quick gps question

Elle on Wheels · Guru

quick gps question

blaze · Guru

I have always purchased garmin gps for voice direction gps systems, I also have a magelan with all australian roads and tracks for outback backup, use the notebook with a gps mouse for serious outback travel. I have also used garmin and others for marine use. I would sugest a garmin and see if you can get a deal with lifetime map updates, I have personally never worried about updates as I tend to update the gps every 3 or 4 years.
cheers
blaze

Yuglamron · Guru

Hi Elle on Wheels.

I use the Garmin Nuvi GPS with an SD card reader built in.

It gives you all the benefits of a normal GPS but it also has bluetooth for handsfree phone and the SD card can store music and play it through the car stereo.I download audio books from Audible the Amazon books subsidiary, to listen to on long road trips.I manage to get three audio books onto a Two gigabyte SD card around fifty hours of readings.

Dick Smith has them with a lifetime update for the maps till January I think.

Hope you find one that suits and has the features you need.

Safe Travels

Elle on Wheels · Guru

Struth..... ok sounds like garmin is the go - Mr Blaze I don't reckon I want to complicate things with a mouse or any of those other do dads.

But the main question is do I go to a shop to get one (ie service follow up etc) or go for ebay and what is a reasonable price.

blaze · Guru

I would buy that one from the shop, Sounds like I am an ebay hater, far from it. I have made a lot of purchases off ebay but if I think I may want a real warrenty and service support I pay the shop prices but refuse to pay retail and always bargain for better price or deal
cheers
blaze

jimricho · Guru

I own a Garmin and I'm generally happy with the purchase but there are a couple of issues I should mention...

I find downloading the updates is a little more complicated and time consuming than I feel it should be but I don't regard this as a major drawback.

I have also found it giving some quite ridiculous directions at times, eg attempting to send me up little side roads instead of remaining on the obvious main road or highway. I have a friend with a Uniden (I think) and have compared it and found that his seems less prone to this, and yes folk, I have tried resetting to navigation options. I feel that his is a little more user friendly when it comes to checking data such as ETAs (estimated time of arrival) distance to run etc.

The Dick Smith free lifetime update mentioned above is very good value as it normally costs $189

I agree with blaze's comments about buying from a shop. Shop around and find a salesperson who knows his/her stuff and can relate to your requirements.

Loki · Senior Member

I bought a Garmin with Bluetooth, advanced lane guidance and lifetime updates; I can recommend it. I also uploaded the Camps6 camp data, cost ~$20, and great value in my opinion (apparently only available to Garmin and Tom Tom). Agree with jimricho that it does make some funny decisions at times (esp in "out of city" areas) so it is a good idea to have a bit of an idea of which route you want to travel - it will do 'recalculations' to pick up changes and keep you on track.

I previously bought a unit off Ebay from hel@molto which was not as described and the dealer was, IMHO, less than honourable; I wrote it off in the finish.

Determine the model you want, then check various shops for the best price, they are competitive. I wouldn't be without one but that's my personal opinion.

Ma · Guru

We have a Garmin also and while it is great most of the time, we have found that down here in Tasmania it does get somewhat confused at times.

All in all it is a good unit. It is the second one we have had and will probably stay with that brand in future as we have had a good run out of them

pricey43 · Guru

We are also in the Garmin family and agree with everything that is said. We did our research and worked out what we wanted and then braved the boxing day sales. Saved us over $100 on our Garmin nuvi. As we are getting close to this time of year again, why not wait for December 26th.

biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Elle on Wheels · Guru

Thanks all for your very wise advice as per usual. I will wait til after xmas. Fortunately for crowdaphobics like me, you don't have to brave the boxing day frenzy necessarily, the bargins do tend to stay around for a couple of weeks in big chains for common items.

pricey43 · Guru

Yes but they take extra off on Boxing Day. There are not usually too many around this area in the bigger electrical shops. Got ours at' The Good Guys'. Happy shopping. :)

03_troopy · Guru

Navman MY75T here. Bluetooth, various route options (speed, ease, economy and distance), traffic alert (only Melb, Sydney and Canberra at the moment though), can load custom POI's that can be found on sites like http://www.gps-data-team.com/poi/australia/. Can be had with free map updates depending on the deal at the time, can plug a reversing cam into it. See also the thread in solo nomads http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t45744476/planning-stages/

Popeye · Senior Member

What you need is a Garmin nuvi 465T Truck GPS. look up its review. I have one. Just the best.

Elle on Wheels · Guru

Thanks Popeye

jimricho · Guru

Elle on Wheels wrote:
Also if Ican choose voices and characters I would love one that came with Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark or Elvis in that order.

What about Billy Conolly complete with all the expletives!

03_troopy · Guru

jimricho wrote:
Elle on Wheels wrote:
Also if Ican choose voices and characters I would love one that came with Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark or Elvis in that order.
What about Billy Conolly complete with all the expletives!

As long as you got one with his later years voice, you wouldn't have a hope in hell of understanding his earlier years voice for directions. Or Ye'll get ye heid in ye hans an ye lugs te plee wi.

jimricho · Guru

biggrin biggrin

Elle on Wheels · Guru

Hey you lot I understand Scotish a fair bit and no way would I want Billy giving me directions. Life on the road is supposed to be about reducing stress.

Hydeeeho · Senior Member

Hi Elle Garmin is the way to go, they are the best and most reliable

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

I have a garmin 1490T and it is great, as for the voice, sometime ago Garmin put out a program called VoiceStudio.exe which allowed you to record your own voice to install into the Garmin but it's no longer on their web site, the program is 3.5mb in size if anybody want's a copy of that program please PM me a email address and I will send it to those that want it.