Stop me before I buy this

Posted by: tfabris

Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 17:49

I'm considering making this impulse buy. There's a CarToys within shouting distance of my house...

Since the Empeg's GPS software doesn't do automatic routing and re-routing, it's not very useful for me when I need to drive around traffic jams (something I'm now going to be doing daily). I'd love to have a toy like this for my daily commute.

So, quickly, before I run out and buy one of these today, does anyone here know of a better unit for that price?
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:01

I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy a GPS nav unit without first comparing it in use to a TomTom One. In my opinion TomTom have the best interface and functionality.

That said, I haven't seen the Magellan unit in operation, but the TomTom is better than any other brand GPS nav unit I have seen.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:04

Hm. Not sure the TomTom One would be useful to me... ?
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:07

Wrong one, you want this one

http://www.tomtom.com/products/section.php?ID=259&Section=386&Category=0&Lid=4
Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:08

I second the TomTom units!
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:09

Though looking at the reviews of the US version it looks like some people are unhappy that it uses Tele Atlas rather than NAVTEQ data.

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2006/09/review_tomtom_one.html

Looks like the cheapest you can get the TomTom One for in the US is about $420.
Posted by: sein

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:14

Quote:
TomTom is better than any other brand GPS nav unit I have seen.

Yes absolutely, the TomTom One v2 is excellent (edit: in the UK). Recommended it to a few people and they are all very happy with it.
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:15

Oh, and in case it helps, the TomTom is a Linux box...

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:19

Hm. The fact that it uses SD cards is possibly a selling point. Plus the fact that it's all-of-North-America instead of just USA.

Of course, it's selling for $499, and I could also get a Garmin unit that did all-of-North-America for $499.

My CarToys says they'll beat any local competior's price. Wonder if I can find anyone selling it in Seattle for less than $499...
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:21

Quote:
Yes absolutely, the TomTom One v2 is excellent.

Hm, so far everyone recommending the TomTom is from England. As the review said, it's map data source is somewhat lacking for the USA. Hm....
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:26

I just used it for a 2,000+ mile trip round the rest of Europe if that helps, though it probably doesn't.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:29

Here's a question about the TomTom.

I'm reading a review of the Magellan unit on that same web site that you linked to me. And it says this in its review:
Quote:
The final step is telling the Magellan how it should calculate the route. The unit offers 4 options to choose from:
* Shortest Time
* Shortest Distance
* Least Use of Freeways
* Most Use of Freeways
There's also an option to tell the RoadMate to avoid tolls.


Since one of my primary daily uses of a GPS will be to avoid freeway congestion, does the TomTom have a similar feature, allowing me to cut out freeways in my route?
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:38

I can't answer the question definitely for the US version. On the EU version there are two ways of achieving this.

The first is that one of the journey types is "avoid freeways". The other way is to select "fastest" and then go into the route detail and tell it to avoid certain roads (or rather road segments).

That review isn't exactly the most through I have seen, there are any features that it doesn't cover.

One area where TomTom isn't so good is manuals (much like Apple), it tends to be a voyage of discovery to find all the smaller features...
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:43

Stop don't do it

If you want routes around traffic jams during the work commute can't you just learn the alternate routes.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:49

Well, I also want a new toy.
Posted by: BartDG

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 18:57

Quote:

That review isn't exactly the most through I have seen, there are any features that it doesn't cover.


Maybe this review can help. (and yes, I also have a ONE NE, and LOVE it!)
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 19:18

Again, lots of love for the TomTom from European customers. But the linked review of the unit really had bad things to say about its US mapping...
Posted by: robricc

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 22:31

Quote:
...and I could also get a Garmin unit that did all-of-North-America for $499.

Wrong! You can buy the Garmin C320 for under $300. Get a 1GB SD card and it can hold all of North America. It's speedy and cheap. I have one and it works great. My previous GPS units were all Garmins as well.

Garmin uses Navteq maps which are apparently better in the US than Tele Atlas (used by Tom Tom), but I have never been able to compare the two head-to-head.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 22:55

I ended up getting the Magellan unit.

I brought a printout of the a bunch of internet prices on the thing, which ranged from 306.00 to a tad under $350.00. CarToys flat out said they don't pricematch internet sites (which is actually contrary to what their web site says) so I took my business down the street to Best Buy, who said they'd give it to me for $349.00 based on the Buy.com price. Which is impressive, considering that's 50 bucks off.

I played around with it a bit this afternoon, and am happy with the purchase. Some nice features, a decent user interface. Perfectly usable.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/11/2006 22:57

Nice suggestion on the Garmin, by the way, but the C320 wouldn't fit my form factor. I wanted it to be about the size and shape of the Magellan 2000 or the Tom Tom One.
Posted by: Ladmo

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 02:56

Well, I waited to add my two cents worth (no, you can't have change!), but I wanted to know if anyone else besides me has horror stories of CarToys installs or "The Install From Hell!! I posted such a story years ago, and I have not graced one of their shops since, and I have made many recommendations AGAINST them to many of my friends, including a fleet deal. Just goes to show you what a lousy tech, and a rep who is less that truthfull can do.
Tony, I hoep you did not let CT install it for you!
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 07:38

Fortunately, the device isn't the type that needs an install per se. And even if it were, I would have done it myself.

As it stands, I'm trying to come up with a system of mounting it that's relatively stealth and that can be removed completely when I'm parked. (i.e., no visible mounting brackets indicating to thieves that I even own something that can be mounted.)

It actually comes with a suction cup mount which meets that specification, but that impinges on the windshield view. I'm messing with ideas for various points to put temporary thumbscrew connections.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 12:53

The one I have, the Garmin StreetPilot i2, I have suction-cupped to my windshield just to the left of my rear-view mirror. It doesn't block sight of anything and it a fairly convenient location to glance at it while driving. It does keep me from using my sun visor, though. Not a big deal for me since I use one about twice a year. Probably less of a deal for you living in the Pacific Northwest now.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 17:21

I tried several different locations for the unit when suction cupped to the windshield, including near the rearview, and disliked all of them. Athought I might reconsider the arrangement if my current solution turns out to be bad in the long run...

My current solution (worked it out last night) is very unobtrusive in terms of mounting hardware, and uses one of the existing screws on the instrument cluster cowling as its mounting anchor. It worked out quite well for this morning's commute. Basically, the unit's screen sits at the top edge of my instrument cluster. It's just above the 1 o'clock position of my steering wheel, with just enough space between it and the wheel to allow comfortable hand-over turns without bumping. And it's close enough to my right hand when driving in 10-and-2 position that I can hit the touchscreen controls without taking my hand very far from the wheel at all. Line-of-sight-wise, it manages to be just visible above the wheel (maybe about 1cm is cut off of the lower left corner, but that's OK because that's a fairly large icon that doesn't need to be 100 percent visible to be readable), and sits just below the lower edge of my windshield. So I can actually look directly at it without taking my eyes very off the road. I can still see the car ahead of me in my vision even if I'm focusing directly on the thing. This works out well, because I would hate to get in an accident because of looking too far down at the GPS screen.

The bracket I'm mounting it with is not quite as pretty as I'd like it to be (but still prettier and more stealth than a suction cup mount), so I'll work on it some more and see what I come up with. Once I have it looking its best, I'll post some photos.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 17:39

Quote:
Wrong! You can buy the Garmin C320 for under $300. Get a 1GB SD card and it can hold all of North America.

Wow- that's a great price. Occasionally they come up at Fry's for $300 and I've had my eye on them. Every time I get lost in a SF I wish I had one with me.
What's the deal with the maps? Where does one download them from and what do they cost?
The C320 might be a nice Christmas gift for my mom, now that I think about it.
Posted by: robricc

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 18:16

The maps come on the DVD-ROM that comes with the unit. The C320 comes with a 128MB card, but you can add anything up to 2GB. A 1GB SD card is enough to hold the entire mapset including 50 USA states, Canada and I think some of Mexico.

Just load-up the maps once for your mom and she will never have to plug it in to a computer again.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 06/11/2006 20:11

Nice!
Thanks, Rob.
I threw the C320 in my cart at Amazon this morning (thinking I'd come back and read more later). Glad I did because between then and now the price has increased $6. Weird.

I haven't done much looking/reading yet, but I found this GPS forum to be (at first glance) a good stop:
http://gpsinformation.info/forum/

Also, the Garmin site is informative, complete with firmware updates:
http://www.garmin.com/products/sp320/

The price is the real deal clincher here. A friend of mine has an $800 zippie-doodle Garmin, but I'm not into spending that kind of money for a navigator. The C320 has been out for two years now, and I think that should point to an adequately satisfied user base.
I like how simple the interface seems to be.
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 08/11/2006 00:38

To chime in as an American Tom Tom user, I love the Tom Tom Navigator 5 I've used interfaced with a Palm Treo 650. The very useful phone is the screen, speaker, and storage for the tiny bluetooth GPS. Could use it walking around a city as much as avoiding traffic on a 12 lane highway.

Only problem, old Treo 650 can only use one bluetooth device at once. GPS or headset, that's it. The new Cingular Treo 680(p) (and their 750w?) support multiple Bluetooth devices. Finally, that makes the Tom Tom Navigator 5 just about perfect.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 15/11/2006 00:22

I've had the c320 for about 5 months now (purchased it for my wife, but I use it a lot) and love it! She was using it the day I plugged it in with only about 30 seconds of instructions from me (she's not too tech savy). I purchased it BECAUSE it didn't have a built-in hard drive. With the SD card, you can updated waypoints or maps without uninstalling the unit. Also, the SDCard won't die on you like a hard drive AND you get better battery life. On top of that, you actually get a copy of the City Select maps with the c320 which Garmin lets you install on one additional unit. If you get the higher end version with the hard drive, you don't get the DVD.

$274.99 with free shipping

I always thought that battery life was an odd seller point since it's always plugged into a power source, but it came in handy recently when we switched vehicles to do a little real estate shopping. I just sat in the back seat of my brother-in-law's Jeep and told them where to go.

I just wish there were more fun voices for it!
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 15/11/2006 04:24

My c320 arrived today!
I put in a 2GB SD card and loaded up ALL of the North America map info onto it - that took the better part of 2 hours.
Did some basic configurations in the setup menus and then let it try to tell me how to drive home. It recalculated a couple of times (I drove my normal commute route) and once thought I was on a parallel side road (due to recent changes in the main street's layout). Other than that it was really fun.
This independent review says the screen backlighting is a problem in daylight (not bright enough), but compared to others in that price range there isn't much room for complaint. It's certainly bright enough in the evening hours.
Another complaint is the lack of verbal announcement of the intersection names. Meh- I can afford a glance down to read the name.
My housemate was going out to dinner so I tossed it to him (well, not really) with about a minute of introduction. He had no problems and ran it for both legs of his journey. Now he's thinking about getting one.
Truly a marvel- and a great price.
Of course, next year a navigator GPS will be the size of a wristwatch, cost $50, and be compatible with the OS in my flying car... but for today the c320 is a cool widget.
Posted by: loren

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 23/11/2006 15:35

Doh, wish I'd have seen this thread earlier. Kelly got a TomTom One about a month ago for her cross country and out of town stays while she does her Optometry residencies, and so far she loves it. I much prefer the Garmin data, as the TeleAtlas stuff has proven way out of date in many instances.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 24/11/2006 19:24

An update on how things are going with the Magellan unit:

Its software and UI clearly need a bit of a dot-one upgrade. This feels like late beta or one-dot-zero software. There are some things that don't work well, and it tends to have strange kinds of occasional lockups. Fortunately, those are solved with a poke at its reset switch, and for the most part, the UI is just fine.

Its mapping data is very accurate (in one instance, more accurate than an expensive printed map book I had in the car in the case of one obscure side street), but its choices about where to route me I disagree with sometimes. Not because it's wrong, but because I know more about the streets than it does. For example, at one point it routed me directly straight across a busy multilane highway. Which is a legal thing to do at that spot on that highway, but it doesn't know that the intersection it chose to do it at doesn't have any stop signs or signals to stop the highway traffic and give me the faintest chance of making it straight across. If it had only routed me one block further north first, I would have had a proper signal intersection at which to make it across the highway.

It does do a good job of rerouting me when I go off the beaten track. I've avoided a number of serious traffic jams with it. Which was the primary purpose for me buying it, and it does it well. It is, however, still up to me to remember which of the main sidestreets get badly jammed at rush hour and avoid those.

One thing I'd like to see changed in its next dot-upgrade: Avoiding multiple streets. Let's say I've already told it to route me sans-freeways to avoid traffic jams. Okay, great. Now it puts me on a sidestreet that's also jammed. I punch in "avoid this street" and it does so. But then let's say the street it routes me down is ALSO jammed. If I punch in "avoid THAT street", it re-routes me down the first street. (even though I know for a fact there's a third option it's not giving me.) In other words, it can only remember how to avoid ONE street, and as soon as I try to punch in a second street to avoid, it forgets I'd told it to avoid the first one.

On the good side, I really like how it knows all the Chevron stations and Wendy's restaurants on my main routes. And the indications of when it's approaching the next turn are dead-accurate and give me exactly as much information as I need to be able to make the turns comfortably without missing them.
Posted by: Ladmo

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 25/11/2006 16:07

Are y'all talking about the Garmin c320? Is it the same one at walmart.com? If so, the price is quite a bit less, and our local Walmart has it for abot 10.00 usd less than the on line price? I was just wondering if it is a different unit to be so much cheaper.
Thanks.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 25/11/2006 17:41

Hmm- interesting.
As you said, walmart.com has the price of $268.82, while Amazon.com's price has come up to $299.99.
When I bought mine from Amazon it was $268, then that same day the price jumped to $275.
Posted by: robricc

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 28/11/2006 19:27

Now $248 on Walmart.com
Posted by: Daria

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 29/11/2006 01:37

Quote:

On the good side, I really like how it knows all the Chevron stations and Wendy's restaurants on my main routes. And the indications of when it's approaching the next turn are dead-accurate and give me exactly as much information as I need to be able to make the turns comfortably without missing them.

I bet this would piss me off, I prefer Sheetz or Wawa, and "regionally interesting" restaurants. As it happens I do want something similar to this, but it would need to know more.
Posted by: andy

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 29/11/2006 06:04

Quote:

One thing I'd like to see changed in its next dot-upgrade: Avoiding multiple streets. Let's say I've already told it to route me sans-freeways to avoid traffic jams. Okay, great. Now it puts me on a sidestreet that's also jammed. I punch in "avoid this street" and it does so. But then let's say the street it routes me down is ALSO jammed. If I punch in "avoid THAT street", it re-routes me down the first street. (even though I know for a fact there's a third option it's not giving me.) In other words, it can only remember how to avoid ONE street, and as soon as I try to punch in a second street to avoid, it forgets I'd told it to avoid the first one.



Which is exactly the sort of feature that TomTom has had for forever, if only it had the right map data for you

You can even tell TomTom to avoid cities and towns or permanently exclude it from a give areas.

P.S. one area of map data that TomTom is lousy for even in the UK is points of interest data. Its selection of gas stations, rest stops, restaurants etc is hopelessly out of date.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 29/11/2006 13:47

My cheap-ass Garmin StreetPilot i2 has virtually every restaurant in its data set. It's occasionally inaccurate for various reasons, but it works damn well. I imagine that anything superior to it (which is to say, virtually everything) will at least have that feature, though I could be wrong.
Posted by: larry818

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 03/12/2006 16:15

Quote:
Quote:

On the good side, I really like how it knows all the Chevron stations and Wendy's restaurants on my main routes. And the indications of when it's approaching the next turn are dead-accurate and give me exactly as much information as I need to be able to make the turns comfortably without missing them.

I bet this would piss me off, I prefer Sheetz or Wawa, and "regionally interesting" restaurants. As it happens I do want something similar to this, but it would need to know more.


I thought that this was a lousy feature too, until I was using a Nissan gps in Taiwan. It showed me every 7-11 and other big chain store on the map because, as it turns out, they are way easier to spot than street names, and you can see them further out.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 04/12/2006 17:15

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:

On the good side, I really like how it knows all the Chevron stations and Wendy's restaurants on my main routes. And the indications of when it's approaching the next turn are dead-accurate and give me exactly as much information as I need to be able to make the turns comfortably without missing them.

I bet this would piss me off, I prefer Sheetz or Wawa, and "regionally interesting" restaurants. As it happens I do want something similar to this, but it would need to know more.


I thought that this was a lousy feature too, until I was using a Nissan gps in Taiwan. It showed me every 7-11 and other big chain store on the map because, as it turns out, they are way easier to spot than street names, and you can see them further out.


So- let me get this straight...
The locations of these shops are shown? always?
I think it's pretty normal that a navigator has a database of the locations- so that they're 'known', but in the case of my Garmin it won't show you anything but your destination or 'favorites'.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 04/12/2006 20:12

On my unit, the points of interest are shown as little icons on the map as I drive by. (A gas pump for gas stations, knife and fork for restaurants, etc.) It's configurable as to which ones get shown on the realtime map, so you can choose the amount of clutter. If I touch one of the icons, it brings up name and the details of that point of interest.

I can also search for points of interest by category (gas stations, restaurants), or I can have it list all points of interest nearby. I can also have it list all points of interest at upcoming freeway offramps.

I'm assuming most of these GPS units handle all of that in a similar way.
Posted by: larry818

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 05/12/2006 01:50

Quote:
So- let me get this straight...
The locations of these shops are shown? always?
I think it's pretty normal that a navigator has a database of the locations- so that they're 'known', but in the case of my Garmin it won't show you anything but your destination or 'favorites'.


Well, I suppose you could turn it off, but not with my limited chinese. It's on by default and very useful in Taiwan.
Posted by: gbeer

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 16/12/2006 00:40

But why did they have to give it such a lame name. Surely it wasn't so they could use those even lamer commercials.
Posted by: Schido

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 16/12/2006 10:55

Stupid marketing blurb:

Quote:

Why "TomTom"?
Some experts say that language may have begun with drumming, and simple drums like the double-headed Native American tom-tom and the talking drums of Africa, have always been used for signaling, imitating the pitch patterns of language and transmitting messages over many miles. Just like us. And like TomTom products, the tom-tom is simple but versatile, reliable and fun to use.


http://www.tomtom.com/about/about.php?ID=1&Language=1
Posted by: BAKup

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 09/01/2007 14:55

Quote:
To chime in as an American Tom Tom user, I love the Tom Tom Navigator 5 I've used interfaced with a Palm Treo 650. The very useful phone is the screen, speaker, and storage for the tiny bluetooth GPS. Could use it walking around a city as much as avoiding traffic on a 12 lane highway.




Bringing up an old thread, I was looking at getting TT Navigator 6 for my phone, and was wondering if you still was happy with your setup.
Posted by: Robotic

Re: Stop me before I buy this - 02/03/2007 16:46

Quote:
Now $248 on Walmart.com

Just noticed the Garmin C320 for $199.99 at Fry's this weekend.