I am interested in a decent GPS. I end up paying for them (like Hertz Neverlost) when traveling for work when it would be simpler (and cheaper in the long run) to travel with one.
My main priority is good navigation interface. A nice to have is the feature where it will locate nearby things like chains (Starbucks!), hotels, etc.
What say you?
Garmin Nuvi 750 rocks. I borrowed one a few months ago to find several businesses I needed to quote. It probably saved me over an hour in travel and address hunting. Stopped by Sam's and bought one for all my company vans. It makes everyone's life easier and they will pay for themselves just in lost time and fuel.
The 750 has all the search functions. Punch in Starbucks and it will tell you where it is and how long to get there. It also has a MP-3 player and FM transmitter I use to play audio books and music while driving. Has a SD slot for memory expansion. Sams was selling them for $199.00 when I bought them, but it looks like they have come down a good bit. A couple of places online have them listed at $149.00
http://www.navigenius.com/products.asp?product_id=10536
Do you have to have a subscription to anything to use one?
MrJoshua wrote: Do you have to have a subscription to anything to use one?
No, all the maps and databases came preloaded.
Edit: and Uncle Sam(you and me) pays for the satellites.
I got a cheap older magellan and its pretty good. Sometimes they screw up and lead you to weird places, but the newer ones are getting better and better.
I like the Nuvi we have.
I was liking my TomTOM one before it flew off the motorcycle a few weeks ago.
My son had a Tom Tom and wasn't happy with it, went for a Garmin.
I've got a Garmin Nuvi 350, it does everything I ever wanted. The only problem I have is when you type in an address, once you get two or four letters into it, the GPS spits out what it thinks yo want and that's not always the case.
Right now I'm trying to load 1901 E. 18th St. Yuma, Az. It keeps aiming me toward 1901 W. 18th St. Maybe there's no difference, but getting lost in the desert isn't that appealing.
Dan
Garmin Nuvi. We live off it when we tow to races. Compared to struggling with maps, it's a great stress-reducer and can actually save gas by choosing the shortest routes. Has a nice (updateable) data base with restaurants, gas stations, points-of-interest, etc.
I just got the receiver for my laptop and use a map program. The eeePC I'll leave running while I drive for turn-by-turn, the big laptop I just use to stop and verify where I am like I would a map, except it knows where I am for me.
I've been happy with most of the Garmin's that we've had. Keeping the maps up to date goes a long ways towards said happiness. Currently, we have a Streetpilot 2610. Fairly chunky, but it carries the latest maps, so I'm happy. Oh, and it's a bit slower than the newer models, but not so much that it's a problem.
I've got a cheap one from autozone that was less than 60 bucks (not sure got it freeish) does the job though it says yards when it means feet.
There are only two companies in the world that actually make the maps.
Tele Atlas - owned by Tom Tom (the GPS unit guys) and Navteq - owned by Nokia (the cell phone guys) who out-bid Garmin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tele_Atlas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAVTEQ
So, as far as getting lost, you only have two choices. Some units can accept updated maps (typically cheap units can not.)
I have a cheap unit from Magellin and in my wife's car is a cheap unit from Garmin. The biggest difference seems to be user interface - the actuall key strokes that it takes to complete your task.
Personally, I do not like the type that announce street names since they tend to be real "chatty", talking all the time and most of the time they pronounce the street name wrong anyway.
Fun stuff: I too use mine for business travel. I like the small ones that you can slip in to a back pack. While on the plane and seated in a window seat I took mine out and got it to sync up. Over Iowa, I could see that we were headed over Chicago next, Lake Michigan, Detroit, Canada, south over Lake Erie and landed in Cleveland. It made for a fun hour. Keep in mind, the inflight magazine had GPS units listed as forbidden devices. I suspect that just dont really want you to know where your at - terroism, parchuting, etc.
While in the plane and playing with the features on the GPS, I set it to find directions home. The unit flashed repetedly and then just shut down.
In order to get directions it first needs to find a street level starting position and at airplane speeds it could not find a strart.
The coolest part is now in the data section on my GPS unit my maximum top speed is 572 mph!
I have the inexpensive TomTom One 130. So far, so good. It does what it's advertised to do - get me directions to where I'm going.
It lacks:
advanced route planning (most low end lack this feature)
JPG or MP3 playback
real-time traffic updates (again, most low end GPS don't have it, and it's also a subscription service)
But, for $100, it was worth it. And if it gets lost or broken, I won't be heartbroken.
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