TomTom, Garmin....Who has the best bang for the buck???
 

I'm about to buy a nav system for my wife and I was looking at a TomTom One or an XL but I wanted to see what experience (good or bad) anyone has with TomTom or recommendations for another company. I'd like to keep my cash layout to $300 to $350.

Do you have a Costco card or know someone that does?

They have 2 excellent deals right now. Magellan 4040 for $350, normally $500.

Also Garmin Nuvi 650 for $300, normally $500.

The 4040 deal you can get in store, the 650 is on line only.

Tried the TomTom and found it to be slow.

Magellan Maestro 4040, $300 at COSTO (at the warehouse - $350 on their website) - full price usually around around $450. Bought mine 5 days ago, love it so far. See Jim Cesiro's comments on another very recent thread re this (gee, I didn't holler USE THE SEARCH BUTTON! :D)

Hmmm,

In store prices in NY for 4040 are $350 and $500 at other big boxes like BB.

Gonna have to run by there tomorrow and see if they had a price change and get an adjustment.

I knew I should have searched........I found his link and thought it was hilarious! His avatar reminded me of how I felt when I left the UA vs ULM game last weekend and his comments "I have never wanted to destroy a piece of electronics like I do that POS." are more than helpful. I found his responses very helpful!

BTW...I'm still looking for comments on the TomTom; I didn't see any on his thread.

I have a Garmin C330 street pilot, and have been happy with it. And Jim is still talking about his Nuvi. (not in a good way) :)

Interesting - they've had them at $300 in their warehouses in Socal for at least a couple or three weeks. I'm surprised that things are more bucks on their web-site than in their stores.

My comment on the TomTom was that the interface is slow.

You should go into BB or similar and play with them.

Originally I was trying to get away with $250 max but you find features that justify the extra $'s.

One of them is audible feedback on character entry, nice to hear if you mistyped.

Watch the BlueTooth feature. The magellan has real BT in that you can use it as a hands free car kit. Others with BT do not.

There are also a few earlier threads (including my inquiry, several months ago) wherein several people commented negatively on the Tom Tom's - I think some might have been re ease of use.

I'm a AAA member and the AAA info on the Magellan (if you're a member) is pretty cool.

One negative is that you have to send it to them if the battery goes. Heard neg. comments on their cust. serv. but that may have gotten better; I get the impression that they're advertising pretty heavily and their sales are up - not sure.

I just went through all this...ended up with a Garmin Nuvi 350. Fantastic little piece of kit. I suggest a visit to Best Buy to try out the various models- see what works for you. On a side note, WalMart.com has better prices than in the store. They ship it to your nearest store- for $100 less than off the shelf. I don't understand their logic, but it worked for me!

Cheers,

Paul.

I'll sell you my Garmin Nuvi for $200. No joke.

According to others here Garmin rocks and has great customer service.

Let me know I can overnight it to you.

Just got back from BB.....nothing was a clear winning with me so I guess it will come down to what has the best bang for the buck.

Does anyone use the bluetooth feature on their GPS????

Jim..............$200 sounds like a good deal but after all the problems you have w/your Garmin, I think I will have to pass. Thanks anyway!

Are you sure? Joe and others seem to think its me and not the unit they swear by the Garmin.

The customer service (which you WILL be using ) is awesome.

Then again I have two 5 year old Magellin units in my fleet trucks and I have yet to call Magellins customer service, which I understand sucks. But I would prefer my customer service (which I do not need) to suck rather than my GPS unit.

Alright $150 bucks 50% off you drive a hard deal!

FUDGE!!!! I just checked Sams (online) and they want $700 for a Nuvi 650 and $400 for a 4040! Wally's World wants $450 for the 650.

Costco wants $450-rebate= $300 for the 650 and $350 for the 4040.

I will get my wife's Costco card and see what $$$ they have locally.

Any more price updates will be appreciated.

Again, at COSTCO - $350 is the 4040 ON-LINE price - get it for $300 IN THE WAREHOUSE (at least here in Socal).

Good luck.

I will likely get the NUVI 360 from Costco. Hopefully I can get a decent amount for my older StreetPiliot.

If the 360 sucks wind I'll just return.

Its funny - I had no problem ordering the satnav option in the wife's new car but can't bring myself to pay $300-400 for a standalone GPS.

Partly because my next cellphone will have GPS nav anyway, so why bother with a separate GPS that will eventually get stolen from my car, leaving me with a shattered window as a bonus.

And partly because it seems overpriced. The GPS chipset is appx $20, the processor appx $10, the touchscreen $10-20, the flash memory $20, etc etc - basically it seems like the thing should cost a lot less, darn it.

In Europe there will be 99 euro models this year, so someone can make and sell them at a profit for $150.

Here's a question, sort of related.

The two companies that sell maps to the GPS device makers are Navteq and TeleAtlas. They are both being bought, for big money - several billion dollars - by Nokia and Tom Tom. Supposedly - to replicate the mapping and POI data these companies have painstakingly generated over the years would be extremely expensive and take years.

Does that sound right? Seems to me, the map data is out there, look at any paper road map from AAA or Michelin or the USGS or whoever - the map is paper but the data must be in digital form, even if merely image files, it can get converted. And the POI data is out there, look at any yellow pages directory whether paper or online.

How big a job would it be to license or acquire that information and convert into digital mapping data suitable for GPS devices? How much additional work would you need to do on the ground, hiring college kids to drive specially equipped vans around and so on?

$8 billion dollars of work? Because that's what Nokia is paying for Navteq.

Hell yes the Bluetooth is a nice feature! Its one of the things I love on my C580 Garmin. Mate the two when driving and when the phone rings you answer the phone through the GPS and never touch the phone. Clarity is excellent and much easier than fumbling for the phone. Placing a call you touch the screen and it accesses the cell phone or address book via bluetooth and dials whatever you need. I do not like talking on the phone while driving but this makes it a lot safer and easier.

TomTom is ok but its a European based model and a big seller over there. They are descent but IMHO Garmin is still better here in the States.

Jim,

I am not "against you" in any way. You like Magellin and after owning 5-6 Garmin GPS units I feel that they are better. I travel for a living and use a street version of their GPS systems every week, around the world. As well use one of their airborne GPS systems for a backup in the plane, so am fairly familiar with them

I tried a Magellin and got screwed by their support and warranty system. Never again. As well upgrading the Magellin and other GPS units map systems is a real PITA compared to the Garmin system. Took me 45 minutes of fiddling with serial numbers and such with the Magellin setup (would not allow me to cut and paste the number) and its a 2 minute operation with Garmin.

One of my copilots dropped my bag with the GPS inside a while back which cracked the screen when it hit the ground. Sent it into Garmin explaining how it happened and "just pls repair it and send me the bill." Received the unit back in 2 weeks with a new screen and a label on the front stamped "warranty repair!" With service and support like this its hard for me to go elsewhere.

There is a ton of proprietary information that goes into making the GEOBase data used for these programs. Sadly, it is not as simple as driving around and producing the map. Once you ge the raw data, you need to verify it. Ask anyone who has used a GPS what happens when you stand near a building or move one foot and the GPS shows a significant movement. you need to clean all that up. Also, when you overlay the GPS data on an arial map, often the rod you followed does not follow the road the satellite sees.

Is it worth $8B? gosh, who really knows. But then again, look at how GPS has infiltrated our lives (maps.whatever, On-Star, cell phones that know where we are, military folks calling in an airstrike feet away from them, etc). Quality data costs megabucks. Once you got it, others typically pay through the nose for it, if the owner sells at all (I used to work for a chemical company that developed extremely detailed in house physical property data for its raw materials and products. It was not available to anyone, at any price... corporate saw it as competitive advantage).