I use my 3rd gen ipad all the time, in the bay area, and the Apple maps suck. Sorry but they do. My wife's iPad, being Gen 1, has been spared being upgraded to IOS6 and so we look up map things on hers. On numerous occasions we've compared what the 'old' Maps app brought up and what the 'current' Map app brought up and merely shook our head.

I am surprised that Google would even consider putting their maps back on iOS at this point given the publicity but they have never been a very scrutable organization.