Who has a GPS unit here and would you recommend it?

BlueFreedom · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:11 pm

I'm looking for an inexpensive ($150-$200) unit to use in my Liberty and my wifes Pilot. I heard good things about Magellan adn Garmin (but NOT TomTom).

Any advice?

Thank you in advance! - Brian

BeepBeepJeepJeep · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:15 pm

I just replaced my TomTom One with a Garmin Nuvi 660 because my TomTom was stolen, but it served me well... I havn't had a chance to use the nuvi on a nice road trip yet but if you do get any kind of garmin make sure you get online and download any updates that may be available for it...

pokefan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:17 pm

I can't help you with a choice because I've never owned one. (soon, I hope)

But I can suggest you look at "Tiger Direct" they've got some pretty good deals and great customer service.

MiniDevil · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:32 pm

I have Verizon Wireless and I just use their cell-tower-triangulated GPS. It works great for highways and anywhere with a cell signal.

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:38 pm

Granted, my experience is mostly aviation related, but I've used many units from different GPS companies. Go Garmin. And yes they are great. they are one of those things that before you get one, you do not understand why you need one, but once you have one, you will never want to give it up!

When you get it try Geocaching. It's like a big treasure hunt.

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:40 pm

MiniDevil wrote:

I have Verizon Wireless and I just use their cell-tower-triangulated GPS. It works great for highways and anywhere with a cell signal.

Yeah, but it's like $10 per month + the phone bill, isn't it?

True GPS is a one time cost & works pretty much where ever you can see the sky.

DryBones · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:45 pm

Verizon Wireless VZ Navigator works well but for $10/month plus airtime...no thanks. Also, If you get a car navigator type most won't work well for geocaching. You will need a better handheld for that. 1 last thing, over at geocaching.com the Magellan customer service is always taking a beating and the Garmin is always considered better in that regard. What do I have? I bought a Magellan eXplorist 210 for geocaching before I heard all the reports and will be having a Garmin for the car if Santa comes through!

BlueFreedom · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:50 pm

I'll probably pick one up today.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:16 pm

Blue,

I highly recommend either Magellan or Garmin. You can get get the Garmin Nuvi 200 for a little bit more than your current price range. Here it is from Circuit City, direct link

My sister has this model Magellan Road Mate and uses it to make house calls for her job. She has never complained about it.

I prefer Garmin because it's what I have (Nuvi 350)

callaway · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:28 pm

I have a tomtom one and really like it. Does what it needs to do and works great doing it. Doesnt have many bells and whistles, but its a gps device not an mp3 player or phone.

Great little toy

KJ-BOL · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:31 pm

tom tom one here too
great unit and if you buy it at Best Buy you get instant $100 off - I might be off on this but just check it

corwyyn · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:33 pm

For a basic unit in your price range try either the Garmin e-Trex series or the Magellan Explorist series. Their both handheld units with decent reception and they'll give you good service. I really would tend to steer away from the Nuvi / TomTom type for first time, especially if you would be using it offroad.

Se7enLC · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:39 pm

I have a TomTom GO 510 and I LOVE it. I got into GPS using a Sony Clie (PalmOS PDA) with an attached GPS. It ran Mapopolis and worked ok, but the interface just sucked.

My short review of the TomTom Go 510:
- Battery life is incredible. Screen at full brightness it will run for at least 6-8 hours no problem. Sometimes I am just too lazy to plug it in. It's nice to just slap it on the dashboard of somebody else's car when I need to
- Interface is intuitive and easy. You can easily fat-finger the controls to get what you need. Example: to get directions home, you hit "Navigate to" "Home" (it saves your home address). To navigate to a place you've been recently (or a place you looked up before), "Navigate to" "Recent Destination" and pick it out of the list. Also "Navigate", "Point of Interest", "Along Route" has been a lifesaver on long trips. It will tell you all the restaurants that are along the route of your trip. Very nice.
- Extensible. TomTom runs linux, and has a LOT of available information. You can make your own voices, your own POI (point of interest) maps. You can install tracking software to save tracks as good KML files, and many other compatible formats.

My only cons:
- It's a weird shape. They fixed that in the more recent models, making it thinner and "just screen".
- It's expensive. Mine was around $300 or so. Worth it.

KJKev · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:52 pm

I purchased a Garmin Etrex Legend C a couple of years ago and have never regretted it a bit.

A bit more than $200 but it's worth it.

Got me into geocaching which is a blast.

It took me to my son's doorstep and he lives 600 miles away.

Go for it.

KJKev

Joe Jeep Owner · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:45 pm

I got a Magellan Maestro 3100 and I liked it so much I got one for my Dad for Christmas. Very easy to use and havent had a bit of problems with it (aprox 6 months).

I bought mine for $150 but got my Dad's on sale at Radio Shack for $129.99 a couple of weeks back. Also check overstock.com, they have some good prices on GPS but shop around.

Cowcatcher · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:09 pm

Try www.buygpsnow.com. Good prices and good support. They carry everything.

Uffe · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:17 pm

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx which is more or less an outdoor GPS handheld reciever. I like it a lot, but sometimes I wish I had gone and bought one with a larger screen. The handhelds have small screens and no touch. Buttons is the way to go.

I especially like Garmins support. I bought city-navigator 8 europe and for free (also free shippping) they sent me an updated city navigator 9 deluxe. That was pretty good for me.

Compared to my VDO dayton system my Garmin unit is more for techies while the VDO system is for grannies. Routes are far more complicated on the Garmin but more precise as well. The VDO system has great interface with ound etc. but sometimes the routes are awful.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:21 pm

I still have my Garmen Street Pilot III and love it. It is great for offroad too...you mark the start of your trail and it will record your whole journey...you can always make it back.

TnRebel · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:31 pm

I have the street pilot i2 I got it from here

http://garmn.factoryoutletstore.com/cat ... epage.html

LostEddie · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:18 pm

DarbyWalters wrote:

I still have my Garmen Street Pilot III and love it. It is great for offroad too...you mark the start of your trail and it will record your whole journey...you can always make it back.

I recently replaced my Garman Street Pilot III with a Garman 580. The 580 is a much better unit for the street but I lost some of the off road uses.

I LOST:
The “track” your trail capability.
Display of coordinates (needed to follow trail maps).

These are important features for an off-roader. I will take my old unit with me when off roading. I also noticed on the Garman site that the TOPO map will run on some units but not mine!

There needs to be more sharing of off road use of GPS on this site. Spending $300 to $600 to test for off road use is not the way to go.

Who has a GPS unit here and would you recommend it?

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