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Best cheap GPS?
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Lateralus
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Nov 21, 2011, 05:45 PM
 
I'm spending a lot more time in the car lately, and as much as I love road trips I'm at the point where not knowing precisely where I'm at or where I'm headed is a bit frustrating. In particular, I'm crossing into Mexico a lot lately and speak zero Spanish so they less often I have to stop and make attempts at asking for directions... the better.

I've had good experience with Garmin in the past, but that was years ago.

Any opinions on a good, basic GPS with maps of the US, Mexico and Canada?

Cheers folks.
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seanc
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Nov 21, 2011, 05:51 PM
 
Got an iPhone?
Garmin makes Navigon for the iPhone. Version 2 just released and it's nice.
You can now choose what maps you want to install, rather than downloading a 2GB+ update each time. I'd suggest you want to have an iPhone 4 or better. It occasionally stutters on my iPhone 3GS.
     
Lateralus  (op)
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Nov 21, 2011, 05:59 PM
 
Negative.

( Last edited by Lateralus; Nov 21, 2011 at 06:06 PM. )
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seanc
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Nov 21, 2011, 06:14 PM
 
Ah. That's definitely not an iPhone.
Guess your best option is for a standalone GPS unit then. I've paid no attention to the standalone units recently, but if Navigon on the iPhone is anything to judge the Garmin units by, then give those a look.
     
P
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Nov 21, 2011, 06:19 PM
 
My limited experience says the cheapest Garmin you can find. The more expensive ones have bigger displays and better instructions on which lane to be in in tricky intersections, but if you don't need that, the cheap ones are fine. Other brands I've tried tend to give you less maps in each chunk on the cheap ones - e.g. in Europe the base Garmin map is everything west of Russia, while most others seem to think that the Iron Curtain is still around.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
ghporter
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Nov 21, 2011, 08:56 PM
 
I second the suggestion for an inexpensive Garmin unit. It sounds like all you need is a basic map and your coordinates, so even a "close out" model should do you well.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
macforray
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Nov 21, 2011, 09:50 PM
 
I own two basic Garmin units and have used them all over the east coast. I have nothing but positive experiences using them. I thing the model number is Nuvi 265, the smaller screen size.
macforray
     
Lateralus  (op)
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Nov 21, 2011, 10:00 PM
 
Anything wrong with TomTom? I can barely find a Garmin for under a hundred, but there's a few TomToms.
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reader50
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Nov 22, 2011, 03:39 AM
 
TomTom, the one who tracks your unit and sells your tracking data to governments?

Dutch traffic cops use TomTom GPS data to nail speeders

I especially like TomTom's position when asked about this.
"Many of our customers are not happy," TomTom CEO Harold Goddjin told AD in a follow-up story. "We will therefore include in our license terms for this type of use in the future."
     
P
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Nov 22, 2011, 05:07 AM
 
That IS pretty damning, but the reason I picked Garmin when I bought mine was that TomTom sold either "Scandinavian" or "Europe 22" (basically the old western Europe), while Garmin included all of Europe west of Russia. More maps > fancy features, at least in my book.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Athens
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Nov 22, 2011, 02:28 PM
 
What I learned is you get what you pay for. I would go with a more expensive GPS model for reliability and seek out something with life time maps. A lot of the cheap ones do not give free map updates making the GPS useless in a couple years depending on how old its maps are already or costing you the price of a cheap GPS every 2 years when its time to update.

Ever since I started using TomTom on iPhone I never will go back to stand alone GPS units.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
   
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