GPS system

Edumakete me on GPS Navigation systems. I borrowed one for a few trips this weekend and am hooked. some of the things I would like.

1. Ease of use.

2. Easy to read screen.

3. LOUD (I dont hear very well any more)

4. G-Force for accel decell and latteral.

5. Programable shift lights?

6. Internal battery back up.

7. Inexpensive (less than $200.00)

The one I borrowed is maybe 5 years old and only had maps and directions. The sound was loud enough so I knew it was telling me something but I had to read the screen to know when and where to turn. This was in and open top car with a glass pack muffler so that might have something to do with it.

Should I wish in one hand and pee in the other to see what I get fulfilled first?

Iphone ???

This thread covers some of what your interested in. Though that is a pretty diverse set of features...

In the $200.00 range, I would look at the Nuvi and the Tomtom. I have been using a Nuvi 750 for a while now and like it. It's loud enough that I turned the annoying witch off. It will also broadcast through the car radio so you can turn her up as loud as you can stand it. It plays MP3s through the radio as well. No G-Force, no shift lights though. I don't think you will find those features in the sub $200.00 range but not sure.

I have a cheapo costco special magellan and it works just fine.

i picked both a garmin street pilot c330 and a magellan (not sure of the ##) missing cords for $50 (both!) demo units i guess, but both worked fine after i dug up some power cords. i gave my mother the magellan when she came to visit and borrowed my car, she was instantly hooked on the point of interest and "home" features. I sent it home with her for her vehicle.

i use the garmin almost daily, i like its dashboard display/trip computer features. very handy gadgets, these models go for under a hundred now brand new. the internal batteries will die after a year or two, and arent designed to be easily replaced, but can be with a little fiddling. my battery is dead, but it works when i plug it into the 12v power so i havent bothered trying to change it out...

Whatever you do don't bother to get a Lexus with the GPS it's worse than useless. Ours keeps leading us astray by a big margin plus you can't reprogram it while the car is moving. It is a royal pain in the arse to have to pull over to the side of the road to add/change programming when you are on a trip.

porksboy wrote: Should I wish in one hand and pee in the other to see what I get fulfilled first?

Yes, because you ain't gonna find G-force and shift lights in a sub $200 GPS unit.

In fact, you're mixing apples and oranges with those requests. If you want all that, you're looking at a data logging system with GPS capabilities, and you're generally going over a grand. Don't expect much navigation with the GPS features of a data logger either.

GPS comes down to how you like it, and what you can tolerate. Go play with them in a store, and observe how fast the screens change, how the zoom works, when streets do show up and disapear, etc.

Seperate out the wheat from the chaf. What do you need, vs what do you want, or at least think you want. If you're deaf and run around topless with glass packs, the speaker of a GPS device is worthless. Far more important will be how well you can see and understand the turns and instructions.

To many, the Garmin is the gold standard, but there are others that work quite well as well.

foxtrapper wrote: To many, the Garmin is the gold standard

Agreed. Buy the best Garmin model you can afford.

I have a Garmin nuvi 350. I still like old fashioned maps.

Oh, BIG SCREEN!

It is very difficult to see all you need to see on some of the smaller screened models.

Good point on the big screen. Adding more features would complicate opperation I suppose.

What do you mean by streets showing up and dissapearing?

GPS units don't work in cities with tall buildings, by the way. They depend on line-of-sight with satellites and most of the time, the satellites aren't directly above your head--they're off a bit or on the horizon. I've never had a GPS device accurately tell me where I was in a city. Except for my iPhone, but it triangulates with phone towers as well for a more accurate position.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 360 and an in dash Kenwood double din w/ Garmin Navigation. Both rock.

My Garmin's been good in every city I've used it in. No complaints here. Sheila can come up with some slightly odd routing in a city situation (she's not a local) but she's never led me too far astray. Cross-country, she's pretty ace.

porksboy wrote: What do you mean by streets showing up and dissapearing?

This was an exclusive Magellan problem. Random sections of roads would disapear as I would change the zoom level. As in a straight road would have the center chunk disapear as I zoomed out, only to reapear as I zoomed further out. Interstate highways and state highways would not display at certain zoom levels, but would on either side of the zoom. Stuff like that.

Didn't seem to affect the routing engine, but if one were trying to use the unit as a map, it would sure screw you up.

I have a Garmin nuvi 200W (widescreen), it's been pretty darn good. About disappearing roads: once I was on a section of 2 lane rural highway (Hwy 6 here in SC) and for whatever reason the road line disappeared from the screen. There is a green band across the top which shows the names of the upcoming cross streets, that worked fine, the arrow showing my position was still there, if I zoomed out it still showed no road line. I cycled it off/on, still no road line.

Next time I was on that road, it showed the road line. And no I hadn't updated it. Weird.

Breaking GPS news:

http://gizmodo.com/5249716/why-tomtom-sucks

I got my FREE Magellan yesterday and immediately installed it in "The White Whale" (Dodge Grand Caravan) so Leann could get lost without getting lost.

wow... and I like my old tomtom1

Keith wrote: My Garmin's been good in every city I've used it in. No complaints here. Sheila can come up with some slightly odd routing in a city situation (she's not a local) but she's never led me too far astray. Cross-country, she's pretty ace.

Here I thought I was the only one who named their GPS... I named mine "Debby", my wife's name. My wife asked why I gave her her name.

I told her because she's always telling me what to do and half the time she's wrong!

zoomx2 wrote:

Keith wrote: My Garmin's been good in every city I've used it in. No complaints here. Sheila can come up with some slightly odd routing in a city situation (she's not a local) but she's never led me too far astray. Cross-country, she's pretty ace.

Here I thought I was the only one who named their GPS... I named mine "Debby", my wife's name. My wife asked why I gave her her name. I told her because she's always telling me what to do and half the time she's wrong!

I'm sure that made for a very pleasant few days at your home

Mine has always been "Bitchin' Betty" whether a standalone unit (I had an awesome GPS program on my old pocketPC phone) or the built-in navi in my car. My wife named the guy voice in her XC90 "Steve" - I dunno why and she can't explain - my name is Scott.

John Brown wrote: I got my FREE Magellan yesterday and immediately installed it in "The White Whale" (Dodge Grand Caravan) so Leann could get lost without getting lost.

Whaddaya mean "FREE"?!

I had a magellian for about 3 years till it was stolen, replaced it with a garmin, both are excellent units. Recently got a tomtom free as a gift from work, gave it to the wife so she stops stealing my garmin. The tomtom seems ok for a cheap unit but I love the garmin and especially the bluetooth integration with my phone.

pigeon wrote:

John Brown wrote: I got my FREE Magellan yesterday and immediately installed it in "The White Whale" (Dodge Grand Caravan) so Leann could get lost without getting lost.

Whaddaya mean "FREE"?!

We get "bonus bucks" through VW for service awards and what not. I use them for silly crap I refuse to buy like GPS units and golf clubs.