Navigation GPS...which one?

[steved]

Looking at a Magellan RoadMate 700 that I might buy... anyone have one of these?



Are there others out there that are good basic units... looking for something fairly inexpensive, more of a "I have" toy, than an "I need" toy...



steved

 

[PWitteveen]

I have a friend that drives truck for a living. He has a Magellan RoadMate in his work truck and a Garmin Nuvi 350 in his Dodge. He prefers the Garmin.

 

[ENafziger]

If you aren't needing one that is removeable, I really like the Mopar Navus. It is made by Garmin, and has some really nice features. FWIW, you can find them on ebay pretty reasonable, and one from a Jeep Cherokee will work just fine.

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--Eric

 

[ccie]

My Garmin Nuvi 660 works great

 

[John - K5AWO]

I own both a Magellan Roadmate 300 and a Garmin 2730 (both have been superceded by new stuff).

The Magellan is a pain in the neck to use, does not allow me to block routes, but does a good job getting you from point 'A' to point 'B'. Any of them will do that.

The Garmin model I have allows a USB connection to a pc for easy updates. The route planning is better (still has glitches though as all will) and I enjoy the 3D view that it offers which shows upcoming roads in a task bar at the top of the screen.

I suggest you go to a retail store and take the time to play with the menus each has. You will come to some conclusions pretty quick about what you don't like.

Both of my units are still in service. I also have a Garmin GPS III which is over ten years old now. No route planning on that one, but was great for flying my airplane when all you wanted was "off course" indication.

 

[steved]

OK, I have another question... what happens when there is no road? Will the thing still plot your course on the "map" or does it go bizerk? We want something that has base maps in it, but don't really need it for navigation.



I'm using an antiquated Eagle Accumap Sport with built-in base maps that, while not really accurate, does exactly what we want short not having all the minor roads. I don't have the computer cabling or the "chips" for it, so I have to rely on the built in stuff.



I'm sure these fancy navigation units don't have "Forest Highways" or the really minor back roads/dirt roads... so what happens when they don't have a road to follow? Can you use it like a "normal" GPS or not?



I'm thinking a handheld with uploadable maps would probably do the job??



steved

 

[BTighe]

stay away from the c320, c330 ect. garmins. me and a friend have both had issues. mine works the battery wont charge. just anoying when i want to update it. mine has darn near every blm road ive gone on. pretty handy when were up in the snow and it gets dark on us

 

[steved]

stay away from the c320, c330 ect. garmins. me and a friend have both had issues. mine works the battery wont charge. just anoying when i want to update it. mine has darn near every blm road ive gone on. pretty handy when were up in the snow and it gets dark on us

So what do you suggest? I was looking at a Garmin c340 at Best Buy tomorrow!



(your post is confusing, sounds like you don't recommend the Garmins, then recommend the Garmins??)



steved

 

[Larry Downs]

Garmin c330

Garmin c330 - I have had no issues with this unit and use it all the time. Buy it now at WalMart for $179. 00

 

[BTighe]

sorry. i like the garmins but the cheaper ones havent been lasting as far as ive seen. mine is a couple years old and gets the job done but the battery has failed. i havent looked at the better units lately. for 179 you cant go wrong really. i would do that and if theres an issue, walmarts good about them. my c320 was 550 bucks when i bought it! still paid off in the end but ive only had it 2 years and it crapped after the first year.



looks like the one your looking at is an updated version of mine. might be better. also, these ones dont have much memory. mine will only hold oregon and washington info with the card that came with it. figure another 30-50 bucks for a bigger card if you need more capacity (take longer trips).

 

[wcjp]

OK, I have another question... what happens when there is no road? Will the thing still plot your course on the "map" or does it go bizerk? We want something that has base maps in it, but don't really need it for navigation.



I'm using an antiquated Eagle Accumap Sport with built-in base maps that, while not really accurate, does exactly what we want short not having all the minor roads. I don't have the computer cabling or the "chips" for it, so I have to rely on the built in stuff.



I'm sure these fancy navigation units don't have "Forest Highways" or the really minor back roads/dirt roads... so what happens when they don't have a road to follow? Can you use it like a "normal" GPS or not?



I'm thinking a handheld with uploadable maps would probably do the job??



steved

My Garmin Zumo 550 is not on the cheap end. However, it has a great battery, 6million Points of Interest (poi), MP3 capability, Satellite radio and expandable maps. I'd recommend at least 1million poi's. I've uploaded the Western Half of the US Topo, Alaska and Hawaii Topo and US Lights and Waterways. If I'm off the loaded Garmin Maps I switch to offroad mode. The Topo has most of the dirt roads and Jeep trails.



Many of the handhelds have a memory limit to what they'll take. The memory limit has more to do with the type of maps, not necessarily to do with the actual size of the maps. They'll take lots of topo info. Not so much additional poi.

 

[ENafziger]

In response to the above about what happens offroad? With the Navus by Garmin, I have been completely impressed with the roads it shows even offroad. In fact, this system is the only thing that got me out of the woods at 3 a. m. after being stuck/stranded/lost/deluded for 8 hours.

Can you believe these trails were on the screen and had names? When I told it "shortest way home" it directed me to "roads" even smaller than this!

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Eric

 

[steved]

I am in the process of buying a Garmin Nuvi 200W... if I can get them to ship the $)(&%U thing...

steved

 

[wcjp]

Here's where I bought my Zumo 550.





TVNAV.com GARMIN GPS

 

[steved]

Well, got the issue ironed out... seems they had a glitch and everyone that ordered was told to "call to confirm" their internet order.



So I should have a Garmin Nuvi 200W coming soon!



steved

 

[MLee]

If you have not decided which unit to buy, go to the web sites that sell these gps and read the user comments about each. Questions you now have can be answered there. Do you need the MP3 player? The picture downloader? The sat. radio? Is the memory big enough? Is it big enough to see without a magnifing glass? There is more advancements coming. The tom tom 920T should be out right a way and it is loaded, no price yet. [read about this on the web] Do you want to know what kind of traffic congestion you are coming to? and re-rout automatically it's out there. Off road would be good. Going to ask my vender.

Marv.

 

[steved]

The 200W is a basic unit...



It has a SD card slot for memory expansion... didn't really need an MP3 player, and I already have satellite radio. The nice thing about this one is the fact it has a large screen... so it should be ok in that department...



I really don't need it for the actual navigation, as the wife is pretty darn good at that. But I like the fact that you can see intersections coming up, before you pass them... and that you can see how far the intersection your hunting is away from your current point...



So, I guess for my first unit, this will be a trial and error buy... I'll learn what I like and don't like with this one, and look for those features on the next one...



steved

 

[steved]

As an update, I bought the Nuvi 200W...

So far, I've had it about a week. The unit itself is flawless... locks onto satellites in under 20 seconds, places you on the map where you're supposed to be. It also has a very large screen, as compared to some of the other Garmins.

I have found two instances where the base map is incorrect... one place it tells me to turn left, and there is a jug-handle with no left turn; and the other is my parents address doesn't exist (very rural area). So you, as the user, still need to have half a braincell to drive. This has the most updated Garmin mapping software, so the rest of you have the same stuff.

However, so far, the roads exist. I like the fact that if you aren't navigating somewhere, it simply tells you (via a text band at the top of the screen) what intersection you're approaching... I find that very handy! It doesn't do text-to-speech, but it gives enough warning that it isn't needed... the voice sort of annoys me anyway.

It has a lot of points of interest (over six million IIRC). If you aren't looking for a POI in close to you, it does take several minutes to search its database (say you search national park, it might take 5 minutes to list ALL the locations with "national park" in the name. The unit has almost 1 GB of "stuff" stored in it... I have found a bunch of stuff near me that I never knew existed...

Although it is a very basic unit, it is exactly what I wanted. The wife likes it, as it shows intersections and names before we get there... so it will help her navigation by maps (she finds places the look interesting, then tells me which way to go).

Overall, we are very pleased with it... I would highly recommend this as an intro-level GPS.

steved

 

[JLEONARD]

Two weeks ago I bought a Tom Tom one XL (wide screen) and it works well.

I shopped the internet and found it for $114 net . . after I get my $100 rebate check. Not too shabby of a deal.

The mapping is very accurate... so far as I can tell it hasn't missed a road... there are a just a few quirks, like sometimes it says go left when it should say bear left. But other than that it works very well. If you miss a turn or decide to go a different way it just keeps recalculating the route... (I guess they all do that).

 

[rweis]

"and the other is my parents address doesn't exist (very rural area)"



I do a lot of RV'ing in out of the way places. Sometimes the RV park will have their coordinates on their web page (your parents probably do not know their map coordinates). Sometimes I go to Google Earth and find the park (your parents home) and get the coordinates from Google Earth. Then load those coordinates into the GPS as the destination.



Bob Weis