The Infotainment System
A seven-inch display sits at the top of the center stack with a slight tilt towards the driver. This is your standard WVGA panel sporting a resolution of 800x480. The angle makes the screen easier to see from the captain's chair, and it isn't susceptible to glare at all. We like that Nissan doesn't shy away from gratuitous use of physical buttons, which are mostly located below the LCD to control navigation, information, settings, phone, and audio controls. There’s even a control knob sitting to the lower-left of the LCD that scrolls through functionality on-screen.
Nissan equips the GT-R with an infotainment system that visually resembles the previously-reviewed Infiniti JX35 with Hard Drive Navigation system (2013 Infiniti JX35: Getting Us One Step Closer To A Driverless Car). We aren't privy to the platform's inner working, unfortunately. However, Nissan's Hard Drive Navigation system does run QNX, as with most vehicles currently available.
The 2013 GT-R features a 30 GB hard drive, which leaves 9.4 GB of space available for music storage. We didn't have a ton of time with the car before jetting off to Vegas, so we didn't try to load a fraction of our personal libraries onto the drive. But with notably larger flash drives selling for relatively little, on-board storage isn't a huge selling point anymore.
Beyond its disk-based storage, Nissan enables an AM/FM radio for music, SiriusXM, a CD player, auxiliary input, and a USB port. HD Radio is not available on the GT-R, just as it wasn't on the JX35. This is a disappointment to us.
Navigation maps for the Nissan Hard Drive Navigation system are sourced from Navteq. If you want an update, you can get them from Nissan for $250 a year. The navigation software is pretty straightforward, and you spend your time looking at flat 2D overhead guidance. We really expected 3D mapping to at least be an option given the GT-R's price tag, but no such luck. At least the Nissan Hard Drive Navigation system does integrate Zagat reviews for restaurant points of interests.
Restrictions to prevent operation while in motion are still in place with the GT-R, as they were with Infiniti's JX35.
Nissan also arms its GT-R with a back-up camera, which is a nice addition since the car has terrible rear visibility.