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Navigation without an attached cellphone using Apple CarPlay? [No, but alternatives]

2826 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Huey52
So, I am the type of person who investigates as much as I can about a car before buying one.
My wife mentioned, a couple months ago, that she really wanted a new EV. So, I checked out
several EV's before both of us took a look at any. She decided on a VW ID4 and ordered one.
Early this week, we took an ID4 for a test drive and she liked the car. HOWEVER, for some
reason she wanted to go to the Mercedes dealership, which was right next door. I own two
pretty old Mercedes, a CLS500 and a GL450, 2006 & 2007 so I'm familiar with MBZ. While
walking through the MBZ dealer she liked the GLA 250......enough to commit to buying one.
Today, we picked it up........she's getting used to it. I think it's great personally.

When I was getting familiar with the vehicle, I had to call the salesperson because there
was no navigation at all! I asked the fellow about the car and he said navigation is all done
through the attached cell phone. I was literally shocked that the new SUV has no GPS.

Can I add an SD card with map data for navigation??? If so, if anyone has a link to a
card that will work with her 2023 GLA 250 that would be awesome. My salesperson
does not know if navigation can be added to a GLA if it didn't come with it as an option.
He told me he will have to check early next week and let me know. I assume if they
can add it at the dealer it's going to be a big cost. If I can just plug in an SD card with
map data that would be awesome..........but I have no idea if that will work or not.

Any suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated!!!!!
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Nav and new cars, I was in the market early this year. Many new cars will not have navigation, and the trend is using a cell phone that connects to the car's systems. Over the past year or so seen many posts that people are using cell phones for navigation, as they are more updated and have other features that built-in Navigation does not have. We ended up buying a car without factory navigation. After several months have now adjusted to the cell phone way. I use Waze, which has warnings of cars parked on the side of the road, stuff in the traffic lanes, and police in the area. I just completed a 1,600-mile trip and am now convinced cell phone is better.
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I think the radio with Navigation built-in has a hard drive or other storage that has the data for the navigation. If navigation is not built in, there is no hard drive or storage system to hold the data for navigation. If this is the case, there would be no way to add navigation to a non-navigation radio.
I was returning from Florida to South Carolina the other week on 95. Waze said the take the next exit. I thought it was an error and stayed on 95. About a mile later, the traffic came to a stop. Waze then accounted that I was in for a 40-minute wait. I then looked at Waze and zoomed out. Waze was giving me a detour around the delay. Guess next time; I will listen and follow directions.
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