Posted: 5/2/2008 6:41:08 PM EDT
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Anyone use one? Like a Garmin, Magellan, Tom-Tom, etc? Likes? Dislikes? A guy at work loaned me his Garmin for an upcoming trip I've got, and just playing around with it in town, it's a slick little setup. It really would have been worth its weight in gold the first time I drove to Texas. So I'll probably be buying my own shortly. And In-Before-Teh-I-Got-A-Map-I-Don't-Need-No-Stinking-Navigation crowd. 
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Garmin C340. Works excellent! I bought the remote antenna that has a magnetic mount for outside of the vehicle. It had a weak satellite signal without it. Other than that it tells me where to go. Get one with the voice prompt. The low end models do not have it. The windshield suction mount works good if you put a little water on it, slide it a little on the glass and then flip the suction lever. There is an adjuster nut to tighten the swivel mount. If I were to buy another one I would probably get one with a wider screen. But its not a big deal. You can register your unit with Garmin online. You also get a USB cable to download updates with your PC. There is a full operaters manual online too. |
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I've got three - a Garmin Nuvi 660, iPaq, and a Pioneer AVIC. Love the dead nutz easy interface of the Garmin Nuvi and the live traffic updates. "Betty" offers to detour around traffic when appropriate. The newer ones have live weather and gas prices too. I use the custom points of interest to mark every fresh water body in SoCal and the amateur radio repeaters out to Las Vegas and a bit beyond. There are more highways in LA then there are people in some of the smaller states. 
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I've got a Palm Centro smartphone, and added a service called Telenav for $9.99 a month. I had to purchase a bluetooth GPS receiver as well. It works pretty well for what I got away with paying ($36.00 for the receiver on ebay, GlobalSat bt-359). I stick the receiver on top of the dashboard using a little velcro tape, and the phone to the dashboard where I can see it while driving, also with velcro tape. I don't like stuff stuck to my windshield. I have Google Maps on it as well, but Google hasn't released the MyLocation service for the Centro yet. Maybe one of these days... |
| I saw one for the first time a couple of weeks ago--my brother's wife bought one. Garmin Nuvi (don't know model) that is as idiot proof as anything could be. If you need to get someplace it will take you there--easily, conveniently, accurately. They are getting cheaper by the day too. |
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I have a Mio 320 (~).. it is "ok".. reboots from time to time (damn thing is based upon windoze CE, so that explains that)  I found a 'unlock' program for it which adds 1000x more features than just as a gps. the "method" it uses to "calculate" routes is highly questionable and sometimes will have you go 3 miles out of the way to make use of a highway instead of 1 mile direct. (it seems fixated on the use of highways, but I have way more than that enabled for calculation.) advertised as having X number of POI's ("way better than the competetor") but they're all unknown POI's.. nothing much for main stream. you can add, but it's overly complicated. if you're following a route, it doesn't map your position in real time and it will assume that you're following the route it selected. (I've had it display going down an on ramp or turning onto another road and I never changed course. can't make waypoints very easily. it's ok for point to point monitoring of speed and ETA. I will say that with the windoze CE and mapping asside, the GPS receiver does a pretty damn good job. locks on quick, even inside my house, with accuracy. eta: comment below reminded me that if you're off road, say in a parking lot, it has a hard time displaying you're not being on a road it want's to think you're on. I also have the mapping software for my Garmin eTrex (Legend C) and that does a great job IMHO. I had this before the Mio. It has a smaller screen, but way better performance and feature set. the Rx doesnt aquire as fast as the Mio, but once on, it's reliable. |
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A Rand McNally Atlas and a Gazetter for fine tuning is the only way to navigate in a ground vehicle. When driving through a large city, the rush hour is approximately the same time of day everywhere you travel in the US, except it's goes to stupid late times in LA and San Francisco. I installed my aircraft GPS receiver in my truck on a trip out West one year. Pretty useless on I-70, except for constantly updated ETA's.  I met a USFS employee way out in the mountains where neither one of us had a signal, so we compared the features of our recievers. I have a Lowrance, I never liked the controls on a Garmin. |
LOL! Wife and I call ours "Betty" as well! I love her surly voice when you go off route. "Recalculating". You could swear she has he arched-eyebrow-accusing-dumb-man look going on.......If she had a face.  ETA- Garmin 200W for me. I love it. |
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Wife bought my a Tom-Tom One XL for Christmas. Since I had zero GPS experience before this unit I have to say its OK. There was a long thread of people who said Garmin is better. I have no idea since I've never used one or even looked into one. For the most part setting it up to go somewhere is easy and straightforward. The display is clear and easy to read/see while driving. The volume is loud enough to hear while driving unless the radio is up very high. Only drawback I can see is trying to update it online. I can't seem to get it to recognnize that Route 99 in PA is longer than it is. The Tom Tom shows me "flying" through space and is constantly trying to get me onto a side road on that stretch of road. Overall though for the amount that I use it I'm satisfied. |
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Microsoft streets and trips..... here's my monitor  here's my PC, the metal thing is my DC-AC inverter that came with the car...the PC is wedged in and zip tied to secure it. PSU with start-up/shut-down controller and hard drive are on top, motherboard is on the bottom.  all custom...cost about the same as a in car unit but has way more options. I have a new PC at home that I will be installing...it will fit behind the monitor and will help in cleaning up my wiring greatly. |
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Garmin Nuvi 360 here, which replaced an older StreetPilot 2610. Garmin wins in ease of use, updated maps, and the big one is UPDATED POI DATABASE! For me, that's huge. A POI database doesn't help you unless it's up-to-date, and most of the others aren't. I generally buy updated maps every 2 years. Yes, you have to pay for updates; this is true of ALL GPS companies, as they have to license the data. But it's worth the money to have updated maps, especially for me when I have to go to brand-new areas all the time for work. Oh, and my "Betty" voice is actually set to "Aussie Girl", which is pretty frickin' cool. -Troy |
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I use my Gamin GPSMap 60 CSx, which is primarily a woods unit, but has routing capabilities built in. Not a slick an interface as my wife's C550, but then again she can't really use hers in the woods. My recommendation? Unless you're 100% sure you'll only be using it in the vehicle, consider a unit that's not designed exclusively for car use. Like the 60CSx. |
Anymore info like a thread on how to do it. I like my in car Nav in my 07GT500 Mustang but really wished it would play dvds and had a HD that would be the ultimate driving experience. Navigation with google earth, I set up my friend with a laptop that uses a Garmin GPS and Google Earth. |
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I just got a Garmin Nuvi 200 for $200 and it works great. My aunt and uncle that we are house and kid sitting for have the $600 version in their Denali. The only difference I can see is that it shows the names of the parks, has the wide screen, and a mp3 player and a few other gadgets that dont do much. So for $200 the Nuvi 200 or 200w(widescreen is $250) They cannot be beat. The only suck part is that my aunt and uncles as well as my house are all in new developments. So the maps are out of date and require a $80 or so upgrade from garmin to update everything |