Car GPS

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bizlady

Full time employment: Posting here.
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I am considering an inexpensive GPS for mostly in state travel. Does anone know if the GPS systems for cars like Garmin have a montly fee, or if they work well? Also can you program routes- i.e. punch an address I want to get to? I need the type for a car, I'm too cheap to buy an iPhone etc :)
 
We have had a Garmin Nuvi for several years now, and have used it in the USA, Canada and UK. It's great, we love it. I had a quick look and you can get one for ~$80 on Amazon.

No monthly fee, buy map updates when you want them.
 
How inexpensive is inexpensive? I bought a Garmin the day after Thanksgiving at one of those dawn deals. I got a Garmin 1490T, where I get lifetime traffic updates. It has tons of features. There's also a Garmin 1490LMT, which gives lifetime map upgrades and lifetime maps. No annual fee, but you do get some popup ads to help pay for the free traffic. If you press on them or wait they go away. Compant and has about a 2 hour battery when you take it away from the charger.
 
I've used a Garmin Nuvi and it will do all the things you mentioned. There is no monthly fee but you need to occasionally update the maps. Especially in big city areas where roads change frequently. They are available from Amazon for about $75 and up depending on the model.
 
The GPS boxes made for cars don't have monthly fees, outside of a couple fancy models that let you subscribe to real time traffic services. They will nag you to buy an updated map package after a few years. That's something you buy online, download to a computer, and then copy onto the GPS box, usually via a USB cable.

Punching in an address is pretty much THE basic function for the car GPS boxes. They'll all do some form of turn-by-turn navigation. 'Fancier' boxes will speak street names as well as let you know about upcoming turns, which I find handy. Most will also let you program a series of addresses, or 'waypoints', which can be handy.
 
I would like to keep it under $200. Auto updates would be preferred. I would want something easy to "unhook" and remove when not in use, easy to install (like plug it in and go), intuitive to use, and I too would prefer the speaking of upcoming directions. (Maybe all this is not possible for this money) Recommendations would be welcome- now I am excited- did not think no monthly fee was possible! If there are featurses I shoould be considering, please advise!
 
At only about $100 (more if you want more bells & whistles, but not necessary IMO), I wouldn't be without one when traveling outside my home town. There are no monthly fees, you can update as often or infrequently as you want online for a fee (mine would be $69). But major roads really don't change that much so updating more than every 5 years if that is probably not necessary. They are just wonderful IMO.
 
bizlady said:
I would like to keep it under $200. Auto updates would be preferred. I would want something easy to "unhook" and remove when not in use, easy to install (like plug it in and go), intuitive to use, and I too would prefer the speaking of upcoming directions. (Maybe all this is not possible for this money) Recommendations would be welcome- now I am excited- did not think no monthly fee was possible! If there are featurses I shoould be considering, please advise!
Click to expand...


There are no auto updates that I know of.... you have to purchase them... or at least upload them to the GPS...


I had a TomTom and it was a POS... would crash every once in awhile and I could not get connected to the website that was supposed to update the map. It was frustrating to try and have it calculate a route and then give an error and you get nothing...

We have a Garmin 205W .... got it as a refurb... has worked great.. only problem I had with it was when it wanted me to drive across the ocean from one island to another when in Hawaii... it did not give me a route... but listed some places as POI....
 
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Texas Proud said:
...only problem I had with it was when it wanted me to drive across the ocean from one island to another when in Hawaii... it did not give me a route... but listed some places as POI....
Click to expand...


tee-hee- In MN we have plenty of lakes- I'll have to watch out for that!
 
I borrowed a GPS from a family member in february when I drove from Wisconsin to Florida. Don't know what I would've done without it and will never again drive out of state without one. They said theirs cost $180 and had everything. It was great. When I get one i'll likely spend around $150. Their old one was around $80 but wasn't nearly as accurate. For example: it will say to turn left in 500 ft but you actually passing the street as it saying that whereas the $180 one was virtually EXACT every time. I figure the $100 will be made up with gas savings by not taking wrong turns.
 
bizlady said:
I would like to keep it under $200. Auto updates would be preferred. I would want something easy to "unhook" and remove when not in use, easy to install (like plug it in and go), intuitive to use, and I too would prefer the speaking of upcoming directions. (Maybe all this is not possible for this money) Recommendations would be welcome- now I am excited- did not think no monthly fee was possible! If there are featurses I shoould be considering, please advise!
Click to expand...

Should be able to get a Garmin Nuvi 1250T or 1450T for that. Sometimes best Buy or someone will run a special for the 1490T model for under $200. Now that I have lifetime traffic, I would never go without it, it reroutes you and saves a lot of time........;) The nice thing about the 1400 series is they are 5 inch screens, a lot of garmins are 3.5 inch screen (hard to see for me) or 4.3 inch screens (better, but I really like a 5 inch screen, particularly at night)
 
We bought a Garmin 205 about five years ago and replaced it with another one about a year ago since the map update was only $20 less than the price of a new one. We'll never again be without one. In an unfamiliar area they are terrific.

Be aware that they will not always take you by the shortest routes known by the locals, but they will get you there. My experience has been they'll be within 5-10 minutes of the shortest routes known by locals. That's still a lot better than spending 45 minutes wandering around. I have yet to be directed to drive across open water.

And it answers the question "How long until we get there?" to within a minute or two.

Best of all, we'll never again have the conversation:

"You were supposed to turn back there."

"Gee, it would have been nice if you'd told me that before we got to the intersection!"
 
bizlady said:
I would want something easy to "unhook" and remove when not in use, easy to install (like plug it in and go
Click to expand...

You may want to get a device so you can mount the GPS on to your dashboard. And maybe a charger. Avoid the ones that mounts on the windshield as it leaves telltale signs that you have a GPS. Also, I heard that in some states (CA?), mounting anything on the windshield is illegal. Garmin sells this item.
 
We got a Garmin Nuvi about 5 years ago at Sam's. They now have an 'upgrade map for life' program for about $100 (I think). I will most likely replace this one someday rather than update the maps. In my experience the maps change in places where new streets are going in i.e. new suburbs. In downtown areas, it seems to work just fine. The other thing that seems to go out of date in a hurry are the POI's (points of interest). However, we really don't use these very much.
 
bizlady said:
tee-hee- In MN we have plenty of lakes- I'll have to watch out for that!
Click to expand...


Hey, lakes are easy.... they just calculate around them...


I did not ask it to give me a route... I asked for points of interests and lots came up on another island.... maybe someone in Hawaii can see what happens if you calculate a route... I think they have ferries there, so I bet it will take you to a ferry terminal...


Now, I did get pissed at Expedia booking me in a hotel on the Big Island and having my car rental in Honolulu.... the guy at the car counter said it happens a lot... took me 2 hours to get fixed... and they tried to blame me for the error.... (you picked the place where to rent... NOT... it was a package deal)....
 
I've had a Nuvi forever. The voice known as "Jill" is my favorite. One of my great amusements is to piss her off by doing something that forces her to recalculate the route -- as she is thinking about it, she says "Recalculating.." with just a hint of irritation. It's great.

And you guys thought I'd be bored in retirement....


BTW - I love the Nuvi.
 
Texas Proud said:
We have a Garmin 205W .... got it as a refurb... has worked great.. only problem I had with it was when it wanted me to drive across the ocean from one island to another when in Hawaii... it did not give me a route... but listed some places as POI....
Click to expand...
You never know what will happen in situations like that. Go to Google Earth sometime and get directions for going from one place to another that are separated by oceans. Some very funny instructions like "swim to Japan" will show up.
 
bizlady said:
I would like to keep it under $200. Auto updates would be preferred. I would want something easy to "unhook" and remove when not in use, easy to install (like plug it in and go), intuitive to use, and I too would prefer the speaking of upcoming directions. (Maybe all this is not possible for this money) Recommendations would be welcome- now I am excited- did not think no monthly fee was possible! If there are featurses I shoould be considering, please advise!
Click to expand...

That's no problem. We bought the Garmin StreetPilot c340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator in April 2009 for $90. It does all those things.

Departure+003.jpg


Great for garage sales and traveling. I got updated maps a few months ago, and it was free.
 
On my second Garmin, and actually gave my old one to a son who lost his. Other than an occasional street being too new to be listed and being told to use a slightly different address to find the people have had no real problems. Once needed to find 65356 S. Something. The entry said bad entry S. Something only goes to 35000. I assumed correctly the numbers would increase in one direction from there. : )

One thing to think about, some people say especially when traveling you should always have "Home address" as an intersection near your home. That way Mr. Larceny can not call his former cell mate in you city to tell him you are traveling now.
 
We have a Magellan Maestro 3250 which was a gift from no. 1 son in 2007. We have not updated it and we have used it all over the USA and Canada. Of course, the garbage in garbage out rule applies and we have discovered a couple of glitches in the software, which I think in my personal opinion is due mainly to goverment agencies not properly updating the database. The 3250 can display elevation which I enjoy watching when in mountains.

We recently rented a Hertz car that was equipped with Never Lost (Hertz's GPS). If you specify Never Lost, you have to pay for it, but if the car is equipped with it you can use it whether you pay for it or not. Never Lost works well, but does not display elevation as far as I have been able to discover.
 
I have a tom tom .It was a present from my SO . I guess that says something about me . I use it anytime I am going somewhere that I am not sure of . It does the job but gets slightly pissed when I want to travel the back way .
 
I have had a portable Garmin GPS for a few years. It's waterproof and good for hiking, fishing. It even floats.

When RV'ing, I ran Microsoft Street & Trips on a netbook PC. The GPS is a little puck connected to a USB port.

Much larger, nicer, with more details than a little portable GPS screen. But then, the RV has a large and deep dashboard to put the netbook on.
 
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