Any portable navigation experts?

So I was thumbing through a Best Buy, and the idea hit me. I've been putting off buying a portable navigation unit, that I can transfer between my car, and the family van, or my motorcycle. What I would like to do, is install an aftermarket cd player into where the ashtray is now, then "clean up" the hole where the factory radio was, maybe with some vinyl material, so that you can't see the dash guts behind it. I want to place the mount for the navigation unit in that hole, so when I get in the car, I just place the unit onto the mount, and it takes up the space in the dash. Even if it doesn't take up the complete space, I can put some trim pieces to make up.

Herein lies the problem. Most of the navigation units I've played with have a built in satellite antenna that has to see the sky, and this wont be possible being in that hole. Another thing, is that I've seen units which have mp3 players and bluetooth connections for the car, and it would be cool to have the navigation play through the speakers of the car, even if it's not done wirelessly.

So really what I'm looking for is a handheld navigation unit, that can use a remote satellite antenna, has an audio out, and optionally an mp3 player and bluetooth connection. And ideally it would be made into the mount, so that I dont have to plug in 2 or 3 different wires before I snap it into the mount.

Does anybody know of such a beast?

Looks like this one can have an external antenna added: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=14933#featureTab
The antenna is $30 bucks, so no prob. I know that every Garmin unit I've seen has the charger built into the mount, meaning when you set the unit on the mount, it automatically plugs in the charger. Does anyone know if the antenna would work the same way, or would I have to manually plug it in before setting it on the mount?

Alpine makes a deck that is a dock for an Alpine portable navigation. This would allow the screen and the speakers in the car to work with the navigation. You then have the flexibility to take the portable nav to another vehicle. Here are a couple of links.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=PMD-B200

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=IVA-W205

I appreciate the effort and suggestion. But I was thinking sub-$400 for the navigation unit, and sub-$300 for the radio.

I got four kids

There's always this:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

It's going to get turn-by-turn directions in it's next major software upgrade, and there are lots of rumors that Tom-Tom has a software package ready to release.

Not only does it do maps/navi, but it's a cellphone and video ipod with a cool touch interface!

As of now it's still not taken seriously as a navigation tool, but I use it from time to time, and it does all I need with the google maps/location/directions integration

I have an apple Iphone and they are rele exspensive for how cheap they are...1 little drop and the screen is smashed,all the features on them are great except when i decide to make a phone call becuz the phone is so heavy it hurts to hold it for longer than 10 minutes

i have a treo800w from sprint with navigation...just moving to a new area and this thing is phenomenal i can go on a program called micrsoft live search and search for almost anything like movie times places adresses phone numbers businesses that have reviews and stuff then either use a low end gps directions...or switch over to the other built in app sprint navigation and find the business or adress again and it gives me turn by turn. while the mean time i can listen to music if i hook it up through the cassete deck. phone was like 350 but i heard they go much cheaper now...and i pay 79.50 a month for internet(fast) gps unltd txtin and 450 minutes of talk. the 700w can do the same thing which verizon offers and sprint with gps. instead of using verizons gps which was like 15 a month i bought a 60 dollar bluetooth receiver and used tomtom 6 for wm5.

and another thing windows phone can do is movies. i hate iphones..id rather be able to control whats on my phone then have apple do it for me.(yes apple can go into ur phone and delete stuff if they dont like it) i have msword excel email so much stuff u can do..basically its a tiny computer.

My newest phone is a pantech matrix from At&t and its got gps with turn by turn directions but i have yet to try that feature mainly because i have a garmin something or other installed in the car, the garmin gps in the car has a wireless antenna all u have to do is plug it into the cigerette lighter, with this garmin gps u can literally hook ur cellphone up to it somehow and talk thru the gps kinda like a speakerphone and it hooks to ur speakers and everything, i havent tried all the features and stuff on it but i no its a good one cuz i own one, my mom owns one and her boyfriend has one and all of us rele like it

I have a company supplied and paid for phone, so a new phone wont be an option, but thank you for your inputs.

Only brought it up because it doesn't require satellite signal, it will also use cell tower triangulation, plus it can mount in one of these nice brackets - look at http://www.proclipusa.com/ for their exact fit dash mount brackets:

Hey, thanks for the link, this may be helpful.

I like the Alpine IWA-505 with the "Dock and Roll" socket for a portable PMD-200 Blackbird portable device but it is a double din unit and I do not think that it will fit in a 95. Also, you will have to trade in one of your kids.

sburch23 wrote:

Also, you will have to trade in one of your kids.

This has not yet been ruled out.

It may be a good way to get them to behave for a few minutes.

Two of my Three "little ones" are in college now. I should have traded them for a Bentley Continental GT.

Yeah, I coulda taken out a home-loan on a Bugatti Veyron for what these ankle biters are costing me. Oh well, I'll live longer this way.