What GPS Systems to consider?

[boomac]

Anybody have any thoughts on and/or experience with the new GPS car systems? I’d like to get my wife one for Christmas.

[fini]

Scott,

My brother-in-law loves his Garmin Nuvi 350. I have no experience with it, though.

[falcon20x]

I have a Garmin Ique 3600 and love it.

I have all my music, my pictures and some power point presentations as well as few other applications loaded on the SD card.

I can search and get direction to anywhere at any time while the music is playing through the radio, or turn on the slide show to display my pictures if I want.

Let' s not forget about the phone book and other handy applications. The Ique is nice multi-purpose application unit which includes a GPS, it also has a palm operating which is more stable and compatible with mac computers and PC (a big plus for me)

I think garmin stop making the Ique serie but the Ique 3600 A, which is for aviation use and is be way over price for the general public.

[boomac]

Thanks for the input guys.

Fini – that’s the model my daughter, (who just called) told me to look at. I have a Garmim hand held unit for hiking and hunting but I always found it a bit on the complicated side. By the same token, the 3600 may be more sophisticated than we need.

After I made the initial post I stopped at Radio Shack and there were 3 other people lookin’ at them. They had a Tom Tom, a couple Magellan’s and one Garmim I think. I bet these will be a big Christmas item!

Thanks again.

[Arky]

I don't know anything about these but i've noticed they're advertising the heck out of the Tom Tom. My buddy has a Garmin in his Tahoe that seems to work nicely.

[Piranha]

I was have always been happy with my Garmin Edge 305, and I just bought the new Garmin Edge 705. Of course neither of these units would be real practical for use in a car, but the 305 has worked great on my bikes. I anticipate the 705 will as well once I receive it. I have heard good things about the Garmin Nuvi series.

[boom3]

A word of caution, based on some recent GPS usage...GPS is not a substitute for having a good, recent local map...they can recommend some wacky routes that are not optimum, and their steet coverage in some areas is poor or non-existant. I just used a Garmin in a rental car in Colorado. It did not recognize the address where I was staying, even though that subdivision was built 4 years ago. We took it up US 36 through Boulder and Estes park, and all it did was tell us that we were going a given direction on that road, something we knew from the car's own compass and reading road signs. It displayed very few cross roads, even those these roads have been around for decades.

Google maps are not much better, BTW...I order AAA maps and scan a given area I need and print the image at a suitable size. GPS is good but I would not want to relay on it as my only guide.

[Arky]

OT perhaps, Do you guys use Google Earth, I find it interesting & useful.

[fini]

Wouldn't Google Earth for the car be cool?

[Guest srobak]

No, google earth in the car would be distracting and cause more accidents than people already get into with all their gadgets and toys. I do like the fact that a lot of integrated GPS systems wont let you do any major futzing with them while the car is in motion... but the aftermarket units, portables and hand-helds don't limit their use.

I have an older Garmin 2610 that I take between cars, and the Goldwing has an integrated system by Garmin as well. Updated mapsets are coming about every 12 to 18 months from Garmin, and on the rare occurance I do get into an area that is not updated on the GPS, and my own exploring abilites don't yield good results - going to a nearby gas station or business usually resolves the issue.

[J.4knee]

I'll let ya know after Christmas