yaGPSt

[amol]

I'm going to start driving in a new city soon and was wondering what's a good budget GPS that has:
1)Big screen (I've driven with GPS before and whenever I'm at a stoplight/place to look at the screen, I like to take visual cues)
2)Good speech/volume, maybe even with street names (for times when my eyes need to be on the road)
3)Healthy number of POIs
4)Free/cheap updated maps

Things that'd be an added bonus:
1)Lane guidance, particularly on highways
2)Traffic/nearby utilities (e.g. gas stations), but if they cost a subscription fee, I'm not interested.

Things I do not need:
1)Bluetooth ... the car already has it and I'm sure I won't be using the GPS for every little short trip I make...
2)MP3 player ... have an iPod Touch and the car has an AUX port.

Basically, a GPS that has these things for sub-$200.

I've done some research and found the Garmin 255W, TomTom XL 340-S and Magellan Roadmate 1440 at around the same prices. Does anyone have suggestions on these? Most of my driving will be city driving ...

 

[amol]

bump...

I was going to go to a store today and try these models out, but the company shipping my car cross-country came a day early (can't complain, can I?). No car for the next few days, so any suggestions for the time-being would be great!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm a very new GPS user, but I tried out Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan in the store and the Garmin seemed like the best option to me.

I bought a 255W from dell a few weeks ago and I like it a lot.
My Mom was in the car with me since then and after seeing it in action wanted one too, so another one is in the mail to her place (about $163 shipped?).

You probably know this from research, but (from your original list)
1. It has a pretty decent screen size
2. Volume at 70% sounds pretty good. Louder than that and it's pretty distorted. If you drive with the windows down or listen to music at mid-to-high volumes, then hearing the 255W over it is probably going to be an issue? It does to street names well from my experience.
3. I haven't done a whole lot of POI usage, but it's found almost everything I've tried so far.
4. This I'm not so sure about.

No lane guidance
No traffic, but gas stations are programmed in as POI

 

[amol]

So I went to a store today and tested the 3 systems ... the TomTom was very disappointing compared to the Garmin and Magellan, mostly in navigating menus.

I actually liked the Magellan Roadmate 1440 over the Garmin Nuvi 255W, but I've noticed that Garmin devices are much more popular than Magellans. Can anyone who has a Magellan Roadmate comment on how it holds up?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Good deals at dell right now on them btw (front page of SD)