Sorry I didnt want to offend anyone, it took me a while to break my wife from it, its just crazy to pay a monthly subscription for commercials and what you essentially listen to for free on iheart.

 

I frequently lose cell service for long stretches on the road, so having satellite radio works better for me than trying to stream from my phone. If that's not a thing for you, I get it, but there are lots of good reasons to pay for satellite. What's true in your world isn't true for others.

I'm an iphone guy, so my experience is with carplay instead of android auto. I specifically bought a truck without the factory navigation in it because the nav experience in carplay/AA is so much better than the factory nav. Appearance, usability, address/POI entry, map updates, traffic updates, etc. It's just SO much better. There are other features that are nice to haves, but the integrated navigation is what makes carplay/AA so useful.

 

I enjoy Satellite radio as well. $7.00 a month.... what the heck...

 

It depends on whether Sync 3 is working that day.

 

Discovered the Android auto map allows you to use Google 3D satellite view even far from cell reception.
Comes in handy scanning the surrounding area for spur roads and camping sites not shown on regulars nav maps.
Basically turns your touch screen into a live satellite view map you can zoom, rotate and pan for miles around.

 

Been using it for years daily. First had it in my 2006 with an aftermarket setup after ditching the tablet install. Retrofit sync 3 in my 2013 and my son's 2011 Edge. Both APIMs have factory nav but it just stinks compared to Google maps. Handsfree texting is nice. Being able to hit the speak button and say "Navigate to <destination> " is fantastic. Voice anything is just better than any sync interaction I've had. There are some quirks from time to time depending on what Google updates but for the most part it's been awesome.

 

Don't forget that you can also download offline maps. On your phone, go the Maps app and go into settings. From there, look for the offline maps option and choose an area of the map that you want available offline. You can choose this option several times if you want to have offline maps of various areas available.

 

This is a great and lesser known feature of Google maps.