GPS - experiences and suggestions

[BertBeagle]

Looking to purchase a GPS. There are a lot of choices out there. Anyone have any experiences / suggestions?

I am told that some units can be used to log car performance data. Anyone know anything about this?

Thanks for the help. This could be an interesting new thread for those considering a GPS unit.

[M491driver]

I'm very happy with the iway 500c by Lowrance. I think it has one of the brightest screens on the market. It does log info about top speed,average speed, distance covered, etc.
I recently used it to see if my speedo was close to correct and when I was done I cleared the memory. My wife took the car for a short trip to WalMart and when she returned I looked at the stored data and found that she had driven 40 miles and exceeded 100 mph. When I showed her the data she said get that thing out of the car. Another soccer mom caught in the act of driving like she stole it.

[911Mac]

I've got a Garmin GPSmap 76, B&W but does a good job showing roads and highways. Also displays elevation. The speed readout is dead on. The top speed can be very inaccurate. I had it in the pickup one day and made several trips to town, that night I was checking the top speed and it said I had gone 140! No way, I never went over 70, err maybe 75.

-Mac

[Don Plumley]

Garmin C330i. Touch screen, voice prompts. Used around the country. Also battery powered so you can enter addresses inside your home. Connects via USB to your computer for updates. Full US basemap resident without connecting to computer (internal hard drive). A+

[cegerer]

I've got the Lowrance 500c as well. Bought it specifically for the large bright 5-inch screen that sits right on top of the dash. When I'm in traffic, I don't want to be taking my eyes off the road to decipher one of those tiny screens that come with most GPSs. With the big screen, you can zoom out and have a very large area that's readable so you can "see" miles ahead.

The only thing it's missing is real-time weather and traffic built in. There's a few out there that have it, but that will be standard on nearly all of them within a year or so.

Another thing that's cool with these is when you're driving in snow or fog and can't see the road, you put it in 3D mode and you can see which way the road is curving ahead or if there are cross streets coming up as you drive - sort of like flying IFR!

[Moses]

I don't own one, but I saw a Pioneer in-dash unit that was amazing. Huge touch screen, weather and traffic conditions, the works. When not in use, it tucks itself away in the dash. They are probably expensive, but pretty cool.

[LeRoux Strydom]

I use a Garmin iQue 3600 (which doubles as a Palm PDA), and wifey uses a Garmin Quest.

The portability of both units to rental/other cars is the big advantage imo, plus the superiority of Garmin's maps and routing algorithms.

[Jims5543]

I am using the Magellin V700 its similar to the Hetz Neverlost system. I bought it because I was so impressed with the Hertz unit. I love it. I have heard good things about the others too though.

[fastpat]

Garmin 2610, fast route calculations, fast sat data download, the gold standard in intuitive user controls, touch screen, uses low cost Compactflash cards, come with a beanbag mount that fits the Carrera dash perfectly, speaker in the power cord.

If you're towing, you can tell it to not make U-turns in routing.

I have one, my wife has one; I use mine in several vehicles. I have a hard wired mount, with rooftop antenna, in my pickup truck.

[Joeaksa]

Have used about everyone in the book and love the Garmin range. Own 5-6 of them in various forms. Have one Magellan and its ok but their customer service sucks. Garmin is excellent and I keep hearing the same on the 3 GPS forums I am on.

If you get a built in system make sure that its using DVD and not CD format.

[addictionMS]

I have a Pharos 525 PDA and GPS combo, does turn by turn with auto re-routing.

I think the thing you need to consider is what will you be using it for? I got thisone because I can reduce then number of things I need to carry around. it is a full wifi PDA with windows mobile so I get the ability to bring it iwth me into cafes and brouse the internet and skype plus it does the whole gps thing. I travel for work sometimes and it is nice to ahve that with you. You can also sync with outlook and set your destination as someone in your contact list.

Jim

[addictionMS]

I have a Pharos 525 PDA and GPS combo, does turn by turn with auto re-routing.

I think the thing you need to consider is what will you be using it for? I got thisone because I can reduce then number of things I need to carry around. it is a full wifi PDA with windows mobile so I get the ability to bring it iwth me into cafes and brouse the internet and skype plus it does the whole gps thing. I travel for work sometimes and it is nice to ahve that with you. You can also sync with outlook and set your destination as someone in your contact list.
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Jim