CONTACT: Jeff Perlman (805) 418-8976 Syvetril Perryman (805) 418-8103

The Number of Vehicle Models Supplied with Factory-Installed Navigation Systems Has Increased Significantly

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 13 November 2006 — The Pioneer navigation system supplied in the Lincoln Zephyr ranks highest in satisfying new-vehicle owners with their factory-installed navigation systems, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study^SM released today.

The study, now in its eighth year, identifies six factors that contribute to overall customer satisfaction. They are (in order of importance): ease of use, routing, system appearance, speed of system, voice directions and navigation display screen.

Making its debut in the 2006 study, the Pioneer system supplied in the Lincoln Zephyr ranks highest among all navigation systems included in the study. The Pioneer system performs particularly well in the ease of use, routing and appearance factors. Navigation systems supplied by Alpine and Denso, respectively follow Pioneer in the rankings.

Factory-installed navigation system availability has expanded considerably in recent years with the number of models that offer navigation systems increasing nearly six fold since the year 2000. While the majority of earlier models supplied with navigation systems were in the luxury vehicle segment, navigation systems are becoming more mainstream—available across a wide variety of vehicle segments.

“With the popularity of navigation systems continuing to increase, many owners still struggle with the functionality of their system, which can cause satisfaction to suffer,” said Mike Marshall, director of automotive emerging technologies at J.D. Power and Associates. “The top four navigation system problems are route or map related, accounting for more than 50 percent of all problems cited by owners. Missing map data points continue to be a highly cited problem among users. Frustration with this issue will lessen as the time between building the map and delivering to owners decreases. In the meantime, consumer education regarding the age of the map data may be the easiest way to alleviate this problem.”

The study also finds that 95 percent of new-vehicle owners with navigation systems report that they would like to have the ability to access real-time traffic information; however, this feature is only currently available on a very limited number of models. In particular, navigation system owners express high interest in satellite radio as a means to relay real-time traffic information, with more than 40 percent of owners being interested in paying to receive traffic information through this option.

The 2006 Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 14,103 owners who recently purchased or leased new vehicles with factory-installed navigation systems.

About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is an ISO 9001-registered global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, consulting, training and customer satisfaction.  The firm's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually.  J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 290 offices in 38 countries. Sales in 2005 were $6.0 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release without the express prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates. www.jdpower.com/corporate

# # #