I spend a lot of time going from place to place. (in residential areas, mostly)
I need a GPS device that I can mount to my windshield that allows me to key in addresses and will give me turn by turn directions. Voice commands would be fantastic. I occasionally hike so it might be cool for that too, or for occasional road trips. Mostly, though, it’s for day to day driving around.
It needs to be fairly easy to read in busy urban traffic, and able to carry around from time to time. I need to be able to take in the house at night.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
ETA: I’m not easy on things like cell phones, so durability is a major plus.
We’ve got a TomTom, which, while not top of the line (as I understand it) has given us very little hassle, speaks to you (sometimes incessantly: “stay left, then stay left, then stay left”), and it painlessly easy to read. We’ve also dropped it on occasion and it’s no worse for the wear. It’s the only kind we’ve ever had but I have few gripes about it, none of them major. You can affix to your windshield, save addresses, and it does a really fine job of finding points of interest along your route (gas stations, rest stops, hospitals, In N Outs, etc.)
I think you’ll find that there are at least two types of GPS receivers. The ones made for use in cars, and walking around in the city. And the kind made for hand held use while hiking or biking. The Garmin Nuvi’s and Tom Tom’s are the first kind. They have a touch screen and will talk you to your destination via the road and highway system. BUT they can’t handle off road and trail use. They are not in their data base. Many of them don’t allow you to pre choose your route either. Some do, but many don’t.
The other types are hand held units designed for hiking and such. Their data base can be loaded with topographical data and would show all the hiking and biking trails. But they don’t have touch screens and won’t talk to you. An example of this kind would be a Garmin eTrex Legend or Vista. Pocket sized but relatively inconvenient to enter addresses and other data.
The Tom Tom or Garmin Nuvis would meet your needs except for the hiking. Their touch screens are very convenient.
We have a TomTom and we really like it. It’s extremely easy to use, relatively inexpensive and easy to tote out of the car when we park in sketchy areas. We live near some back road areas, and we have noticed that there are some podunk roads that aren’t in the database, but that’s likely common with these things.
It’s never gotten us lost, so that’s the most important thing I guess.
I had a good experience with the Garmin Nuvi and a really poor experience with the Tom Tom. The Tom Tom crashed right out of the box and required a software update. How Tom Tom could ship software with such an obvious, major bug was beyond me.
They do have different philosophies. Tom Tom strongly recommends that their unit be hooked up to a Windows computer every few weeks for backups, etc. If you have a Windows computer and don’t mind your GPS being a computer peripheral, the Tom Tom can be updated and backed up with the Tom Tom supplied software and cable. The Garmin is designed to be completely stand alone and works very well without ever being connected to a computer. Garmin does not ship the Nuvi with a cable nor computer software.
I don’t own a Windows computer, so the Tom Tom was returned.
Hmm. While I hooked the TomTom up to my computer when we first got it for updates, I haven’t since. As for your crash, sounds like you got a lemon. It happens.
Does the Nuvi self-update via satellite or does it just run on the most current road information programmed into it before it’s manufactured?
Garmin Nuvi 350 or a related unit would be what I would suggest. I used the TomTom 910 and the Garmin and found the Garmin maps were substantially better (overall) for than the TomTom maps. It is generally recognized by GPS mavens that Garmin has a superior set of US road maps while TomTom offers more hardware bells and whistles for the money. TomTom also has a more extensive set of international maps.
After some frustrating experiences with the TomTom maps over the course of several months I switched to the Garmin.
I have a Garmin 60CSX. Hand held, and nice. Color screen, no voice. You have to load a map CD ($100) to get turn by turn route instructions.
Real handy for hiking, or on a bike. Less so in the car.
What does the Teddy Bear do when you throw it out a window?
Raindog, you’re really looking for 2 GPS’s because of the nature of what you’re looking for. A car GPS is designed to give you directions and run off the car’s electrical system. A hiking GPS is designed to display information and have a longer battery cycle. You can probably find a unit that does both but it may be cheaper in the long to buy 2. Let me explain.
In your car, you want a database that has all the street names and can navigate to a specific destination. To get this there is a sacrifice of visual information because it eats up space. Additional information stored consists of searchable points of interest such as nearest bank or restaurant. When hiking you want to visually see where you are which includes terrain information and detailed landmarks such as lakes, rivers and land contour.
A good car unit is easy to program and use without a manual. You do not want to be distracted by a unit that is hard to use so I would advise creating a test to see which one seems the most logical to use. As an Example, my Magellan can be programmed by searching for a destination by city, zip code or previous location. Sometimes it’s really handy to search by zip code instead of typing in the city (try spelling Punxsutawney versus entering a zip code). The next thing my Magellan asks for is the street name and it will only display the letters that are possible to choose from. Example: if you are looking for Monticello Dr in Punxutawney and you type in “M” it will only display the letters of streets beginning with “M” and continue to pare down the letters until it displays the street you are looking for. It makes it easier to enter and may be useful if you are constantly looking for new addresses.
The bells and whistles that are offered in car units (and therefore add to the cost): screen size, blue tooth, traffic monitoring, points of interest database, storage for music including a slot for memory. If you don’t use blue tooth don’t buy it. If you’re not going to actively search for restaurants and gas stations then you don’t need the expanded level of points-of-interest.
Things to consider: are you going to use this in Canada? Some units have both US and Canadian roads and some don’t. Do you want voice directions to say the name of the street or just turning instructions? Do you want the unit to display a realistic 3d view of major highways? Do you want it to use traffic alert information if available (sent via radio by some cities).
My suggestion is to go to GPS Magazine and poke around. I would personally think in terms of buying 2 units that do what you want without a lot of bells and whistles. Technology will make your choices obsolete the moment you buy it so by the time you’re looking for another unit it will be cheaper and have more features than what you purchase now.
I would also suggest that you learn to effectively use a GPS. I find it more useful to pull up the written instructions while driving rather than watching or listening to instructions. If you’re in a city like Chicago with one exit after another it can be confusing to watch the GPS. If you flip to the instructions prior to turning you will get the exit number and distance, which I find easier than staring at the unit. It also puts your focus back on the road. If I know I’m looking for exit 22B East and it’s 2.1 miles away then I am now paying attention to where I’m at and not for an unknown turn that matches up to the GPS. Many a time I’ve come to an exit with 2 or 3 versions (exit 22A, 22B, 22C) and they are closely spaced on the highway. It’s easy to miss one by staring at the screen and you’re also not paying attention to the road.
I’ve had two Garmin GPSr devices. My first was an Etrex Legend, which I still have and keep as a backup device. My current is the GPSMap 76CSX, which is just a wahoo device!
I’ve got a Garmin Nuvi 650 that I’m pretty happy with. It’s good for a car, but sucks for hiking. It doesn’t have the trail tracking feature which is really pretty lame.
I have an older Garmin (Palm PDA GPS) and a new Magellan.
The Magellan is tons easier to use.
The Garmin is tons more consistent and accurate.
I’ve heard that to be a common feeling (Magellan is good, Garmin is better) and will eventually test the theory by getting a ‘modern’ Garmin for my use (the Magellan is the wife’s)
I’ve heard good things about Tom Tom and The Dash seems REALLY interesting from an open source standpoint, but I don’t wanna spend $400 on an occasional use machine.