Do you use a GPS? huh, huh, well do you

[xlr82v2]

I've got a Garmin eTrex Legend Cx... the one with the expandable memory. I put a 2GB memory chip in it, and then loaded all of City Navigator into it. I now have all of North America in it including Puerto Rico and Alaska. Best of all, it fits in your shirt pocket. I love it.

I fly jets for a living, and it comes in really handy when I'm stuck out on the road somewhere unfamiliar... great for finding a good restaurant to go to.

We also navigate primarily with GPS in the airplanes as well (Universal FMS).

 

[PineRidge]

I've got a Garmin eTrex Legend Cx... the one with the expandable memory. I put a 2GB memory chip in it, and then loaded all of City Navigator into it. I now have all of North America in it including Puerto Rico and Alaska. Best of all, it fits in your shirt pocket. I love it.

I fly jets for a living, and it comes in really handy when I'm stuck out on the road somewhere unfamiliar... great for finding a good restaurant to go to.

We also navigate primarily with GPS in the airplanes as well (Universal FMS).

Brian City Navigator came with my unit on CD. Does this CD just give you a better picture of the area in which you drive most or what? Haven't opened mine yet.

I have also considered purchasing a 2 Gig SD card to load MP3 files.

The Garmin transmits music to the car stereo and when it needs to give a direction it 1st mutes the music.

 

[jinman]

I've got a Garmin eTrex Legend Cx... the one with the expandable memory. I put a 2GB memory chip in it, and then loaded all of City Navigator into it. I now have all of North America in it including Puerto Rico and Alaska. Best of all, it fits in your shirt pocket. I love it.

I fly jets for a living, and it comes in really handy when I'm stuck out on the road somewhere unfamiliar... great for finding a good restaurant to go to.

We also navigate primarily with GPS in the airplanes as well (Universal FMS).

I'm not a pilot, but I build multimedia ground schools for them.I have the Garmin GPSMap CX. I bought a 1Gb chip and it allows me to load 1/2 of North America and all the routes I need. It doesn't have voice prompts for turns, but the screen flashes and it's hard to miss when it wants your attention. My favorite use is when I am on a back country road. I can look at the GPS and see where I need to go to get onto a main highway. Recently, I was in a new country development near my home in Texas and it had no streets. It did show my direction and I was able to easily navigate out in the direction I wanted.I like the Mapsource software loaded onto a laptop. The GPS will show you where you are and the maps on a big laptop screen give you lots of options. You can use the computer to find all kinds of details in towns far away much easier than using the GPS in my opinion. Neither work that well with one hand and one eye while driving.

 

[PineRidge]

Neither work that well with one hand and one eye while driving.

Jim the 1st time the Garmin was placed on the dash it was pretty distracting. Now I find it's easier and safer to listen to the voice prompts and not look at the screen unless really needed.

 

[xlr82v2]

Pine Ridge,

Yep, you Garmin has a basic "basemap" built into it's memory... but it is very lacking in detail, and has only the major roads in it. By loading City Navigator, it will have every street, alley, dusty trail, etc, and lots of information about local businesses, banks, atm's, hospitals, etc right there.

For example, let's say you're out on a Sunday drive, going to parts unknown (which is really fun to do with the GPS, since you always will know exactly where you are) and you and the wife decide it's time to get something to eat... you have the unit search for restaurants, and it will come up with a list of the nearest 50 or so restaurants to your location, along with addresses and phone numbers, and what type of restaurant it is. Find one that sounds good, tell the unit to "Go To"... and it will take you right to the front door of the establishment. It's really pretty slick! Don't tell the wife, but it will do the same thing with shopping centers too . The down side (and it's usually not much of one) is that the information is only as current as your release of the software... as things change with time, you have to get the latest update to keep your database "current"... kinda like using a 1975 road atlas to navigate with today. I'd say you could probaby go 3, maybe 4 years between updates without too much hassle. (on the airplanes, we update them every 28 days )

 

[xlr82v2]

Jinman, you wouldn't happen to work for CAE would you?

 

[PineRidge]

Pine Ridge,

Yep, you Garmin has a basic "basemap" built into it's memory... but it is very lacking in detail, and has only the major roads in it. By loading City Navigator, it will have every street, alley, dusty trail, etc, and lots of information about local businesses, banks, atm's, hospitals, etc right there.

For example, let's say you're out on a Sunday drive, going to parts unknown (which is really fun to do with the GPS, since you always will know exactly where you are) and you and the wife decide it's time to get something to eat... you have the unit search for restaurants, and it will come up with a list of the nearest 50 or so restaurants to your location, along with addresses and phone numbers, and what type of restaurant it is. Find one that sounds good, tell the unit to "Go To"... and it will take you right to the front door of the establishment. It's really pretty slick! Don't tell the wife, but it will do the same thing with shopping centers too . The down side (and it's usually not much of one) is that the information is only as current as your release of the software... as things change with time, you have to get the latest update to keep your database "current"... kinda like using a 1975 road atlas to navigate with today. I'd say you could probaby go 3, maybe 4 years between updates without too much hassle. (on the airplanes, we update them every 28 days )

Brian is the idea to load in the entire USA, or only the states in which I might travel? The reason I ask this is that I don't know how much memory the City Navigator might take.

 

[MossRoad]

Last Sunday I drove from Indiana to the Boston area, stayed a week for training, then drove home last night. All I did was read a couple maps the day before I left, memorized the route, and I didn't have to look at anything along the way.... howeverrrrrrr, while I was sitting on the highway stuck in traffic and saw what seemed to be every other car exiting the highway and most of them had a GPS unit on the dash, I thought to myself, "at times like this, I bet that would be handy to find an alternate route."

So, my question is, what is the most bang for the buck? I cannot afford a $600.00 GPS unit for the few times I would use it. What units have the most features for the least money?

 

[Redbug]

I have the Garmin NUVI 650. After having one, I do not think I could be without one. And it's all because of TBN! I had never seen one in action before...until I met SCDolphin, (who has a NUVI 660). I saw the wonderful things they can do and ordered one for myself. No more getting lost. I use it constantly. It's fun driving along and seeing a lake on the Garmin that you cannot see from the road and knowing one is there. I named mine Sally, (that was before I discovered you could change the speech to another type that really does have a name). TBN and SCDolphin have a way of making me spend more money.

 

[YanmarFever]

We got a garmin for our tractor deliveries, it works great.

Some peoples jaw hits the floor when we show up at their driveway with truck, trailer and tractor without them giving us directions.(mostly the older folks)
And they thought they lived out in the toolies (sp)