whats the best Auto GPs under $350?

[tvanwho]

I need a GPS for my van so I don't have to lug around all these state atlases and maps printed off my computer for offroad gold hunting trips.
I can get a Garmin C340 for $199 altho I hear it is discontinued now.I want that Voice to spoken street names feature and a large screen and good lock on ability in creek valleys and under trees plus something that can help me find my way around on dirt ,sometimes unmarked, backroads. I can't afford more than about $350. The Garnin Nuvi 350 looks like a possibility .I will have to admit, the Bluetooth phone feature would be cool to have plus the ability to TELL the GPS to take me HOME versus having to punch buttons when I am tired from gold digging. I have 3 Garmin handhelds units already in case you think I am biased towards any one brand but I am open to others? Reliability, ease of use, and the Voice to Speech for spoken street names are my main considerations.
Thanks.

-Tom

 

[hsjrev]

My wife has the 350 and she loves it. The only time I've really used it myself was when we went on vacation in the Seattle area last fall and used it in our rental car. Worked great and highly recommended. We got a Nuvi 260 for my neice in college this Christmas and she says it's been working great for her. The 260 was the cheapest model with spoken street names at the time and I assume still is. The 260 has all the same navigation stuff, just not the MP3, audio books, FM traffic update option, and some other accesories that we never used on the 350 anyway.

Amazon.com had the best price and free shipping when we were looking.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

I second the Nuvi350 recommendation or maybe even 360 if you want the phone interface. My son got one and he loves it.

 

[sopg1155]

Hello Tom,I have seen the Garmin Streetpilot C550
on Ebay lately going for under $200.00 and they
are a great GPS unit.I use one for delivering
freight around my area and it is great.I wouldn't
go to work without it. Gary

 

[hsjrev]

Costco has the Nuvi 650 for $300 and free shipping on their website now through 3/23. You have to be a Costco member to order it.

 

[leesumm]

I just posted a reply under "Help selecting first GPS", for another curious. But check out the Lowrance XOG it will play MPG files , view photos on a SD card and you have the ability to download maps from their map site with what appears to be little cost

 

[George-CT]

I got it for $150 bucks off of Ebay. Seems like with detectors people are always moving up in bells and whistles with them and there are a lot of them on there.

 

[Guvner]

No one sells them here and this post is a bit old so I'll put up here that I just bought the wife another Nuvi 660 for aprox. $312 about 5 months ago from BuyDig.com and I think they're under $290 now. That one has all the bells and whistles including the SD card reader, Audible reader, Bluetooth and has the wide 4 inch screen. Quite a bit brighter and more definition then the Nuvi 350 which she had and a friend going to Texas asked me how much I wanted for it when he liked it. He got a deal and I got out of having a better one then the wife. Now she's going to want the Kenwood with the 7 inch screen..

Buydig.com will make you sign for everything though but I've bought at least 3 digital cameras and now 3 GPS's from them. No extra sales attempted. They just seem to be happy with turning their inventory over.

Guvner..

 

[tvanwho]

Does anybody have one of them Lowrance Xlog GPS units for both hiking and the car? The ads say it has available topographic maps but doesn't actually say whether the topo maps are built into the unit or have to be purchased later and for how much? Garmin has a similar unit, the Model 500-just out Nov 2008, but it costs an extra 99 dollars to get MAP SOURCE topo maps for it and you only get 1:100,000 scale which seems useless for hiking/prospecting purposes. I need 1:24,000 scale USGS maps or smaller. My eyes cannot focus well on the small screen handheld GPS units.I need the 3.5 or 4.3 inch screens I think and color and well under $300 with the maps.Meiers Dept stores has the Lowrance for $150 but my local store doesn't stock it,they told me to order it online.Gander Mountain had them for $180 but again not in stock.Sportmens Guide.com wants $280 I want to see/hear about one before I buy?

-Tom

 

[BarberBill]

I purchased a Nuvi 260 this summer for a trip to the Dakotas. It worked very well and really served our needs and then some. We especially liked being able to bring up a listing of motels in the destination cities and being able to make reservations on the fly by cell phone, from rest stops or as we traveled. The accuracy and coverage was surprisingly complete with only one or two minor gaps in the information. Best one under $350? Darned if I know, but it certainly was more than adequate and I can suggest it as a very good choice.
BB

 

[leesumm]

I have to say it again, the Lowrance XOG is the best for the money. At Walmart they can be had for under $200 now. And with the Map Select option and a high speed Isp you can custom order your own topo or sat view map from the internet at Lowrances site for about 5 bucks. Also if you are really interested in the USA topo area you can go to some place like Bass Pro Shop or Lowrance on line and get a software CD called Map Create which works in the Lowrance XOG and make your own maps in full detail for terrain . But , as it is the XOG is the only GPS unit under $200 that I have found that has the detail of any GPS. I live in Arkansas in a National Forest area of about 180,000 the built in map that is preloaded in the XOG shows even the smallest out dated forest road that isnt supposed to be there even some trails meant for ATV;s and off road vehicles less to mention it even shows some creeks that dont show on any Atlas . Give the XOG a shot , I drive a truck and use the XOG daily and have for over a year and it hasnt failed yet . The only thing it dont always give the fastest or shortest route but it is the most complete and accurate of any tried so far.

P.S. I just purchased a Magellan 3100 refurbished for 79.99 $ and it isnt worth $10. for the money. The detail is less than desireable for second class roads but it does give the fastest and shortest easily , but thats the extent of it .

 

[falafal]

Why get a Garmin Nuvi for $350 when you can get a Garvin Nuvi 650 for $225 at Sam's Club. I bought mine December 2007 and paid $425, now 1 year later it's $200 cheaper.

 

[leesumm]

Why buy Magellan or Garmin and pay the price for a inferior product when the Lowrance XOG will do it all. One can carry it in the shirt pocket, use it for turn by turn directions in a car, use it on a atv,walking, hikeing, hunting etc. ? I tried all the name brands before buying the XOG and for the money it cant be matched for the price . One can customize thier own maps for any region in the U.S. for little as 5$ and get a satellite view or topo view of the area. The detail on the installed maps is unbeleivable more than what any average person would need . But dont listen to someone who is in the know, just find out for yourselfs

 

[tvanwho]

At 5 bucks a map and considering all the maps I would want, it could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars .Now ,if all XOG maps could be had for like 30 bucks a year, unlimited downloads, like DeLorme has with their PN40, and IF the XOG had text to speech, and a 3 axis compass like the PN40, I'd snap it up in a flash,even for $350.

-Tom,ps, lookin at Garmin 760 now, for $225 at Walmart, Bluetooth, ability to input GPS coordinates, Punch a button and it tells you where you parked your car and can take you back to that spot, and a 4 inch color screen, fast lock in to satellites, not the holy grail of GPS ,but close. Just need a PN40 or XOG ,married to a Garmin 760 combo. I can't read small screens anymore like on the PN40, too much eye strain.

 

[tvanwho]

Meiers had them on sale for $149.99 but none in stock or online? Never seen them at Walmart. Bestbuy is $189.99 but never seen one in stock.I sure could use that map detail searching for gold . The DeLorme PN40 has that kind of detail and even aerial maps BUT I can't see the tiny screen without my eyes gettin all fuzzy from the strain. I will look for the Map Create thing? I have also heard XOG eats batteries real quick, like 2 hours tops . How do I deal with that issue when out in the woods? Does it have a builtin compass? How do you get from point a to point b with it and back to your truck? I need an idiot proof unit for when my brain isn't working too good?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[leesumm]

ok, let me clear one thing. on the Lowrance and downloading custom maps, the maps cover the USGS maps and can be had in sat.terrain and street view if I recall right. The maps are cut out in grids which I downloaded two for my lowrance and they covered about 50 square miles in terrain view. I use them on my atv in the summer and hunting seasons to scout around in the National Forest close to where I live.
Now since the Lowrance I bought a new one for my big truck (a truck driver) .. Its a Garmin 265W/T good detail out of the box for high way motoring but not even close to the lowrance for off road detail.
Make your choice. This is only two suggestions.
Also with the lowrance for an addtional cost you can order a cd for off road mapping which is in even greater detail than the preloaded maps or the maps online to download and cover the USA .

 

[Guvner]

I recommended them to a friend of mine who bought a refurbished one on Ebay in September. It came with a one year warranty from Garmin. It broke in December. He sent them the receipt he got from Paypal and they refused to accept it. Apparently they knew the Ebay company went under as they demanded a copy supplied from the seller who was no longer around. They've been nothing but rude to this friend of mine and when he asked them how much they'd charge to refurbish it again they asked for $150 and they also started returning phone calls. Apparently they might just be on the brink with customer service like this. I personally have caused about 10 people to buy Garmins and that is over. I'm a little shocked at what has become of their customer service. I will get involved personally in this tomorrow when I get all of the receipts from my friend and contact them. I've bought 5 personally over the last 6 years. I even made sure my new Kenwood in dash DVD had the Garmin in it.

I will report back but based on their attitude when someone stole my FM/Power supply to my Nuvi 660 where they told me they wouldn't cancel my traffic subscription and move it to my new Garmin I'd say avoid them like the plague and read every review out there on these companies. Interestingly enough my Sprint Motorola Q9C has GPS capabilities from NavTech who apparently supplies Garmin also. You might want to contact Navtech or ask Andrew here what else they're in. Very nice GPS mapping I think. Every one of my friends that saw mine close up bought a Garmin when they decided to buy GPS's for their cars.

Just my take on it...

Guvner..

 

[leesumm]

I have the Garmin 265W/T now which I use in my big truck (truck driver) its not as comprehensive as some of the more expensive models just for truckers or as detailed as my Lowrance XOG which I now use when on my atv in the back woods of Arkansas on the forest trails. But I like the Garmin and had to call Customer Service with a question about the lifetime traffic. They seemed to be very nice and answered all my questions in depth and were very polite. I did a lot of research on the Garmin site of different models before chooseing this one which I bought from Walmart.Com. Dont ever do that again thats a different story altogether. The traffic on the Garmin is a little funky but its very accurate it did show where the backups were in Houston 20 miles before I got there and some traffic problems in Lousianna on some construction.
When doing some research I did find on Garmin's site something about not honoring the ebay refurbished units as they had to be returned to the seller . I am sure it states it in plain English on the site . But still the Garmin is a good unit under 300 $ for on road use by the normal users in cars. The Lowrance as I have said many times before is very detailed for off road as it is called a "crossover" by Lowrance which I have some addtitional software I can make my own terrain maps even more detailed for off road and hunting etc.