Tips on Buying a Portable Navigation Device

[Jonesy08054]

I got a TomTom G0510 last year. I think that it's a great unit. The thing that did it for me was after going into Best Buy or Circuit City and just mess around with one in the store. Whichever one you think is easiest to use and the easiest to read/understand for you is the one you should go with. Each brand will have it's little things that are special to only that brand. for instance, mine is blue tooth capable with my phone. I've never used that feature, but it's there. I'd recommend the TomTom, but then I've never had much experience with the others. The TomTom just made sense when i was messing around with it.

[NickCats]

Bill,

Check out the September 2006 issue of the Chicago Scene :

http://www.pca-chicago.org/?getpage=9

There is a good article on Page 32 regarding GPS units.


I received the Garmin StreetPilot i5 for Christmas and have been very pleased :

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=164&pID=362

Hope this helps...

Nick

[Frank Patrick]

question- do you use an external antena?

[FrayAdjacent]

Originally Posted by Frank Patrick

question- do you use an external antena?

Newer SiRF III chipsets are sensitive enough to generally not need an external antenna.

[ChrisZang]

I have a Garmin c510 mounted at my windscreen.
The internal GPS antenna is so strong that the unit actually works in my garage (wood shingle roof), so no external antenna needed.
The Garmin c510 has real time FM traffic alerts (and calculates your actual arrival times based on delays)

[ddb]

I've had my Garmin NUVI 350 for about a year and love it. It is a little larger than a deck of cards. There's a NUVI 360 available that can be synced with a Bluetooth phone and a NUVI 660 that has a larger screen and the ability to transmit the audible directions via a RF signal to specific radio stations, I believe.

It is tough if not impossible to hear the audible directions with the top down, but that isn't a major problem once you are familiar with the display. I can use it just fine by looking at the display without any audio, and sometimes choose to just listen to the audible directions and not use the display when the top is up or in my other vehicle.

From what I've read, the NavTech maps on the Garmins, and other brands, are better in the US and the TeleAtlas maps on the TomTom models are better for Europe.

My NUVI 350 will operate for about 2 hours on battery power. For most uses this is sufficient for me so I don't have to drag around the power port cord. It can also be charged via AC power.

The small size makes it easy to throw in a carry-on bag during air travel.

I bought mine from walmart.com who had the best prices a year or so ago. I actually found some better prices at other online stores, but I wasn't familiar with them and felt more comfortable buying from a larger, known store.

Hope this helps.

ddb

[der Geist]

I bought a Nav Cam from Sam's Club and it performed so poorly I took it back and asked for a refund. I got a Nuvi 360 and couldn't be happier. Amazon had the best price out of everyone and I got free overnight shipping on top of it. I just got back from a 2 day trip in and around Chicago and the unit performed flawlessly. The bluetooth is cool except I wouldn't recommend trying to talk through the speaker phone on the NUVI even with the top up or hardtop. The microphone is a play toy. It is cool how you can see your call history and phone book on the NUVI's screen and dial through it. You can also dial any of the points of interest/hotels/restaraunts directly from the NUVI when you pull them up if you have a bluetooth phone. I find I don't miss as many calls now as the phone rings through the NUVI which is much louder. As I understand it you can download map updates directly from Garmin's web site along with different vehicles to put on screen. I usually use the little blue sports car. On the days where I have "Road Rage" I'll opt for the tank though. Oh yeah-you can add your own "points of interest" as well. Should be handy for adding in all the school zones, light and speed cameras that are seeming to pop up everywhere lately. I even saw a speed camera on the Dan Ryan Expressway today. WTF!! Since when can you ever go over the speed limit in the Dan Ryan? 4AM??? (maybe)

[SaltyDog]

A few things that may make a difference, depending on how/where you drive, I have gone from an old Garmin GPS 38 with no basemap, through using a GPSMAP III and an Ique 3600 as dash mounted, as well as using a full laptop on a mount in the pickup truck with a bluetooth/usb GPS. (and way to many gps systems on the boat)

Audible prompts are very helpful in reminding you to turn/exit, and announcing the street name is good in urban areas where you want to look at the road and traffic, not the screen.

Map updates, PC integration for route downloading is a good thing, but you will also want to see if you can use it one handed while shifting..

screen size that shows a decent image of the map allows you to figure out what street you want to turn right on in 100 yrds.

Some have the Bluetooth integration with your phone, and an audio output so that you can wire the prompts into your radio and have a suitable gateway such as the denison potentially mute the audio for the prompts/telephone.