GPS users: Your GPS recommendations

[brentspeak]

I'm looking to buy a GPS navigation system, mostly for use in my car.

My options (or at least, the options I think I have) :

1) Upgrade my Sprint PCS service and get a new phone that has GPS capability. The new mobile phone would be cheap, because of the rebates involved, but I would have to pay an extra $20 a month to get the GPS service (TeleNav, I think it's called). Possible phones I could get would be the Razr ($30 with rebate), or even a Moto Q smart phone ($100 with rebate) or a Blackberry ($120).

2) Spend $300 or so on a dedicated GPS unit for the car.

3) Figure out some way to convert my old Palm i705 PDA into a GPS unit. I'm not sure if that's possible, especially as it doesn't have Bluetooth capability or a USB input jack (it only has an SD card input slot). It's also an antiquated Palm 4.01 operating system.

4) Renew my present calling plan with Sprint PCS, don't pay for the GPS navigation service, and use the renewal to be eligible for the rebate to get the Moto Q or Blackberry. Then see if there's some way I can turn that new PDA-phone into a GPS unit by buying a GPS receiver and a software package. I don't know how expensive that would be, though.

How are cell phone navigation plans? Do they conk out? Voice prompts are definitely what I'm looking for.

[Lost-in-FL]

1. I don't know about phone w/GPS

But I would think it is a bad idea IMO. This is why I believe so; imagine you have a very long trip and you are using your cell phone unit. You might have to spend some money buying extra cell phone batteries but if you have a portable GPS unit you only need to change the AA batteries every few hours. Also, if you add up the $20 for a year you might as well get a decent units with a USA Map on CD so you could load all of your routes and waypoints before hand into your unit and you don't have to spend time loading information from a Satelite using your cellphone. That sounds like a pain to me. I might be wrong since like I said, I do not own a phone w/GPS.

I have a portable GPS unit for 3 years now and it was an excellent buy. It looks like this one.
Of course, you might want to get a mounting bracket ($30 to $40) for long trips.

We paid $399 and it included the unit and a USA map on CD. Mine do not have memory card capabilities but the most recent ones have it. http://www.rei.com/product/735609 Ours do not have a voice prompts but instead a beeping sound (first 50 meters and then 10 meters). The unit might be old compared to what is now on the market but my hubby and I believe the money was well spent and we don't think we need any upgrades. We use it a lot for long trips and camping.

Hope this helps.

[brentspeak]

6. Thanks for the info

[achtung_circus]

2. I use the Garmin iQue 3600

now discontinued



with integral Palm Pilot.

I use it ALL the time. When responding to calls it's head and shoulders above a map book. It sits on the dash and is easily referenced. I turn the annoying voice off.

It seems to me that the cell phone idea is a non starter. It does one thing or the other, jack of all ytrades, master of none.

Or something.

[brentspeak]

5. What Palm Pilot do you have?

Is the Palm OS below 5.0?

[speedoo]

8. 5.2 something evidently.

You can get a refurb on ebay for $235 shipped.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Garmin-iQue-3600-GPS-iQue3600-PDA-Palm-w-Auto-Nav-Bndl_W0QQitemZ320112681037QQihZ011QQcategoryZ34289QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Looks like it's not warranteed by Garmin, however. that's too bad, because Garmin's customer service and warranty service is superb.

[speedoo]

7. Garmin iQue 3600. Me too. Love it. Other ideas...

Forget that cell phone idea. The idea of paying a monthly fee for GPS is absurd (unless it offers really good traffic reporting, and that's important to you.) I have another Garmin GPS that I use on my boat. Garmin is the way to go. Just look at the Garmin product line and choose the one you like best. For use in the car, voice prompting is essential.

You don't need to spend $300, necessarily.

If you are not in a big hurry, and you're willing to do some late night research, woot.com offers nice GPS units periodically. Not Garmin, but other good units like Tom Tom. Sometimes new, sometimes reburbished, but always excellent prices.

For example, they offered this one about a week ago for only $165:

http://www0.epinions.com/content_329006157444

[Xipe Totec]

3. I recommend long -114.9181, Lat 32.65861

:P

[Kali]

4. Plate of shrimp! (repoman reference)

I just learned to use one for the first time today (well sort of, I have no idea what happens after marking a bunch of points, but it was my first direct experience with one. weeeeeeeee!

[Madrone]

9. GOPisEvil got me a Garmin Streetpilot I-5.

It's not expensive (compared to most GPS solutions), it's small (people that have motorcycles also use them for that), you don't have to buy any maps (North America is all preloaded), and it is fabulously reviewed online.

[Nickster]

10. Ok, here was my fairly cheap solution that I've been very happy with

Mio C310x

http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/008669.php

The Garmin's are the cream of the crop, but when I compared my Mio to the Garmin reviews, I found out that I was paying a premium for the name and only a few extra items that didn't make that big of a difference to me.

My Mio was 150 bucks and you can routinely find them at Staples, OfficeMax, etc for 150-200 dollars.

Most of the Garmin's that I looked at seemed way too bulky to make it really portable. I didn't want to leave it in my car to be ripped off. The MIO is small enough that it slips easily into a shirt pocket, it also comes with a car charger so you don't need to worry about battery power. The screen is 3.5 inches, so it's just as big and sometimes bigger than the bulkier Garmin units. There are tons of links about "hacking" it to get extra features, like new map interfaces and you can add different map programs to it so you aren't stuck with the maps from the box. You can also use the MIO to play MP3s, Movies, read e-books if you want, etc.

So for me, the MIO was a great, cost efficient solution. I think if you're really going to be using it on a daily basis for hard core driving, you might want to go with a Garmin, but I don't think you'd be disappointed with a MIO either.