Automotive GPS for GPS newbs

May 5, 2007 6:28 PM

I'm thinking about getting a GPS device for my car. I mainly want something simple that will give me voice directions to where I'm going, but I'm totally new to GPS and don't know what other features might turn out to be useful. Any recommendations?

This would be primarily used for preventing me and my technophobe SO from getting lost all the time after we move to a new town (Burlington, VT). I think my needs are pretty basic -- the device will need to have reliable reception in the mountains/woods of VT, have accurate maps, and should be super user-friendly for someone who isn't into dealing with complicated technology. Price is an issue -- I'm hoping to spend less than $300 if possible. But that's flexible if there are some useful or cool features in higher-priced devices that I'm not aware of.

posted by nixxon to technology (22 comments total)

I love my Garmin! I think you can get a model C300 for just over $300.

Even when I don't believe her (I've named her "Bitchin' Betty"), she's never wrong. Saved my ass driving around in DC many times...
posted by matty at 6:44 PM on May 5, 2007

There is one single thing that matters most in all the car gps units out there and everyone seems to overlook it while discussing what features and useless other crap their gps has. That single thing is this: a fast, slick UI. No matter how many warning screens you'll get telling you not to use it while driving, you will end up doing it. When you're in that situation, you want instant zooming, quick satellite connections, good voice feedback, etc. For that reason alone i recommend the nuvi. However, i strongly encourage you to go to best buy and try a bunch out yourself rather than take our recommendations here.

For reference, i have a magellan crossover gps. it's 1/2 hiking and topos, 1/2 roads and POIs. in the end, that means this: it's not a great hiking gps and it's not a great driving gps. In the future i plan to get two separate devices, one of which will be the Nuvi
posted by Señor Pantalones at 6:48 PM on May 5, 2007

IF you have a compatible phone, I highly recommend Telenav. There is a great deal of new development, and TeleNav is the only company I have found who has accurate maps for my town.

You also need a data plan on your phone, as TeleNav uses the web to deliver maps, but it also means that as they update their maps, you have access to them as well.
posted by 4ster at 6:49 PM on May 5, 2007

I got onlyconnect the nuvi 660 and she seems very pleased. She's set it to speak with a British accent ("Daniel") and that garners a certain forgiveness whenver "he" mispronounces a road name -- Daniel's not from here, so of course he's unfamiliar some of the local pronunciation...

I've borrowed it from time to time and find it very handy. One of the best aspects of using such a device is that it cuts the penalty for making a wrong turn so much as to nearly render it moot. See something interesting, or you got distraced and missed a turn? No worry, it'll set you back on track with no fuss.

I bought it online and had no problems.

The database of food, businesses, etc (points of interest or POI in the lingo) is also very handy.

The nuvi has a ton of features we haven't used (and never may), but it's easy to use and does a it's core jobs with no fuss.

I haven't watched prices sinces buying onlyconnects, but I would be surprised if that particular model had dropped to $300 already. Other Garmins feature the same screen interface. Major differentiators seem to be street names and driving directions spoken versus only directions spoken without street names, screen size and quality, and unit size and shape. Getting to $300 may mean picking which of these to compromise.
posted by NortonDC at 7:38 PM on May 5, 2007

tomtom

it's portable so you are not tethered to one vehicle
posted by peace_love_hope at 7:39 PM on May 5, 2007

I've found the traffic alerts and auto rerouting a great feature of my TomTom. Its helped me get around gridlock both in the town I've lived in for 14 years and when I travel to places I've never been. You need a bluetooth phone + a data plan. Right now it is free but they plan to start charging for it eventually.
posted by birdherder at 8:55 PM on May 5, 2007

First of all, a GPS is kind of like a cell phone, in that when I finally got one, I was left wondering how I got by without one. (It's also like a cell phone in that it does wonders for your peace of mind.)

I have the Garmin Nuvi, and am quite pleased with it. It's a pricier one (although the $900 figure is outrageously high?), and, quite frankly, had I bought it myself (it was a gift), I may have gone for a cheaper one. I'm very pleased with it, and, as Mr. Pants says, it's quite easy to use.

One thing the Nuvi has that I'm not sure others have is a huge database of locations, not just streets. I can just plug in "Burger King" and find the nearest one. (It's not limited to major chains: even our local mom & pop stores are in there.) Maybe not worth tons of extra money, but it's nice.

I strongly second the idea of going into a store and playing with what they have. Especially as you mention a technophile SO, it's important to figure out what's easy to use and what isn't.
posted by fogster at 9:11 PM on May 5, 2007

senor pantalones has it right . in a driving situation you will appreciate fast satellite lock and an easy to read user interface.

I use last year's TomTom Navigator 5 software and bluetooth receiver on palm TX and Zire 72 pdas. The destination input is pretty easy ; you just tap the address into the pda screen and the unit calculates the route in seconds. The satellite acquisition is very quick (less than 20 sec in Boston). And it works really well, displaying routes in 3d and 2d, with voice instructions.

One of the nice things about pda based gps is that you can use it out of the car. The receiver hides in your pocket . I have used mine while cycling. The drawback to pda based gps is battery life; if you plan to do extended journeys, power cables are essential. Nothing worse than running out of juice.

If you do choose the pda and bluetooth enabled receiver route, one bonus is that the bluetooth receiver can also work with a laptop running mapping software (such as MS streets and trips) - this is the best mapping software IMO. A good backup syatem for longer jouneys maybe.
At the end of the day , whichever system you choose , the clarity and accuracy of the maps is probably the key issue.

I recommend tigergps.com.
posted by panini at 10:17 PM on May 5, 2007

Occhiblu picked me up a Garmin StreetPilot 330c, and it's just wonderful. It meets all your requirements and those of Señor Pantalones too. A pleasant lady guides us gently to our destination and prevents us from being lost or arguing about navigational issues. It is very wonderful and everyone, including you, should have one.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:41 PM on May 5, 2007

Key feature: portability. My sister-in-law got one for Christmas and she'd just leave it on the windshield mount. Three weeks later it was stolen from her car at work. Yeah, anecdotal evidence and yada yada but given how infrequently cars seem to get broken into in her nabe (as in, almost never) I suspect leaving one out in the open is akin to putting a "steal me" sign on the car.
posted by Opposite George at 11:24 PM on May 5, 2007

I have a absolute-bottom-of-the-line $200 Mio C310x. I think it's certainly good enough for my needs, but if you can spend more and still get more features.

The user interface is average. I haven't figured out how to reroute around specific streets, but I haven't needed to. Some things feel like they're backwards, but if you haven't been exposed to other GPSes you probably won't complain. It's responsive enough for my needs.

It is usable out of the car and has a lithium battery. This has proven immensely valuable, since I take public transit into the large confusing city.

It has a database of locations, so I can just press in the name of a restaurant or store name, and it will route me to that location. This is becoming a standard feature.

It has auto-rerouting, this is pretty much standard across all GPSes.

It doesn't speak the name of the upcoming street, it just says "turn left in xxxx feet" or "turn right in xxxx miles". This would be nice to have.

Here are some issues common to all GPSes:

Many of them use the exact same map sources, as there are only a few companies that provide maps. Mine uses TeleAtlas.

As time goes on, the maps and points of interest on your GPS will diverge more and more from reality. In addition to buying the GPS, you will need to budget for regular map updates, assuming your GPS is still supported. These can be included in the cost of the device, or be pretty expensive (around $100).

Using your GPS while actively driving is very likely to get you into a crash.
posted by meowzilla at 11:37 PM on May 5, 2007

I bought my parents a Garmin C330 which should be near your price range. It's a pretty simple, touch screen interface.

We had some frustrations getting it to recognize addresses that weren't in a town--it had them on the maps, because they showed up when I drove there, but we couldn't find a way to make it find them and plot a route, because route plotting required a city. I understand that there is a way around this, but we could never figure it out.

I'm going to get another chance, though, as I've just ordered one of the same model for myself.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:36 AM on May 6, 2007

I prefer to keep my GPS device separate from my cell phone. I'm often driving in places (rural areas) where my cell phone would not get signal, but my GPS works fine. My family and I all use the older version of the TomTom and we're very happy with it. It stores the most frequently used addresses so that navigation is quick, and I find that I can usually program it while I'm at a stoplight.
posted by bchaplin at 5:41 AM on May 6, 2007

TomTom (go910) sucks - at least in Australia. I just sold mine after owning it for 3 weeks. Too many gadgety functions that you don't need, that ultimately mean you spend time fingering it when you should be watching the road.

The directions it gave were poor - sometimes suggesting routes that backtracked 40kms. In cloudy conditions it loses communications regularly, and occasionally the calibration would 'drift' when driving on a highway (it had me driving in the middle of a river for instance, and would then instruct me to make a right turn to get back on the highway). The signal strength was optimum when this happened, so not sure why it would do this.

The maps are frequently out of date - and consider this: over the years you regularly updated your city map book, because cities tend to evolve and grow fairly quickly - each time you need to update the maps, you have fork out a couple of hundred bucks - a little more expensive than a book.

I would strongly suggest looking at who provides the mapping info for the unit - and making sure they're the best providers - then consider the brand with an absolute focus on useability.

Additional features make for confusing and dangerous usage - and it bothers me that there a lot of people out there with these things in their field of vision - watching movies and typing in street names - while driving. But that's just me.
posted by strawberryviagra at 6:50 AM on May 6, 2007

GPS is nice and all, but also pick up a Vermont Gazetteer (available nearly everywhere in VT).

Once you're settled make sure you update your profile so we Vermonters will know you are here and we can invite you to the meetups :)
posted by terrapin at 10:36 AM on May 6, 2007

Jessamyn provided a better link to the Gazetteer in another Vermont-related thread today.
posted by terrapin at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2007

Another vote for the Nuvi. You can find one for under $750 if you google a bit. (I had a good experience with gpscity).
posted by notyou at 10:42 AM on May 6, 2007

Low-end nuvi's start near $300. That link gives a price of $303.95 for the nuvi 200 model when you put it in your cart.

Nuvi's are Garmins, but not all Garmins are nuvis. The nuvi line is distinguished from Garmin's other GPS units by its shape, which is thin and relatively flat, making it better to use outside of the car. If that's not a concern, then you could save money by buying a non-nuvi Garmin. All modern Garmins have basically the same simple interface and routing program, so it really is the shape that distinguishes the nuvis.
posted by NortonDC at 11:09 AM on May 6, 2007

Thanks everyone for all the helpful replies. I'm thinking that Garmin is the way to go, so now I just have to decide whether I want to splurge for the pretty, pretty nuvi.

And terrapin - I'll definitely be updating my profile. I'm bummed that I'm not already in Vermont for today's fun-sounding meetup...
posted by nixxon at 7:57 PM on May 6, 2007

One more vote for nuvi! The $300 nuvi 200 has the same interface and maps as the $900 nuvi 680, and those are the two features that set the Garmins apart. (The 200 is also smaller and thinner.)

TomTom's map data for the US is said to be a notch less accurate that the maps that Garmin uses - I can testify that the Garmin maps are as close to perfect as possible.

I bought my nuvi (the 350) less than a year ago, and it's saved my bacon all over the country without fail:

- It got me from Baltimore to Trenton, NJ at night during a tropical storm (I was totally unfamiliar with the area and driving in those conditions was an absolute beast)

- It got me from LaGuardia to a Westchester job interview - on time - after the big storm in the NYC area last month (had to detour around some flooded roads for that one; again, my first time driving in the area)

- Helped me move a car from Florida to Wisconsin without a hitch

- It's been great on trips driving around Arizona and New England.

Now, I travel more than the average bear, but I'd say this particular gadget, more than an iPod or PDA, is the one that makes me wonder how I ever lived without it.
posted by gazole at 9:27 PM on May 6, 2007

Just an update for those who might be browsing the archives. I went with a Garmin StreetPilot 330, and I count it as one of the better purchases I've made. We're in our new town now, and we're never lost thanks to the GPS. Last time I moved to a new city, I remember wasting a bunch of time trying to find the local hardware store or whatever. Now I just plug the address into the GPS and the nice lady tells me how to get there. It recently made finding the Ikea in Montreal a snap, and that drive involved enough complicated navigation that I would have broken out in a sweat if I'd been trying to follow Mapquest/Google directions from a printout.
posted by nixxon at 5:12 PM on August 11, 2007

Thanks for the update! I'm in the market for a GPS device and was thinking of getting the same one, and I'm definitely getting that model now after all these positives reviews.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:12 PM on August 30, 2007