Alpine's NVE-M300 black box brings navigation to top head units

If you've been putting off that GPS purchase in hopes that Alpine would deliver a sleek, fully compatible solution for the head unit that you already splurged on, your lucky day has finally arrived. The altogether simplistic NVE-M300 GPS Navigation Drive is a simple black box that measures just barely more than 4- x 4- x 1-inches and is designed to interface with the company's top two selling in-dash AV head units: the iXA-W404 (4.3-inch display) and the IVA-W505 (7-inch touchscreen). The device features the outfit's own OnPoint Advanced GPS Positioning, turn-by-turn guidance, a solid-state gyro sensor and accelerometer, text-to-speech and pre-loaded NAVTEQ maps of the US and Canada. Unfortunately, all this beautiful harmony will cost you, and by "cost you," we mean "450 bones."

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jul 15th 2009 3:55PM]

But...i only have 206...

[DJSwan @ Jul 15th 2009 3:58PM]

450 is ridiculous for JUST a gps addon. unfortunately, idiots will pay for it....

[Information Central @ Jul 16th 2009 6:42AM]

It's "GPS".

[Cash @ Jul 15th 2009 3:58PM]

And if the W404 wasn't a complete piece of shit I regret buying everytime I get into my car, this would mean something to me.

Know what's fun? Having to pump the parking brake three times while keeping my foot on the other brake, just to reset the clock every other day, which read 7201:3 when I looked at it this morning. Why the holy *&%^$% should I have to do the same tapdance required to make sure people aren't watching videos while driving, just to get to the settings menu?!

I love Alpine, but I hate this POS head unit.

[teej @ Jul 15th 2009 4:51PM]

watching a video really has nothing to do with it. while videos are the most distracting, changing settings are still distracting from your driving. i think they do this two because, without a physical button to press, you have to look at the screen to see what buttons you're pushing (even to change the hour/min). whereas, in a standard car, you may not have to use touchscreen to adjust the clock.

they don't want you changing settings/tweeking while you're driving in general, and there's ways around that. save yourself some headache and just install a nice, little toggle switch tapped into the parking brake wires to mirror its functionality. with my my IVA-D300, i only have to flip the switch up-down-up and press on the brake while driving, and then i'm good to go.

now, if your clock is always resetting itself for no reason... that is a whole nother issue. do your other settings also change? if so, could be a problem with the battery/connection.

[teej @ Jul 15th 2009 4:52PM]

too*

[Cash @ Jul 15th 2009 8:13PM]

I've checked all the connections, twice, so it's it in fact the head unit and not my install job.

And personally, I don't give a crap what Alpine thinks I should and should not be able to do while driving. There is no state or federal law forbidding the adjustment of stereo settings while waiting at a stop light. And if they were going to go all big brother on their customers, why not block out *all* adjustments, instead of only the ones that aren't audio related? Which is more of a distraction: three key taps to reset the clock, or manually tuning the equalizer?

And if they really wanted to go that route, why not just install a 20 cent accelerometer into the stupid thing so the settings couldn't be adjusted while the vehicle was in ACTUAL motion, instead of making me tear apart my dash just to get to the parking break indicator light lead, which I neglected to do in the first place, as I have no need of the video playback capabilities anyway.

[Information Central @ Jul 16th 2009 6:44AM]

An accelerometer wouldn't tell it if your car is moving or not; only if it's accelerating or decelerating.

Alpines have always been overpriced pieces of shit anyway.

[aardWolf @ Jul 15th 2009 4:13PM]

I'm all out of bones. Do you think they would take dollars?

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jul 15th 2009 4:45PM]

i extremely doubt the iXA-W404 and the IVA-W505 are the *top selling* models... too expensive!

more like the *highest profit margin* models

[Ben @ Jul 15th 2009 5:45PM]

Alpine has been making GPS add-on devices like this since the mid 90's, but back then they were like $2500 and used DVDs.

[Uriel @ Jul 15th 2009 6:31PM]

I own a Alpine GPS and I think they are ripping people off with the 700 dollar add on. TomTom 99 dollar GPS has more features. Worst mistake I have ever made.

[spider2k @ Jul 15th 2009 8:27PM]

you could also buy a peripheral PTR7 that will simulate the brake sequence for you every time you turn on the unit, no brake or parking wires necessary.

as for the 505, why the hell would you pay 450 for this to plug in the back when it has a dok behind the fave for the NVE-P1 thats only $250 ?

[spider2k @ Jul 15th 2009 8:28PM]

bleh. the first part was for the folks above...

[lilcoop2 @ Jul 15th 2009 8:46PM]

Hmmm... Both the IVA-W505 and the iXA-W404 have docking stations behind the screen to accept either an NVE-P1 or a Blackbird (PMD-B200), if I'm not mistaken. Why would they not make a dockable version of the NVE-M300??? I dunno - on the other hand, it IS compatible with more models because of the decision to make it that way. I still say they could have made it dockable, but have an extra adapter included to keep its compatibility with their other head units. The only positive I take from this is that it is a more modern GUI than the dated look of what is available on the P1 or Blackbird.

Meh... What do I know...

[Burl @ Jul 16th 2009 11:45AM]

After the BlackBird/W505 fiasco (along with Alpine's WORTHESS customer service), I will never buy another Alpine product EVER! They won't even admit that the BlackBird overheats and craps out!

Alpine used to be a high end car audio company, now they are just a high priced car audio company.

[Cassini @ Jul 17th 2009 7:20AM]

I think these types of automotive head-units are going out of style, falling out of popularity, are no longer relevant - whatever you want to call it.

These days, we all know portable GPS units are the way to go and make the most sense - they're affordable, can be transported between cars or merely held in hand while walking, geocaching, etc., and their firmware is also much cheaper to upgrade. Not to mention it's cheaper to just buy a new one down the road (no pun intended), and we've got this functionality on our mobiles, too.

But these head-units are overpriced and always have been. Sometimes they're ridden with bugs. Customer service is lacking and you're not going to get good help from Tommy the teenager down at the local stereo shop.

It just makes more sense from financial, technological, and convenience standpoints to simply have a good CD/Satellite stereo system (with maybe an iPod connection) and to keep that separate from a handheld GPS system.

These over-priced units from Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, and Clarion are finding fewer and fewer buyers as they scramble to find ways to brainwash people into thinking that spending $2500-$3000 on a multimedia stereo is a good idea.