TSGL: GPS Navigation Devices

[Lee Bunyard]

H Davis wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience, comments, suggestions, recommendations, 
> warnings, etc about GPS Navigational Devices?
>
> I really had no interest in these but had a chance over Thanksgiving to 
> use one (Magellan Roadmate 2000) for a short while and was impressed. 
> The wife was more impressed and now I'm told I have an interest.
>
> The Magellan unit is sold out at Best Buy at $279, which seems to be a 
> pretty good price. The reviews at Amazon had some unfavorable comments 
> and the Garmin reviews at Amazon for some comparable units seemed more 
> favorable and much more numerous, indicating perhaps that Garmin is 
> "the" brand to get.
>
> Things I can't seem to find any good info on are:
>
> The maps - Some seem to imply that complete maps of the US or North 
> America are included. Others seem to imply that only limited regions are 
> included or that detailed maps of cities must be downloaded. It's not 
> clear if these are extra cost in some cases. In other cases they seem to 
> be extra money. Also, are the normal updates of the maps that come 
> installed extra cost?
>
> The internal storage seems to run from maybe 128 MB to several GB. This 
> has to represent a great difference in either quantity or detail in the 
> maps stored. What's a reasonable amount of internal storage for complete 
> US coverage with good detail?
>
> There seem to be several sources for the map data. Is any source better 
> than another?
>
> Features - There seem to be the usual blizzard of features. What's 
> essential? What else would you recommend for someone interested in 
> keeping it cheap and simple but willing to pay for something truly 
> useful? I am particularly interested in automatic routing around traffic 
> jams. The unit I tried quickly and automatically calculated a new route 
> if I got off the prescribed route. But the geometry of my test would 
> have obviously generated a new route to the destination. In a case where 
> I was on an Interstate highway, with my destination several hours away, 
> would it just reroute me back on the Interstate as soon as possible? How 
> can I constrain how it chooses the new route?
>
> Acquiring a signal - There seem to be a lot of comments on the net about 
> difficulties acquiring the satellite signal or long delays acquiring a 
> signal. What has been your experience?
>
> How accurate - My short test worked well but I'm wondering if there are 
> places where these units are inaccurate or missing information. Any 
> experience?
>
> Security - These things look like theft bait. What do you do to keep 
> from having them stolen?
>
> If you have one, what brand and model is it, how long have you had it 
> and how has it worked?
>
>
>   
I don't pretend to be an expert on GPS but I've been researching and 
tracking developments on the subject for the past couple of years and 
just purchased my first GPS unit a few weeks ago.  First, if you haven't 
already done so, check out the website below.  One of the best for 
general information on GPS and specific products. 

The choices in brands and products is almost overwhelming, but the first 
thing you should do is decide how you plan to use the GPS; i.e., what 
uses will you put it to??  For me, I wanted an all around unit that 
could be used on my street motorcycles, offroad motorcycles, mountain 
bike, cars, truck, for hiking, possibly geocaching, small enough to 
carry easily in a shirt pocket, battery powered with good battery 
longevity, flash memory instead of hard drive to withstand the vibration 
of use on a motorcycle, good visibility in full sunlight, preloaded with 
street level detail maps for the entire USA so I don't have to download 
maps, sufficient additional memory storage for topo maps and other 
detail, and with the capability to do route planning on a pc and 
download the route to the GPS unit.  I finally decided that the Garmin 
Quest2 came the closest to meeting all of my needs.  My feelings on that 
selection were reinforced when Motorcycle Consumer News magazine 
selected the Quest2 as their Best Buy product in their 12/05 issue and 
well known IT technical writer Fred Langa recommended the product as a 
best all around buy. 

I just bought the Quest2 a couple of weeks back and am still learning 
how to use it but I love it so far.  Amazingly fast and accurate and its 
recalculation rate when you deviate from the prescribed route is 
fantastic.  I'll leave it to the more experienced GPS users on this 
forum to answer your specific questions in more detail.
Lee in the Mountains of Northern California  
> http://gpsinformation.net/