Completely agree that Porsche Nav is difficult to use and, compared to less expensive cars, way bad.

I'll go even further and say the entire dash board is a hodge podge of confusing, counter intuitive, and unnecessary gauges and readouts.

I've got 7 gauges on my 911. My M3 has 4

Porsche needs their electronic engineers to get back to basics. And start with the "simple is good" class.

 

Like others, I have never used the PCM Nav and use WAZE exclusively. It’s unfortunate Porsche doesn’t support Android auto but you are still better off using your phone.

 

Trust me, it’s well worth the investment and not that hard to do. I went with the NM Automotive unit.

 

Obviously none of these German engineers have ever used their phone to navigate somewhere or they would have second thoughts about designing a NAV system that is 20 years out of date. My 2001 BMW 740i had a better nav system than newer Porsches. Not sure why it shouldn’t be at least as good as my phone for starters.
Lot of room for improvement.

 

An alternative:

If you don't have the "Online Services" option installed on your car, you can get it at your dealer. It's a couple of hundred dollars and is a software upgrade.

Unless you update your nav database every three years or so when a new map comes out, your database of addresses, locations, etc is old and can cause issues. Online Services allows you to search for destinations using Google so it is up to date every day. Once installed you simply connect your iPhone via car to the glove box USB plug-in. Download the "Aha" app and create an account. It will automatically start the app from this point forward when you plug your car in. You can also get online internet radio and "Aha" will show up as a music source like "SAT", "FM" and others.

More here from Suncoast: https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKUAHA.html

I use it all the time on my '14 991.

Good luck.

 

Just use Google or Apple, they have active traffic anyway, so it will give best route rather than just whatever the Porsche nav gives. Also, with WAZE you get speed trap alerts too. Easier and better not using the Porsche nav.

 

I live in an area with several pockets of no cell phone/data coverage so the onboard nav is always great as a backup when I am in unfamiliar areas. When I lived in Germany for three years, the situation was worse in the mountains and traveling within Germany and to other countries. The onboard nav, though not perfect, never let me down when I needed it. For our three vehicles without onboard nav (911 3.2, Cayman, and Yukon) I still have my 10-15 year old Garmin portable GPS units with lifetime map updates. I used them in Europe extensively. YMMV.

 

Exactly the solution I am looking for. Thanks

 

used the nav on my 13 C2S ONCE when i first got it about 1.5 years ago. literally laughed while attempting to get my destination in. haven't hit the nav button since. as far as i'm concerned, my 911 doesn't have nav. my phone with waze or google gets the job done.

 

TMarino,

I uploaded a video to my YouTube channel and you can see Online Services and Aha in action.

If interested, download the Aha app and create an account. You can also do that on your desktop and tablet. Take a look at the internet radio content and audiobooks. There is also weather, dining, fuel stops, etc available. If you like what you see have the dealer add "Online Services" to your PCM.

You will use your lightning cable plugged into the glovebox USB to access the Aha App. After the first time you connect the lightning cable, the Aha app will start automatically and remain in the background. It's not perfect and it's nothing that other apps don't do, but this is the only one that is fully integrated into the PCM and I really like the ability to search for POIs using Google and not just the PCM hard Drive which is always outdated.

Here is the link to the video: You can also see some of my driving videos from when I lived in Stuttgart, Germany on the channel.

Good luck and hit me back with questions.

 

Clicked on the Suncoast link and it says sold out. Interesting that software could sell out.

Also, I may be a bit eccentric but I am not crazy about touching the touchscreen and leaving fingerprints. I use the control ***** for most functions. When the sun is behind me (I’m in a vert), the screen looks dreadful. Seems that these new programs require a lot of screen touching.

I also prefer Waze as it gives you a mid destination capability.

One positive about this COVID crap is that I hang my nice soft cloth mask on the PDK shifter and it’s right there to softly clean the screen.

 

I saw that about being sold out. Worth a call but it seems odd. Re the screen, I have a cool Porsche. spray/cloth my dealer gave me and it cleans it right up. Good luck!

 

I went with the JoyeAuto Box for adding CarPlay. It really makes the car feel new again. Install is relatively straight forward if you take your time and are careful. I watched a few different videos on YouTube (went through the Auto Amateur video 3 or 4 times) and made instructions with screen caps that I could follow during the process.

Here's a link to my home brewed instructions:

CarPlay Install

I've done this 3 times now--start to finish is maybe an hour if I go straight through and have all the tools at hand. I have very little electronics experience other than messing around with Raspberry Pi's with my kids. If I can do it, anyone can.