My Nav system occaisionally gets lost. Upon activation it will display my position approximately 10 miles or more away from where I am and show me headed in a different direction. Whithin 10-15 miles it resolves my position and functions correctly. This scenario is mentioned in the manual and it does correct itself as it says within 20 miles of roughly linear driving. Does anyone know what is causing this?

P.S. The nav system is a great option on the 8 and still worth the 2k price even with this little quirk

hmmm, it's happened to me but only puts me off by a few hundred yards. In a couple cases, it cleared up within 2 minutes. Once, I shut down the car, restarted, and GPS was immediately accurate. Must be gremlins.

Never had an issue like that.....I do want a updated NAV disc..some place I go are just not on the original disc.

Originally posted by 9-K Rever
Never had an issue like that.....I do want a updated NAV disc..some place I go are just not on the original disc.

Don't order a new nav disc yet; Mazda issued the most current (or at least it was the most current in July.) You'd better call first to see if there's an update before shelling out the bucks. Even then, no guarantee your particular places will be on the new maps. It typically takes 18-24 months for new streets to end up on new map products.

GPS systems must have at least 3-4 sats locked in in order to track your movement. This process is refered to as Trilateration (http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gps.htm). Sat acquisition is by line-of-sight (LOS). If you drive by tall buildings, under trees, bridges ect. then you will loose sat acquisition. Rain, overcast skies, fog and snow ect. will also affect acquisition. And it may take some time to reacquire the sats depending on your locale. This will present itself by showing you being in an odd area of the map or an area that you are not actualy or currently in or it will just stop showing position or movement then 10 minutes later jump to the right spot.

Until the requisite number of sats are acquired then the system will stop tracking.

I have this happen all the time with my Navman GPS (http://www.navmanusa.com/) system that I have for my Palm m505.

BTW, you can tell if you have 3 satellites in LOS or not. The letters GPS will appear on the right side of your map display when you do.

Thanks for the info. I have noticed this has always occurred on a heavily overcast or rainy day (bacially every day since I picked up my 8). Great weather for exploring the capability of the DSC but I'm really looking forward some clear weather and taking a trip to test the grip :)

the atmospherics could be throwing off the satellite signal, esp if it already has bad angles. who knows. one of those mysteries of life.