots of nice little upgrades like built in blue tooth, bigger screen, faster response time on the screen, but the updated maps weren't the be all and end all. But maybe that's because I live in a major metropolitan city. If I lived in an area with constant new developments, it would be much more of an issue.
I'm a little concerned and could possibly be persuaded to go Kenwood for a few reasons. First of all the Alpine visual interface looked outdated the day it came out. They have this newer line up starting with INE, that look so much slicker. But I'm a little wary of buying an early production deck with such complexity. I tried out one of the DNX-6690, and it was frustratingly slow. Apparently the 9990 loses a few functions, but gets a faster processor, and as a result is MUCH faster/smoother, and less laggy. Although in my opinion, what Kenwood wants for the 9990 is not in line with what others are offering. You can get more for less with Pioneer and Alpine.
I must admit, now that I know maps for the Kenwood/Garmin are readily available for free, this may persuade me to with a Kenwood DNX-9990, but only if I can get it for a grand tops (I can get the INA-W910 for under a grand). But since I've found out about the new INE line up from Alpine coming out soon, and already released in Europe, I may go that route. The lack of map upgrades while a factor, won't sway me if the other factors don't add up.
Oh, and they have an 8" oversized double din version of the the INE, if I can shoehorn that in, I'd love to. But again, I'm concerned about buggy new product that's not even available here yet. They make a normal double din version called the INE-S920HD, that has a rotary knob, which I love compared to all buttons/touchscreen. I also like that it has a slot for a cd/dvd so that it doesn't have to have a motorized screen (just one more thing to break, and drives up the cost/complexity).
