Aftermarket GPS??

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(xbdude @ Aug 8 2006, 02:43 PM) [snapback]299810[/snapback]</div>

I use a Garmin 2620 on a bean bag mount that sits on top of the MFD. Some of the advantages of aftermarket units is their portability and available map upgrades.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seasalsa @ Aug 8 2006, 03:29 PM) [snapback]299830[/snapback]</div>

My Garmin came with a little disk that attaches pretty much anywhere, to which the suction cup is supposed to stick...but I can't seem to make THAT work.

How does the beanbag mount work?

 

i used a garmin nuvi on my volvo xc70 before i bought my prius and loved it. in fact, i decided to keep it despite having a nav system with my prius. anyway, the suction cup thing is super strong and can tilt in any angle and, even though the nuvi had a smaller screen, i never had problems with reading it on the road.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seasalsa @ Aug 8 2006, 03:29 PM) [snapback]299830[/snapback]</div>

Yup, I have a Garmin 2610 for my car (got it 2 years ago when I got the car). If I was to purchase a new unit now, I'd probably go with a Garmin Nuvi 350 or 360.

Garmin seems to have an edge in North American coverage, but the maps for other parts of the world can be very expensive (I think Australia was over $300 for the map data). TomTom includes coverage for North America and Europe, however I've heard that their mapping data for North America isn't as accurate (unconfirmed).

I'll put in a brief plug for www.gpscentral.ca - I've always bought GPS units from them and had excellent service and support.

As handy as it is having a built-in GPS in the dash, it's nice to have a portable unit that you can upgrade easily and take with you on trips and such.

Dave

 

http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/gps/
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Aug 8 2006, 03:44 PM) [snapback]299842[/snapback]</div>

The Garmin 2620 has a clever fitting at the bottom of the unit which mates and locks to the fitting on the four cornered bean bag. The unit can be swiveled vertically and horizontally for best vewing angle. The bean bag sits nicely on the top of the dash and barring a collision it stays where you place it. We've been using ours for a couple of years now and think its great.
Gary

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Canuck @ Aug 8 2006, 07:34 PM) [snapback]299967[/snapback]</div>

Pictures, pretty please?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Aug 8 2006, 07:48 PM) [snapback]299981[/snapback]</div>

You can see the beanbag mount as part of this package.



That's an older model of Garmin GPS with the same mount.

I use one for my 2610 - I much prefer it to using a suction cup for the window.

Dave

 

I have factory nav in my Prius, so I don't use aftermarket GPS in it... but I have Tom Toms in 2 of my other cars and love them. I really like the user interface and feature set on them.

 

Just found and ordered a beanbag for the new garmin...not sure if it will fit my model, but for 12 bucks, I guess I can afford to find out... :blink:

 

I happened to see a Garmin unit on Costco's website, and they had this disclaimer:

NOTICE TO STATE OF CALIFORNIA DRIVERS: California Vehicle Code section 26708(a)(1) provides that "No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied upon the windshield or side or rear windows." Drivers in California should not use the suction mount on their windshield or side or rear windows.

I guess if you get an aftermarket, you have to use a dash mount instead of a windshield mount...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Aug 9 2006, 01:39 AM) [snapback]300095[/snapback]</div>

Yup. Saw that too...anyone been busted for it? (Given that CA seems to DEMAND, for example, the FasTrak transponders, for example, be mounted where?...ON THE WINDSHIELD... :blink: Oh...they use VELCRO, so that must make it ok...) (BUT...the pitch of the Pri windshield makes it VERY difficult to mount a gps there, just for the record...)

 

Garmin makes a very nice GPS unit, I gave my brother a 2620 as a Christmas gift last year, and he uses it all the time when he travels, but the one big benefit (portability) is also it's biggest inconvenience in my case.. Leaving a portable GPS in your car is an invitation to theft, so every time you leave your car, you have to disconnect it and take it with you or more than likely, hide it somewhere in the car (but if you have a mounting bracket left visible, that's still an indication to potential thieves that more than likely, you've just taken the unit off and stuck it in the glove compartment or under the seat, etc), and then when you get back, you have to dig it out and reconnect it, which may not seem like a big deal at first, but it quickly gets to be a real pain.. This is the same reason why most people with the removable faceplate stereos generally end up leaving the things attached.. The other disadvantage is the comparatively small screen- to see anything but a massive mess of lines on the screen, you have to zoom in quite close, but with the small screen, you lose the awareness of the surrounding streets, which is sometimes useful when navigating in an unfamiliar area.. I immediately eliminated the Garmin i-series GPS for their absolutely tiny screens- my cell phone has a bigger screen!! You could buy something like the Lowrance I-Way for the bigger screen, but it's getting up there in price and now it's big enough that it's not really that portable anymore and it's an even bigger pain to disconnect and find some place big enough to stash it when you're leaving the car.. Additionally, up until about a year ago, flash cards big enough to store enough map coverage would have added a significant chunk of cost to any portable GPS; you could still use smaller cards, but you end up having to selectively load in map sections and sacrifice POI and other detail in order to squeeze into a small card, and if you want to travel to some place that you don't have on the card, you have to take the whole messi to your PC and do all the uploading over again because of the security features (it has to read the serial number off your GPS before it will upload maps; you can't just copy files off a disk).. By comparison, most built-in units use double-layer DVDs (8.5 Gb each disk, generally 2 disk set for continental coverage), that contain more complete map coverage and more POI detail (the entire Garmin mapset will fit on a 2 Gb flash I believe, vs close to 12 Gb (about 7.5 Gb actual data each disk, and 1.5 Gb is duplicated on each disk for unit software and voice cues; the rest is map and POI data) for the total database available on a built-in..

For these reasons, and the fact that I already have a small hand-held unit for hiking and other non-vehicular purposes, I opted for an aftermarket in-car unit which is interfaced to the car's MFD for display. You can spend $2500 on the latest and greatest double-DIN units, but older units with outboard display capability are much less expensive, but still have map updates available.. My total cost for an in-car MFD-interfaced system that I could just step out of the car, lock the doors and walk away from, nobody the wiser that I had a nav system in the car, was, if I recall correctly about $600-700 or so which at the time, was not much different than buying a top-of-the-line Garmin Streetpilot series portable..

Overall, I'm very happy with my in-car system, the latest software for it has addressed many of the initial shortcomings and it's level of functionality is very much comparable to the Garmin; in addition, If I had to do it again, I would still go for an in-car system, the only thing I would do differently is go for a different brand.. I think Alpine now sells a low-cost standalone GPS nav box that interfaces to a variety of different outboard touch screens vs. many of the other brands that only come in an expensive integrated stereo/CD/MP3/Nav system with mechanical screens that always jam..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(xbdude @ Aug 8 2006, 05:43 PM) [snapback]299810[/snapback]</div>

We have two, actually, a Garmin StreetPilot and a Garmin iQueM5. The StreetPilot is strictly a portable Nav system, which uses the suction cup attachment to the windshield. We use this in my wife's Honda Accord. The iQueM5 is actually a PDA with integrated GPS. It has a flip-out antenna (from the back), and sits in a windshield mounted suction cup cradle that both powers it and allows it to receive signals. I found this very awkward to punch in destinations, etc., so I purchased the remote antenna for it which remains mounted to the windshield, and adhered a flat metallic surface to the center console of my mini-van, which the suction cup mount worked well with. With this setup, the antenna remains on the windshield and you just pop the PDA out of it's cradle when you leave the vehicle. It was also situated very conveniently (maybe less so if you're left-handed) to tap in locations.
I am planning on selling the PDA with integrated GPS, cradle, USB/power cables, remote antenna and leather carrying case (clips on belt), basically the entire thing w/accompanying software on eBay in the near future - if anyone is interested in it, please let me know, I would most likely be willing to sell it for less than on ebay to fellow Prii owners...

 

I got the Garmin C550, it's a great GPS. The only problem was the Dash mount disc. The first one peeled the disk off the gummy donut sticky thing, so the donut sticky part was still on the dash, but the Garmin unit was on the floor. It turned on my wipers, closed the vent and wacked everything on the way to the floor.

I called garmin. 40 minutes wait on the phone, but the guy was really nice when I got him. He was sorry, this never happens, he will send me one out right away.

I figured it can't hurt to superglue this disc back to the gummy sticky donut thing, and that worked... for a day.. then the superglue held, but the donut thing unstuck from the dash. GPS hits the floor again.

The new disc came in a few days (they sent me 2 in the pack). I decided to stick it to the rough part of the dash (left of the smoother vent part). That one also lasted a day and fell off.

So, the dash mount disc sucks. It ain't gonna stick, so don't try it.

I called a glass shop and had a 1/4" T x 4.5" L x 2.5" W piece of smoked glass cut for $7 bucks. I used normal foam mounting tape to stick that to the dash, suction cup to the glass. It works great.

I have some blurry pictures of this on my site if you want to see more about that whole fiasco. The GPS itself is really good, the dash mount disc should not be used.

http://spicher3.home.comcast.net/08_2006/03/a.htm
http://spicher3.home.comcast.net/08_2006/05/a.htm

Now, I'm off to buy a new camera... Ok, I wish.. from the pictures, it's clear that my digital camera does not do well in low light.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(c4 @ Aug 9 2006, 07:18 AM) [snapback]300162[/snapback]</div>

What kind did you get? Sounds intriguing...

 

If I were trying to mount a GPS in my Prius I'd use a Panavise dash bracket:



and a cradle for my device like this (this one is from RAM for a Nuvi 360):



If I needed a little more space or a swivel I'd try a low-profile Bracketron swivel:



or a longer RAM arm if more space was needed:



I have a Sirius PnP receiver in another vehicle mounted with a Panavise bracket and Bracketron swivel and the installation looks very professional. Much better than a beanbag or plastic disk stuck to your dash(can you say "ghetto"?).

 

I have used a number of handheld units and they work okay. They tend to be a little slower than factory installed GPS and are a little more cumbersome to use.

I purchased a Garmin Nuvi for traveling in Europe this year. I added all the travel, language and entertainment SD cards. It is packed with features from an MP3 player to language translator to pictures viewer. My only major complaint is that it tried to send me the wrong way on one-way streets several times and constantly ordered me to get on the ferry instead of the highway while traveling to the airport. I tried every configuration to stay on highways and avoid routes such as ferrys however it continued to bark out ridiculous routes. It may be that the Europe maps that Garmin uses are not as sophisticated as the US maps.

In any case, having it is better than no GPS at all. I'm done using it so if someone wants to email me with a reasonable offer its all yours.