Car GPS System

[ayushd]

Hello All,

I am looking to buy and install a CAR GPS Sytem to my car.
I have been looking around over the web for products, and did come across numerous offerings.

I am a bit confused, has anybody been using one. Please do reply with your suggestions, views and any essentials I should know before going for a GPS system.

Thanks in advance..

[trkklr77]

buy a map.

[miniyota]

i have the garmin GPSMap60CSx

works great. i always have signal. and the screen is colored.

[RustyNailJustin]

I too have been wanting a GPS for my Vehicle. I have not had a chance to do a ton of research, but I know the sky is the limit. From 100$ Walmart garmin's to Thousands of dollar Lowrance units. It really depends on what you are after... To me it would be key to be able to download maps with known roads,topo,and large color screen. I am pretty sure there is some good chit chat on this in the desert racing forum I will see if I can find it.

[miniyota]

for the cost of mine. ~$350 it does more then i'll ever need.

i have a 1 gig, memory card. i can hold tons of maps and waypoints

[Elwenil]

My Garmin Nuvi 250w is great for the highway, not so great for trails. You can put in Longitude and Latitude coordinates for way points, but it really wants an address. for trail use you really want a Lowrance or similar.

[Patrol]

As for a fixed In-Car solution I use a complete car-PC system hooked up to a GPS mouse. Software is Destinator6 for on-road and TTQV or Ozi Explorer for off-road with scanned maps or downloaded maps. I even have 1:50.000 scale topographic maps running on it.
The comp car has a big screen Garmin 162 unit (~500$ new a couple of years ago) fixed mounted and a Garmin GPS III+ as back-up which can also be taken out of the car and run on batteries. Simple system and is super reliable. Nowadays they tend to put everything in there but offroad functions. You may have a look into marine GPS plotters and even look for a used one. The Garmin CSX60 is good one though.

[trkklr77]

my wife has a garmin 3??? . i think it is a worthless piece of shit. buy $300 worht of maps and youll be set for life, and you will learn and better understand the area rather than just be told when and where to turn.

[gabroxy]

I have a garmin GPS 60CSX this unit is known for best signal reception, saves batteries, small screen but with great contrast & backlight. I use mine back in Egypt so I use it with no maps & it great. But when I am in canada I use the street map, works just fine, turn by turn guidance. Get the suction mount.


If you want all that but a larger screen my friends use the garmin 276c chartplotter.

But I heared garmin has now the Nuvi 500 series thats great for the car & trail(geocaching)

My advise go garmin great units & more important best maps

[granitex]

A laptop with a mount is about all that I use anymore, all of the topos are there along with all of the addresses in the US. Since I already had the laptop adding the GPS puck was the best option for me.

[cocco_78]

I also have the garmin 250w and it makes for a decent backup system but the maps are not accurate at all. There are several roads just in my small town that are wrong, its told me to continue through a dead end road just today. The road has never ever been a through road as far as I know. I used it today for deliveries for work, stops in about a dozen small towns, and not one town the maps were correct. I have the newest updated maps, most of the things that were wrong took place where there has been construction 5+ years ago. Hell, google has the maps correct, they need to step up with a hand held gps. I find that it has many many roads on the map that are not there, or once were but not for many many years. I have also tried to use it geocaching but when it gets down to 100' or less to your coords it will just go around and around with the distance and footages, sucks.

[miniyota]

the "stock" map set that comes with garmin is a marine gps map. you need to buy their topo maps or get their street maps. or if you have a jeep commander with the navigation option, just buy the newest map set.:smokin:

I also have the garmin 250w and it makes for a decent backup system but the maps are not accurate at all. There are several roads just in my small town that are wrong, its told me to continue through a dead end road just today. The road has never ever been a through road as far as I know. I used it today for deliveries for work, stops in about a dozen small towns, and not one town the maps were correct. I have the newest updated maps, most of the things that were wrong took place where there has been construction 5+ years ago. Hell, google has the maps correct, they need to step up with a hand held gps. I find that it has many many roads on the map that are not there, or once were but not for many many years. I have also tried to use it geocaching but when it gets down to 100' or less to your coords it will just go around and around with the distance and footages, sucks.

[BlueGerbil]

Garmin GPSMAP 278 :smokin:

http://www.liska.de/bilder/reiseratte.jpg

[miniyota]

has anyone bought the Google Earth Pro Version and used it to download maps to a GPS?

i just noticed you can upgrade. but its $400:eek: per year!

[ayushd]

Thanks for such a good response.
I looked into the products suggested, some do fall in the category I am looking for.
Amongst all I am a bit drifted towards -- Car GPS (http://www.pressdigital.com.au/navigation-vehicle-tracking-mapping/mobile-navigation-p-4559.html)

It is by Press Digital, shas anybody used this system?

[RustyNailJustin]

Thanks for such a good response.
I looked into the products suggested, some do fall in the category I am looking for.
Amongst all I am a bit drifted towards -- Car GPS (http://www.pressdigital.com.au/navigation-vehicle-tracking-mapping/mobile-navigation-p-4559.html)

It is by Press Digital, shas anybody used this system?


Little expensive but that has some nice features.

[ayushd]

Yes comparatively expensive it is, but seems like worth it.
I also had a word to their support and they gave me a detail insight into the applications.
Seems like Press Digital is a reliable vendor too, as their support is very co-operative.
I would not mind paying that extra buck to make sure I am associating with the right vendor and buying the right product.

[Elwenil]

I suppose if you live in Australia it might be worth a shot, but for us here in the US, $900 for GPS software that still requires a laptop seems a bit over the top to me.

[BigKofJustice]

Odd place to ask for a car gps system? I'd imagine any brand name unit would be fine for driving down to the local grocery store or going from city to city.

For off road/expedition use I'd look at something from Lowrance with topological maps and a large screen. [ie. Baja 5xx series for 499$]

[spidr]

I've got a set of topo maps loaded onto Oziexplorer, all on my palm pilot with a bluetooth GPS unit. Best part is I can run it all on the laptop as well, and have ozi 3d on the laptop, and can replay all my runs in 3d.