2003 Gs430 Cellular Phone

[mercer]

I have a 2003 GS430 that came with a Lexus integrated cellular phone. The phone has a cradle built into the upper armrest and controls on the steering wheel that would normally control the radio. This phone is now obsolete and apparently Lexus has no replacement for the phone. Is anyone aware of an aftermarket replacement or conversion so that a late model digital phone can be used with the nicely integrated cradle, radio, and steering wheel controls?

[1990LS400]

This question has come up a number of times on this and other forums. I have been following this issue for a number of years and have never seen anyone come up a replacement solution for any of the dealer installed Lexus phone systems - either fixed or portable - that would allow use of the steering wheel controls or that would interface with the navigation system.

The solution comes down to putting up with your phone until it becomes completely unusable (and perhaps having having a second phone for use outside the car) or dumping the phone completely and perhaps installing an aftermarket Bluetooth phone kit.

If you don't have OEM nav, there are plenty of aftermarket nav systems, both portable and permanently installed, that have Bluetooth phone capability build-in. But I have not been able to find a "traditional" portable nav product (Garmin, Magellan, etc.) that will interface with the audio system to the extent that it will automatically mute the radio both during a call and when the nav gives voice prompts. My biggest problem with portable nav products is that I have to turn the radio way down in order to hear the voice prompts.

My goal (to rid myself of carrying both my old Nokia 6340i phone and Dell PDA) is to find a PDA phone (with both WiFi and Bluetooth) such as an HP iPAQ (but with a larger screen) that will run a navigation program such as Co-pilot or TomTom 6 and which will interface with an aftermarket installed Bluetooth kit that will mute my radio when a phone call is in progress or a navigation voice prompt is given.

And, of course, I want the nav program to be able to say the street names rather than just saying "turn left" or "turn right" so what I am looking for a is pretty tall order. All I want is everything!