Gps ?

[moose]

Hi,
anyone have any experience with the
Street pilot 7500 , by GARMIN ?
at 1400 $
this is by far an Expensive unit !
yet it have the XM satellite radio as an option ,
so it might be a good deal.
dose it worth the investment ?

anyone have a good experience with a good GPS unit out there ?

thanks.
Moose.

 

[Jack_Berry]

do a search on the word "garmin" or "street pilot" or "streets and trips" and you will find the subject discussed to death here.
are you in a van or bigger? most units have no truck routing or haz routing. thats the quick and dirty.

 

[LDB]

It's older technology and doesn't have the latest chipsets so it's slower to acquire. As mentioned, it has nothing for height/hazmat restrictions. It's too expensive for what it is. You can get the latest technology gps for half that price and your choice of numerous XM units for under $200. Total investment no more than 2/3 at most and better technology. You also aren't out of luck for the whole unit when one part breaks.

 

[Jack_Berry]

there is a source for memory cards that are trucking specific that go into a pda but those alone are 400$ and then the cost of the pda. can't remember the name.

 

[riverrat]

I have had a cobra 4000 for the past two years great unit physically the mapping software sucks!!!
I have been told for the past 8 months that the mapping update will be out next month.

I finally had it with cobra and their poor customer service and broke down and bought a nuvi 680 off of ebay.

I have done a lot of research and from everything I have read the 680 is probably the best unit on the market at the moment.

stay AWAY from the cobra products their software is so outdated that, well an example I40 in NC. the software is so old that it will show you as off road half the time, since they rebuilt the road and took out some of the curves and slightly realigned the road in places ect and how long ago has a lot of that been completed??

 

[layoutshooter]

We run Delorme on our laptop. No truck routing but it only costs $60 or so. We bought a GPS module from a place in California, cost us $100. We put our routing in based on our carriers suggested routing and ALWAYS cross reference the drivers road atlas. We have not had a problem with bridges to date. Garmin makes a good unit, so does Megellian. We went this way to make more use of our computer dollars. The only problem we have is our computer is starting to give up the ghost. It is almost 3 years old and has many "quirks". It will shut down the mapping once in a while. Not a real big deal as yet. We are looking for a new computer later this year. Layoutshooter

 

[RLENT]

I have a Street Pilot 7200 - same physically as the 7500 and the only feature that the 7500 gets you over the 7200 is dead reckoning (calculates your progress when you lose satellite signal - like in a large city) I've been pretty happy with it - no problems really - had it for a little over 2 years. It acquires slower than the newer models with latest chipset ..... but isn't really all that slow - particularly if you haven't moved while it was off. Like the large screen. If I was buying now I'd be looking at a widescreen Nuvi probably.

 

[LDB]

Just happened to look at the latest Consumer Reports while at the store and there's a review of gps. The two highest were expensive Nuvi models and the highest rated best buy was the Nuvi model 350 for about $350 street price in the fourth spot.

 

[riverrat]

e-bay has a ton of GPS units for sale, new,used, and refurbished.

I got a nuvi 680 brand new for less than $300.00

 

[nightcreacher]

I have streets and trips in my laptop,now since I have the simply everything plan with sprint,I now have gps in my phone.you have to be careful,it routes the fastest way,and has no concept to low bridges,but as far as the local directions,its great.Will put you right to the door

 

[Turtle]

As for brands, Garmin or Tom Tom, flip a coin. I prefer the Garmin, because that's what I'm most familiar with. A Tom Tom user will likely be just as loyal. It's a Coke-Pepsi thing.

I have a Garmin c550, and I am pleased with it, but if I were to buy a new one today, it would be a Nuvi, 600 series or higher. Like Leo said, don't go with old technology. A new technology $350 GPS is far superior to an old technology $1400 unit. Once you get above $350 or so, the only differences are bells and whistles, some worth it, some not, some are just really kewl, tho.

All of the above advice is good advice, with the exception of using your laptop as a GPD unit. It works if the driver isn't the one using it, but otherwise it's an accident waiting to happen, as it takes your attention away from the road at the times you can least afford it. Use your computer as a computer, and a GPS unit as your GPS. Both will last longer (one of the worst things you can do to your laptop is subject a powered-up hard drive to the bumps of the road).

I know, it seems silly to pay several hundred dollars for s standalone GPS when you can get the same thing for your laptop for $100. Been there, done that, got the supergeek t-shirt. But, as with most things, you get what you pay for.

 

[Jefferson3000]

For the straight truck and tractor folks out there, I recently became aquainted with a new product.

Co-Pilot Live is now available for PDAs running Windows Mobile. They were previously available for Pocket PC. The unit would be about the same size as a mobile GPS and could be mounted on the dash.

 

[CharlesD]

I'm one of the laptop people. With a Sprinter, I don't worry about low bridges and what not. I will use Rand McNally to route to the city I'm going to and then use Streets and Trips for the local directions. I have the Sprint card with the built in GPS receiver, but sometimes that receiver loses the signal. I've learned to read the directions ahead of time and try to memorize them. There's nothing more frustrating than making a turn and then you lose the signal before the next turn comes up.

 

[Turtle]

I used to be one of those laptop people, until I used a Garmin for the first time. I used both Streets and Trips and DeLorme. Streets and Trips has a better interface and prettier maps, but DeLorme has faster updating, better re-routing, and can find things that Streets and Trips cannot find (like the name and location of every business in an industrial park). But, after using a standalone GPS device, there is no comparison to ease of use, time savings and more importantly, safety.

The difference between a standalone GPS unit and a laptop, is like the difference between a laptop and a Motor Carrier's Atlas.

 

[CharlesD]

For me it was simply an economic decision. I need a laptop for business. It didn't make sense for me to purchase the laptop and then purchase a stand alone GPS when I can fulfill the same purpose with the laptop, finding out how to get where I'm going. I can find better use for the money at the moment, primarily fuel. To each his own though. I just don't want to spend the extra money right now.

 

[Turtle]

No question about it, that makes perfect, logical sense. Why spend anywhere from $300 to $800, or more, for a standalone GPS when you can add the same capability (or close to it, anyway) to a laptop for $100? Any and all arguments that people make for using a laptop instead of a standalone GPS I have emphatically made myself. I know where you're coming from. Absolutely.

In addition to the economics, with me being a mad computer geek, a standalone was never an option. It was silly to even consider it. I used my laptop for more than two years out here. But, I found that unless it's on your lap, it cannot handle the bumps and vibrations of a moving vehicle very well. It wears on the hard drive, port connections and a few other internal components.

But the main thing is safety. You need the laptop the most at the very time you can least afford to divert attention from the road. Like, when there are complicated turns or multiple turns in quick succession, that's when you need to focus on the driving, instead of diverting your eyes from the road and focusing on a small spot on the screen, then back to the road. It's not like glancing a few times at a mirror, the laptop screen requires more concentration than that. And making changes to the route or otherwise fiddling with the laptop while driving is insane, even though I used to do it, too. You wouldn't even consider putting the newspaper on the passenger's seat and then try to read it while driving, but whether you admit it or not, that's what you're doing while using a laptop while driving.

I know of two people in this business who have had accidents while tending to their laptop, and a third driver, well, that's only speculation, as we'll never know for sure about that one. Be that as it may, I won't tell anyone straight up to not use a laptop, as I used one for a long time. I only say strongly consider what you're doing, and how and when you're doing things with it, then strongly consider using a thing for it's purpose. A laptop as a laptop, a GPS unit as a GPS unit. $300 or $400 will seem like an awfully small amount of extra money if you rear end or sideswipe someone because you had your attention diverted from the road for a scant few seconds.

And even after all that, I do still carry my USB GPS receiver to use with my laptop as a backup.

 

[CharlesD]

And your reasons are precisely why I run the route and then read it over. If I have a lot of complicated turns, I use an FM transmitter and I let Streets and Trips "talk" to me. If I need to fiddle with the computer, I pull off the road.