What car gps should i get?

[thespeakerbox]

What should i get.

Do they run on cd's or harddrives or what?

Do you get charged for using gps? I thought it was free by law now.

So far the only brands i've really heard stuff about is Garmin and Tom Tom. Anyone have either?

I think i should go with Dash Nav. Im sure in dash is more money and has greater risk of theft.

 

[MazerRackham]

Garmin Garmin Garmin. I have the Garmin c530 and I love it. The Nuvi models are also great. I had a Magellan 3050T and it absolutely sucked. Never used a TomTom.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I dunno what you mean by running on CDs but there are non-charge ones.

 

[imported_Mike]

dash nav or installed nav?

 

[LS20]

they run off internal memory , though some take expansion slots. satellite signals are completely free. what you pay for is Traffic information (on those rare units that does support it)... and thats optional.

and yes, you do want to stick with garmin (nuvi series) or tomtom

 

[InverseOfNeo]

I have the Garmin c320 and I like it a lot. Good unit.

 

[brtspears2]

I like my in dash nav, Pioneer AVIC-N3. I just don't like the small screens of portable/dash nav systems, and all the extra wires hanging around.

 

[Jinru]

 

[theslickvik]

Garmin Nuvi line is just awesome. I have the 350 and it is great in both rural and urban settings.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: brtspears2
I like my in dash nav, Pioneer AVIC-N3. I just don't like the small screens of portable/dash nav systems, and all the extra wires hanging around.

AVIC-Z1 + Bluetooh + Steering Wheel Remote FTW!

 

[kranky]

We got a Garmin C330 and for the money ($328 at walmart.com) I thought it was a good value. If I drove all over the place frequently I'd probably want something with more features, but the C330 has everything I wanted. You can upload your own points of interest if you want, gives voice directions (but not including street names - that was a more expensive model), recalculates routes on the fly if you want to detour, screen is bright.

 

[Adam8281]

I have a Lowrance iWay 500c and I love it. You can get these for probably between $400 and $500 now. It has a great 5" screen (which really is helpful when you are driving in a city and don't want to decipher what's on a smaller screen), 20GB HDD for storing mp3s (the device plays them back through your car stereo), voice, and all the other things that have become standard. Here is CNET's review of it; they gave it an 8.6

 

[Scarpozzi]

I vote Garmin. Don't screw around with low-end companies. My Magellan Roadmate works, but I wish I had waited a year to buy a better brand. They don't support the products they make b/c the system is made from another company and rebadged. Get one that can guarantee you updated maps every year.