My Google Maps using Android Auto has never had any problems, and it has up to date road closures and openings and traffic and even notifications of disabled vehicles on the side of the road

 

Fortunately, the phone software and Sync systems are two different things. Thank you for the input though

 

The dealer letting you trade at cost is not a buy back. Your dealer just did a simple trade in they modified to please you, Ford was never involved. Buy backs are the mfg purchasing the vehicle back from the owner. Sounds like you have a great dealer that is willing to please, even if it costs them a few bucks.

 

Yes, misspoke. Thank you and sorry for confusion!

 

You traded the truck because navigation would not save your home address?

That's the only reason?

 

I do agree that I use Wase a lot more than factory nav but there are times where I am out in the sticks and don't have data coverage. When that is the case, Wase doesn't work and I would rather have an outdated factory nav to get me going than simply guessing. Maybe with the hotspot on a different carrier than our cell phones that issue is resolved. We will see. On my motorcycles I run Wase on my cell phone but I also have 3 Garmin GPSs running as well.

I programmed in the Home location (close to home anyhow) and Work and they stored fine.

 

IDK about waze but with Google Maps you can download the map data before you leave coverage. If you're going to out driving in the middle of nowhere and may not have coverage, just download the area maps first.

The factory nav is simply inferior in every possible way and in all conditions

 

I don't disagree that the factory nav isn't great. I am just mentioning the one use case I have for it. I for sure default to other options (Wase then Google Maps possibly Garmin) before factory nav.

The thing is that factory nav is that if you happen to have it, it is always there as insurance. You may not always know when you are heading into a black hole ahead of time until you go to use your go to Nav. Sure if I am going up to the hunting land, I know ahead of time my cell is pretty spotty there so I do the same and download a copy of the map to Google Maps but I also don't need it as much but if I do, it is there but I am also probably walking around not driving.

The biggest thing you can do is to download the map for an area you are in (I also don't think that is an option in Wase) as you said. The second part though is to test out how things work before you need them. For instance, I am an Android user so can't speak for iPhone, download the map for your area, put your phone in airplane mode, plug your phone into your truck and launch Google Maps. Does it still work? I don't deny that you will be able to see a map and where you are. But really test it out how you would intend to use it. Try and get directions to somewhere. I don't think that part of Google Maps works without a data connection. At least it hasn't worked in the past which is why I use 3 Garmins on my motorcycle. Been burned on that in the past using Google Maps where I had a route set up, downloaded map and it was fine even as I went in and out of cell coverage. Then we stopped for lunch and decided hey we are ahead of schedule, there are some cool roads around the area lets take a detour. Once I killed the route we couldn't make a new one until we got back in cell coverage again. That isn't a huge deal but it was a lesson learned. We had to ride around for a while until we got a signal up on a hill then do the route planning when it would have been easier/safer in a parking lot. A lot of people think 3 Garmins is overkill but I use 2 for different views. One is on a map view the other on a list of up coming turns. I glance at each for different information or I will pull up weather radar on one if needed. The third is an older one that's role is more a stereo as it has XM and MP3s. But it is also updated with maps and route information so it acts as a backup should one of the other two fail.

So, is Google maps better than Factory Nav then? I don't know, it depends on what you are looking for and your immediate situation may change that answer. I have 1TB of storage on my phone (Galaxy Note 9 with 512GB and a 512GB SD Card) so downloading maps isn't a big deal. Most phones don't have that kind of storage. I don't know how much space I have taken up by maps but I do keep some areas downloaded like you. I will say one thing I like about downloading a local mapset to Google Maps like you said is that it will bug you every now and then to update the maps. That way it will be more accurate than nav and is a huge plus.

Not trying to say I disagree with you or say you are doing anything wrong. Just saying test your tools out so you don't have any surprises when you least expect it. It is very very rare that I have had to fall back to factory nav. That said, I have. Would I have traded in a truck because I couldn't save my home location? Probably not. I don't see myself using it that much but if it was one of the issues among others, maybe it was the tipping point. Would I pay extra for factory nav on a vehicle?? Man, that is a tough one, odds are it is just going to be part of some other factory option package I was getting anyhow. It comes standard on at least the Platinum level and I never really looked at trucks below that level. I think if I was buying something where it was an add on line item I would just grab one of my Garmins as they come with car mounts and skip it. We have done that on vacation just because you never know what you are going to get for nav on a rental. I also don't have to learn yet another system. We still default to Wase but it is nice to have a backup. We went to Vegas a while back, rented a Jeep and went to Death Valley for a day trip. We just used the Garmin on that part of the trip. I only brought one and had offline Google Maps though and we had paper maps from the Park.

 

If you have factory nav, it should work. Especially these days when it's no longer DVD-based, and a ready means is in place for updating it and correcting errors. Mine generally works OK, but there are segments of finished freeways where it thinks I'm off route because it has the freeway lanes in the wrong place, and recently driving between Dallas and Houston I've experienced some times when the nav system, instead of finding the route to a favorite location where it has navigated before, immediately told me "the routing process has failed" without further explanation or option.