Navagation/GPS

3DCrawler

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2005
Location
Granite Falls, NC
Well I'm in the market for a navagation system and I have seen the TomTom and the Magellen. Not seen a Garmin yet but was looking for some feedback good or bad on some these or some others. Was wondering if they made a dual unit for driving directions and taking it off road. If there isn't a dual type unit what off road ones would work good?
 
when I shopped recently...I opted for a street version...and ended up with a Garmin c550...

very pleased...

has a lot of "extras" on it, though...that might not be necessary for everybody:

Bluetooth (syncs to my cell phone and functions as a speakerphone)
MP3 player (mutes to announce direction)
included traffic receiver
TTS (text-to-speech...reads out street names...i.e. says "Turn right on Main Street in 1 mile" instead of "Turn right in 1 mile")

wouldn't work worth a darn offroad, though...


Greg
 
I too, have the Garmin C550. I got mine about 3 wks ago. After alot of research I found it to be the best bang for your buck unit. The bluetooth is awesome and I find it very difficult to outrun the GPS nav. Check out NERDS.Net
It was around $450 shipped. absolutely cheapest around.
 
look at the lowrance iway 500. (i think they recently came out with a newer model too). You can get a bundle with both street and topo mapping. One of the best/brightest displays out there. 10gb of MP3 built-in too.

Tomtom is hard to read in bright daylight conditions. IIRC, it also doensn't dim very much, so it's blinding at night.
 
I'm just using what came with my cell phone..
 
BTW, on the road now, I'm using my laptop. Have both MS Streets and Trips and the Delorme Street atlas USA. Each one just over 100 bucks with the GPS reciever. The DeLorme reciever works on both s/w's. I usually use the DeLorme s/w, but sometimes it can't find an address (same thing on MS sometimes), but the other will find it.

A lot easier to read the big screen going down the road.
 
I recently bought a Mio C310x. $199 @ Circuit City. I am very impressed with it so far. Has MP3 but I could care less about it. Has been very accurate so far also but the maps a slightly outdated. New maps should be out this month I heard. I couldnt justify spending hundreds more for another brand since my only need for it is navigation, not bluetooth etc. Lots of upgrades available for it also with a web search such as voices, skins calculators etc. HTH SB
 
My dad, my brother, and I all have Garmins and they are awesome. I just got the newer version that suckshion cups to the winsheild and i everything is easy to use and the touch screen makes putting in directions a breeze.
 
I'm pretty happy with my garmin.

You were asking about off-road use - It's mostly geared towards on-road, and it tries to show your dot/location on the closest road, and guides/navigates you via the roads. But you can put it in offroad mode (when you're in an area that has no roads), and then it will try to navigate you "straight" to the destination, I guess. (or, even if you're not using it to navigate you somewhere, you can see your dot on the screen in relation to the nearby roads, so you can tell where you're at - might be kinda useful).
 
BTW...I (like most people I've asked) ditched the windshield suction cup soon after I bought it...

I much prefer my "bean bag" style dash mount...I don't come outside to find the unit face first on the dash anymore...:)

Greg
 
it's not GPS, but for maps and directions, you can download Google local for your phone. I've used it on Treo's and now Blackberry and it works great.

Shannon
 
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