Portable NAV owners...do you need a subscription

It looks like it:

http://www.garmin.com/products/gtm10/index.jsp

I just bought the Garmin c330 and am happy with it without the traffic updates. If you need to go a different way just hit the detour button and it'll reroute you.

 

Depends on the unit. I have Tomtom Navigator 5 on my smartphone and there is currently no charge for US traffic information. They do charge for European traffic so it may just be temporary until they work the bugs out of their US system. I've been using it for more than 6 months and the information provided by Tomtom is not always the best available. Also, I'm not sure if the same would be true of their dedicated in-car units.

 

Yes, there is a charge. Make sure live traffic is available for your area!!! It is only available in a small number of large cities. You could end up paying for a service you don't get.

It's not available here in Spokane, so I do not know how well it actually works. You could listen to radio traffic reports instead, and just drive a different route. My Street Pilot recalculates the route any time I leave the route it has directed me on.

 

The Pioneer system, for example, requires both XM subscription and XM Nav Traffic subscription. I suggest you go to both XM and Sirius' websites to see what cities they cover.

 

Didn't know traffic was an issue in Spokane. Since PsyPrius lives near Chicago, he'll probably find useful traffic information. The advantage of having it integrated with the nav system is that it can automatically detour around one or more incidents using your planned destination and traffic conditions for multiple alternative routings.