Aftermarket Car Navigation -anyone use one?

[turbojimmy]

Hi all,

I've been in a few friends' cars with factory navigation systems, most recently a friend's ML500. I have to say they are really cool and I'd like to have one. I don't travel that much, but for the little bit that I do it would make a great tool. I didn't opt for the nav in my '04 Sienna because I had to spend like $3k in other upgrades to get it. I looked at retro-fitting the factory system into my '01 Caddy but the system is antiquated already and it would be expensive even for junkyard parts.

So I got looking at the 'portable' GPS-type systems (stick to the windshield or dash-mount). It seems people are pretty happy with the ones that have SD card storage since SD cards have become relatively cheap and storage seems to be the big part of the cost on these things. With the SD, you can size your storage to however many maps you need. Looks like Garmin and Magellan are the 2 big names and the units in the $4-500 range have decent features. I like the fact that they're portable, too.

Anyone have any experience with these things? Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[ThePhreaker]

Whenever I go anywhere far I bring along my laptop. On my laptop I have Microsoft Street and Trips 2005 with GPS. The only thing I can think of that you might miss is the step by step voice navigation. Works really well for me though. I know this isn't an ideal solution for you, but if you have a laptop you might want to check it out. I believe there's also a version of MS Street and Trips available for the PocketPC if you have one of those. Of course there's going to be up and down sides to either system. I chose the laptop solution because I already had one and it was a lot cheaper to buy the software with the gps tracker.

 

[turbojimmy]

I'll price that out. I do have a laptop that I could use. It would be a little cumbersome but if the price diff was big enough it might be worth it.

The only thing that occurred to me about the self-contained units is the integrated antenna. I have the Night Vision option in the Caddy which has a specially coated windshield for the HUD projector. The antenna might have a tough time grabbing a signal, according to the instruction manuals of such units. I might have the same problem with a laptop. You can get an external antenna for the nav units though.

Thanks for the reply.

Jim

 

[turbojimmy]

Okay - so I got a Garmin c320. It's the near the bottom of the lineup ($425 from Amazon which was the best price I could find) but it's really nice. Instead of a hard drive like the more expensive one, it has an SD card and you have to load your own maps. No big deal - took about 30 minutes. Using about 2/3s of a 1GB card I got the entire east coast and Texas (I travel there on business frequently) loaded. If I need more stuff I can load it later on.

I've seen them in use but I've never used one myself. It's amazing and creepy at the same time. The software comes with 6 million points of interest. So as soon as you plug it in it locates you and you have an endless list of places to go. You hit little icons (food, gas, hotels, etc.) and it brings them up. Sitting in my driveway I hit McDonalds and it started telling me how to get there. There's also a dashboard view where it tells you elapsed time, your speed, ETA, etc. It's creepy because it knows precisely where you are all the time, and how fast you're going. I guess Onstar does, too, come to think of it. It works as well, better actually, than the factory systems I've seen. It's just on the small side compared to an in-dash unit but it's easy to read and hear.

Anyway, I'm thinking of getting my siblings to pitch in for one for my mom (it's that easy to use) for Christmas. She spends the day on the road and is terrified of getting lost.

I'm headed to NYC today. I know how to get to where I'm going but I want to see how it does in the city.

Jim

 

[NastyGn]

The reason you mention about the small screen is why I bought the Garmin 18. This is the software and antanna that plugs into your lap top. Since I already had the lap top it was easy to us this model and it was $120. I like the voice nagavation part while going on trips with the trailer since when I get into a large city it tells me about 2 miles ahead of my exit what lane I need to be in.

The other thing I like about the lap top model is I can either set the lap top on the passanger seat or on the floor and still see the map.

They are a neet toy and help.

 

[turbojimmy]

The other thing I like about the lap top model is I can either set the lap top on the passanger seat or on the floor and still see the map.

They are a neet toy and help.

I talked about the laptop option with the wife, but since she uses it throughout the day I couldn't talk her into letting me use it. Since it's more of a toy for personal use, I couldn't justify using my work laptop (especially since I leave it docked at work most of the time).

Anyway, it sort of got me to NYC okay this morning. It didn't like my route, but I refused to take the route it suggested. Every time I ignored a suggestion it told me I was off route and recalculated within 5 or 10 seconds. Finally I got to a point in my route where it jived with the unit, but that was basically at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel. Naturally I lost satellite signal going through the tunnel, but it picked it up immediately when I got out and it picked up with the directions.

It was totally wrong about how to get to Rt. 280 from Rt. 80, too. That was the route it wanted me to take (but not the one I take) so I ignored it. had I not known any better I'd have been screwed because it told me to take the right hand exit which is not 280, it's Rt. 46. I reported the discrepancy to Garmin.

I like it a lot. I hate getting lost and for some reason getting lost is really easy for me. I've literally spent hours circling Dallas at times. This should help.

Jim