Picking GPS for Vehicle

January 25, 2007 1:58 PM

How do I choose a GPS system for my car?

I am starting to travel more for work, and would like to get a GPS system for my vehicle. I just want GPS, I don't need it to play MP3s, but I would like it to speak street names.

Any recommendations on a system primarily being used in the Midwest United States?

posted by benjh to technology (15 comments total)

Garmin CC40. My girlfriend got us this. I was very skeptical, but holy cow is it good! It so easy to use they haven't made a user manual. You enter an address and then it just starts telling/showing you where to go.
posted by xammerboy at 2:25 PM on January 25, 2007

Seconding xammerboy, although I think he means the C340 -- there's no "CC40" listed on the Garmin product page.
posted by bac at 2:49 PM on January 25, 2007

I recently switched from a Garmin StreetPilot to a Garmin Nuvi 660. I wish I'd skipped all the MP3 and bluetooth stuff (I just don't use it) BUT ... I love it. It's small enough to stuff in my pocket when I don't want to leave it in the car. It has good battery life unplugged - I've taken it along when I was a backseat passenger in someone else's car and simply operated it from there. I've used it indoors at work to calculate the time needed for a lunchtime errand run. It's touchscreen and the interface is dead simple. It speaks street names. It acquires satellites very quickly. The StreetPilot has more computery features (my favorite is watching house numbers update as I drive down a street) but the lightness, brightness, and ease of use of the Nuvi won me over.
posted by cairnish at 2:52 PM on January 25, 2007

Yes, I meant the C340. My girlfriend has actually taken the Garmin in her backpack and used it to find an address while walking too :-).
posted by xammerboy at 2:57 PM on January 25, 2007

If I remember correctly, the Nuvi is considerably more expensive than the c340. I can't really imagine why you'd need more than the c340, but YMMV. BTW, the c340 (I'm sure other GPSs do this as well) also has a directory for food and other shops - it's awesome and we use it all the time.
posted by walla at 2:59 PM on January 25, 2007

I just bought the Garmin StreetPilot c320. It didn't have some of the fancier features like MP3 players or real-time traffic, but it was very inexpensive. I paid $268 at WalMart.com.

If it turns out that I really use/like it, I might upgrade to the Nuvi next year.
posted by briank at 3:55 PM on January 25, 2007

I have a(n old) Nuvi, and it is great when it works, which is about 1/2 of the time. Given the cost, I would definitely explore other options unless you can find documentation that newer versions have improved dramatically.

Problems with my Nuvi include: getting blinded by tall buildings (I'm in SF, so tall is actually quite short for a city); taking me in circles; deciding I'm going perpendicular to my actual path and "recalculating" forever; announcing ramps and splits in the freeway *as they whiz by* with no prior mention (101/280 split, I'm looking at you); not having very accurate information (my closest Target is 400 miles away? really?). I suppose all this may have been improved by software/hardware updates since I got the thing a year and a half ago.

On the other hand, I am endlessly entertained by the German-language option.

Despite all this complaining (and the fact that I keep an old-fashioned map in the car at all times), I'd definitely miss it -- particularly when I was new to the details of the city, it was invaluable.
posted by obliquicity at 5:38 PM on January 25, 2007

My new Garmin c330 doesn't speak the street names, just displays them on the screen.

It's fabulous. I wish I'd had it years ago. You should get one. You will never be lost in your car again.
posted by ikkyu2 at 6:20 PM on January 25, 2007

I've enjoyed my Garmin c320 so far. I've had it for a few months. It doesn't speak street names, but does a good job of conveying when and where you're supposed to go. I've never had a problem not being able to keep track of what it wants - audio only.

The difference between the 320 and its sibling the c330 is that the 330 has built in storage while the 320 has an SD card and comes with the maps on a DVD. I opted for the latter and bought a 2gb SD card for fairly cheap - which holds all of the US and Canada, including points of interest.

The maps it comes with are about 2 years old, so if you live in an area with lots of new development, expect it not to have a few streets. I'm in NW Ohio, and have never really had any problems with this to date. The maps it does have are generally very detailed, especially in places where its useful, like airports.
If it weren't for this thing I think I might still be driving around the Detroit airport trying to find the freeway.

Its very good at rerouting. If you miss a turn, it generally realizes within a few seconds, and gives you the next audible direction right away.

It is slightly large; I mean it isn't really very big at all, but I'm not sure if I would want it mounted to my dash or windshield.
My workaround was that my car, (a Honda CR-V) has a space in the dash for storing CDs which is about 6" wide and 5" tall. I just stuck the unit in there, and it stays in place nicely and is visible while I drive but not distracting.

Anyhow, I've found it great.
posted by heh3d at 8:12 PM on January 25, 2007

From what I've read in here and on the Garvin site, it looks to me like the biggest differences between the c320 and the c340, besides the price, are the storage method (which is no problem, since we've already got spare 2G SD cards for our cameras) and the fact that the c340 is capable of getting real-time traffic info and speaks the street names. Am I missing anything?
posted by diddlegnome at 10:17 PM on January 25, 2007

We have a Garmin Nuvi 660. I chose the sexy male British accent option, and his name is therefore Daniel. Daniel speaks street names. He is patient with me when I miss turns and although I think I can hear a little disappointment in his voice he never gets mad or loses patience with me. If my husband were not so lovely then I believe I would set up house with Daniel. I'm just saying.
posted by onlyconnect at 10:25 PM on January 25, 2007

I'm surprised I'm the first person to suggest it, but I bought my girlfriend the TomTom GO 910 as a Christmas gift after extensive research on the various Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom models, and I think it rocks. She loves it. I can't compare it directly to the Garmin models people have spoken about above, but I went for it because TomTom seems to be the first company that really figured out how to do an automotive GPS user interace really well, one that Garmin is now copying. I think they're still ahead of Garmin in terms of usability, but again, I haven't tried the newer models, like the nuvi, in real-world scenarios.

One thing you'll definitely want, though these days you'd be hard pressed to buy a new GPS without it already, is a GPS with a SiRFstarIII chipset, which is able to acquire signal faster and keep a lock much better than previous GPS radios and chipsets. You'll also want WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) support, which again is mostly standard nowadays on new automotive GPS. WAAS offers additional positioning data from ground-based reference stations which refines the location data received from GPS satellites. SiRFstarIII chipsets have WAAS, so as long as you have it in your GPS, you're good to go.

If you're interested in the TomTom, I encourage you to check out their website. One thing I like about it is that their map loading and voice loading software works on OS X (though it doesn't have all the features of the Windows version, at least not yet), and the GO 910 has an internal 20 GB hard drive (other models use SD cards) with about 12 GB usable out of the box, the rest pre-loaded with maps for North America and Europe. It also has those other features you may not care about, like a built-in MP3 player, iPod integration (with the iPod cable accessory), and Bluetooth for hands-free calling with your Bluetooth mobile phone. TomTom also offers a for-pay data service which uses your Bluetooth phone and your phone's data connection (if you have one, and if you paid for the service with your provider) to download live traffic data and construction information, as well as saftey camera locations (more of a boon in Europe, I imagine). My girlfriend doesn't use this feature set yet because her phone doesn't have Bluetooth and she doesn't need a data plan for anything else she does with her phone, but if I had one, I'd probably spring for it. Live traffic updates would be killer.
posted by dnm at 6:53 AM on January 26, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I have the Garmin StreetPilot 2720 and I really like it. I paid about $550 for mine on Amazon a year or two ago and it's probably available cheaper now, as are probably technically superior units. I looked at a bunch of systems and all the Garmin units and settled on this one for a nice mix of good features and a reasonable price. Each person will have their own different quirks and desires.

A few general comments:

Think about the form factor of the unit and where it will sit in your car. Personally, I think that having a GPS up on the dashboard is asking for theft and makes it hard to reach and deal with. In my car, there is a perfect little place in front of where the ashtray used to be that, with the trim popped out for placement, the unit sits perfectly. It is easy to reach for entering information or doing something different, and the installation looks much less aftermarket than most. I really like it there, and I'm really glad that it fits there.

Absolutely get a unit with an external antenna, and absolutely use it. Many previously-discussed problems (having trouble figuring where you are, having trouble maintaining a signal, low or no signal in urban canyons or with cloud cover) are all drastically-reduced with an external antenna. I have my antenna routed through the dash innards to a spot right in the front corner of the dashboard, so when I disconnect the unit to put in a different car or something, I leave the antenna, and the performance is always greatly reduced. I am considering getting an extra antenna for that reason, since it will only cost me another $20 or so on eBay to get a non-branded antenna, as opposed to $100 or so for the Garmin version.

I think that not a lot of units will speak street names, and you might not end up using it that much anyway. I ended up turning the sound on my unit off completely - I just get in the habit of knowing about when the next turn is and glancing down at the unit around that time. The constant announcements are so unnerving.

I would consider getting a unit which "learns" your preferences. I use my unit often in urban areas where I drive a lot, and it does not learn that I always do certain things and they are faster. Ideally, it would learn over time the best route for the way that you drive, and cross-reference live traffic conditions, but I don't know if any units do both of those. I know that some units do the latter, but I have heard that it is not that helpful unless there are often multiple routing options for which travel times will vary significantly depending on easily-available traffic information. Bay Area, places like that.

Finally, learning how to use your unit qnd do so quickly and easily is very valuable. I'm always amazed when I see factory or aftermarket GPSs which aren't even set up or customized to the user's preferences, even more so when the user complains that the GPS doesn't work that well or isn't that useful. I leave mine on all the time and, even when I'm in areas I know well, often enter destinations so that I can take alternate routes base on observed traffic and still routed back towards my destination. I wouldn't do that if it took longer than about three seconds to do anything except for enter an address or intersection, which takes about 15 seconds.
posted by jcwagner at 8:52 AM on January 26, 2007

Whatever you do get, make sure that it is easy to take out of the car when you're not in it. we've had a huge increase in car break-ins here recently and the biggest target has been the on-dash GPS units, like the Garmins and TomTom.
posted by drstein at 9:55 AM on January 26, 2007

I also recommend a TomTom. I had the GO 300 until it got stolen out of my car. I'm currently looking at a TomTom ONE, and I'm going to mount it on the dash instead of using the suction-cup thing so people can't tell that I have GPS.

TomTom has excellent interface and great point of interest maps.
posted by benrodian at 3:08 PM on March 6, 2007