Well, my gf’s birthday is this weekend. I would like to buy her a GPS for her truck, but I’ve never even used one myself. Any recommendations? It should be reasonably priced (we just got back from 2 weeks in St Martin and I’m a bit poor) and ideally should be able to use a Homer Simpson voice “plug in”. I could research on my own, but I am under the gun and am at work…
Gracias
TomTom ONe XL - larger (4.3" screen I think), and a range of voices one of which is homer…reasonable priced at places like ecost.com, tigerdirect.com, refurbdepot.com etc…
I got one for my daughter last fall at around $120 US, but the prices have fallen considerably since spoken turn-by-turn became available on smartphones (free on android 1.6 & up!!!)
Thanks! I see it for 109.95, easily within my budget.
My recent experience is that Google maps and the GPS function on the Android rocks. I’ve been trying to fix problems peiole have finding my store on the systems that use NavTeq as their map provider.
A phone based system is unworkable for her. She carries a Blackberry that her employer provides and pays for, but she never turns it on (she hates the idea of people being able to reach her 24/7).
We are kinda alike there. I have no landline, and I have caller ID blocked on my cell. People I want to hear from (maybe 50 total) know my number. The last time my cell rang and I dd not know the caller it was due to a (now ex) friend giving my number to someone.
Have you reported the problem to Navteq if you are potentially losing customers? There is an interface on the web site to request a Map update.
Garmin has a wide range of GPS devices. I have a StreetPilot c340 that I never use anymore, but it has always been easy to use and reasonably featureful. My stepmom and aunt both have a Garmin as well (don’t have any idea which model), and they enjoy them greatly.
The nuvi 205 looks like a good buy. No idea if it has Homer Simpson on it.
Moved from General Questions to IMHO, where all can give their informed opinions.
samclem Moderator, GQ
I received a Garmin Nuvi 265w for christmas this year and love it - but I’ve never owned a GPS previously, so nothing to really compare it to. I did not notice a Homer when cycling through the available voices/languages, but I imagine you can buy it from MyGarmin?
I just got that one for my wife. Pretty sure no Homer Simpson included, and it’s pretty bare-bones so I’d be surprised if it could be added. But it works great otherwise (i.e., giving directions).
Yes, that was what I was doing in the middle of the night yesterday.
I have three kids who play travel sports so I spend the majority of my weekends traveling for events. Among all the people in our groups it is well accepted that the Garmin Nuvi Series are the best and most accurate. We use them to find the hotels, and the sometimes out of the way fields, the nearest Subway when we have a couple of hours between games, and sometimes even the nearest car wash or oil change place. Tom Tom does cool voices, but the Garmins hands down have better directions. You need to decide which is more important to you in a “navigation” system.
Features I would recommend are small size and internal battery. These came in handy when we were walking following others in Boston and realized our flight left a couple of hours before the others and we didn’t have the one and only map in the group. I pulled my Garmin out of my jacket pocket… looked up the bar I knew we parked close to (not that hard to remember since it was Cheers)… put in walking mode and we were back at the car in under 15 minutes.
Well, thanks for the recommendations. As luck would have it, I got one for free yesterday. A client asked me what I was up to and I mentioned I was hunting down a GPS for my gf. Turns out he just got one as a gift. It came sans gift receipt, and he has one already in his, his wifes, and both sons cars.
So he gave me a Garmin nüvi® 1350
Free is good. Now I can put the $$ I woulda spent toward a romantic dinner.