Sporty's reduces Garmin pricing

[silver-eagle]

the thing that makes any GPS IFR certified is that the the installation is certified. namely the antenna location is set to always get a good signal, and the wiring is high grade, I think. No way a handheld will ever get certified, IMO.

I understand this. Considering the permanent (read PANEL) installation I saw in a C172, the antennae is fixed to the hull, the power and antennae connections are wired into the [panel-mount] system, only the 396 is removable. Wouldn't something like that qualify as certifiable.
It's about time the FAA got with technology. There's no reason it shouldn't be certifiable except for the FAA's "head in the sand" approach.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Well.................. I was almost mentally prepared (by that I mean I had nearly completed the rationalization) to purchase a new 396 when they were $2200. Now the dilemma is, for a mere $200 more than I couldn't afford to spend on the 396 I can get a 496. So, for anybody that has used both............ is the 496 that much better? Or, should I save the difference for fuel for my 2 day flight to MI?

Sheri,

Like most things... It depends.

Here's why I personally would want a 496 instead of a 396:

1) Car functionality. The 496 includes the car kit ($200 option for the 396). It also has the full US automotive database built in, whereas the 396 requires you to plug it into a computer and load maps for the specific area you'll be traveling in.

2) AOPA airport directory. Doesn't sound like much, but let's say you need to divert. You're equidistant from three airports you've never even heard of. ONE of them has an open FBO and two nearby hotels that will shuttle you. Do you land at one and hope the weather holds out long enough to get to the second (or third) when you find out there's not even a building at the first? Or do you pick the right one the first time? At OSH last year, I'd just gotten done flying to CAD where I don't know the area well, and I looked at that info on the 496 and that darn near sold me right there.

3) SafeTaxi is cool when you're at an unfamiliar airport.

4) 5Hz updates instead of 1Hz. MUCH improved, nice and smooth, and would make the panel-page functionality much more useful in a bad situation.

The first two are the biggies that sold me on the 496... Esp. 'cuz the price difference is a lot smaller once you consider the auto kit for the 396 (which I'd want for getting places once I land somewhere else.)

Hope this helps,

Kent

 

[wsuffa]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to pricing now that the Supreme Court has weighed in on manufacturer's minimum pricing. I predict that there will be a significant decrease in the discounts that are available from the online/mail order houses.

 

[N6399A]

Thanks Troy and Kent I'm sold ........... So, since Garmin just dropped the prices do you think they will still be discounted at OSH? It's my understanding that stuff like that is sometimes 10% off there, but since they just reduced them I wonder if I'll save that much by waiting till I get there?

 

[mikea]

I just decided I really need a GPS for the car (lots of out of the way places) and I just had an opportunity to fly in a plane equiped with a 396 and XM weather. So the dilema I have is a 396/496 or just an Auto GPS. This puts my budget around $500-800. So any GOOD used, well equiped garmins out there?
The 396 was panel mounted. Nice setup. If you didn't know it was portable, you'd have sworn it belonged there.
Too bad the portables aren't IFR/Approach certified. Hmmmm.... could THIS be what the 596 is all about?

Unless the 596 finally incorporates all of the features of the current Garmin land GPS line - touch screen, speaking street names, etc. - I'd get a Nuvi for the car.

I just started using the cell speaker phone feature on my Nuvi 660 and I'm loving it. The Nuvi makes my aggravating Windows Mobile phone usable in the car for once. I only wish it had a mute button. I figured the cell speaker feature was worth $100 by itself and I was right. It's worth that and more.

The Nuvi has a usable MP3 player and other features, too.

The only one that's silly to me is the ability to send the audio to your FM radio. You have to tune to an unused FM station. Who listens to an unused station? OK, that would work well if you use the Nuvi to play music or an audio book. I don't. I have an iPod.

The Nuvi 660 is selling in the $600 range now. That's about the incremental cost of 396-496-596(?). It's worth it to have a small thin dedicated device for the car to me.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

The Nuvi has a usable MP3 player and other features, too.

Mike, how do you put music on the NUVI? I see on the Garmin site that the unit accepts a not-included SD card. Is that the mechanism for putting music on the unit?

 

[mikea]

Mike, how do you put music on the NUVI? I see on the Garmin site that the unit accepts a not-included SD card. Is that the mechanism for putting music on the unit?

I haven't spent a lot of time with it, but as a recall you can mount it as a USB disk drive then copy pictures and music to the Nuvi. You will want a SD card to have reasonable space, but it has a small amount of NVRAM. It ships with some sample pictures and audio book excerpts that are on the NVRAM. Of course, that's where it stores your saved favorite locations and such.

2GB SD cards are less than $50 these days so it's no big deal.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

I'm hearing that Garmin Dealers were told last week that there will NOT be a new handheld released at OSH this year (i.e., no 596).

Not sure if that makes me think there won't be one, or that there definitely WILL be one.

 

[KennyFlys]

I'm hearing that Garmin Dealers were told last week that there will NOT be a new handheld released at OSH this year (i.e., no 596).

Not sure if that makes me think there won't be one, or that there definitely WILL be one.

If there's still a surplus of older models, they may delay the release of anything new. Oshkosh may be a chance to dump the current supply with discounts but not too deep.