GPS Car Units

[Mr. Clean]

After searching it appears that the last time this topic was discussed in any depth was JP`s thread back in `09 and his interest was specifically hand held, so....what say you?

From what little research I`ve done, it appears that Garmin and Tom Tom are the 2 most recommended brands. I`ll admit that I am new to this technology so my search criteria is pretty raw and thus someone more knowledgeable than myself could probably tell me why I need to consider other features.

Basically,

O Need it to be portable, will be moved from vehicle to vehicle
O Screen size - I think I would prefer at least a 4.3" screen - I don`t know about the 5".
O Spoken street names - I`m pretty certain about this requirement as I will likely be in heavy trafficed industrial/urban areas. Will need to use all my visual faculties keeping an eye on other drivers who are distracted.
O I see some units have lifetime "Live Traffic" option. I`ve read mixed reviews regarding the actual benefit of this feature. Any ideas.
O Price: Since this is my first unit and I`m not totally certain about the cost/benefit ratio I want to keep this below $150 if at all possible. I am open and could be persuaded that I need to go higher but I`m thinking right now $200 would be tops and there would have to be a pretty darned good explanation as to how I would benefit.

As always, thanks in advance for your thoughts/comments.

[Gus-Gus]

Wish you would have brought this up sooner.. the Garmin Nuvi 1390 was on sale with free shipping at Meijer for 150 bucks.. it came with lifetime map upgrades and lifetime traffic..

closest deal i could find is this

Amazon.com: Garmin nüvi 1490LMT 5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Map & Traffic Updates: Electronics

still not a bad price and the 1490 lets you set multiple way points per trip


my wife stole my other garmin and it had lifetime traffic.. it was OK..i guess.. it just showed you how much of a delay you would have in certain areas.. its not all its cracked up to be.

[Poorboy]

i know someone selling a Garmin I think .. pm me and I`ll give you his name ..and no it isn`t me

[black bart]

When I read about all the latest gadgets I wonder how I ran coast to coast and made deliveries in every major city in the country for 42 years without a GPS.

[JaredPointer]

With a map- written in chisel on a piece of stone?

[Poorboy]

my GPS is built in ... and I like maps too

[mrclean81]

With a map- written in chisel on a piece of stone?

I have a Garmin Nuvi and like it pretty well. Im not really sure if it has live traffic updates, but it does have alot of nice features. I bought it used from a friend who needed money fast, so Im not really sure what they sell for in the stores but its well worth the $50 that I paid for mine. I spent twice that much last year for GPS service on my Blackberry.

[tuscarora dave]

I bought my Garmin used for $40 and haven`t updated it yet so sometimes I need to rely on my sense of direction to navigate through new interchanges and new streets etc. I`m glad I was a professional driver for a few years before GPS was big but I still love having even an old GPS unit with me.

[Gus-Gus]

The traffic is run off of a special cable im not sure how it works..

[black bart]

With a map- written in chisel on a piece of stone?

Yes but it don`t work when you can`t read a map.
Back when I was still trucking people was constantly asking on the CB how to get to their destination.
Believe it or not a lot of people can not read a map.

I`m not real big on all the new toys I don`t have a cell phone or I pod or any of the other pod things that people waste their money on.

My grand children can`t even sit down for a meal without texing a few times they would not make it through the day without all those gadgets.

I have people stop at my house asking for directions to someones house and when I tell them they reply I need to update my GPS.

[Bunky]

I have a Garmin 1490T. It seems to work better than the 1450 in terms of performance. I really have not used the traffic feature much since I only use it when on longer trips (not just going to work).

[betterdan]

We have had a Garmin 550 Street Pilot since 2007 and it has worked great. My wife has the Garminfone and it is nice too.
For GPS I wouldn`t trust anyone but Garmin.






Disclaimer: I do not work for Garmin, I just love their products. Nobody was harmed in this post and any similarities to GPS equipment either working or dead is purely coincidence. All rights reserved

[Bunky]

I will add my first Garmin, the 1450, had issues. It would lock up, etc. There was a series of firmware fixes and now it has been working better. I also was disappointed on the maps. For the roads I drive to Virginia it had some errors and was out of date. I ended up sending Garmin some updates including correct the coordinates for an address and over a year later they finally showed up in an update.

I still think the routing technology is strange. It does not seem to know the concern of doing a U-turn, it does not seem to be able to know that one road has many traffic lights and another road has very few so this makes the "fastest time" option often road. I have a certain trip I make and depending on the starting point, it will go several different ways since they are all close to same mileage (one is through a town -- comment about lights).

[mc2hill]

We have two Garmin`s and have not a problem with either. We bought a 2nd unit this summer as it was almost a cheap to buy a new unit as it was to upgrade the maps on the older one.

Some units have free lifetime map updates. If that upgrade is less than $50, I would suggest spending the money for it one time.

[Pockets]

We have Garmin`s in our ambulances and I absolutely hate them to death they suckk im my opinion. Re caluclating time is terrible the input to put in the streets and addresses is super slow and not very efficient time is life when you have to put in a house address. I love my Magellan!!