GPS comparison?

[altivo]

I received enough Christmas cash to purchase a low end GPS unit. I'm interested in something primarily for use in the car, but if it can be used handheld as well that would be a plus. A suitable display and verbal routing instructions for the car are the primary consideration, though.

A couple of years ago I bought a Lowrance Iway unit for my mate, and he loves it. He thinks I should get the same thing, but those are still selling for $350 or so, not much less than I paid for his. I can't afford to spend that right now. It seems that Garmin (nuvi 200) and TomTom (One 125 or 130) have units that are being discounted to just under $100 and appear to have the desired features. I know a fair number of folks on my FL use GPS for various purposes. Anyone have pros, cons, or alternative suggestions?

Comments

[tango.livejournal.com]

iberian_wolf bought both of us Garmin nuvi 265s. I played with mine on the way back from my brother's. So far, the only issue is that I need to be someplace to set it as a favorite.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've seen TomTom units before and they seemed pretty good, so it's helpful to have a firsthand opinion of Garmin. I'm leaning slightly toward Garmin because it has more potential expandability, though I may never buy any of the add-ons. Looks like either one should be good for my basic street navigation needs. One comes with US and Canada maps preloaded, while the other has only US, but I haven't been to Canada in a long time now.

Oh, and thanks for the snowflake. Merry Christmas to you and to iberian_wolf.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I have been considering getting one, too, and I am also looking for a basic model, that would have option for updating maps manually or via USB.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There appear to be four makers with low end models here: Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, and Motorola. I don't know if any of them market in Europe, but they look pretty much equivalent here. List prices are generally just under $200 US, but they are being offered at half off, probably due to the general recession and lack of sales this holiday season.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Well, a friend of mine has a Garmin, and it seems to be okay. I haven't seen a TomTom in action, so I really don't know yet which one to go for. But currently Garmin would be more likely choice for me.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with the nuvi series, but my airplane has two Garmin GPSes in it, and they're fantastic. I take the GPSmap 496 with me when I travel to get XM radio and street mapping in rent cars, too. From what I've seen (very little) of the nuvi series, they're even better street navigators than the 496 is. I seriously doubt you'd go wrong, if it's got the feature set you want.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan all seem to be about equally rated, so it does appear to be mostly a matter of price and feature set. Looks like Garmin's built-in battery has a somewhat longer run time, and they have more expansion options (some of which I'd probably never use anyway.) TomTom is a bit lighter in weight and offers more frequent map updates, including corrections turned in "from the field" which could be good or not so good I guess depending on who's doing the submissions, but has half the run time on the internal battery. Magellan appears to have the most complex configuration software, and of course all of them run only on Windows or perhaps Macintosh, so I suspect simpler is better from my point of view.

[kint.livejournal.com]

Jason picked up a very nice TomTom about... two years ago now? It's been generally good, but as a more European company he says it has a modest amount of trouble with updates in the American maps. If he bought a new one he'd rather get the Garmin.

Just another two cents :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Interesting point, and one I wouldn't have thought of. Thanks for the input. :)

[animist.livejournal.com]

Funny you mention GPS... I was looking at this earlier:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10248692

Garmin Nuvi 200 Portable GPS (assorted color) bundled w/ your choice of a Bonus Accessory (save up to $20)
Special buy!97-Cent Shipping
From $128.86

Consumer reports rated it a good buy on the basis of price for features

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, and that's the model I'm looking at, though Sam's Club is currently offering it for $96 (without the "bonus accessory" which may or may not be worth the added $32.)

The nuvi 200 doesn't do some of the stuff the more expensive models do, such as providing a built-in MP3 player or satellite radio access, but those aren't things I need or want to pay extra for. It apparently doesn't pronounce street names either, so you get "Turn right" instead of "Turn right onto Maple Street," but generally I can live with that.

Thanks for the Consumer Reports rating. I was intending to check CR tomorrow at work, and probably will still do that, but this snippet confirms what I'm already suspecting.

[animist.livejournal.com]

The Sam's Club deal does sounds good... and makes sense, since they ARE the same people. It's just the online Walmart deal is the same price with the kit as the store price. :)

[animist.livejournal.com]

The in store price without the kit, I should have added.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'd seen that so it made sense. :) I get a Sam's Club membership as a benefit from work, so if I'm going to buy from the "evil W empire" I generally go for the lowest possible price. At the moment it doesn't look as if Best Buy or whatever is going to undersell them, but in the post-Christmas sale environment, who knows? I'm holding for a day or two to scope out the possibilities.

[animist.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Best Buy has the Insignia NS-CNV10 for $100. But after a year you have to renew the internet service.Plus none of theirs made the Consumer Reports recommended list. The Garmin model ranked 14th overall, but that was against some pricey models with lots of features. It was one of five recommended based on value for money spent and ease of use.

I don't want to buy and expensive model, becuase then I will not leave it in the car for fear of loosing it. Then what good would it be? :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. And the Garmin and TomTom are small enough to slip in a pocket if you do decide not to leave them in the car.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

I bought a top-end TomTom not too long ago (The Go 920, I think). Prior to this, I had a Garmin StreetPilot 2610. The TomTom had an extremely poor POI database, its search capabilities are limited (for instance, you can only search for all restaurants, my old Garmin could search for specific types of cuisine), and in testing, it produced some REALLY bad directions (like directing me more than 4 miles out of my way and onto the freeway rather than make a U-turn to get to a place on the other side of the street). Worst of all, though was their customer service. I was supposed to get a year of free map updates, but TomTom refused to honor it.

Fortunately I was able to return the unit to Costco. I love their liberal return policy. I'm still using my 4+ year old Garmin.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, the "points of interest" feature is not usually of much use to me. I'm more concerned about TomTom's map updates and how accurate they are. Last spring when I was in Dayton with quickcasey I found it a little disturbing that his TomTom insisted that we take a nonexistent entrance ramp to the freeway. Apparently that ramp had been removed several years earlier, and so completely that there weren't even any visible scars. Instead of rerouting us when we "missed" the nonexistent ramp, the GPS kept trying to make us turn around and go back to it.

In contrast, Gary's Lowrance immediately recalculates the route and chooses a new path if you don't take a turn it recommended. This compensates nicely for detours, road closings, and such things that can't be always up to date in the internal database.

[leopanthera.livejournal.com]

TomTom TomTom TomTom TomTom TomTom.

TomTom.

Srsly. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Far be it from me to scoff at a cute lion's advice, but you appear to be marching to the beat of a different drummer here. Care to elaborate? XD

[jenwolf.livejournal.com]

Aureth has a TomTom, and it's okay. The thing I don't like about it is it insists on taking freeways as often as possible, even if that takes you way out of your way. When I was driving from Oswego to McHenry, the TomTom wanted me to take 355 to 290. And it stubbornly refused to allow me to take a more direct route just using county highways.
From reading the other reviews, I'd go with a Garmin.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm leaning pretty strongly toward the Garmin now.

Gary's Iway reworks the route any time you ignore an instruction. So it doesn't usually tell you to turn around and go back, which I have seen TomTom do more than once. In the case last spring, it was bound and determined to make us take an entrance ramp that no longer existed. I dunno if Garmin will reroute either, though. The Iway also has an option when you ask for a route. You can check a box to avoid expressways, which I often find desirable to do.

Unfortunately, the Iway is still $350 so it's not on the menu for me.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Tom Tom,
Simple, easy to use and work well (at least here in OZ)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Apparently TomTom does a better job in Europe and possibly other countries than they do in the US. Map quality and customer support aren't as good here, according to many reports I read.

Anyway, I went with the Garmin nuvi 260. It seemed to have to most features I would actually use for a price within my budget. Had to be shipped from the warehouse so I can't give a hands-on evaluation just yet.

[brongaar.livejournal.com]

Got the MioMap, an off brand but good, GPS, it does pronounce the street names 300yds before the turn and says turn when you need to turn.

Had fun last night with it when we went on Kuykendahl Rd locally it's pornounced /kirk-ken-doll/ the MioMap pornounced it as /Crock-en-doll/.

[brongaar.livejournal.com]

BTW it's around $160, at Radio Shack
MioMap 300

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I looked at Mio, because it was included in the units reviewed by Consumer Reports and they rated it reasonably well. I ended up choosing a Garmin n260 for $145. Probably pretty similar to the Mio or TomTom.