Hand Held Navigation System

[Dottore]

I am newbie to this forum, but have very solid Porsche credentials.

We are planning to cross the US by Porsche later this year - hopefully mostly on B roads. I am looking for a good hand-held (and probably DVD based) navigation system that would plug into the cigarette lighter.

I found some old threads on this, but as the technology has advanced considerably, I wonder whether someone can recommend a current unit that is particularly good.

We recently drove through California in a friends Chrysler 300C - and were hugely impressed with the navigation system. If we could find a hand held version of this we would be delighted.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

[86 911]

I know that it is a couple of years old, but the Magellan 750 Nav is a great system. It is very accurate, and has plenty of options to choose (i.e. route to a city, find a destination, street address, off road navigation, address book), as well as a large screen and it talks to you. It is very helpful on the freeway, since it tells you to "keep left" or "merge left" for example as well as give the approximate distance of your next turn or exit.
Hope this helps!

[scottb]

Garmin Street Pilot

[Don Plumley]

Ditto to Scott's recommendation. We have one and it is better than most any in-car factory nav I've seen.

[rbcsaver]

Garmin Street Pilot is the way to go. Sits on a bean bag on your dash.
regards

[Dottore]

Thanks for the feedback.

Does the Garmin unit cover the whole of the US and Canada - or do you have to buy seperate software for different areas?

[Emission]

I've got the Garmin iQue 3600. Same map database as the Street Pilot. It rocks!

[Jack Olsen]

Get the latest Garmin Street Pilot. I have an older model, which won't hold the detailed maps and addresses for the whole country, but I'd be surprised if the current one didn't. Even without that, you get the big roads for the whole country built in.

The ability to find addresses is essential, in my opinion. Some types of GPS's don't have this function. Also, the 'Yellow Pages' component, which seemed like commercialism run amok when I first got it, is actually really useful when you go into a town and want to find an ATM or a gas station or to know what restaurants are coming up in the next 20 minutes.

[Vonzipper]

I have a Garmin 60cs, It works great and holds a ton of data

[Joeaksa]

Have used most of them and still go back to my Garmin Street Pilot 3. I travel for a living and use it every week. It just cannot be beat, especially for the price.

The SP3 covers where you want it to cover. You normally get the US maps on CD but believe that part of Canada is there as well. Mexico may be a different coverage. You can also buy the European or Australian coverage if needed. It does work in places where you do not have a map but just no detailed info. I used it in Spain with no European map and it still showed the larger roads and got me back to the hotel fine.

The newer smaller ones are nice but do not have as much data. The one that Jack talks about is nice but has a miniture hard drive in it and I have heard bad things about using it where there is some vibration like a motorcycle or plane, both of which I do.

Again, like Jack says, plug in "gas station" and it shows you every one within miles of your location, same with every type of resturant and so on. Very good unit!

JoeA

[expat]

Originally posted by Emission
I've got the Garmin iQue 3600. Same map database as the Street Pilot. It rocks!

Another vote for the iQue. Awesome PDA and GPS system

[Doug751]

I have a factory NAV in my daily driver; BMW 5 series. I travel a lot for work, and rent a lot of cars, so I bought a Garmin Street Pilot C330 at Best Buy for about $900. That system is awesome; easier to use than the BMW system and very accurate. All of the maps for the USA and Canada are already on the system, so you do not need to hook it up to a computer except for updating the maps or software when new versions come out. This is a lot easier than other system which require you to decide which maps you will use and then upload the files to your GPS before you use it.

This unit comes with a nice solid mount that goes onto your windshield, much better than any radar detector mount that I have seen. The unit has a battery inside that lasts for 4 hour so that you can carry it into your hotel and load up sites or look for hotels in your next stop (and the phone numbers are in there). Maps are very good, user interface is great. IN a 911, the unit is very close to your face, so the screen size is perfect.

The bad side; since the Street Pilot is not integrated into the car, it does not have any Gyros or feedback from the car. It relies 100% on GPS, so if you go into a downtown area with very tall buildings and tunnels, the signal is lost and the Street Pilot fails to keep track of where you are. When the signal is regained, the route is recalculated and all is well. IF you lived in New York or Chicago and plan to use it all the time downtown, you will be disappointed. For suburban and rural highway use, it is deadly accurate.

I am not a fan of mainstream consumer electronics. I cannot stand gadgets for the sake of making something sell good at the expense of quality and function. However, this Street Pilot only does 1 thing and it does it good with no fuss.

Hope this helps.

[RickM]

I have a Compaq/HP IPAQ with the Nav system and bluetooth reciever and I'm not happy with it. Bluetooth always locks up and the IPAQ battery life is dismal. I can plug into a cigarette lighter plug so that's an issue I can live with. I may try another hard wired solution and software before giving up.

FWIW, most GPS systems use information from a company called Navtech. (They also provide content/info to MapQuest) The info can include Points of Interest (POI) which is a good thing....as mentioned above, ATMs, hotels gas stations etc. However, some systems may provide more than others so depending on the agreement they have. Also, check to see if you can get free updates to the mapping content. Some charge quite a bit for this.

[osidak]

I currently use a Garmin GPS V which is a great unit but it is falling behind quickly with all the new stuff hitting the market.

I will replace it with a TOMTOM Go. You can put the entire US on a SD card and has a huge POI database. Also provides for dead reckoning navigation for when you are in areas of poor reception. Voice prompts and 3D maps.

www.tomtomgo.com

[ruf-porsche]

I've got the Garmin iQue 3600, use it so I don't get into an argument with my better half since she can't drive a stick or read a map.