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Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:38 pm

I'm looking to buy a GPS unit for the wife, and for me when we take the bus out on trips. Tom Tom and Garmin seem to be the big players out there.

Now i know nothing about these. What should I look for?

Also for those who have one, please list your pros and cons (along with the model you have).

Thanks,

Spanish Flea

Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:00 pm

Spanish Flea wrote: I'm looking to buy a GPS unit for the wife, and for me when we take the bus out on trips. Tom Tom and Garmin seem to be the big players out there.

Now i know nothing about these. What should I look for?

Also for those who have one, please list your pros and cons (along with the model you have).

Thanks,

Spanish Flea

I have a Garmin that can be used mobile and portable and am very happy with it. Have had it for years now. Garmin is a navigation company so I trust them over anyone else.

The portable feature was important to me for hiking or when you're walking around a strange town.
It being small also gives you the advantage of it being small enough so you can stick it in your pocket so it doesn't get stolen from your parking lot.

Mine can only hold but so many maps that you load from your PC. This means you have to basically decide what maps you need loaded before you go on a trip.
Many of the newer ones take memory cards, allowing them to hold pretty much all of the US street level maps - much handier.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:37 pm

My wife has the Garmin and she is relatively happy with it. Its not perfect, but what is?

Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:07 pm

I'm a gadget freak and I have a Garmin C330 and a C340. I've been very pleased with them and they give a lot of features for the money.

Tip: Spring for the friction dash mount. The suction cup one supplied with the units... well... sucks. It will fall off unexpectedly or will be impossible to remove at other times. I have actually torn mine from the glass after it bonded to it.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:15 pm

I agree w/ the others about a portable. My wife got me a Magellan Explorist a few years ago, it's a lower end GPS but has worked great for us. It comes preloaded, no option for downloading newer maps and no color display but I haven't found a need for the "extras" yet for what we use it for. Don't use it much for driving directions, but we have used it a lot for geocaching.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:21 pm

I got a Garmin 600 nuvi as an early Christmas present and am really pleased with it. I also have a friend that has a Tom Tom and she is very pleased with hers. Occasionally you will hear someone being displeased with the maps but I don't think that is a Garmin or a Tom Tom problem but rather with the mapping company that they buy from. For instance, sometimes a road is laid out in one place and for construction reasons they move a hundred or yards in another direction and the "AS BUILT" plans don't get to the map makers. And in my case here close to home the state has upgraded, straightened out and 4 laned US441 so my GPS showes that I'm left or right of the road in a field at times. :lol: :lol:
You probably can't go wrong with either though.

Here is a site for research.
http://www.gpsreview.net/forums/
There are other sites too.

My Garmin 650 (I'm sure others do also) has MPH your'e driving, a trip mileage, time driving, average speed and a bunch of other stuff.
Also has a compass.
Like cell phones-----I don't know how I ever survived without one. :wink:
Marvin

Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:47 pm

ScottK wrote: I agree w/ the others about a portable. My wife got me a Magellan Explorist a few years ago, it's a lower end GPS but has worked great for us. It comes preloaded, no option for downloading newer maps and no color display but I haven't found a need for the "extras" yet for what we use it for. Don't use it much for driving directions, but we have used it a lot for geocaching.

X2 on the Explorist. I use it exclusively whether I'm driving across the country or backpacking across the state.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:50 pm

Does anyone have any add on Garmin maps they can hook me up with a copy of?

Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:53 pm

I have a magellan. It's out of its mind. It sends me the most backwards ass way it can find. Its got its purpose, but it wont replace your brain... I bring a map with me for the 'big picture' decisions, as this thing has all but sent me through peoples yards to get places.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:48 pm

I have owned a Garmin 2610 Street Pilot for around four years now and the thing still amazes me with it's simplicity of use and accuracy.
Aside from giving me ETA, actual speed, distance to turn and voice prompt, it will also find the nearest gas station, restaurant, grocery store etc...... by name. Fancy Burger King ? the unit takes you to the nearest one.
I upgraded the memory chip to incorporate the entire USA but I understand that the newer versions come with this feature as standard.
I once demonstrated it to a 20 year veteran cabbie pal of mine and he was astonished at some of the alternative routes around Chicago that it came up with.
He went straight out and bought one.
Not portable but highly reccomended.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:01 pm

I havea Magellan and for hunting in the thick woods on over cast days it is nice to know where the truck was parked. Not a hi end one but functions for all of my needs. Has preloaded maps but it all comes down to the gps coodinate your use as a strating point and want to go back to.
The question is how expensive or how low end do you want to go.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:12 pm

I got a Garmin c330 for the wife when they first came out, and we both love it. It has a little hard drive that holds every road, gas station, restarurant and hotel in the country, and you can update it off the web. They are now obsolete and available cheap. The only things the new ones offer from what I see are a slimmer design and (for a price) real time traffic updates. If you don't care about those, you can't go wrong for the price.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:23 pm

Don't have one, but a co-worker bought a Garmin and is pleased with it.

Evidently, these units are only as smart as the user. My wife had a surprise wedding to attend last year at Christmas. (Couple invited all their friends to a party, didn't tell anyone it was really their wedding.) The minister just wanted the address because he had the Garmin. They tried to given him directions, but he insisted he didn't need them.

With 30 minutes to go and no word from the minister, they were getting worried. He finally called and asked for someone to meet up with him and guide him to the house...he was lost.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:10 pm

If you happen to have a smart phone/PDA...the Garmin 10 will work with it through bluetooth.

It works seamlessly with my Treo 700wx. Very much worth the money.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:50 pm

I just got one for Christmas, it's the Magellan 3140. It's a previous generation model, so it can be had cheaper than some of the newer ones but it's still got nice features. The GPS chipset is SiRF, which is newer and locks on to sats faster and even works in places others don't, like indoors. It calculates routes really fast, like in a second or two. Some of the POIs are duplicated which is kind of weird but for the most part everything's in there.

The newer ones are widescreen and that seems like it would be better, but I'm fine with this one. I agree that the suction cup arm is a little chincy. It's fallen off once already. On a bay window bus with a curved windshield you have to make sure you stick it to the flattest part.

It's also got Bluetooth and I paired it just fine with one of my phones (BlackBerry 8320) and it works with making calls and stuff. Doesn't work so well for actually talking when you're driving though, at least in the bus where the road noise and engine are louder. The microphone wasn't able to hear me and I was practically yelling. It might work in a quieter car though, but making calls isn't the reason I bought it. The small speaker in the unit is fine though, when I cranked it all the way up I could hear just fine with no distortion. It's also got a headphone jack, so if your stereo head unit has an aux in you could hook it up and hear it over the car's speakers.

I used it last night and today just driving around town and it seemed to do a good job. This being my first GPS I'm pretty happy with it and don't think I'd want to drive anywhere now without one! I have a terrible sense of direction and always get lost when trying to follow directions. They may not be totally perfect but I'd rather rely on one than my own instincts.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:44 pm

Quote: What if (God forbid and it can happen) there's a software glitch with the GPS, such as what happened with Blackberries earlier this year? Also, what happens when you lose power to the GPS? Technology is fine, but there is also something to be said for old reliable.

bottom line on GPS is that it only has one irreplaceable quality... when there are no features to guide you and you are lost, it will tell you where you are. i guess in older days, hikers could find their way pretty well with a barometric altimeter and a topo map. expensive shit, too for something of such limited usefulness to your average person. but like many things in life, when you really need it, there is nothing else.

as far as batteries are concerned, its also like many things in life- if you make no effort (to bring extra batteries), then you are going to find that you screwed yourself! good point about glitches though, i see many refurbed specimens on egay. bring two if you hit the high seas!

i personally wouldnt own one just for vehicular navigation- too expensive for me... nice to have if you got the money

Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:58 am

bugginmiami wrote: I have a magellan. It's out of its mind. It sends me the most backwards ass way it can find. Its got its purpose, but it wont replace your brain... I bring a map with me for the 'big picture' decisions, as this thing has all but sent me through peoples yards to get places.

It's all in the settings. If you set it for shortest distance, you'll go over a lot of back roads.

I've used the Garmin and Tom-Tom (company vehicles) and like them both. If they were the same price, I'd probably go with the Tom-Tom )bigger screen), but the Garmin is cheaper and works as well.

Peace!

Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:07 am

I wanted something that was easy enough for my parents to operate.
I decided to go with the Magellan 4250 from Costco for $349.

After setting it up in advance for them and playing with it a bit, I know I made the correct decision.
The screen is very large and bright, and the menus couldn't be any more simple.
It also has voice control, so all they have to do is speak the command.
For example, if my father who is beginning to have memory issues finds himself disoriented and lost, all he has to do is say "Go Home", and it will route him from wherever he is back to his house.
For that peace of mind alone, it was worth every penny.

Mon Dec 24, 2007 12:26 pm

I've had a Garmin nüvi 350 for about a year and am very pleased with it. It has searchable gas stations, restaurants, hotels, etc programmed in it which was very useful for traveling to college bowling tournaments when I was in school. It's great for finding ways around bad traffic in unfamiliar areas. I have a pretty good sense of direction and I still find it a very useful tool.

Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:14 pm

Buggeroff wrote: I have owned a Garmin 2610 Street Pilot for around four years now and the thing still amazes me with it's simplicity of use and accuracy.
Aside from giving me ETA, actual speed, distance to turn and voice prompt, it will also find the nearest gas station, restaurant, grocery store etc...... by name. Fancy Burger King ? the unit takes you to the nearest one.
I upgraded the memory chip to incorporate the entire USA but I understand that the newer versions come with this feature as standard.
I once demonstrated it to a 20 year veteran cabbie pal of mine and he was astonished at some of the alternative routes around Chicago that it came up with.
He went straight out and bought one.
Not portable but highly reccomended.
Got a 2620, that we've had for about 4 years and love it, use it every day and help with travelling by even giving you phone numbers so you can call ahead for hotel reservations.

I used a eTrex Vista both times across in the big 'sandbox' AND worth every penny!!!! Simplicity, routes, etc and I could load local maps of that region.

We just updraded to the 530HCx with built in walkie talkie feature and the ability to send each other waypoints and current location. Use them for caching, benchmarking and hiking the BRP and the Appalachian Mountains. Takes topo maps and City Navigator with an expandable SD slot.