What's a good GPS system to get?

I have the Lowrance iWay 500c, and love it!

PROS:
Big bright 5" screen, brighter than the built-in 7" MFD
More features, better navigation than the built-in Prius NAV
Highly configurable with skins. Download more, or edit existing ones {XML)
It's an MP3 player too! Has a whopping 10GB of MP3 storage. I've wired it to the Prius stereo.

CONS:
Bulky ('cos of the big 20GB hard drive)
Doesn't have bluetooth or voice recognition

And It's now priced under $500.

My wife has the built-in NAV in her 2005 Prius, but I prefer the external iWay.

 

Count me amoung the fans of a portable nav system. It's a lot cheaper, and I believe that mapping is better. The companies that are selling stand alone GPS systems are competing hard on map accuracy and software. These are not core issues for Toyota. In addition to the maps being better, the updates are more frequent (yearly for Garmin) and less expensive.

That said; the only systems I have used have been Garmin. I believe they have the best map data base, but I have no basis for comparison.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(artttom @ Dec 3 2006, 01:29 PM) [snapback]357011[/snapback]</div>

Aside from cost, the only negative I have heard is with the toyota factory system you have to stop in order to program. Maybe less safe if the driver is operating the GPS, but we search for addresses, gas, etc while we're moving.

The aftermarket is a better value - for the reasons mentioned by the others.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Dec 4 2006, 01:49 PM) [snapback]357437[/snapback]</div>

Correct. It is WAAS but not SiRF III.....

I bought mine from Costco.com for 269 with free shipping. For what you get, I think it's the best value available right now. Certainly less features then some, but for a nice easy to use touch screen system, I've been very happy.

 

I ordered a Garmin C330 from walmart.com ($320+$6 s+h) for my wife for xmas. After it arrived and I opened the box for a sneek peek, I was surprised at how small it was (I know I should have known from specs, but just didn't hit me til I saw it)

So now I'm worried that it is too small to use and especially to see. My wife needs reading glasses for reading, sewing, etc, but does not need glasses for driving, watching TV, using the computer. I read the other posts and the small screen did not come up so I assume it's not a problem.

I picked the C330 because I heard good things about Garmin and it was the cheapest one that had the whole US map preloaded. I hope it will works for her - it will be so useful on her job and she's avoided buying one for herself becuase she thinks they are too expensive which is why this would be a great gift for her -- if she can see it well enough to use it.

 

My GPS is a Garmin Streetpilot c530 which is an update to the c330 & c340 series.

Basic difference is that it picks up the satellite signals faster (usually less than 10 seconds) and has a brighter screen.

You can find this model on the web around $400, not much more than the c300 series.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Nov 29 2006, 01:42 PM) [snapback]355375[/snapback]</div>

I've got 3 Tom Tom's, they are great. Just got the 510, blue tooth and nicer screen than 300 series. They changed the market a couple years ago, brought touch screen to the forefront and brought down the price, so many similar products to choose from now.

 

Are any of these GPS units designed to be hard wired? My dashboard was maliciously damaged by a valet parking attendant. The Dashmat doesn't work for me. I want to cover the scratch, so I am considering a permanently mounted GPS. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(QuadAces @ Dec 4 2006, 12:29 PM) [snapback]357542[/snapback]</div>

Given the choice of a c320 vs a c330, I'd always choose the c320. Besides saving yourself about $25 by buying your own 1GB flash memory card and loading the maps yourself (1GB holds all of USA and Canada), the c320 comes with the map DVD while the c330 does not. If you want to use the maps on your PC, that's a $75 value that you get with the c320 that you don't get with the c330.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Dec 9 2006, 07:25 PM) [snapback]359937[/snapback]</div>

I'm frugal and agree with the choice of a 320 over a 330, however if you are a Mac user you are up a creek with most GPS units because the GPS manufacturers seem to think that loading maps onto a unit is a platform specific issue and as such have not given much thought to providing interface packages for both Mac and Windows. So, if you are a Mac user any flash ram based, partially loaded unit is something you aren't going to be able to use.

Garmin keeps telling us that they are going to support the Mac with their newest products, but I'm not in the market for a new GPS and as such didn't have that option available to me when I was in the market thus preventing me from choosing the flash option over the hard drive option.

That is just my gripe over how the GPS industry works as a whole. But no matter, any unit in the Garmin C series is very well thought out and work very well.

 

costco has magellan 6000t for $499 today:. 3050T for $399. Costco has pretty good return policy so it doesn't hurt to try it.

 

I also bought the 320. One primary reason was that there was no hard drive in it to fail in the future... and as others have said, an SD card will give you all of the maps ...


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Dec 9 2006, 10:25 PM) [snapback]359937[/snapback]</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jeromep @ Dec 10 2006, 09:21 AM) [snapback]359990[/snapback]</div>

According to Garmin at January 2006's Macworld conference, they announced Mac support for their products to be available sometime in 2006.

However, I'm dubious as their latest update about 2 weeks ago had no Mac formatting capability. The Mac community is still waiting! :blink: