[Joeaksa]

After using the Street Pilot for almost three years, it takes very little time to either enter the address or find almost any business location, which is already in the database.

Just bought a Jag recently that has GPS onboard. It takes twice the time to enter addresses and the database is half what Garmin has to offer. Garmin really did their homework when they put it together.

You save the information for individual areas or regions before leaving the house. It takes a USB cable where you plug the chip in and save what you need, so you can also do it on the road, or just map out your entire route for a trip beforehand. Addresses or routes are up to you in the car. I have a 128 meg chip (off of Ebay for $50 or so) in my SP3 now and it has in it the entire area and information for: LA basin area, Santa Barbara area, SFO/Oakland area, San Diego area, Phoenix/Flagstaff/Tucson areas, Atlanta area, Cleveland area, Buffalo/Niagara Falls/St. Catherines/Toronto areas, Orlando areas, Ft.Lauderdale/Boca/Miami areas.

Everyone of these areas you save on the chip contains every friggin home address there is, every gas station, resturant, hotel, meeting place, police station and so on. You need to go to a hotel, bring up "hotels option" and either ask for the nearest or enter part of the name and it brings it up, the address and phone number. You can then call ahead for availablity before moving one foot. Same with the resturants and you have their phone number to call for reservations and so on.

JoeA