Which in car GPS to buy? (1 Viewer)

[Graney]

Anyone used one? Easy, fast, efficient? Worth the money?

What are the best brands, models? Is it possible to get a decent unit for under $200?

 

[sunny]

http://community.boredofstudies.org/showthread.php?t=174535

 

[Graney]

http://community.boredofstudies.org/showthread.php?t=174535

Fuck I fail.

In my defence, why does Typing "GPS" into search give no results found?

 

[fjnpenguin]

TOM TOM's are the best

 

[jumb]

On this topic, I was thinking of trying to get one from US or somewhere while the AU dollar is stronger, anyone know any sites?

 

[Pace_T]

Anyone used one? Easy, fast, efficient? Worth the money?

What are the best brands, models? Is it possible to get a decent unit for under $200?

nope.
$200 will buy you a shit one. $300 will get you good value..
i have a navman but the tom tom v3 is better for the same price.

 

[breaking]

i had a tomtom one xl which was fairly fucking great

 

[kokodamonkey]

i use my NOKIA N95. Does the job

 

[Graney]

I assumed they'd come pre-loaded with all fixed speed camera locations, and the option of warning you when approaching one?

 

[iamsickofyear12]

Anyone used one? Easy, fast, efficient? Worth the money?

What are the best brands, models? Is it possible to get a decent unit for under $200?

If you are going somewhere completely unfamiliar they are helpful. If you are going somewhere you are familiar with but are just not sure exactly where the street is they are pretty useless... a map will work just as well if not better.

I think they take you the shortest way, not the fastest way, and sometimes they say stupid things. I had one tell me to turn right once where you weren't allowed to turn right.

I don't think they are worth the money... my 5 year old UBD is just as effective.

 

[xeuyrawp]

Fuck I fail.

In my defence, why does Typing "GPS" into search give no results found?

It's too short a search string.

 

[Riet]

I don't think they are worth the money... my 5 year old UBD is just as effective.

Seriously, using a street directory isn't took hard. Usually when I drive somewhere I don't know I look at the map and memorise the important bits, then just keep it open and check how you're progressing at traffic lights and such. I mean, if you have a passenger a street directory is better than GPS. The pathfinding can't match a human brain just yet.

 

[Nashie]

tomtom 1XLs rock
my parents can even use it and now my sister has stolen it!

 

[Hakz]

buy a nokia 6110 navigator, the tru nokia navigator + a mobile phone in 1.

 

[sunny]

If you are going somewhere completely unfamiliar they are helpful. If you are going somewhere you are familiar with but are just not sure exactly where the street is they are pretty useless... a map will work just as well if not better.

qtf. More often than not I only need directions to get from one suburb to another when I don't know the route to get there, but once I'm in the general area I have my own preferred route.

I think they take you the shortest way, not the fastest way, and sometimes they say stupid things. I had one tell me to turn right once where you weren't allowed to turn right.

Most units have options to set things like doing the fastest, shortest, simplest or economical route. As for weird things, its more a mistake on the map makers part, its fairly rare and only gets better with each release of a map.

I don't think they are worth the money... my 5 year old UBD is just as effective.

Can't carry UBDs for each city I go to

 

[iamsickofyear12]

Most units have options to set things like doing the fastest, shortest, simplest or economical route. As for weird things, its more a mistake on the map makers part, its fairly rare and only gets better with each release of a map.

I can work out the shortest, simplest and fastest routes by looking at a street directory, and I am not so sure how effective the fastest option is. I am pretty sure I would beat a GPS with a street directory most of the time within the area I am familiar with and where I do 95% of my driving.

Once I used a GPS to get to somewhere fairly far away that I wasn't really familiar with and the route it worked out was so slow that I made it back faster just by looking at signs and making educated guesses about what turns to take before I made it back to a road I had been on before.

Can't carry UBDs for each city I go to

I see how that would be beneficial, but I only need to know my way around 1 city.

 

[wrong_turn]

i work at strathfield car radios...

tom tom models tend to be a faster in re-calculating routes and start ups for a new entry. however they tend to be more pricey and also they have a disadvantage of poor map display which gets confusing to some new users.

navmans have the advantage of a better map display with a 2 year warranty however its re-calculation and its start up for new entries is slower than the tom tom.
the base model also has speed and traffic light camera notifications and is cheaper than the tom tom.

if you were after text to speech as well then you would be better off getting one of the navmans since they start at a much lower price for bluetooth hands free and also for text to speech.

 

[bawd]

You've just missed out on the TomTom deal where you get the free map upgrade >_<

Yeah, my family got that. Woo Hoo! We got a Tom Tom 720, btw. Very good and efficient.