GPS navigation ?

[Bob Haller]

Again I am thinking of this to save me time and stress searching for customers.

Anyone have one? I figure a stand alone is better for me, easy to hide in bad areas Plus currently I dont have a laptop.

if something gets stolen rather it wouldnt be a laptop.

DONT need fancy features definetely want touch screen and taking directions, pre loaded schools my customers a definite positive.

tom tom for 400 bucks appears a bargain, athough it uses a memory card, but hey roads dont change that much.......

other were about 600 bucks net upgradable with maps you can drag to see route.

glad i waithed a year, prices almost half of what they were

actually the time it would save will pay for itself, if I had one back in 1975 I would of likely get back many years opf driving around lost. too bad they didnt exist then!

 

[charper1]

Boy the laptop version is the easiest and cheapest way to go, I have used mine fore nearly 2 years with no mishaps and it cost me $50 and 10 minutes to get started.

Here are 2 great places to start; get some model numbers and then scour the net for the best prices.

http://www.garmin.com/automotive/products.html#automotive

http://www.magellangps.com/

 

[dantheman77]

i go to other cities alot and i LOVE my GPS!! good bye to maps!! i paid $1200.00 for mine and if i lost it i would buy a new one in a second! i honestly would not to live with out one!! buy it!!

 

[Bob Haller]

I do calls in the inner city a lot, drive a older van, less likely to be stolen, dont leave valuables in view.

them seeing me drive in with a laptop, sure brick thru window smash and grab for sure.

hiding a small GPS in vehicle clutter much better. having been ripped off before it sucks..

thinking of joining CR for info on GPS....... on line probab;ly more convenient

 

[damaged]

My buddy got a Tom-Tom, it's quite nice from what I've heard from him of it, he says it's easy to understand/use right out of the box, so much so, the manual (I think he said it was pdf on a cd) it comes with is almost nothing. It also seems to be OK with Floridas heat, which is a plus.

By comparison, I have one of those Magellan hand-held/mountable fishfinder GPS' and the manual was like 3/4 inch thick, small type.

 

[Bob Haller]

I ended up gettin a garmin street pilot, it works great and is so easy to use

All directions by voice, I dont want to be distracted by screen while driving....

Best 600 bucks I have spent in a long time.

Bought it thursday so far its all been places I know,

Cant wait for a brand new customer

 

[davideo]

I came real close to buying one a month ago, then I found out it was already built-in to my new Razr cellphone.

Not a nice, big screen, but still unbelievable to me...

 

[navychop]

Is that a service you pay for on the Razr? I'm about to get one on their one day (10/29) sale. Part of the internet service, I'll bet- I'm too cheap to pay for that.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

My wife has a Razr from Verizon and she was going to get the GPS service but found out it was like $12 a month for it (Or in that ballpark)

I talked her out of it because her car has a GPS built in, my truck has a GPS built in and she has a portable Garmin Nuvi unit from her old car.

 

[digiblur]

I bought a Garmin c320 a few weeks ago for $270 shipped. Awesome little box! I'm still shocked at the abilities of this thing.

 

[hdtvtechno]

If you have an General Motors Car with OnStar System installed

Onstar has GPS navigation built in part of the service you pay...

 

[Bob Haller]

I loaned my GPS to a very good friend heading overnite around washington DC tonight.

funny thing the default voice is jill, my old high school girl friend who borrowed the unit is jill, she went with her hubby and son. I have her dog here tonight, so far just a little grumbling with my 4 dogs.

everyone thinks it funny its named jill....... my nbest friend uneathed it in the menus...... emily is the alternative voice.

probably the wives girl friends whatever of the creators.......

 

[Bob Haller]

my friend jill called checking on her dog. happily reported GPS directed them around the DC beltway missing a horrendous traffic jam saving them 1.5 hours extra others at the conference took.

her husband thinks its wonderful and since the voices name is jill asks what else she can do for him

 

[TheForce]

My Kenwood GPS- voice didn't come with a name so I named her e-Lane. The only thing I don't like about e-Lane is when I decide not to follow her guidance, she will come back with "Make a legal U turn at the next intersection" If I miss that she'll come back a bit more assertive tone with a repeated instruction that sounds like Hillary Clinton's voice. If I miss it a third time, she will reroute me a different way, usually.

The Tom-Tom has two types of voices. Free standard ones and then humorous ones you have to buy, including celebrity voices. My favorite is the "NY Cabbie" voice that speaks just like a cabbie from Brooklyn. Cracks me up every time. He never shuts up and tells jokes between navigation direction. I have the Tom-Tom system on my cell phone which is great when I rent a car. Oh, and the Tom-Tom also has weather and accident / traffic delay plots that makes use of the internet for data but your cell phone has to have internet connectivity for it to work and then it's only available in about 50 cities which usually will suffice.

 

[gary s]

One thing I would recommend for people who need to navigate to several different places or addresses is getting a unit that you can enter several places and it is supposed to map out and give you the directions to all of them in the best order. Not sure how well this works in practice, but it sounds like a great feature.

I have a cheapie NavMate I got off of ebay that I really like but it only maps out one address at a time. I would really like to have the capabillity to get directions to several places in succession. I didn't know this was available when I was shopping for mine.

I have noticed with my NavMate if I have some idea of what route I want to take, the directions it gives me are not always in agreement. But it is very handy when I am in a strange city and have no idea what route I should take.

I also _hate_ the dreaded "please make a legal U-turn".

 

[TheForce]

I haven't seen a sequential routing map except the Delorme system but that, I find rather awkward, although in its day was what I used.
On the Kenwood, I will log in a number of addresses as "waypoints" or memory points. Then I select my first destination chronologically first. Once I'm there, I can select the next address in the list I have to go to. This avoids the task of entering those addresses while enroute but still offers the advantage of calculating the map from my present position wherever that may be when I wish to travel to the next destination. My way of thinking, that works better than a set of directions from a specific starting point that you would have to go to for it to be correct.


PS, Shouldn't this topic be in the Gadget section?

 

[kenny911]

I bought the tom tom about a year ago but took it back for the garmin street pilot. The street pilot is great.

 

[sidekick]

I have a Garmin GPSMap60c. I've used it to map out acres of property we own in Washington State, drive on long distance trips, and check out elevations. I plan to try geo cacheing someday soon. I love this little thing.

 

[Bob Haller]

my street pilot returned today, my friend jill reported they loved it. when she told her hubby its name he said its great wonder what else it can do for me

I am slowly addicting them to electronic gadgets, traded for a TIVO I loaned them recently they now love it........

 

[shadowwalker]

I use my PDA with a bluetooth GPS receiver