GPS Recomondations for under $300?

[riffjim4069]

I picked up a Magellan Maestro 4040 for $349 six weeks ago Costco. It's a pretty good unit, but it just a tad too slow rerouting, provides limited route exclusion capabilities, and is just a little too inaccurate in its route calculators for my liking. It does have Bluetooth capabilites, but I don't use them.

Anyway, I noticed that Costo is selling the Nuvi 650 for $299 plus shipping on their website. I ordered one last night and will probably be taking back the Magellan after comparing both units side-by-side...or shoud I say drive-by-drive.

My nuvi 650 arrived yesterday. Believe it or not, I think I may like the Magellan 4040 better at this point. It's a nice unit that does some things very well, but I was hoping to be blown-away by a Garmin...I was not. If I could merge the two units together (both do a couple things much better than the other) it would make a perfect GPS.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

What exactly is it about the Magellan you like better?

 

[Chris Freeland]

On Friday, I ordered my Garmin Nuvi 260 from Shipdog.com for $255. Saving about $100 + from local brick and morter stores. I went with the 260 because of good revues of all Nuvi models and it comes pre-loaded with 2008 maps and is the cheapest Nuvi with speech-to-text capabilities . Hope to have it this week .

 

[rockymtnhigh]

On Friday, I ordered my Garmin Nuvi 260 from Shipdog.com for $255. Saving about $100 + from local brick and morter stores. I went with the 260 because of good revues of all Nuvi models and it comes pre-loaded with 2008 maps and is the cheapest Nuvi with speech-to-text capabilities . Hope to have it this week .

Enjoy.

I put my 660 to work today; when I got into a rental car, I plugged in the hotel address, and poof... it got me exactly where I wanted to be

Loving it. Great for travel. Well worth the $400 I spent.

 

[manny245]

price is option for gps

chris before you buy look for brand first, how the systm work. are they friendly use. are they easy to navigate. price is option get what is best for you.

 

[TheForce]

Good thread!

While I have GPS now in both cars built in we still need one for rental cars. I have my Tomtom software on my cell phone and it works without problems. Just nowhere near as easy to program for route as my two Denso systems (Kenwood and Toyota) in the cars.

But now with my wife's new job, she needs to travel lots outside the state and will be renting a car. She has asked me to get her a portable one. I've read through the thread which gives me an excellent start.

Some features I didn't see mentioned that we are used to is touch screen and voice recognition address destination entry as well as data base for points of interests like Nearest Sushi restaurant or Burger King or Pizza Hut. etc.

I think what she needs though is a very simple and fast / easy to program unit as she is always in a hurry. Many of the suggestions here gives me a head start looking.

 

[bryansr]

I have a HP310 that is easy to use & it can go portable too. Its vioce commands are not the greatest BUT the big screen makes up for it!

BryanSR

 

[riffjim4069]

After a bit more time, the Garmin 650 worked out much better than the Magellan 4040 (maps and navigation were spot on). The only feature we liked better with the Magellan was their AAA Points of Interest...a breeze for my wife to find via a POI Icon on the main menu. We also tried a comparable TomTom 4.3 unit. The maps/navigation were comparable to the nuvi 650; like the others, it had one nice feature that was better than the other two; overall, we just didn't like the UI on the TomTom. To be honest, all three units were very good...it's just that we felt the Garmin was a little better.

My wife and I get by with just one Garmin, but there are a few times when I find myself needing it and my wife had it. I may be bringing home a nuvi 760 if we ever sell our house back in VA. It's currently $349 at Costco.

 

[FunkyBoss]

I picked up a Garmin nuvi 750 at Sams Club recently for $299 and I like it so far. It seems to have all the features of the 760, without the Bluetooth capabilities.

 

[hbk409]

I picked up a Garmin nuvi 750 at Sams Club recently for $299 and I like it so far. It seems to have all the features of the 760, without the Bluetooth capabilities.

my wife got me the nuvi 260 for my birthday last wednesday. She said she paid 249 for it at walmart. I dont have a sams club by me so i checked out costco and they have the 760 for 349. I like my unit however when I went to the garmin website they have these preplanned scenic routes. I thought they would be a cool add on however the 260 is not compatiable. Has anyone every used any of these extas??

 

[LER]

for all you GPS geeks, I just found an interesting site for POI's (Points of Interest):

POIfriend.com: Free Point of Interest (POI) Community, Maps & Downloads for GPS Navigation

LER