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GPS - Need advice on buying one
onceling
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I have been given about $500 to equip myself with a GPS.
The main (first) use for the GPS will be to accompany my dad and I on a road trip across Canada. It's a rental car but by the time we pay for 4+ weeks of GPS in the car, plus the fact that he's not sure what else to get me for my birthday, well here we are.
I think the features I need are standard to everything:
- Local points of interest (pretty important to me)
- Option to subscribe to a traffic system later on maybe
- Voice directions
- Ability to store a couple of locations and get idea of which is closest
- Good detailed city AND rural maps of all Canadian provinces
So I have done some reading and asked around. Garmin has been recommended. But I still having a hard time with a few things:
1. Do I need to pay for a provider, like a cell phone?
2. When with a friend with a GPS on a highway, going under a bridge, the GPS would suddenly say "recalculating" thinking we were ON the bridge. Is that common? What the hell? Obviously there are no flying cars, you'd think it would know we were still on the highway under the bridge? Same unit would sometimes think we had left the highway for closeby side streets (impossible, there's no exit there) and had a lot of trouble deciding where we were. Can I avoid that somehow? It would be a deal breaker for me, I'd hate it.
3. What makes some GPS more expensive (what am I paying for?) is it that its more accurate? Or is it stuff like voice recognition, that maybe I don't need?
4. Someone said that it's cool to have a unit that can handle walking around as well as driving. I don't do a ton of wandering around but should I get that? Can I for $500?
5. Which Garmin model is right for me, or is there another brand I should also look into? (4/4 of people I know said get Garmin, and the one mentioned in #2 was an older TomTom so... yeah).
EDIT: A friend said its nice to pay extra for a model that actually says the street names (Not just "Turn left in 1 mile" it says "Turn left in 1 mile on Robson St"). I think I want that... which model(s) does that come on?
The main (first) use for the GPS will be to accompany my dad and I on a road trip across Canada. It's a rental car but by the time we pay for 4+ weeks of GPS in the car, plus the fact that he's not sure what else to get me for my birthday, well here we are.
I think the features I need are standard to everything:
- Local points of interest (pretty important to me)
- Option to subscribe to a traffic system later on maybe
- Voice directions
- Ability to store a couple of locations and get idea of which is closest
- Good detailed city AND rural maps of all Canadian provinces
So I have done some reading and asked around. Garmin has been recommended. But I still having a hard time with a few things:
1. Do I need to pay for a provider, like a cell phone?
2. When with a friend with a GPS on a highway, going under a bridge, the GPS would suddenly say "recalculating" thinking we were ON the bridge. Is that common? What the hell? Obviously there are no flying cars, you'd think it would know we were still on the highway under the bridge? Same unit would sometimes think we had left the highway for closeby side streets (impossible, there's no exit there) and had a lot of trouble deciding where we were. Can I avoid that somehow? It would be a deal breaker for me, I'd hate it.
3. What makes some GPS more expensive (what am I paying for?) is it that its more accurate? Or is it stuff like voice recognition, that maybe I don't need?
4. Someone said that it's cool to have a unit that can handle walking around as well as driving. I don't do a ton of wandering around but should I get that? Can I for $500?
5. Which Garmin model is right for me, or is there another brand I should also look into? (4/4 of people I know said get Garmin, and the one mentioned in #2 was an older TomTom so... yeah).
EDIT: A friend said its nice to pay extra for a model that actually says the street names (Not just "Turn left in 1 mile" it says "Turn left in 1 mile on Robson St"). I think I want that... which model(s) does that come on?
onceling on
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1) No service needed unless you get one that supports XM traffic reports. Then it's the XM service fees not GPS ones.
2) I've not noticed this on newer gps units. My old gps adapter that I used to use would do it though and it would piss me off to no end.
3) Well there are all kinds of different features that make things more expensive. Some are more accurate or quicker to acquire the satelite signals. Some have photo viewers, bluetooth, voice recognition, mp3 players, or any number of other features. I would suggest looking for one that is expandable through SD cards or what not.
4) Well I guess that would depend on if you plan on hiking or anything like that. A regular unit would be good enough to walk around town just fine.
5) My dad has 3 GPS units. 2 are Garmin units and the third is a Magellan. The Magellan has some nice features but is pretty unreliable. Both garmins are pretty good units. He has the Nuvi 200W for the car and a eTrex Vista HCx for hiking.
There is no type of service fee to use the device but they do offer extra services that you can pay for.
So far it has been very good at knowing where it is at. I have gone under wide bridges and while it will lose the signal the route doesnt change it assumes you are still on the same road and heading. After comming out from the bridge it picks the signal up again in about 10 seconds.
This model does also have the spoken street names plenty of poi's and you can add your own plus there are map modules you can get a lot are free that add extra stuff. One bad thing would probably be the map updates. After 30 days you have to pay for new maps. However they have a featuer called "map share" where you can download corrections people have made to the maps on the GPS itself. Like a street name was recently changed or a two way street is now a one way street. However you would have to trust the corrections are acurate. It also is able to get traffic report updates RDMS or something I think its called its free but you have to have a special antennae which some models have and others done, otherwise its like 150$ but I have seen it cheaper on ebay. So far I have been happy with it. I got it because I am moving to washington in july and will be going cross country for the move. Hope this helps