G.P.S. Witch one do you have

[Big Wheel]

I am looking for a G. P. S. for my truck I have it down to two units

the ( Garmin Street pilot 2620 ) or the ( Magellan Road Mate 700 )

Dose anyone have one of these and how do you like it. ??

From what I can see there isn't a lot of differents between the two and

the price is about the same for each one.

I would of gotten one from Dodge with the truck but they were not avaible for the Dodge truck when I got my truck.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Archive]

I have the Garmin Street Pilot III. Probably an older model of what you are looking at???



I like it. It has many options, with plenty of software and mapping available for it. It's als portable, so I just unplug it, plug in the shorty antenna, and thru the woods I go!

 

[RustyJC]

I have the Garmin 2620 and am extremely pleased with it. It has a more robust mapping database than the DVD-based Alpine OEM navigation system in my 2003 Acura 3. 2TL-S. Actually, I only get to use it when we're towing the 5th wheel with the truck - my wife has appropriated it for her Durango otherwise!



Rusty

 

[kober]

Magellan Meridian Platinum. Works good, lasts a long time.

 

[Bodybomber]

Go Garmin. They have top notch customer service. I had a problem with my 295 and they told me how to fix it over the phone and you can update the software with a download from the web site.

 

[John - K5AWO]

I have a Garmin Street Pilot III that is about 5 years old. Never a problem with it. It was mounted in an airplane for 3 years, now it is velcroed to the dash on my truck. Kind of outdated, but when hooked to a laptop computer it works just like a new one.

 

[Russknh]

I also have one of the older street pilots and move it from my service truck to whatever car I am in,I find I like it better than the one that Chrysler puts in the grand cherokee we have.

 

[ramtifosi]

Have a Garmin Street Pilot III, have used all over the USA and also in Europe very satisfied with it.

 

[btanner]

I also have a garmin and i"m pleased with it. Many of them have external memory that cna be added to update maps and keep more detailed areas of where you travel very convient. Even the base map is usually enough for most road navigation. Offroad navigation more detail is sometimes needed (like topo) but on the road the base map is actually quite good.



-ben

 

[smcstay]

Garmin iQue 3600. Palm device and GPS in one. A little more of a pain to set up than a straight GPS device, but more versatile. I've had no problems with it.

 

[RustyJC]

Just for clarification for those that may not be aware, the Garmin 2620 has an internal hard disc and comes with the mapping software for all of North America already loaded and available for use (no "unlocking code$" required). The hard disc also has an extra 512 MB (IIRC) available for additional maps, etc. In that respect, it's really plug and play.



Firmware and mapping software is updated via a USB cable connection to a PC when required/desired.



Rusty

 

[BillH]

I have the Magellan 700 and love it. There is nothing to download, everything is already loaded and customer service is unbeatable. The Garmin is probably equally as good as may be some others.



Bill

 

[bkroupa]

I have the Magellan Meridian Color travel pack & I'm very pleased with it. If you don't mind carrying your laptop, there are a few like Delorme that plug into your laptop for ~$200 & work excellent using the large screen of your laptop.

 

[RRoton]

I have the Magellan Meridian Color travel pack & I'm very pleased with it. If you don't mind carrying your laptop, there are a few like Delorme that plug into your laptop for ~$200 & work excellent using the large screen of your laptop.

I just ordered the Magellan Meridian Color yesterday.

Got a very good price. $270. 00 - free shipping - no sales tax

Of course that did not include the travel pack.

 

[bkroupa]

That is a good price, I found tghe travelpack online for $385 shipped.

The 64mb chip is plenty big for most of my travels, but I'd go bigger if I were to buy a new one.

 

[BK]

I have the Garmin 2610. .

http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2610/



I wouldn't buy the 2620, it comes with a micro HD. Not what I want in the truck, shock and vib not a great idea long term on an expensive internal harddrive.



The 2610 uses cheap compact flash. The fast stuff is cheap enough. For less than the price difference of the 2620 to the 2610, you can buy a 1. 5gb card and load the whole map and all onto it. If you don't want to spend the $$ on the 1. 5gb card, I fit the whole NE from the great lakes, Border of Canada, Maine , east coast down to VA on a 512mb card ( uses about 420mb). I use a second card with the whole SE.



You spend an hour one night downloading the cards via a card reader ( faster than reading and writing through the 2610 ) and your all set.

The 2620 is plug and play since they preload the map to the micro ND. . but when the sucker fails... $400 for it. I havent tuched the 2620, so I dont know if you have to open it or not to replace the micro HD.



I love the thing.

 

[y-knot]

I have the street pilot, it does everything I want and does it wonderfully, we both love it and take it along on all our trips. The newer cars with their navigation radios are stupid, they require an annually subscription fee which is anywhere from 200 to 7-800 on the better models, what a rip off. The Garman unit is a one time expense and does more, it can be taken from car to car, boat or anywhere you want. They also offer up-dated software if you need it, and you can get other country's data. We are trying to buy a new Volvo, or BMW, and every car now comes with a Nav radio pre ordered by the dealers. I do not want or need their radio and it makes it hard to find the right car.

 

[TSpecht]

I have the Magellan Meridian Platinum. Nice machine, when new firmware is available for it, they put it on their website so you can download it. I'm afraid I can't comment on their customer service because I've never needed it.



I use a 128mb card and get around the data restrictions their mapsend software places on itself by saving each section I want directly to the hard drive of the computer, and then using a card reader to upload all the maps to the card. This way you can have as many different regions as the size of the card you use will allow. I have most of the Great Lakes states (at least the ones around MI) saved to the 128mb card this includes both regular and topographic (still shows roads and stuff, just different points of interest than the regular streets and destinations one) maps. The downside to doing it this way is you need to pick each map seperately, it won't switch automatically when going from region to region. The way I did mine was I made each state it's own region, for clarity. It's something to play around with at least and decide how it works best for you.



The laptop idea would be a good one if you can do it, since regardless how nice a display on a GPS unit is, a 14"+ laptop color monitor and perhaps a real mouse and keyboard for entering in choices is definitely superior.

 

[Rhinohd]

I have the navman gps3450 for my ipaq. It works pretty good but I did have some software issues but they have patched it since. I found it very hard to get support from them in the past but it seems like they are trying harder now. Would I buy it again? Yes. I bought it for $175 and because I already had the IPAQ PDA ($450) and I didn't want another device to carry around with me it was a no brainer.

 

[RustyJC]

The 2620 is plug and play since they preload the map to the micro ND. . but when the sucker fails... $400 for it.

BK,



Out of curiosity, how many Garmin 2620 hard disc failures do you know of? Mine has not given any problems whatsoever, nor have my inquiries on this and many other forums unearthed any problems at all with the 2620.



Rusty