Traffic Pro

Translation by Alex Baumann

It all started back in 1997 as one of the largest car radio manufacturers have decided to produce a navigation system which would fit into the DIN slot, the idea was great, but the implementation was difficult. The Becker Trafficpro was difficult to use and the routing was far from perfect.

It's well known that you learn from the errors, and already on the next generation devices Becker Trafficpro has eliminated all the errors and bugs. And more : Becker Trafficpro is deemed to be the best example how easy it is to use a full navigation system. Especially the possibilty to be able to listen to a music CD - after the navigation data is saved on the internal memory - during the navigation is one of it's appreciated features. Neither Blaupunkt nor VDO-Dayton can do it.

Currently, 80% of the navigation units sold are DIN size and 20% wide-screen. And Becker Trafficpro has the major share among this 20%, which drew the attention of the japanese manufacturers. So, JVC, Pioneer and Sony didn't want to get into a risky business by developing their owns systems, but they decided to buy the already-successful and approved Becker system.

Sony and JVC is almost a facelifted Becker unit, where Pioneer is using the Becker Navigation combined with own Audio and Display technology.

So, the Pioneer is the best looking one with it's organic- EL-display among the Radio-Nav systems, but also it has superior audio performance thanks to it's strong amplifier and sound adjustment features. However the radio reception doesn't reach the performance of Becker's dual tuner.

In order to to secure it's market share, Becker introduced a cheaper version of Becker Trafficpro (one without detachable screen) with the model name DTM for EURO 1300,-

Whether Becker, Sony, Pioneer or JVC, all units have excellent navigation perfomance, where the Pioneer unit requires more time for route calculation due to its detailed graphics/mapping compared to the other units.

All the devices which are tested offering a great alternative to the wide-screen systems. It's also very common to purchase these units much cheaper then MSRP, especially bundled with CD-Changers. The installation is not a rocket science, can be done in 1-2 hours.

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Translation of the test

Bedienung - Ease of usage
Routenwahl - Route choice
Dynamische Navigation - Dynamic Navigation (using data to avoid traffic jams)
Optische Fªhrung - Menu usage
Akustische Fªhrung - Voice navigation
Ausstattung - Options
Arbeitstempo - Speed
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Radioempfang- Radio reception
Radio-Klang - Radio sound
CD-Klang - CD Sound
Anmutung - Impression
Preis - Price (in Euro)