[wludavid]

Walmart has some great online prices as well.

Originally Posted by Eli

That's what I'm currently using, and would recommend a Garmin unit over anything else.

Bought a Nuvi when they first came out, wasn't careful, cracked the screen by putting it in a bag with other car stuff..... Decided to just buy an i3 as a cheap replacement. Both use the same set of maps, software, etc.
I think }{ still has his Nuvi.

The i3 is $270 at Walmart right now. My credit card is getting itchy.

[wludavid]

Crap. Garmins don't work with Macs.

[TD in DC]

Originally Posted by wludavid

Crap. Garmins don't work with Macs.

Sure they do. Virtual PC . . . or one of the other programs that does the same thing . . .

[Don Wohlfarth]

Santa got me a Garmin Street Pilot 2720 for Christmas last year. Nice unit, decent size screen, no complaints.
There's a GPS topic on Pelican off topic forum today. Garmin was the clear winner.

[Dr K]

I'm also a fan of TomTom. I have the 700 (last year's model), and other than needing to know the town for your location, it's perfect. It's VERY easy to follow, and doesn't always take you 4 miles out of your way to stay on state routes (in fact, once in the very upstate New York Adirondacks, it took me on a packed gravel road for 1/2 mile, which cut 10 miles out of the trip!). It also easily allows you to avoid a section of road or to try other routes. Oh, one other issue (and I can't speak for other navi systems other than Acura which does this correctly) - looking for distance to points of interest, it measures as the crow flies, so from the highway doesn't always show you the closest, or what is in front of you. Anybody know if the Garmin Nuvi does this correctly? The Acura shows your points-of-interest ahead or you, or behind you but adds in turning around to get there into the distance away.

Peter

[Markay]

Check out costco.com. When I bought my Nuvi, they had the best price I could find.

[Rick V]

When I usedf to work on Mazda, I was playing with the Nav system in an RX8. We needed to know how they work to help the customers too lazy to read the manuals. Well I programed it to get to Scottsville. My service manager, took the car (demo) home since it had been sitting for a while. (these cars CAN"T sit) Well the nav system kept yelling you are goint the wrong way, make the next leagal U-turn. My boss didn't know how to turn it off. Was funny as hell the next day whenI got chewed out for it. I just responded with "well shouldn't you also know how to work the cars we sell?"

[wludavid]

Partially cross-posted from PPOT. I'm hoping dorkis can help too.

I bought a Garmin i5 a couple weeks ago. I took the advice of some of you and stuck with the Garmin brand, and the i5 was in my price range.

Well now I'm having doubts about it, but I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong. The routes it calculates are terrible. Playing around with it and having it take me places I'm familiar with, it NEVER takes the best route. Not once. Also, it avoids interstates like the plague. I live about 1.5 miles from I-66, and driving home the other day, it tried to tell me to get off the highway 4 exits before the best one. And as I passed each exit, it would tell me to take that one, and then say "recalculating" after each one. It's become a joke in between my girlfriend and me to see how many times Bitching Betty will recalculate for a simple jaunt down I-66.

Do other people with Garmins have this issue? I wonder if Garmin is artificially handicapping their lower-end systems to encourage people to buy their more expensive stuff.

[87turbolook911]

bought a Garmin i5 a couple weeks ago. I took the advice of some of you and stuck with the Garmin brand, and the i5 was in my price range.

Well now I'm having doubts about it, but I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong. The routes it calculates are terrible. Playing around with it and having it take me places I'm familiar with, it NEVER takes the best route. Not once. Also, it avoids interstates like the plague. I live about 1.5 miles from I-66, and driving home the other day, it tried to tell me to get off the highway 4 exits before the best one. And as I passed each exit, it would tell me to take that one, and then say "recalculating" after each one. It's become a joke in between my girlfriend and me to see how many times Bitching Betty will recalculate for a simple jaunt down I-66.

Do other people with Garmins have this issue? I wonder if Garmin is artificially handicapping their lower-end systems to encourage people to buy their more expensive stuff.

Check your routing preferences.

BTW, I just got a Garmin Nuvi 350 and LOVE IT. Especially how it "speaks" the street names.

[TD in DC]

Originally Posted by 87turbolook911

Check your routing preferences.

x2 The Garmin gives you LOTS of flexibility on routing preferences. Sounds like yours might be set incorrectly. Sorry, but it has to be said . . . RTFM