Major Price Drop for GPS Units - Page 4

Krodad · 04-16-07, 11:59

Exactly what I wanted to know.

Thanks Mike!

TigerMike · 04-17-07, 08:56

Looks like another strong contender is about to hit the market for budget minded GPS shoppers. LG, with its LN735, looks to offer a pretty nice set of tools at a price of $350. I read it will have the famed SiRF Star III chip, specific street name voice guidance in the directions, and a photo viewer and music player.

I can't wait for reviews to start pouring in on this one. At $50 more than the Tomtom One, it offers the ability to pronounce street names in the directions, which the One does not. I had my heart set on getting the One next month, but if reviews cite strong directional capabilities and a nice list of POIs, then I may jump ship on the One and strongly consider the LG.

As the street price drops on the LG (could be immediate) to around $299, I think TomTom could be in big trouble with the One, if they don't pony up the advanced features (street level speech) at the same price. I know I'll be watching closely!

Ctowner · 04-19-07, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigerMike

Yeah, I think the Tomtom One will be just right for me. I will probably pick one up next month for my b-day, and it will come in very handy for our family trip to Disney in June. Garmin's Nuvi line looks nice too, but personally, I think they are overpriced for what they offer. Garmin needs to be more price competitive, IMO.

Crutchfield is the only retailer so far that I have seen getting ready to sell the One XL... TomTom ONE XL Portable car navigator at Crutchfield.com

Well played TigerMIke you were about a week ahead of the official announcement. The ONE XL looks legit! It has a bigger screen which is great but what I'm really excited about is this model has TTS (text-to-speech) and Bluetooth capability. Also The ONE XL has traffic updates, which is something I haven't used, but appears some of you guys are keen on this feature. I definitely could see how these updates could come in handy.
TomTom ONE XL

TigerMike · 04-26-07, 07:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigerMike

Looks like another strong contender is about to hit the market for budget minded GPS shoppers. LG, with its LN735, looks to offer a pretty nice set of tools at a price of $350. I read it will have the famed SiRF Star III chip, specific street name voice guidance in the directions, and a photo viewer and music player.

LG LN735 GPS Review

This is one of the first reviews of the LN735 that I've seen and it isn't good. I had high hopes for this model, with a really nice feature set on paper that apparently fails to deliver in reality. Looks like I will be getting the TT One after all!

Ctowner, about the TT One XL, I don't think it has text to speech (speaking actual road names). I keep reading about it and can't find that it has that feature. I think basically all the XL is offering over the regular One is a bigger screen really. It would be really nice if TT would go ahead and add that feature to the One and One XL without a significant increase in price. Then Garmin would really be in trouble with its popular, but very pricey $500 Nuvi 350.

Ctowner · 04-27-07, 12:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by TigerMike

LG LN735 GPS Review

This is one of the first reviews of the LN735 that I've seen and it isn't good. I had high hopes for this model, with a really nice feature set on paper that apparently fails to deliver in reality. Looks like I will be getting the TT One after all!

Ctowner, about the TT One XL, I don't think it has text to speech (speaking actual road names). I keep reading about it and can't find that it has that feature. I think basically all the XL is offering over the regular One is a bigger screen really. It would be really nice if TT would go ahead and add that feature to the One and One XL without a significant increase in price. Then Garmin would really be in trouble with its popular, but very pricey $500 Nuvi 350.

TigerMike,

After conducting some more research it turns out that your right about the ONE XL! I guess I misinterpreted the "clear spoken instruction in your own language" to be TTS. Anyways congratulations on your decision to purchase the ONE and check out this video of "video playback" on the ONE. It looks sweet!
YouTube - TomTom with Video Playback

BlackElantraGT · 04-27-07, 12:47

My wife was watching HSN or QVC the other night and they were selling the TomTom, and one thing I like better compared to the Nuvi were the amount of voices you get to pick from. According to the rep, you can even do celebrity voices like Darth Vader or something. Now THAT is pretty cool.

For the Nuvi, there are hardly any voices and to make it worse, it sounds so freakin 80's robotic compared to the TomTom. I need to do some research and see if someone's hacked into the Nuvi and installed video playback software like the one Ctowner posted.

Ctowner · 05-01-07, 05:46

Yeah the celeb voice thing is pretty funny. I have always thought Gary Busey was a little nutty and having him give me directions on a GO 910 would definitely be good for a laugh. Side note: does anyone else remember that ridiculous show I'm With Busey.....Gary B got awfully weird towards the end and yes I think I watched the entire season.

Club TomTom » Gary Busey Navtones

TigerMike · 05-15-07, 07:44

Well, after exhaustive research (almost obsessive research, lol), I ordered my new TT One today, got it for $279. I hope I made the right decision on this unit, but I think it will make a fine "first" GPS device. I am still watching prices on the Garmin Nuvis though, and may purchase one of those in the future if the prices drop to my satisfaction. I still think the Nuvis are way overpriced, but that's me. I'm curious if I'll get one of the newest One's with the Hammerhead chip, instead of the famed SiRF Star III, and the latest set of map updates...we'll see. With an upcoming trip to Disney in a few weeks, I think the One will be very handy!

I would like to get the voice of Darth Vader on my One

, but I'm a bit afraid of completely screwing it up...

jmorton10 · 06-19-07, 04:10

I am a long time NAV/GPS user, here is what I installed in my 06 Ford Escape Hybrid:

In Box Photo Gallery by jmorton10 at pbase.com

I also have 3 Garmin portables & as someone else said, they both have their advantages. I flew to Atlanta recently on a business trip & brought one of the Garmin 2620's with me, that saved me $10 a day on a rental.

I use a Garmin 2610 (with a 2 gig CF card to hold all the USA maps) on my Harley & it works very well.

~John

jmorton10 · 06-19-07, 04:13

One other thing I might add is, Garmin has absolutely AWESOME customer service. Garmin's CS is FAR better than any other GPS manufacturer if that is important to you.

~John

velobard · 06-20-07, 06:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmorton10

One other thing I might add is, Garmin has absolutely AWESOME customer service. Garmin's CS is FAR better than any other GPS manufacturer if that is important to you.

~John

CS may be great, but I'm pretty peeved at the recent change by the corporate muckity-mucks who decided "no free updates...period" with regard to mapping software. Until just a month or so ago if you bought a new Garmin you could download free map updates. They usually come out with a new set once per year and about 10 days ago I received my new Garmin nuvi 680. I was checking some stuff out about it online in one of the GPS forums and discovered that at the same time I received mine with version 8 software, new units are shipping with 2008 (version 9) software but if I want it I'll have to pay the full ~$70 upgrade fee. They told me there's no way to know which I have until I take the unit out and turn it on. I did learn on the GPS forum that the version 8 models apparently have a small "v8" printed next to the UPC barcode, but that doesn't help when you're ordering online.

I bought mine from Sams Club online and I called their CS to explain my problem. I told them I'd rather not put this in their lap by returning this unit so I can have the current mapping software (there's a lot of road construction around here, so it matters), but I don't have much choice. It would be cool if Walmart could apply some pressure to Garmin to get some sort of concession.

BlackElantraGT · 08-04-07, 02:45

If anyone is looking into buying a Garmin Nuvi, one must have item that I highly recommend a Nuvi owner to get is their friction mount, seen here:
Amazon.com: Garmin Portable Friction Mount for Nuvi, StreetPilot I Series & C530, C550 (010-10908-00): Electronics

I got mine from Best Buy in store because a few weeks back it was on sale for $29.99, plus I had a $5 rewards coupon to use, but Amazon's price is really nice, especially considering free shipping is included and you don't have to pay tax, not to mention they're reputable to deal with.

I've had my Nuvi 660 since Xmas and what you will eventually deal with is a problem with the suction windshield mount that comes with the unit. It will eventually not hold its suction and the rubber leaves behind a baked on ring on your windshield that is quite difficult to remove completely.

I believe it's a design flaw, and according to other posts I've read it seems that Garmin's customer service also acknowledges the problem too because they will send you a new suction mount if you call. The problem though, is that it will begin failing again.

For many months I was dealing with licking the rubber suction or applying 50/50 ipa to help the mount stick, only for it to fall off during driving or fall out by the next time I got in the car. The longest it would stay on the windshield was less than 24 hours.

The only regret I have now is not buying this product sooner. If you looked at the Amazon link I posted, you will see that out of 73 reviews, it has an amazing 5 star rating. One reviewer had a really good comment about how having a windshield mount just attracts unwanted attention. Even if you hide your nav in your glovebox, the thief will just assume correctly that you're hiding it there. And if you happen to take your nav with you everywhere, then the thief would have still broken into your car.

With the friction mount, when I get out of the car, I simply put the mount on the floor, or my center console. It also hides my iPod from view because often times I'm too lazy to hide my iPod. Unless someone were to come up to your car and start peeking around, they wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at your windshield whether you were hiding something valuable or not.

Plus, part of the benefit of having a portable nav is being able to use it from car to car. It's much easier to just place the friction mount on any dashboard and go, versus getting the windshield suction mount to stick correctly, and then deal with having to clean off the windshield once you remove it.

Also, keep in mind that in California it's illegal to mount a navigation to your windshield so by using this you're abiding by the law.

I know this posts sounds like a freaking advertisement LOL, but I'm in no way affiliated with Garmin, Amazon, or Best Buy (unless you want to count the time I worked as Xmas help years ago.) I wanted to post this because of the frustrations I had for many months dealing with the original suction mount and I know if someone else has a Nuvi out there, most likely they're experiencing this same problem. Save the time and headache and just buy the $30 friction mount. You won't regret it.

BTW, I was skeptical as to how the friction mount could stay on your dashboard. It does not slide at all and I've taken some fairly sharp turns in the car. The only downside to this product, is that it's slightly bulky but I really do not think that will stop anyone from liking and using this type of mount instead.