Subject: [Shop-talk] Looking for GPS recommendations

From: Gene Abbondelo <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 08:35:54 -0400

Shop-talkers:

I'm planning on getting my son a decent GPS for his car as a birthday gift.
His car doesn't have one currently.  I myself have never used one.  Any
recommendations on a good, reliable brand to get? What about updates?

Thanks,  Gene
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From: "John T. Blair" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:30:32 -0400

At 08:35 AM 9/14/2015, Gene Abbondelo wrote:

 >I'm planning on getting my son a decent GPS for his car as a 
birthday gift.  His
 >car doesn't have one currently.  I myself have never used one.  Any

  Gene,

I prefer simpler things.  I have a Gramon that I paid about $125 for 
at least 5
years old.  I like it and I especially like the ability to find 
things by type, like food -
steak, fast food, etc, Drug store, etc.  I think most of them now 
have voice turn
by turn which is a must have so you can keep your eyes on the road more.

The only down side to these commercial gps, is they require periodic 
update for their maps (databases).  This can cost about $100.  So 
look what the vendor does
for map updates.

Now that being said, does you son have a smart phone or thinking of 
getting one
is the near futgure?  If so you he won't really need a gps.  A smart 
phone can access google maps if you have a data plan for the 
phone.  This not only will route
you, it show traffic slowdowns, and can/will try to route out around 
major delays.

Some of the GPSs do this but they charge extra for it.  So you need to look at
the cost of the GPS, map updates, traffic alerts vs a smart phone, 
it's data plan
and using google maps.

Now that my wife has the smart phone, we usually use that when we are 
on the road.  But if I'm going somplace in my car (I don't have a 
smart phone) I take my
gps and get buy with it.

One other thing in closing, the gps I have isn't as accomodating as 
google maps is
for finding a round and our letting you easily modifiy the route.

Bottom line, I prefer the google maps with the data plan.

John

John T. Blair  WA4OHZ     email:  [email-masked]
Va. Beach, Va                  Phone:  (757) 495-8229

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From: "Matt" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 14:22:19 GMT

+1 for google maps w/ smart phone. MB
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From: "Randall" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:35:59 -0700

> Lifetime map updates - don't buy without this feature.  Map updatess
> can cost as much as a whole new unit...

I agree entirely, but don't expect too much from the updates.  I updated my Nuvi just before leaving home on a road trip a few
months ago, and found at least a half dozen places where the updated map did not match the actual road.  Some of the incorrect roads
had been changed recently (within the past year), but others were at least several years old.  We also found a restaurant listing
where a new restaurant was listed in the same location, but the old one had not been deleted; plus several more that just weren't
there (and no sign they had been there recently).

The Nuvi also doesn't tell you about roads that are only passable at certain times; eg ferries that don't run on some days or fords
that are impassable when the water is high.

OTOH, Google maps seems to usually think such things just don't exist.  My brother-in-law's smart phone was going to route us 50+
miles out of the way, instead of waiting 10 minutes for the next ferry.

-- Randall  

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