Vehicle GPS units
 

I have been looking at these units lately but the more I look the more confused I get. The unit that I was looking at ishttp://http://accessories.dell.com/s...1&sku=A0666858
Does anyone have any experience with these or can recommend an easy to use unit?

I've used a Magellan Road Mate 700 before. Pretty nice unit and relatively straight forward to set up and use. Also, it give you voice commands which are very easy to hear and follow even if you have all your windows down driving on a busy street.

There are some major drawbacks to the unit however. First of all, it is not batter powered so you can't use it outside of your vehicle (in case you want to walk around instead of driving). Another HUGE problem with the unit is that it sometimes would lose the signal from the satelite so it couldn't figure out where you were exactly which can be a big problem when you are driving.

Overall, I would give the unit a 7/10.

I have an older Garmin Streetpilot that I've been using for a few years. I quite enjoy using it on my bike trips, but i'm looking at a newer unit with better features. The Garmins are pretty good units in general, and the newer ones have many more bells and whistles than my old one has. They have a large variety of styles and price ranges to choose from.

The main things to look for is the quality an accuracy of the maps it has and what they offer for updates. If the maps are poor, the unit is not much use. If it shows you in between roads, it is of little help in figuring out where you are. Most of the newer units should have the ability to have the entire map set loaded at once which is good. Its a PIA to have to swap memory chips or reload them with new maps. Autorouting is nice if you need that sort of thing, it'll give you turn by turn directions, somtimes with audio prompts, to get from A to B. Points of interst is another gizmo feature that may or may not be useful, there again, only if they offer updates. Helps you to find a gas station, restaurant, campground or hotel when you need. Some units now offer different methods of viewing the maps, either in a 2D top down style map, or a 3D type view. Depending on how good you are with maps, the 3D view may be benificial as it presents a viewpoint similar to what you'd see from the drivers seat. You can also get units the will also pick up satelite radio providing you choose to subscribe to it.

Do you have a lap top? if so I strongly recommend the "Microsoft streets and trips with gps unit. I ended up buying this at Christmas time and it works awesome, has better features and functions that 90% of the dedicated car units and is a lot more intuitive to use, best of all software upgrades are only 35 bucks if you decide you need the new years version.

It inclues all the streat maps for canada and the US, alaska, hawaii and a lot of mexico.

I have used a lot of the car units and boat units and sense I had the lap top already it only cost $125.00 for the GPS receiver and the software and I would compare it to any $1000.00 car unit. you can log on to the INTERNET at "hot zones" and upgrade construction info also.

http://http://www.microsoft.com/stre...s.aspx?pid=001

of course if you don't have a lap top than it isn't quite so cheep.

Steve

No laptop unfortunately - I can barely run this desktop. OTOH I did just order a laptop for my son for his birthday next month and happen to be choked at him at the moment so maybe I do have a laptop:mrgreen:

A couple of my friends bought this receiver....... it works for both palm & windows mobile OS.

http://www.buygpsnow.com/i-blue-high...mount-509.html

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

I looked at some of thoes Vic, problem was I didn't have any bluetooth in my laptop and then it was another 100.00+ for software for it. I found this with the garmin USB reciver also as Garmin uses propriatary software.

Steve

there is also this one at canadian tire on sale.. I am thinking of something like this for my bike as my laptop is to big for the bike.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortmen...romSearch=true

Steve

We have the Tom Tom software and bluetooth receiver for our Palm Pilot....used it this weekend in Vancouver and it was a life saver BUT it did crash a fair bit and that is frustrating...we are going to buy the Tom Tom full size unit. They sure do save you a lot of time and frustration!!!! The package we have, I don't think we would purchase again due to it crashing and stuff. And, it was 200+ US.

Being the technological failure that I am I want something that I can just plug in and rely on to give me accurate data. Is the unit that I listed above a fairly good reliable one or does anyone have any suggestions for others that have worked well for them??