Need Advice Portable GPS

I would like to purchase a portable GPS...don't need a lot of bells and whistles, will primarily use it for the 2 or 3 car trip vacations I take a year. Any advice on a good device? Has anyone upgrated to the latest and greatest and looking to sell their old one?

Thanks -Maureen

 

If you are only using it for 2-3 trips per year, have you considered renting a GPS for those trips?

 

I didn't know that was an option! Any ideas on where one can be rented?

 

lower-end units from Garmin and the like can be had for around $100 if you shop around which will probably be cheaper than renting multiple times.

 

I would agree with Wahoogeek, the price of lower models is pretty cheap. In looking at some of the prices for renting, I think you can buy one cheaper actually.

 

I've noticed that! ... with tax and shipping it comes about $70 for 10 days...Amazon had a Tom Tom for $93!

 

We've owned the Garmin Nuvi for several years...love it. Look for a used one and make sure the map is fairly recent before buying it...updates are expensive.

 

I have a Tom Tom and do not recommend it. The software does not find the optimum route, it finds a workable route.
We've had it for two years and after our first major trip (to Miami, Ohio) we realized that we could have made the trip in 6 hours instead of 7 if we had followed a better route. Since then I've often double checked its suggested routes against googlemaps and found that the Tom Tom frequently makes our trips longer. I use still use it for turn-by-turn directions, but by checking Googlemaps first I know when to change to the better route. When I do change, the Tom Tom responds appropriately with the better route.
Example: A few weeks ago I went to Long Island. The Tom Tom's route had me crossing the Hudson River at the George Washington Bridge instead of any of the more southern crossings (Goethels Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, and so on). I got off the NJT for the crossing to Staten Island and the Tom Tom figured out a new route that matched what I had gotten from Google Maps (and what I usually took: Belt Parkway to Cross Island to the LIE).

When I get around to buying a new GPS I'll get a Garmin next time.

Oh, and what razng2grtboys said about recent maps is important. The bargain priced GPS units are usually older models with older maps. It costs $$ to upgrade the map base, so factor that in when considering a used unit. Every day people show up at Wegmans looking for Walmart. Walmart hasn't been there for 8 years but these people have bought cheap GPS units and don't know that their map base is antiquated. Given the rate of changes around here any map base more than a year old could be trouble!

--- John B.

 

I'm on my second Garmin and love them. I STRONGLY urge you to shop around for Refurbs as they were just as good and save you money. Last 2 helpful sites were Amazon.com and Tigerdirect.com both have refurb versions.

 

Garmin is the way to go. Hands down the best unit, the 250 unit is the best mid range unit.

 

Had a Magellan, now have a Garmin which is much nicer. Make sure you get the latest maps, some areas e.g. by Fox Theater are not on the old maps.

-Mike

 

Majority of the time that you buy a GPS the maps are already old. Also consider living in the "city", where there is constant building, and the units will show you floating in mid air.

You can consider getting a hackable GPS unit, and then you can install any map software.

 

As does Buy.com. I've purchased several refurbs and would be comfortable with Garmin or Magellan.

I would suggest the flat panel types such a Nuvi. They are easy to stow and use just walking an unfamiliar city.

 

How about cell phones? We have Sprint Instict the GPS works very well. Or, with a cell phone that has web access, you can download Google Maps for road directions... for free.

 

iGo for windows mobile works great and looks better than most dedicated GPS devices 8)

3d buildings, lots of POI, TTS, etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h15LPPGUl8M

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...extar&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1218081120803

This is the only device in the US to use the IGO software right now I believe. IGO is incredibly popular overseas. I've been running it for a while and used it in Ireland when we were there a few weeks ago. A total lifesaver. Much better than the TomTom or Garmin's. The latest release is very nice and the 3D is pretty cool. It not only does buildings but full terrain modeling as well. All of which can be turned off if you don't want it.

The HP iPAQ 310 was the first to use IGO in the states but HP has left the market. HP really managed to create one unusable device out of some awesome gps software lol. IGO Core is highly customizable but really easy to use in it's default state. The best buy one is a modified version called Amigo which tries to make it even easier to use. It's pretty good. I've used the amigo theme on my version and it's decent but a little to dumbed down for my liking. I like the more advanced skins myself that offer everything up.

Can't say I know much about that hardware though. I run IGO on a hacked navigon unit and that works really well. There is also the PC software. They really make it available for anyone who wants it really. Works almost anywhere.

 

I think the MIO GPSs use the IGO engine... I have an old one (C310) and it's nice you can get into windows and then update the software/maps/etc... Even the old hardware still does the 3D views pretty nicely. But once I got the hack to enable the GPS on my VzW (ugh, hate how vzw disables EVERYTHING) Omnia, I loaded iGo on there and it works great.

 

Mio, about a year ago, stopped using IGO and now uses MioMap. It's their own software which is not as good IMO.