Route guidance works well, calculating quickly and recalculating without a fuss when we ignored its directions. The voice prompts do only partial text-to-speech, reading out freeway numbers but not street names. The navigation system also includes a voice-recognition system, although the commands aren't all that intuitive. We recommend reading the manual before using it, and maybe copying out a cheat sheet of commands. It is useful, however. We particularly like the detour function that can be called up from the voice-command system, which will make the route guidance choose a different next turn.
The touch screen also displays information and buttons for the Bose audio system, which came as part of the Technology package on our test car. The screen offers an aesthetically pleasing display of either radio stations or MP3 track information. It makes navigating MP3 CDs particularly easy, with large buttons to move through folders and change tracks. The six-CD changer sits behind the LCD--when loading or ejecting CDs, the LCD flips up to provide access. It plays standard, Redbook CDs and MP3 tracks, but not WMA tracks. Audio controls for volume and skipping tracks are also duplicated on the steering wheel, which is good because the volume knob next to the LCD is unusually small.