Anyone using a portable GPS mapping unit in their car?

I am using a Garmin 2620 unit, and cannot say enough good things about it. It rarely loses a signal. It also is completely portable so you can use one unit in multiple cars, and has a neat "bean bag" mount that sits on the dash. I little pricey @ $1100 but certainly cheaper than the factory Nav Pkg.

 

I use the Garmin 2610 in my car, which is basically the same thing, and I'm very, very happy with it.

With a single 512mb CF card, I can hold the entire west coast of north america (my prime driving area). If I was to invest in a 2gb CF card, it could hold everything in north america.

Cheaper than factory nav, better software, arguably better maps, and you can take it with you! A good deal!

Dave

 

i posted info on a friend of mine who just bought trip software that came with a delorme GPS tracker. he got it at costco for 89 bucks and we spent a few hours driving around playing with it and it worked great.

the receiver has a USB interface and the install was flawless. also i must say it was a lot nicer looking at a map on a 12" screen verses the Prius screen. it also had audio turn by turn options, etc.

i had a another friend who just bought MS streets and trips for something like $20 and its supposed to have GPS support, was gonna test the delorme with it too but havent been able to coordinate anything as of yet. in fact, i think the guy is out of town... vacation maybe...

 

I do GeoGaching (my 3 GPSr including Prius: http://newts.org/gallery/Geocaching/aao) and been playing with GPS since about '98. The prius is the only one with real maps and while the Garmin and other navigation units for cars probably have better features and performance I think it is still better to have the system integrated with the car:

1. A laptop has better resolution but having a decently large screen on the dash is much less distracting to glance at while driving.

2. I suspect a portable GPS might have better performance but the car speedometer signal and gyros should work better in poor GPS conditions and tunnels.

3. The touch screen, steering wheel controls and voice commands are all real nice and better than buttons or laptop.

4. Having the voice on the stereo system makes it quite easy to hear instead of a seperate device competing with the stereo on a small speaker.

jv

 

newts....

great points you brought up but it doesnt address people who bought their car without the maxi pak and want some sort of nav system.

the one we tested was easy. we plugged in 5 destinations all at once. and just to test it, we strayed from the path. there was a feature called "smart detour" (or something like that...detour was part of the title) where if you wanted to stray off the path, you push a button and the audio alert wouldnt keep trying to get you back on the right course. i believe it was the function key.

i really cant say a lot about it since i only had one afternoon with it. but i thought it was very easy to use and it was perfect in giving directions. we never had any signal issues or anything like that.

according to the box, it has 4 million preprogrammed destinations loaded. didnt see anything unusual and if it works with any mapping software, then updates can be had for cheap. and its portable. just need a laptop or smart phone (didnt test that part of it)

 

I'll make this quick - check out this web site [ TOMTOM Web Site which describes the companies products and the one I purchased is the TomTom Go Plus. It is very well designed and is intuitive in it's operation. It has received excellent reviews. It costs $1,000 list but you can get it for as low as $800 on the internet. Now I purchased it even though I have the navigation system in my Prius because I wanted it for traveling which I do frequently. I've played with it for a couple of days and it is very easy to use (unlike the Prius system which, although very functional, is not very intuitive) and has a wide range of features. You can get full maps for US & Canada and you can add additional maps for Europe. I'm going on a trip to San Diego in a couple of days and will be using it steadily for about 10 days and will post when I come back.

 

I have been using TOM TOM Navigator software in my Pocket PC PDA for at least 2 years, already in my previous car, and I can recommend it heartily. So I decided to keep it in my Prius. Excellent tool!
(My) current version is 3.03. With newer versions of the package you can select now a GPS receiver which has Bluetooth connection. Some PDA's even have a GPS receiver built-in.

In the November 30, 2004 issue of PC Magazine the Tom Tom GO GPS system was Editor's choice, as the easiest-to-use in-car GPS system they had ever reviewed, which "delivered ease of use, accuracy, a great display, and superior sound rolled up into one slick package" .

It makes me proud that this product originates from Amsterdam, The Netherlands (my country).

 

I have the Garmin iQue and like it. It is not for Mac users unless you are into a bit of work. The other bit is that the battery life is short when not plugged in so it is not a great hand held Nav unit, at least not for continuous use. PDA function battery life is OK, until the GPS is turned on. Navigation works quite well at lest it has gotten me there. The data base is good. I still use it when I am out of town.

 

I have operated my MS streets and maps 2005 w/Pharos GPS in Prius and even at 35K feet in commerical aircraft and find it works very well--better than any handheld system I have tried. It connects to and receives power from a portable PC via USB. Seeing output on a portable PC screen is a lot easier than on handheld unit.
--now if someone can help me connect the output to the Prius screen I would be really happy.

 

Spent a great deal of research before I selected the Garmin 2620. Was able to upgrade the unit software on-line from Garmin free. Not to be confused with the MapSource mapping software which covers entire North America, Canada and Puerto Rico. Comes with both the "bean bag" mount and a more solid dash mount. While I have no experience with it, so far, off Vancouver Island it has shown to contain very great detail here, including the major logging roads and found my son's house address in a relatively new sub-division up island.

 

I recently purchased the Garmin iQue 3600 and car kit. It's a combination PDA and GPS all in one compact unit. With the bean bag car mount, it works great and stays charged. The voice announcements are clear and timely. The nice thing about it is that you can move it from car to car; the downside, compared to the factory nav, is that the screen is smaller so you have to make sure you put it in a good spot to be able to see the screen. I open the door under the CD player and put the bean bag mount there. Even if you can't see the screen(or have your eyes on the road as you should), the voice(female) will guide you through the turns. It uses the familiar SD memory cards for the map database; I got most of the East Coast on a 512mg card. You also have a really nice full function PDA with Palm OS 5; so when you are not navigating, you have your address book, date book, etc. with you as well. I paid about $475(Amazon) for the 3600, including the car kit.

 

I've been using delorme GPS tracker for years, i use it a lot for work. the program runs on my laptop, so the screen is very easy to read, the USB receiver sits on my dash. The point of interest is over 4 million(POI) it will provide you with door to door nav to any where in the continental US and main routes in Canada. cost, about $100 US

 

We used the MS Streets and Trips with GPS, bought from Amazon for $89, on a 7000 mile trip from Roy, Washington to NJ, VA, NC and return. Used a 15 inch screen laptop (works also on PDA). Absolutely flawless operation. Updated via net before trip and it included all road repairs, each proved to be correct. Very up to date with restaurants, sv stations, and motels.

Bob

 

update from my friend with the MS program. he bought it for $34.99 and it came with a $20 mail-in rebate. we tried it with the Delorme and it started working immediately. no setup, nothing... couldnt have been any easier.

 

I use MAPOPOLIS software in my Toshiba e755 Pocket PC PDA. I also have a compact flash GPS. Stick a 2"x2" piece of velcro on the dash right above and in front of the steering wheel. Stick your GPS there and the column's plastic helps support it and its as close as you get it to your eyes. I get perfect GPS reception with this setup except in urban, high rise areas.
If you already have a PDA you only spend $120 for the CF GPS card nd $100 for the software (TOMTOM was my second choice).
OH and definitely by a BELKIN FM RF sender for $30. This sends the PDA voice commands to my FM radio and is much easier to hear then the half inch speaker in my PDA.
2004 with 24k miles.

 

I've had good results with the relatively new Garmin Quest. It has enough memory to hold all the detail (tons of POI, and street level for most of the route) I needed for a trip from the Wash DC area to New Orleans, across some of the Gulf Coast, up to Talahassee and back home again. It also gives voice directions through a little speaker attached to the lighter adapter and rests in charging cradle which uses a suction cup to hang on to the windshield.

I did have to pick and choose a little bit and which stretches I was willing to do without the street level detail but that's only because it was such an extensive trip. If I had gone straight to NO and back or to FL and back I could pack every side street along the way into the device. I haven't had my '05 #6 long enough to make a definitive comparison with the on board Nav (my '04 didn't have it, hence the portable) but the portable seems to have more POI and I find the interface easier to use. Plus I can override the "safety" feature and use it while driving.

The best feature by far is the bang for the buck when compared to other more traditional GPS units; I got mine as a preorder when they came out last year for about $500.

 

I purchased a Magellan 700 and am thoroughly satisfied. It's a unit that commercially is called "Neverlost" in a lot of rental car fleets. It's a little pricey but it's portable and I can take it from car to car and from state to state as it has maps for the entire US on its hard-drive.

Plus, there's a clever suction mount available that I attach to the rear cup holder lid on the center console ... plus the power into the center console outlet and it looks quite integrated ... and easy to reach.

I believe there are a couple of other cheaper models if you don't need the entire US.

Good luck.

-- Mike

 

Well as I posted earlier I used the TomTom unit on our trip to San Diego and Phoenix and it was great. I do have some comments that I will be sending to the manufacturer but nothing of great significance - I will post those comments here when I send them to TomTom. In brief, the unit is very easy to use and the greatest benefit we gained was when we were antique shopping in San Diego and were going to various locations in the city as we were instructed (by address or by intersection) and it was fantastic. Never got lost and were able to backtrack when necessary and eventually find our way home to where we were staying. The ability to trek around a city we were not familliar with without having to resort to a map and dynamically change our route as we were inspired is fantastic. Presentation on screen which uses an optional 3D format was interesting although I think I prefer the 2D layout better. The most interesting feature was the way it zoomed in automatically as you approached a turn and then zoomed back out as you continued on your path. THis is a necessity because of the smaller screen size as compared to the Prius navigation system which presents a split screen as you approach a turn.