So I do a ton of driving in areas that I am not familiar with in my new job. I am also not always near internet, and rarely do I have an ability to print off maps. I know I need a nav system for my car, but there are so many brands and models, I don't know which ones are good or not.

Does anyone have a nav system in their vehicle? What brands should I stay away from? Which ones have the most value?

Upon returning back to the states, my Father-in-law gave us a Magellan Maestro 4040. I've only used it around town, to learn it's features; but I'll be using it when I drive to Oregon in a couple of weeks.

The setup was easy; I've updated the firmware; and AAA members can upload numerous map updates. It has voice directions and shows me where all of the Starbucks are!

So far, in my limited use, no issues.

My wife got a cheapie Magellan this Christmas. (3100, I think - but I don't want to run out to the car to check.) One thing you want to check out before you buy - find out how many free map updates you are entitled to. We only get one, and only within the first year, then you have to buy a (pretty expensive) update if you need fresh maps. We built our house over 3 years ago, and by some snafu, our address still isn't listed on most of these GPS devices (I often check when I see them on display), so the updates are important. Also - look for one where you can input addresses using your computer. Ours won't do it.

Hope that helps.

I run a Garmin GPs on muy bike- if that is what you are asking about? Not cheap- but danged it if dont' work (mostly)- though it did turn me down the wrong road in rural Canada not too long ago!

I bought myself a Mio C220 for about $149.99 (and later price matched it at $99.99).

http://www.mio.com/us/gps-navigation-products.htm

Most of the GPS units are pretty expensive. Many come with needless features, like media players and picture viewers. I guess if you're into that stuff, that's cool, but then don't go with a Mio.

It comes with no updates, but in my case, was purchased at about 68% less than the competitive Magellan or Tom Tom units. (TomTom has one cool feature I DO like, which is that you can get the voice of John Cleese giving you directions for a nominal extra fee). But I've been very impressed with the accuracy of the Mio. Sometimes I'd take a different route than what it suggests if I already knew where I was going, but it's not like it takes me off course or would take any longer.

I've found addresses that didn't exist in the database "yet", but because stores open on the same street or road, it still gets you pretty close. It's not often that I go to an address that hasn't existed for a year, and that seems to be the threshold.

If you're looking to stay relatively inexpensive, I'd highly suggest the Mio. It comes with a windshield suction, a dash plate (in case you want to suction to the dash), and a snap in holder for your unit. The snap in unit replacement is 5 bucks, which is pretty reasonable. It also came with a CD, and a car charger. I can also program in where speed and red-light cameras are, so it warns me as I approach them.

The ONE negative I've found so far on the unit is that the internal battery life gets shot. Maybe it's because I live in the desert and it cooks at 160 degrees on any given day, but I'm kind of to the point where if it's not plugged in, I get about 5 minutes of life until I do plug it in. No replacement that I know of, but they do have a service center. Meh.

All in all, the value is there, and I'm thrilled with it.


Edited to add:

Ha. Actually in researching this, I stumbled across Mio's availability to update maps and voices.
Here's the link. But FWIW, I've never updated it and still find it to be a terrific value!

Apparently when you add a speed cam on your personal MIO, it uploads it to a database when you update, so that everyone who updates gets that info! Sweet!
I know what I'll be doing tomorrow, tho...

We <3 our Tom Tom 720. It's never gotten me lost (like my TeleNav on my Blackberry) or tried to talk me into driving off a cliff onto the next road like my Father-In-Law's Nuvi did in Branson, Missouri. I especially like the ability for users to make updates. So if a road has been changed (like in NJ by my mother's house) I can make the change and next time it's there. It comes with a few features I don't need like an MP3 player, audiobook reader and honestly the hands free bluetooth isn't very good. However I didn't buy it for that, I bought it to get places and it does and excellent job of that. Plus there's something fun about having John Cleese tell me how to get places.

I've got a Nokia N95 phone as part of my cellular contract, and as shipped it comes with Nokia Maps. (Several other Nokia models have the same feature.)

You can upgrade this to give full navigation functionality - I don't know what the North America maps would cost, but a three year Western Europe licence was about $120.

This works fine for me - the screen is sufficiently large to be useful, and the voice directions are loud enough to be audible in a car or van (I've used it in both).

Being a cellphone, it's also portable enough that you can carry it around with you and use it in any vehicle you happen to be in, whether or not you're driving. You can even use it for journeys on foot (though it is road based so wouldn't be muchuse for hiking or mountain biking - the sat nav would work, but would just show you in an expanse of green with no landmarks or labels).

Also, because it's my cellphone, I don't leave it in the car; lots of car break-ins in the UK are for sat nav systems. And unlike dedicated sat nav systems, it's also a pretty cool phone!

On the downside, the most up to date maps are not preloaded but are downloaded on the fly using a data connection to your cellphone provider, so to work best you need to be within cellular coverage most of the time and your contract should ideally give you a decent amount of data usage inclusively - it tends to cost more when you go over your contract limits or if you use pay as you go.

Also, while you can make and receive calls while you're in sat nav mode, you'll need to do this through a headset or car kit that uses a Bluetooth connection, so you'll need that kind of peripheral. A simple Bluetooth headset is probably the cheapest and easiest option. You'll also need a phone charger cable that you can plug into the cigar lighter socket in your vehicle - the display needs to be fully lit all the time, and it needs to send & receive packet data, so it'll only last an our or so if you're running off the battery alone.

A slightly off-beam solution which may or may not work for you, but something to bear in mind.

Baphomets:

You read my third paragraph, and threw that in there just to make me jealous.



It worked...