Which add on navigation brand is best?

[Sheepdog]

The title says it all mostly. I would like to know which add on navigation product you like best? I see that they even come in 4.3 inch display sizes now.

My criteria? the best brand and largest display for the least amount of money ? I'd like to spend 200 bucks maybe? Is that doable? I would probably mount it with the std suction cup adapter to the small triangle glass on the drivers side. Dunno.

Love to hear about your experience. Tom-Tom, Nuvi, what have you.

Thanks!

[ZippyPri]

Originally Posted by Sheepdog

The title says it all mostly. I would like to know which add on navigation product you like best? I see that they even come in 4.3 inch display sizes now.

My criteria? the best brand and largest display for the least amount of money ? I'd like to spend 200 bucks maybe? Is that doable? I would probably mount it with the std suction cup adapter to the small triangle glass on the drivers side. Dunno.

Love to hear about your experience. Tom-Tom, Nuvi, what have you.

Thanks!

I have a nuvi, I like the garmin brand...think they are dependable and easy to use. I bout a "nav mat" thing that sits on the dash and then wired the gps power cord down near the driver side door and under steering to the lower 12 volt. the gps sits right in the little triangle window next to driver side. Gps is easy to see and not high enough to interfere with vision through windhshield. Hope I helped.


ps. most gpssuction things are not long enough to fit in the side window...there are after market ones I saw them in radio shack one time., but they were real bulky so went with the mat.

[go4less]

I just purchased the sony gps with bluetooth NV-u83t. I paid 329 in Canada but it should be cheaper if you are in the U.S. It has the large screen and the hands free for the cell is great. I did a lot of research and this one I like the best (that and it was 449 and on sale for 329---although there is not a lot of difference in most of them.

[snijd]

Just picked up a Garmin Nuvi 200W at Target for $180, and am quite impressed. It finds destinations much faster than our built-in unit in another vehicle. It's also nice not to need a CD or DVD, since maps for the USA are built-in. You can view Garmin's video about it at nuvi 200W demo movie

[Sheepdog]

snijd,

I really like that 200W. how did you attache it to the Prius?

[F8L]

I read a lot of complaints about other brands and it seemed like the Garmin units had the lowest amount of complaints so I bought one. The Nuvi 660 is being discontinued so you might find a great deal on one, better than what I paid anyway at $320. Otherwise the lower model Nuvi's look attractive for the price.

[snijd]

So far I've only used the provided suction cup mount, which works well. However, I'm sure this will leave the tell-tale evidence of a portable GPS on the windshield, which serves as an invitation to thieves. I've ordered a Nav Mat friction dash mount.

[Flying White Dutchman]

any TOMTOM navigation system
there the best

[rigormortis]

tom tom is good they got that map correction thing, if you go with tom tom try and get one that comes with a year of free maps, i think costco USED to do that? and save the
receipts. otherwise tom tom gives you "1 free map"* and every 3 months wants $99 for a new map.

i got a 920t, and now the 930t's came out and theres no way for me to get the 930 features, i tried over a couple days and i couldn't get it to work

i got the core 8 version and got the version 8 map, but the map wouldn't work so i
deleted the tom tom flash drive and replaced it from a back up

*- first map is free, but don't expect their tom tom home program to actually tell you that there is an actual map out for months it said i had the "Latest map" even though
there was a newer map found in the map store, and i had to call tom tom 3-4 months later to plead my case and i eventually got a new map for free, then a week came by and yet another map came out, so i got 2 free maps.

tom tom will only give you a years worth of free maps if you can provide proof and access codes and receipts and related photocopies to justify your year of free months claim.

both times to get the free map it involved actually talking to tomtom customer service and tom tom manually copying the map file into my tom tom account

[rigormortis]

i hear good things about dash.net, it has a two way traffic connection over GPRS, but they want a monthly use fee and you can save a couple bucks by prepaying a year or 2 of service or paying month to month

if you get traffic, get something that uses a rds-tmc, in the states rds-tmc signals come from clear channel which owns a lot of fm radio stations and it has pretty good signal coverage

skip the msn traffic service, it relies heavily on msn's transmitters