Recommend a GPS Please

[Hoovie]

Global Positioning System

I am in the market for one but never had one before. What brand to buy...

Who has one and likes it? Which one? Why?

And of course, it you hate yours, why?

Depends on what you are getting it for? I have had 2 Magellans and 1 Garmin.

Is this for Geocaching?
Fishing?
Auto navigation with maps?

[True Believer]

I have no idea about GPS. My husband has one on his laptop. It is pretty neat to watch the arrow move as you are driving though.

(Kind of)

My sister and her family of 8 were down in Orlando a few weeks ago and a truck driver friend of hers loaned her her GPS. They got out of seeing Shamo (sp?) and was looking for a place to eat. It was just 7:00OM. As you can imagine that is not an easy thing to do in Orlando, but with having to appease 8 people it is even harder. They were using the GPS to find different restaurants, they finally found one that they all agreed on. No problem it was still early in the evening and they had the directions right there in front of them. My sister (who does have her blonde (sp?) moments, say "menu" on the GPS and decides to see what that restaurant has on their menu. Before her husband has time to stop her she pushes the button and it goes back to the start. She thought that the menu for the restaurant was on the GPS! None of them could remember the name of the restaurant! They ended up driving around for hours looking for this restaurant.

Moral of the story is...don't touch that menu button and don't just depend on the GPS. :0)

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by Sheltiedad

Depends on what you are getting it for? I have had 2 Magellans and 1 Garmin.

Is this for Geocaching?
Fishing?
Auto navigation with maps?

yep. somebody has to work around here.

I haven't been able to justify one of those yet, but I would have one if I had to drive around all day...

What you need to keep in mind if looking for this is, is how important is it for you to be able to update maps? That is where they will get ya. For example if you buy one today and they build a new road or subdivision next year, will you have to pay $200.00 for the newer updated maps when they come out? or will the system you buy even have the ability to upgrade maps?

Also, do you want voice turn by turn directions?

The basic functionality is most likely similar on most devices that you can buy, just watch out for those two things depending on what items you want most... They have dropped way down in price and I think some are showing up as $299.00. If you see one at Target or Sam's, just make sure you check the online prices before you buy it from a retail store... as with anything else you can sometimes skip the tax and get free shipping to boot.

I just want one that monitors heartrate and tracks my workout time and route, distance, etc. that I can download via bluetooth when I get back to my office. lol.

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by Sheltiedad

I haven't been able to justify one of those yet, but I would have one if I had to drive around all day...

What you need to keep in mind if looking for this is, is how important is it for you to be able to update maps? That is where they will get ya. For example if you buy one today and they build a new road or subdivision next year, will you have to pay $200.00 for the newer updated maps when they come out? or will the system you buy even have the ability to upgrade maps?

Also, do you want voice turn by turn directions?

The basic functionality is most likely similar on most devices that you can buy, just watch out for those two things depending on what items you want most... They have dropped way down in price and I think some are showing up as $299.00. If you see one at Target or Sam's, just make sure you check the online prices before you buy it from a retail store... as with anything else you can sometimes skip the tax and get free shipping to boot.

Thank for the input. Walmart carries tomtom for less than 300. I need one for work very badly and I will use it in long distance travel too.

also, if you already keep a laptop in the car, you could get it going with MS Streets and Trips 2007... you can have the voice directions and everything, but you would need to keep your laptop up and running to use it. (You can get dc power for a laptop fairly reasonably... and since you are in a service business, you could even get a mount like the police have so that your laptop is always accessible (my wife would KILL me if I got one of those. lol)

[Subdued]

I got my husband the Mio C220 for Father's Day and we absolutely LOVE it! I researched them first & bought the least expensive, but w/good features (nothing fancy, though; like mp3). It got good reviews and was affordable... Only around $200.

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover

yep. somebody has to work around here.

Here's a GPS for ya...

http://www.randmcnally.com/


Buy a map, technoboy!