gps

[ww]

we want to buy our first gps but which one?

 

[rustyfarmall]

It really makes very little difference. Garmin, Magellan, or Tom-Tom. I think the only difference is the name that is on the front, and if you are within 100 miles of any major interstate highway, the GPS WILL do its' best to include that highway in the route, even if it adds 50 miles to the trip. Having said that, my Tom Tom does a very good job of navigating WITHIN the city limits of a MAJOR city.

 

[Inno]

You didn't mention if you were looking for one for in the car or a handheld for things like finding property markers or lakes for fishing etc.

 

[Puddles]

My wife has the Garmin nuvi 1490T with a 5-inch screen.

Copy & paste this link.
http://gpstracklog.com/2009/04/garmin-nuvi-1490t-offers-5-inch-screen.html

 

[kevinnaa]

garmin, i had all 3 and this one is a bit better than the other 2

 

[JoeG]

I am a heating and cooling tech and I really like the TomTom One it is cheap and more reliable than the Garmin Nuvi. I have used both models.

 

[Jim in Ma.]

I have a Magellan model 1700 - The 7' screen sure is easy to see with these old eyes.

 

[John T]

GARMIN is the onlyyyyyyyy one Id have. I once had to call customer service and I got a REAL PERSON WHO SPOKE ENGLISH AND WAS IN THE USA (Kansas City if I recall) right where they are made NOT Habib from Pakistan who cant speak English like many other customer service calls. She told me yES its me from USA and we are all right here where they are and we alllllll speak English. I figure the other brands are Johnny come latelys knock offs

Get a Garmin

John T

 

[Aaron Ford]

I am not a huge fan of my Magellan Roadmate 1420. It died in 9 months and was replaced under warranty. The second unit appears to have better software. Very few options and Cust Sup from the Dominican Republic set this model apart from the better ones.

Aaron

 

[ihredo4]

I bought a Garmin for a laptop computer a few years ago and had a heck of a time getting it set up. I even went to Garmins headquarters in Olathe Kansas to get some help. Not sure what their problem was but NO ONE would come down to help me. They called me from their office while I was sitting in their Lobby. So much for customer service from them. I ended up ditching that idea and now have another Garmin Nuvi. That one has worked very good for me but I give up on their customer support.

 

[old]

GPS I'll stick with a map. A couple months ago my son and a couple of his friends drove up here from Glufport MS and they had a GPS and about every other hour he would call home and say dad we are here or there but are lost because the GPS say to go here or there and that takes us back ward for X number of miles. When he left to go back I took a map book and marked his route and he got back 2-3 hours faster then the GPS got them here

 

[PopinJohn]

We have had both Garmin and Tom-Tom. The thing we found was that it makes a big difference in what instructions you type in when making a route request. We once asked for shortest route from Memphis to Orlando, and it had us going on backroads. NO Thanks.
We actually do best with an iPhone using Mapquest or Google maps.

 

[hoosier boy]

Agree with the others that it doesnt make a lot of difference any more as they all are pretty smart and use similar data based. Got a panel mounted one in the van and never use it, just a pain to push the buttons. Real answer for me is the iphone, so much easier to use, the search function is just amazing. I like the portability, use it in all the vehicles, boat and bike.

 

[Mark - IN.]

That's kind of funny. I work for AT&T and we have these devices that are similar to iphones and I used to be able to bring up Mapquest which came in handy since my area is huge and goes into two states. Then one day Mapquest just quit working, so I asked the boss about it. Well, we're somehow tied in with Yahoo, and apparently Yahoo has their own version of mapping, and we're now blocked from their competition (Mapquest), and Yahoo map don't display for squat on my device.

And one time I rode with another tech because my truck broke down, and she has Tom Tom in her truck and used it to drive me to a customer that I frequent by interstate and state roads when I drive. Using her Tom Tom because she was driving, we hit all of the scenic back roads..."...over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house we drove...". It doubled our drive time, but as a passenger it was scenic, I'll give it that. Grin

Mark

 

[Pitch]

I have a Magellan/Wife has a Garmin. Both are great but the Magellan give me more options.
Shortest distance will always be the longest,because it makes it"s calculation "as the crow flies",it then has to figure out how to accomplish that. Really a totally useless function.
Fastest time is the one I go with.
Least use of freeways will do anything to keep you off interstates which sometimes makes for interesting rides.
Most use of Freeways is self explanatory.

 

[ww]

whats the difference handheld or for car?

 

[C.R.]

I have a garman nuvi and Im impressed I like maps,nothing to go wrong,but the nuvi works well and it had a built in Mp3 player so you have some tunes to take along

 

[Inno]

(quoted from post at 08:42:01 11/01/10) whats the difference handheld or for car?

The handheld ones are designed more for outdoor use as in walking through the bush or a field to find something or mark land points or in areas with a lot of secondary roads that are not covered by the car units. The car ones are designed for all on road situations providing turn by turn instructions. The handheld ones can do turn by turn but you usually have to add extra software at a cost to do this. Even with the extra software they're not great at it. Having said all that, I have a Garmin E-Trex handheld that does a decent job with landmarks and lakes etc. and will also serve as a mobile unit which is "good enough" but not as good as a dedicated car unit. With extra software loaded it will also show you lake depths and nautical markers. So it's kind of a "do it all" solution but it does have limitations based on the intended application.

 

[big fred]

A couple years ago I had my TOM TOM and my supplier had a Garmin. We were both going from the same hotel to the same test lab at the same time. We decided to see if our GPS would both use the same route, so he took off and I followed him about a third of the way, then our paths diverged. When we got to our destination, I turned a corner and there he was in front of me again. This was in Queens, NY, and neither of us had ever driven there before. A map would not be a good idea, as we were on side streets with lots of NYC traffic that didn't care if we knew our way around, and we sure wouldn't want to have our face buried in a map.

 

[sotxbill]

got gps mapping on my last 3 phones. It gives turn by turn directions, and it updated every quarter. cant beat it and its with me all the time.


Its really nice to know exactly where I am when I get lost.

 

[guido]

Hello WW,
In one word............................. GARMIN!
Get one with lifetime updates.
Guido.

 

[TomH in PA]

My Blackberry has a decent gps, so I don't feel the need for a separate unit.

Whatever you get make sure you know how to use it before you need it, unlike this guy:
Flying Priest

 

[Brian Jasper co. Ia]

I have a TomTom that has live info. It will reroute you around traffic jams, accidents, etc. It all depends on what you want. I've used Garmin's Nuvi and found it is also very good. I guess the only reason I choose TomTom over Garmin was it was on sale and the Garmin with all of the same features was quite a bit higher priced than even the regular price. I guess it all depends on what you want to pay for. My TomTom also has a "Walking" mode so you can take it on foot or bike trails. The only thing I don't like is the updates will exceede my daily download (Hughesnet) and it drops to slower than dialup...