Having used Garmin for a while now, Turtle, if you were to buy a new stand alone GPS unit again, would it be Garmin or something else?
It would be a Garmin, absolutely. Having said that, I wouldn't refuse a free Tom Tom, either. Lowrance is tops on the boat, both for navigation and sounding. Magellan always seems to be a day late and a dollar short, and with inaccurate maps (which is a bit of a puzzle, since they use the same mapping data that Garmin and Tom Tom use).
Garmin has the North American market, Tom Tom has the European market. Both are trying to chip away at each other's stronghold. Each has different sets of bells and whistles, and different interfaces. Side by side in the same dollar range, flip a coin. Garmin vs Tom Tom is like Quicken vs MS Money.
I prefer the Garmin because I'm most familiar with it, know it's quirks. The Tom Tom has it's quirks, just different quirks. Both brands use essentially the same maps and the same data, each do slightly different things with routing. It's the routing quirks that make the Garmin best for me and expediting. If you get a Tom Tom or a Garmin, you won't regret buying either, and then end up wishing you'd bought the other.
As for which unit I'd get, whether it's a $300 or a $1000 unit, they all run the same map data, so the routing and maps are gonna be the same (
except, the low end units don't come with Canadian maps, and on those units the US mapping and routing is slightly different. Even if you don't go to Canada, get a unit that comes with the entire North America maps.) The difference is the bells and whistles.
One essential bell, for my money, is the real-time traffic. It's not 100% accurate, but it's definitely worth having. It will automatically re-route you around travel delays, if possible, such as accidents, accumulating traffic in construction, closed exits, etc. It will sometimes inform you of a 3 minute delay up ahead, and when you get there, there's no delay, cause it's been cleaned up or cleared out. Or they'll sometimes be a delat that it doesn't know about.
But, I was in Minneapolis a week after that bridge fell, and closed the Interstate, and a GPS unit without the Traffic would have routed me right across that bridge. There ya go. Slam dunk. Real-Time Traffic, never leave home without it.
I have the Garmin Street Pilot c550. It's got the new SiRF II (all units newer than a year or two have this) chip so it doesn't lose the satellite signal in the mountains and in the canyons, both natural and man-made (lemme tell ya, it's kind of important to not lose that signal when you're in downtown Chicago, or Manhattan). It's got the Real-Time Traffic, and it's an MP3 player. It's got Bluetooth so I can make hands-free calls. Loads the phonebook from the phone into the unit.
In addition, phone numbers that are listed with the POI's (Points of Interest) can be dialed at the press of a button (on the screen). That's kinda handy for restaurants (Is there truck parking nearby?), motels (Do you have a pool?), wrecker service (Hep me!).
The new Garmin Nuvi units come with some impressive bells and whistles, not the least of which is the "Where am I" feature, which tells you the closest intersection, closest police, fire, fuel and other landmarks. Could be important in a breakdown or other emergency situation. The speech recognition in the top of the line Nuvi 880 is impressive, to say the least. Say a command, the 880 does it. The new units also have MP3 players, most have FM transmitters so you can hear music (and audio books from the internal audio book player) and directions via your vehicle speakers, jpg viewer, lots of nifty features. Many of the new ones display the speed limits for the road you are on.
One neat one is that many of the units remember where you parked (Nuvi 700 series and up). The Nuvi's are small, about the size of an iPod, and are made to be portable. You can use it to navigate while walking to places in unfamiliar territory, like the dense shops in and around Boston Harbor, and the Nuvi will remember where you parked. Great for crowded shopping malls, sports stadiums, etc. A must-have for the average blond.
The important bells and whistles for me are text-to-speech so that you hear the directions, complete with road names, delivered to you in a natural language voice, real-time traffic, Bluetooth. I like the speech recognition, but so far all of the Nuvi 800 series units that come with that do not come with integrated real-time traffic - it's an option.
If I were to get one today, it would be either the Nuvi 660 (no Where am I? or Where did I park? tho) or the Nuvi 770. But that 880 looks really good, even without having the traffic as being already integrated. These are not cheap units. I wouldn't even consider something under the 600 series, but then again, any unit that has the complete pre-loaded North American maps will get you to where you wanna go. Which one's right for you depends on which bells and whistles you want. Some are more important than others.
