
Even with the increasing frequency of navigation systems coming as integrated items on new vehicles, portable navigation devices (PND) continue to make big gains in popularity. Be it the lower cost, greater flexibility, or ease of use, often times the Navi units purchased in the aftermarket are superior to those provided by automobile manufacturers.
J.D. Power has surveyed some 4800 owners of PNDs, compiling the results in to a 1000-point rating scale. Products from Garmin scored highest (806 points) in the recent survey, performing especially well in the areas of display screen, ease of use, and overall system appearance. Tom Tom was the runner up (798 points), scoring well in the categories of system speed and voice directions.
Here are a few other interesting nuggets of information from the Power survey:
- Average price of a PND has dropped from $375 in 2007 to $245 so far in 2008
- More than 150 PND models are currently available
- Around 40 percent of customers consider price to be the primary factor when shopping for a navigation device
- PND owners selected real-time information—traffic, weather info, gas prices, etc—as the most desirable feature for a new device to offer
- The portable nav crowd is an especially loyal one, with almost 90 percent of owners saying that they “definitely will” or “probably will” repurchase a unit by the same brand.
+ J.D. Power