Which GPS for the truck

[flykelley]

Hi Guys
I am looking to buy a GPS for my work truck. I would like it to be under $300.00 and would also like turn by turn directions. I also would like it to be a garmin. So lets hear what you all have been using and of course all of the pros and cons. My workers will be using it so it needs to be simple to use.

Thanks Mike

 

[mikea]

Hi Guys
I am looking to buy a GPS for my work truck. I would like it to be under $300.00 and would also like turn by turn directions. I also would like it to be a garmin. So lets hear what you all have been using and of course all of the pros and cons. My workers will be using it so it needs to be simple to use.

Thanks Mike

The Garmin Nuvi 6 series is being discounted to the $280-$380 range.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-4-3-In...566b0ae1&itemPosition=2&qid=1214684345&sr=8-2

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search...&lang=en-US&D=Garmin&search=Garmin&Ntt=Garmin

I love the Bluetooth hands free cell phone speakerphone interface on my Nuvi 660.

The other features are ho-hum..like the FM transmitter precludes you from listing to the radio and is always noisy because you aren't going to find a free FM frequency. For some reason the traffic alerts started working even though I never signed up for the service. They haven't been real useful since I'm mostly driving far out of the city. Other stuff? I used the picture viewer once to show pictures from my SD card on my camera. I'm not going to listen to MP3s on it when I have an iPod.

It can occasionally make funny routing decisions. Sometimes, no matter what it wants to send you on a circuitous route when you know going straight on the road you're on will get there easier and faster.

The database updates are $79. I'm overdue for one so I'll spring for the next revision. You should see how confused it was when I went down the section of 355 that was opened earlier this year (which I ended up on because it sent me down the wrong ramp... )

 

[silver-eagle]

I'll second the Garmin 6 series. I have the 680. The best part of the 680 is the 4.3 inch screen. The other stuff is just fluff and hardly worth it (I mean the traffic is from M/S and ultimately a subscription).
Like other Garmin products though, it's the extras that you want that will cost you.

 

[john smith]

I take my GPS 496 on trips in the car. It is VERY useful having onboard weather.

 

[mikea]

I'll second the Garmin 6 series. I have the 680. The best part of the 680 is the 4.3 inch screen. The other stuff is just fluff and hardly worth it (I mean the traffic is from M/S and ultimately a subscription).
Like other Garmin products though, it's the extras that you want that will cost you.

Mine has the other traffic system. It's not the Microsoft one.

I think it's only $15 a year, but as I said, it's not even worth that to me.

 

[RJM62]

I still use the Garmin iQue 3600 I bought about, oh, five or six years ago. Still works great.

Rich

 

[colomtnflyer]

When out on the road, one of our guys brings along his NUVI (not sure which model), which manages to get us to where ever we need to get to (in the softest New Zealand accent). Not sure on cost or updates, but it is simple to use! (even I can do it!)

 

[tmarlatte]

I love the Garmin Nuvi series. Wide range of models. Pick your features and pay the price. Worth every penny. My choice right now would be the Nuvi 270W. There's also a 270. The W is wide screen which is nice.

Text to speech (so that it says the names of roads).

No traffic or other wizzies that I don't need. Maybe want but not worth the extra money to me.

Bias - I work for NAVTEQ so tend toward devices that use our data.

 

[flykelley]

Hi Gang
Thanks for everyones input, I just bought a Garmin Nuvi 360. I should have it sometime on monday. I can't wait to try it out going to Ohskosh.

Regards Mike

 

[mikea]

When out on the road, one of our guys brings along his NUVI (not sure which model), which manages to get us to where ever we need to get to (in the softest New Zealand accent). Not sure on cost or updates, but it is simple to use! (even I can do it!)

You can change the voice, male or female, American, British, or Aussie or Dane. Not all of them are smart enough to be able to pronounce street names, but with the foreign ones that's pretty amusing.

I settled on "Karen" from the U.S. She still has problems with some short street names. "Ela" = "ell" "Cuba"= "cube" but she can correctly pronounce "Midlothian."

 

[BartY]

*IF* you can find it, the Nuvi 650 has all the nice features of the 6xx series without all the extra fluff, like Bluetooth and the FM transmitter.

My opinion is to only do the map updates every other year. It sometimes takes Navteq (that's who Garmin and incidentally, Google get their map data from) a couple of years to add a new street. I have a buddy whose 4 year old street in a newer subdivision STILL doesn't appear in anyone's database.