I have been shopping for a while for a new DVD nav head unit. My new F-150 is in need of something better. Unfortunately it seems to me like every unit out there has a major flaw in it, so I'm having trouble picking my poison.

My wants:

Large touch screen.
Good navigation.
Backup Camera
Bypass available.
Great iPod Interface.
Good phone bluetooth would be nice.

Candidates:

Alpine W205. If you want it with traffic you need the "remote GPS nav" unit, which pushes the cost of this solution near 4k time you do an iPod interface and other stuff. That's just crazy.

Eclipse 6610. Looks like a nice unit, and an ok price. Has the nice feature of having a second drive so navigation doesn't take a bad seat to your CD. I don't see anyone making a kit to put this in an F150 though, so it seems like it would be more work to install.

Pioneer Z2. Has the hard drive, which probably makes the nav better. No traffic yet, at least with Sirius, which is what I want. I suppose they will have it some day.

Pioneer D3. Cheap. Close to everything I want, but no traffic, and nav stops while playing a CD, unless you find a place for a changer.

It seems like Kenwood and Clarion also have solutions, but they are not that popular.

More importantly, how do you find a good local shop? I stoped by the local eclipse dealer today only to find he hasn't stocked their products in a year. Circuit City and Best Buy seem to be the only people around here who stock everything, and frankly I think they are idiots.

I'll do the install myself if I have to, but I can't go test these anywhere, don't know anyone who has them, and they all seem to have drawbacks. Help!

 

the D3 has satalite traffic...great unit for the price...but if you have the funds, go with the z2.

this is of course you decide to go with pioneer.

 

I just had the Kenwood DNX-7100 installed a couple days ago. It has all the features you are looking for at a pretty reasonable price. I am very happy with it. I got the Bluetooth with it and it works very well. I called several people to test the mic and everyone said they could hear me well.

 

Heres what i can tell ya bout the few ya picked.. both the z2 and d3 are great units you can get many feautres an accesories BUT they have a built in gyro so as soon as you hit 5mph the screen will shut down preventing you from watching movies. as far as the whole losing gps when playing a cd only if you dont have a route.. as long as you have it navigating you it stores it into memory mode. the eclipse is a great unit the double drive is also a major plus the alpine i am not framiliar with. as far as a dash kit head down to any circuit city and they should have it in stock. good luck with your decision making.

 

Hit Travis up at kcautosound.com. He is a dealer for Clarion, Kenwood, Panasonic, Pioneer DVD/Navs. He can fix you up with everything needed to install it yourself and tell you how to do it.

 

there is a bypass for the d3, so you can view the movies while driving...it is very easy to do, an extra 2min during the install process. but there is no bypass for the z2 yet.