best gps for the money???
i need to get a gps system for my new job as a driver and im not sure which one is gonna be the best for my money if anyone has a gps that i didnt post and is pretty good lmk i need to get it this week or next week here are my choices so far
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/compa...%2010&link=ref
but im leaning toward the garminC340 but lmk if you guys know of a better one
For the money and ease of use:
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/457...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Can't beat the deal. Just upgrade the sd to at least 1 gig and you can fit all of the nationwide maps on one card.
You can pick this up locally at fry's as well.
Garmins are the most realiable of all.They are little more pricey then others but will last. The c340 isnt too bad,has a built in battery life and optional traffic alerts. Now on the traffic alerts if you want that u have to buy the $100 antenna and then u get free service for 15months after that $60 a year. It has text to spech( says road name instead of make next left) but only works like 20% of the time.Also the memory slot on the side is just there for if you goto another country and want those maps. It has a 4gig hard drive, but to put all of us and canada maps on it 1.7 gigs are being used. For the money I think you should get the garmin c530, should be same price and it is the updated version of the c340
THE C320? Are you freaking kidding me? The maps ARNT prelaoded, have to use mem cards oppsed to built in hard drive and its gonna cost you over $100 to update its OUT of date software, I think the software is 3-4 yrs out of date.Originally Posted by joecoolfreak
i just did a comparison of these two garmin's and the cheaper one seems to do the same thing as the more updated version i couldnt find that c530 only this 550 think im gonna go with the other one though im still looking online so help out guys i dont need it for other countries only the us so that helps out some and if it plugs into the cig lighter that is def gonna be useful i sometimes work 10 hr days and i cant afford for it to go down after 8.
All gps plug in the cig lighter. The c530 is at frys,also all garmins have the lsot of all countries.Im telling you if you do ALOT of errands u dont want the 320,the 320 is for old ppl who go somewhere every now and then.
Actually, you are completely wrong. I have bought three of these in the last month and had very good luck with them. The maps are not preloaded, but if you buy a larger card like i suggested, all of the maps will fit on a 1 gig card. Then you never have to switch the cards. A 2 gig card goes for about 20 bux on sale these days, so for 220 plus tax, you get everything that the more expensive ones have for less. The maps included with purchase are last year's (2006) version and there is no need to update for a while.
Ok then I have had and tested the 320,330,340,530,550, nuvi 350,360 and 660. The 320 I tested had really outdated maps.
My friends have the Mio Digiwalker C310x
It's sleek, thin, nice, comes with a cool car mount.....That thing looks like an IPOD's family.
for $199
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Mio-D...oductDetail.do
Fry's is loaded with them for the same price, if not a tiny bit cheaper.
this is a steal right here. pricy compared to the "suction cup" navi's, but I paid $800 more than this for mine and I still think it was well worth it.
Pioneer Z1
the garmin c230 isnt a bad unit and really easy to use, I bought one for my girlfriend and even she figured out how to use it! 199 at frys
cnet gave it pretty good reviews too
[QUOTE=Interlude]My friends have the Mio Digiwalker C310x
Yea its not bad,sometimes it takes u the long way around things though. NEVER GET A MYGUIDE ANYTHING
moss points north
theres the cheapest navigation tool you will need
2005 Ford F-150 FX4 Supercrew
GARMIN C330
It's the best for the money. It does have pre-loaded maps. The only difference between the C330 and C340 is about a hundred dollars and text to speech technology. Garmins are ranked highest among gps systems. As for your job, this unit would have all the necessities you need. Also, as for real-time traffic, fcuk that, it doesn't even apply to Atlanta. If you don't get the C330, you'll just be paying more for what I consider useless features such as bluetooth and mp3 player.
Ok the text to speech on the 340 doesnt always work. Also yea $100,and optional traffic alerts is about the only difference between the 2. Now traffic alerts do work in ATL, well at least the c550 picks it up.
Alpine Blackbird ftw
No dude, C340 does not have a traffic receiver. And recently, Garmin released that Atlanta was no longer a part of the list of cities able to use real-time traffic. Atlanta ranks 2nd highest I believe for worst traffic, that's why they scraped it.
Either way, my advice is to just get a C330. Navigation system should just get you where you need to be, all the extras are unnecessary.
Ok one go here http://www.garmin.com/products/sp340/ THE 340 DOES have OPTIONAL traffic alerts, BUT youy ahve to buy the antenna, unlike the 550 and nuvi 660 that have the antenna ALREADY built in. If you get a unit that you HAVE to buy the antenna service is free for 15 months, if you get a 550 or a 660 with it built in service is free for 3 months.
Optional, it does not mean that it has it. No one would like to buy extra expensive accessories for already an expensive unit. The C530 is good like you recommended, but its "new" features doesn't justify the price difference. If you shop right, you could get your hands on C330 for around 250, even less if you bid on ebay.
No love for Magellans???
I have the one I bought from Yamalube and I love it. A little bulkier and bigger than most, but not a biggie to me.
My wife has a TomTom and she loves it. Can't live without it now. She's an appraiser and has to drive all over the world every day. She trusts hers 100000%. My sister just bought a brand new TomTom too and she likes it. It's way more sleek than my wife's unit.
Those Garmin units you guys are fuzzing about are about the size of my wife's 1st gen TomTom. They look identical to me. My sister's newer version is much sleeker and thinner. It looks good to me.
I'm buying a special mount for mine to get it off the suction cup crap on my dash. I hate that, but have no choice right now.
BTW, you can go on cnet.com and compare all kinds of different ones side-by-side to compare features and prices. There are also user review on there. BTW bishes......Magellan was one of the top-rated models.....
Last edited by Jaimecbr900; 03-15-2007 at 11:24 AM.
Magellan's are garbage, they're just affordable. The company was started from a rental car company, what credibility does that hold when it comes to portable electronics? As for Tomtom, it's an okay brand, it's a company based in London which might make a lil more difficult for some to understand. If you like Tomtom, then you should love Garmin. You know Garmin also offer sleek designed ones, just that they are more expensive. Garmins are top ranked because of their ease-of-use, vibrant colors, features that work better, and casings that are more heat-resistant than other GPS units. Go check out the reviews for the C330.No love for Magellans???
I have the one I bought from Yamalube and I love it. A little bulkier and bigger than most, but not a biggie to me.
My wife has a TomTom and she loves it. Can't live without it now. She's an appraiser and has to drive all over the world every day. She trusts hers 100000%. My sister just bought a brand new TomTom too and she likes it. It's way more sleek than my wife's unit.
Those Garmin units you guys are fuzzing about are about the size of my wife's 1st gen TomTom. They look identical to me. My sister's newer version is much sleeker and thinner. It looks good to me.
I'm buying a special mount for mine to get it off the suction cup crap on my dash. I hate that, but have no choice right now.
BTW, you can go on cnet.com and compare all kinds of different ones side-by-side to compare features and prices. There are also user review on there. BTW bishes......Magellan was one of the top-rated models.....
2 of my friends have tom toms and they work just fine, I dont see why people would be arguing over such useless add ons..
Really? How do you base that opinion?
Seems a few others don't agree with you:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Magellan_Roa...-32065623.html
http://www.rated4stars.com/html/mage...-gps-revi.html
As for Tomtom, it's an okay brand, it's a company based in London which might make a lil more difficult for some to understand.
Really? Why do the instructions in ENGLISH confuse people????Maybe the plug-n-play is too difficult???? Maybe the voice prompts, choice of voices and dialects can't guide you where you want to go? What part of the TomTom confuses people exactly?
My wife can't screw in a light bulb. She licked the suction cup, plugged it into the cig lighter, and has been extremely happy ever since. She used to get lost in a cul-de-sac. Now she does up to as many as 4 different appraisals with 10 different way points driving more than 100 miles and STILL makes it home in time to cook me and the kids dinner. So if a TomTom "confuses" someone.....it's because they're an idiot and don't deserve to be driving in the first place.
Again, Cnet doesn't seem to agree with you since they rank the Magellan AND the TomTom HIGHER than the C330.You know Garmin also offer sleek designed ones, just that they are more expensive. Garmins are top ranked because of their ease-of-use, vibrant colors, features that work better, and casings that are more heat-resistant than other GPS units. Go check out the reviews for the C330.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Magellan_Roa...4&rid=32078943
Besides, are you going to use it to get you to and fro or are you going to marry it??? Who cares if it's .5 ounces lighter and 1 degree cooler in the sun? Does it get me to where I wanna go? Does it get me around a traffic jam? Does it give me voice instructions? Is it touch screen? Is it plug-n-play? Can I afford it? Then what other bells and whistles are needed? Mine gives me altitude, waypoints, points of interest, fancy smancy longitude and latitude, and it even tells me what the house numbers are on the left and the right AS I drive down the street (pretty damn dead on too BTW), but to be honest......WHO cares??? I put in the address where I wanna go, choose how I wanna get there, and VOILA it does it's thing. What more do I need out of a GPS? I don't get all the hair splitting.
Considering a couple of years ago, even cheap units were over $1k and now you can get them for around $200 with better performance......I'd say they're ALL damn good IMO. Certainly much better and hellava lot more accurate than Mapquest......so what's the big deal?
QFT
I could care less about GPS units, I don't use them, I just use to sell them. And since you're so caught up about the reviews from Cnet, look at the average user rating rather than Cnet editors' reviews. Of course everyone's gonna like the GPS unit they're using, but without being able to compare and contrast to other units, their opinion would biased.Really? How do you base that opinion?
Seems a few others don't agree with you:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Magellan_Roa...-32065623.html
http://www.rated4stars.com/html/mage...-gps-revi.html
Really? Why do the instructions in ENGLISH confuse people????
My wife can't screw in a light bulb. She licked the suction cup, plugged it into the cig lighter, and has been extremely happy ever since. She used to get lost in a cul-de-sac. Now she does up to as many as 4 different appraisals with 10 different way points driving more than 100 miles and STILL makes it home in time to cook me and the kids dinner. So if a TomTom "confuses" someone.....it's because they're an idiot and don't deserve to be driving in the first place.
Again, Cnet doesn't seem to agree with you since they rank the Magellan AND the TomTom HIGHER than the C330.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Magellan_Roa...4&rid=32078943
Besides, are you going to use it to get you to and fro or are you going to marry it??? Who cares if it's .5 ounces lighter and 1 degree cooler in the sun? Does it get me to where I wanna go? Does it get me around a traffic jam? Does it give me voice instructions? Is it touch screen? Is it plug-n-play? Can I afford it? Then what other bells and whistles are needed? Mine gives me altitude, waypoints, points of interest, fancy smancy longitude and latitude, and it even tells me what the house numbers are on the left and the right AS I drive down the street (pretty damn dead on too BTW), but to be honest......WHO cares??? I put in the address where I wanna go, choose how I wanna get there, and VOILA it does it's thing. What more do I need out of a GPS? I don't get all the hair splitting.
Considering a couple of years ago, even cheap units were over $1k and now you can get them for around $200 with better performance......I'd say they're ALL damn good IMO. Certainly much better and hellava lot more accurate than Mapquest......so what's the big deal?
Tomtom avg life span is months. I have worked with the 510,700,710, and 910 one tomtom one
That explains a lot.
And since you're so caught up about the reviews from Cnet, look at the average user rating rather than Cnet editors' reviews.
#1. I did, and they still don't rate neither the Magellans nor the TomToms as.....how'd you eloquently put it????......"garbage"......so again, what's your point? They STILL don't agree with you.
Really? Which one do YOU own? Unlike you and a couple of others, I didn't put down a single unit at all. I merely showed YOU and anyone else who was looking on that YOU were far from a reliable source on the subject matter. Your very first sentence to your response proves me absolutely right.Of course everyone's gonna like the GPS unit they're using, but without being able to compare and contrast to other units, their opinion would biased.
For your info.....I may use a Magellan now, but just FYI I've also owned AND more importantly USED for more than the 30 secs at a display window at the store several brands INCLUDING your venerable Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, and even had a Lowrance on my boat. As a matter of fact, I love my Etrex when I go hunting or playing around in the woods. So I don't nut swing on anything but what works. In MY experience your opinion is way off the mark and therefore I said what I said.....but since you SOLD them
Again, I must be super lucky then because my wife's TomTom has been working for over 2 yrs without as much as a hiccup. I just updated it for the first time a couple of months ago because she was having some new subdivisions not show up at all and as an appraiser that causes her problems.
hmmm i was thinking about the tom tom i dont really care about all the bells and whistles either just need it to get my route mapped out for me and get me there and back to the warehouse at the end of the day picking this thing out is getting harder than i thought its alot of money for me to spend on something and i dont want to make the wrong choice but everyones opin. are really helping me for sure keep them coming
mapquest.com .. it free.. FTMFW!!!!11!!!!
there i did it.. what'd you think?
yeah but we all know how mapquest will screw you sometimes and im tired of paying for ink every few months shits expensive
my friend has a tom tom, he says it sucks, and inaccurate.
Again, how exactly does it "suck" to your friend?
As for the inaccurate part, I don't see how it's possible. My wife, honestly, can get lost in a cul-de-sac. She's a Real Estate appraiser. You may wonder how that works out since we all know that appraisers have to drive all over the place as part of their work. Matter of fact, my wife drives over 35,000 miles A YEAR. That's an oil change per month type driving. She wouldn't know where NORTH was even if she followed behind the 3 wise men and their camels. She really has ZERO sense of direction.
With that said, she plugs in the address to her destinations and drives those 35,000 miles without many problems at all. Trust me if it can get HER to her destination, it can get ANYONE to their destination. Yes, some of the newest subdivisions/roads don't show up, but that's on every GPS until it gets updated somehow.
Trust me when I tell you that my wife LOVES her TomTom. She literally would not be working if she had to depend on Mapquest to get her where she's going. Not feasible for her at all to do that. So again, I totally don't understand how some people are saying that the TomTom doesn't do what it's supposed to. If you're looking for .0002 inch accuracy, then sign up to join the Army and sit on top of a missile or something because that's the only time you need that kind of accuracy. If a 4 in by 4 in piece of plastic can get me to the STREET where I need to be and all I have to do is look for a number on a mailbox or a billboard to get me to where I wanna go......that to ME is success. I don't know what else everyone is expecting out of a $200 device.
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