considering GPS purchase

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:19 pm

Thinking about plunking my money down for a Garman 350 GPS. The reviews I've found rate this a great unit to have. Don't need the 360 and bluetooth, which is fine, but does have points of interest and text to speech. Looks like the pricing is good. Amazon has them for $248 which is drop from there retail price of ~400. I can't find out what the cost is to update the maps on the unit from the web site as you have to enter the serial number to get to the maps. Looks like firmware and such is free, but a cost for the maps. Any idea what that cost is and how often you need to update?

ChristopherLin · **Joined:** Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:44 pm **Posts:** 125

i have a garmin nuvi 350. it's really useful.

updating the gps i would guess depends on where you are traveling. if you travel places where it is developing, then you would need to update pretty often. i think my nuvi's around one year old, and it works fine. i've brought it to ohio, and seattle, and no getting lost yet...

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:01 am

You might be able to get the Nuvi 260 for a little less money, and unless you want it to also be an MP3/Audiobook player they are pretty much the same thing.

The price gap has gotten small enough that the 350 might justify the difference due to battery life/styling.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:42 am

Rodney, I've got the 260 and it's the bomb. It may not take the shortest route but it will get you there. There's no getting lost with one of these units in your car. Gwen got it for me for Christmas, and its been with me ever since I don't leave home without it.

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:59 am

We're at the cheap end of the spectrum with the ($80-$100ish on sale at PepBoys) Mio - does everything we need. Supposedly, while budget priced, it uses the "right" mapping software (the stuff the good ones are based off of), Maps are only about a year old, and it updates routes quickly. Screen contrast is a little worse than the original Mio, but after changing the color scheme to a higher contrast one, I've never had a problem even in direct sunlight. You won't get the same map support that you'll get with Garmin, but it's cheap enough that you can just demote it to a lesser vehicle in a couple years and buy another. And it's much less painfull when a cheap one is stolen from your car, like my first Mio was.

FWIW, I also test drove some of the other cheap units, and I did NOT like the interfaces. The Mio isn't perfect, and I wish their window mount was a little more universal, but all in all I still recommend it for the price.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:52 am

Bernie Baake wrote:

Rodney, I've got the 260 and it's the bomb. It may not take the shortest route but it will get you there. There's no getting lost with one of these units in your car. Gwen got it for me for Christmas, and its been with me ever since I don't leave home without it.

So Bernie, what's the charge to update maps for the Garmin? This is my only sticking point on pulling the trigger on a purchase.

Shawna Geyer · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:18 am

I got the street pilot for christmas and it rocks, and my mom also got one as well as the newest map updates. The cd itself was like 50 bucks, and my dad got it on sale. He's a bargain finder, ill check and find out where he got his if ud like

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:27 am

We got a TomTom One LE (Best Buy specific model) at Christmas for $120 (big sale). Map updates on the TomTom are free forever, as far as I can tell. You can also add your own POIs and make (and receive) user map corrections online throuugh their MapShare program. And they need it, cuz their maps have plenty of errors (don't know if they're worse than "normal", though).

There's all kinds of online support out there for TomToms, other programs you can load, integration with Google maps, etc, pretty cool.

The One LE doesn't have text-to-speech, though, and that is a feature that we will definitely get in our next unit.

Just FYI...

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:03 am

RodneyWright wrote:

Bernie Baake wrote:

Rodney, I've got the 260 and it's the bomb. It may not take the shortest route but it will get you there. There's no getting lost with one of these units in your car. Gwen got it for me for Christmas, and its been with me ever since I don't leave home without it.

So Bernie, what's the charge to update maps for the Garmin? This is my only sticking point on pulling the trigger on a purchase.

I have had the Garmin C320 for 18 months or so. It has really help me out. A new Garmin will have the 2008 street maps ready to load. I put a 2GB card into mine and just loaded the whole map cd and was done with it. Before that; first time to Summit Point, I forgot to load WV into the unit. Hit the WV line and the screen goes blank. Live and learn.

Every year Garmin comes out with updated map software. They send you the cd for free, no shipping. But to get the activation code, it will cost you $75. Like I said, the software is free, but you can not load it without that activation code. I have the 2008 cd here at home, but I don't feel like spending $75 to update my 2007 maps. The 2008 maps still have 540 ending at Capital. So I will wait until the 2009 maps are out.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:29 pm

Carl Fisher wrote:

The One LE doesn't have text-to-speech, though, and that is a feature that we will definitely get in our next unit.

For the sake of completeness, do you mean it has no voice guided directions? There is a difference. For example, some Garmin units have voice guidance via pre-recorded instructions, but they will only say "turn left in XYZ distance", etc. Then some units go a step beyond that with true "text to speech" by saying "turn left in XYZ distance on to Old Greensboro Road." The first part is pre-recorded, but the "Old Greensboro Road" part is computer generated.

Having the latter is nice, but the former is more than adequate. No voice guidance just sucks, IMHO.

--Donnie

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:23 pm

Donnie Barnes wrote:

Carl Fisher wrote:

The One LE doesn't have text-to-speech, though, and that is a feature that we will definitely get in our next unit.

For the sake of completeness, do you mean it has no voice guided directions? There is a difference. For example, some Garmin units have voice guidance via pre-recorded instructions, but they will only say "turn left in XYZ distance", etc. Then some units go a step beyond that with true "text to speech" by saying "turn left in XYZ distance on to Old Greensboro Road." The first part is pre-recorded, but the "Old Greensboro Road" part is computer generated.

No, it has voice-guided instructions. The feature that they call "text-to-speech" is where the navigation software reads the street name too, in addition to the basic nav info, as you mention. In places where there are several turns close together, or where you're a little unsure of what you're looking for, we miss not having the street name called out.

You're right that what we have is adequate (we have never failed to get where we're going), but in terms of additional features, that one is at the top of the list.

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:38 pm

Is this to be used for everyday driving or only for trips? If the latter do you carry a notebook computer with you as well?
I have a Garmin 350 and absolutely HATE it! I use Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS (less than 120.00) on my laptop instead, a MUCH more useful and user friendly set up for traveling IMHO.
First time we used the Garmin it sent us down an unpaved alley (with the trailer) rather than going another 1/2 a block to a parallel 4 lane highway because it decided the alley was a few feet shorter. It always starts the route from your present location and immediately recalculates the route should you get off for gas food or hotel. On a trip home from GA, we pulled off an exit to eat, and the place we wanted was about a mile off the route, after eating the Garmin "recalculated" the route and instead of continuing on to I95 as we originally wanted to go we ended up on I85 thru Atlanta and Charlotte!
On another trip we used it for it took us on a very "scenic" ~ 10 mile trip of barely 2 lane wide twisty farm roads (again with the trailer) to get from one interstate to another.
The straw that broke the camels back was coming back from Nationals. They had a section of the interstate blocked off for repair in KC, the detour was poorly marked. No matter what we did the dman Garmin insisted on circling us back to the roadblock!

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:43 pm

Chuck Frank wrote:

Is this to be used for everyday driving or only for trips? If the latter do you carry a notebook computer with you as well?
I have a Garmin 350 and absolutely HATE it! I use Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS (less than 120.00) on my laptop instead, a MUCH more useful and user friendly set up for traveling IMHO.
First time we used the Garmin it sent us down an unpaved alley (with the trailer) rather than going another 1/2 a block to a parallel 4 lane highway because it decided the alley was a few feet shorter. It always starts the route from your present location and immediately recalculates the route should you get off for gas food or hotel. On a trip home from GA, we pulled off an exit to eat, and the place we wanted was about a mile off the route, after eating the Garmin "recalculated" the route and instead of continuing on to I95 as we originally wanted to go we ended up on I85 thru Atlanta and Charlotte!
On another trip we used it for it took us on a very "scenic" ~ 10 mile trip of barely 2 lane wide twisty farm roads (again with the trailer) to get from one interstate to another.
The straw that broke the camels back was coming back from Nationals. They had a section of the interstate blocked off for repair in KC, the detour was poorly marked. No matter what we did the dman Garmin insisted on circling us back to the roadblock!

While I agree the re-route functionality on the Garmin is subpar, isn't having a laptop open at all times sort of a hassle? Even one with a 14" monitor is cumbersome at best, especially when you're dealing with auto/air adapters and or inverters for power. - AB

David Spratte · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:03 pm

I've got a Palm branded TomTom device for my Treo 700p. First GPS so no grounds for comparison, but the navigation seems mostly good. It's never gotten me lost. But. . . well. . . The voice I use is UK English and the file is called Jane. On occasion I've had reason to quote Dan Ackroyd. But for the most part it's solid.

The biggest shortcoming is that Palm Bluetooth implementation leaves something to be desired. Only one BT device can function with the Palm at one time. So it's either GPS or Headset.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:34 pm

tom tom one XL. about 3 bills i think @ staples maybe. not sure it was a gift. it is small and thin, which i like. however when we were at CMP last, VK's Garmin seemed better at finding POIs. i might need to read the manual maybe.

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