| Author | Message | ||
     Old_bird |
About 3 weeks ago there was a recommendation request for a simple GPS unit for a car. I borrowed a coworker's C330 for my recent 2,300 mile vacation and found it to be a great, simple unit to use. It wasn't perfect, but it was very good and IMO worth the price. Its color touchscreen was intuitively easy to use. I could program in an address and let it guide me and I could add parameters, like avoid highways, dirt roads, shortest route, fastest route, etc. While I looked at the manual before using it, the manual wasn't necessary except for notice that the unit isn't water proof and shouldn't be stored in a not car. Where it really shines is in map mode with a destination specified. You can see upcoming cross streets, where you are and where you are heading. If I made a wrong turn, it quickly recalculated and gave me new directions. The voice prompts for making turns were given in plenty of time for making the turns that varied appropriately for my speed. The lower left corner gave an estimated arrival time which was pretty accurate and changed appropriately as I varied speed and stopped times. I could easily change to trip info such as current speed, miles traveled, etc by tapping the arrival time. It still gave me voice prompts for turns in this mode. There is an easy to see back "button" for going back to map mode. In several instances, I easily added a via point before my ultimate destination. This was easy to do without consulting the manual. The other place it really shines is providing lodging, gas and restaurant info. At one point in our trip, we were going without a hotel reservation. The info and directions to hotels was easily understandable and erased a lot of the worry of locating lodging in a rural area. The ability to find restaurants in unfamilar cities was very easy, likewise finding gas stations. The locations were listed starting closest first with an arrow indicating the general direction. These could be filtered by type of food. Tapping on a particular destination resulted in an offer to map a route and guide me to it. As I said, I found it to be a great unit. IMO, it is worth the price. My co-worker, who is directionally challenged, loves it and missed it dearly for the two weeks I had it. My wife initially ridiculed it as a gadget but before our trip was over was saying we should get one. If I was directionally challenged, I would definitely have one. I'm sure I will have one the next time I take a vacation. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Greg,that was me,looking for one for my "directionally challenged" wife.Thanks for the 411. | ||
| Toona |
Are GPS systems a one price deal i.e., once you pay for it, you are done, or is there a monthly/yearly subscription like XM satellite radio? | ||
| Old_bird |
Toona, I believe the answer to your questions is, "It depends on what you buy and how you use it." The C330 I used was a one time purchase cost. It did not include downloading or purchasing additional maps. My co-worker says updates are free and the C330 came with a cord to hook into a pc. I believe there are additional maps available but I don't know if Garmin charges for them. Seeing the maps and info that came with it, I don't see needing additional maps. I believe some of Garmin's upper end units have XM or Sirius capability as well as the ability to tie into some type of current traffic condition and traffic camera reporting. I'm guessing those services would incur some type of recurring cost. Those services weren't an option on the C330. Hope this helps. | ||
| Pwnzor |
GPS service is free. Some companies charge for the maps or additional software. |
