Home > Consumer Reviews > Nextar X3-02 Gps Navigation System with MP3 Player

I usually don't have a problem with the unit acquiring a signal and have been using it pretty heavily for almost a year now with no crashes, lockups or anything like that. However, the lack of any map updates is getting very troubling. Even though I received my unit as a gift for Christmas 2007, its map seems to be much older than that. For example, my house was built in 2004 and my X3-02 doesn't know that my subdivision exists. Since I visit growing towns a lot, it can be very frustrating.

If you live in or travel to an area with a lot of new construction and/or road changes, I'd recommend you buy a GPS from a company that makes map updates easily available. Unfortunately, Nextar is not such a company.

Pros: Price, touch screen, Text to speech
Cons: No apparent updates, maps are old, not always best route
First, it took some time to charge out the box - you have to charge via USB cable or your cars AC adapter (I decided just to buy an outlet adapter for a few bucks so can now charge from an outlet). The satellite connection seems reasonable and it typically is a good unit for finding addresses. There are a few it cannot find and I usually find a close POI and navigate to that (I first find the address on an online map so I know where to go once I reach the POI). I have noticed it will give some weird directions - if you are familiar with the area you know to ignore it. For instance, where I live RTE 53 South will basically become I290 but this thing tried to have me follow the signs for RTE 53 which would have me exit I290 and then it was going to re-route me back to I290 where if I just stay on the highway I'm fine. It does re-calc the route pretty quickly which is nice. I haven't been able to get mine to play music, but it did show pictures. I don't know how useful those features are while driving, i.e. I don't know if you play music if it's going to revert to GPS mode when you need to make a turn. I did try the power save but that apparently requires you to turn the unit back on - it doesn't automatically turn back on when you get close to your next turn so you have to remember to do that. It also is hard to hear sometimes even on the loudest setting. It does seem to find destinations fairly well although there have been times when it has been slightly off (for instance telling me to turn left when I can see my destination was to my right).

Bottom Line: Great for the price, but you may want to check online maps prior and then input the destination on this unit and review the route to make sure it's at least close before you head out.

I got it as a replacement for my broken C3 under warrant. I only tried it once and found the TTS works very well. For the GPS function, it's better than the C3 and my Tomtom one. For the price and service, Nextar is better than the Tomtom that I bought last year. Recommended.

This has been a great GPS system. We did have a problem with the screen after 90 days and thought that the company would not warranty it, but they were very responsive & actually sent us a new one right before we went on vacation.

acquire signal very fast, even in rainy days. The text to speech function is really useful.