GPS choice

[Lionel]

Hi All,

I'm thinking about the purchase of a GPS for use around the city, and have narrowed it down to three units which are in my price range, and have the features I want:

1. Garmin Streetpilot C510
2. Mitac Mio C510
3. TomTom GO 710

Any experience with these units, and any preferences? All information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Lionel

[matti4556]

Hi Lionel,
I have a Garmin Streetpilot C320 and I am impressed by the simplicity. Sometimes you just have to learn to trust it. A couple of times I have used my "intuition" and gone wrong instead of following the instructions. But when you are out bush and following a track that hasn't been used much, best to ignore anything the unit tells you to do. Mine was going "birko" (I have the British English Female voice selected) and telling me to turn left into a creekbed in the Sandy Creek area once. If I had selected the US English female voice I reckon she would have been screaming "Oh my gawd - turn left - Oh my Gawwwwd!"
Another cute feature was when I turned it on at Melbourne airport (I just flew into Melbourne from Brisbane) it asked me if I had travelled more than 100km since it was last turned on? - It was trying to work out if I had actually flown or it was internally stuffed - nice feature though, very polite.
The C320 can be re-loaded with new maps by SD card - some of the later ones do not have an SD card slot and come pre-loaded.
Don't know much about the Mitac and the TomTom
Thats my 0.2C worth. - Matti

[ladas]

I find Tom Tom better for city/door to door navigation

..............but not really good if you want to go off road.

My garmin was better for that, but not totally acurate for door to door.

[olmate]

Have used Garmin GPS's for a while and been very happy with them. Heard that the Streetpilot is very good and will also be pretty good away from the city - something to think about.

[chunk]

I've got the TOM-TOM 710 its a great little unit, I wouldn't go into Sydney with out it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[jik22]

I've got an old TomTom 500, and it's user interface was the best around for quick, city nav stuff....I haven't tried a Garmin of late, but I didn't find them as quick to use a couple of years ago. Best advice is to find a shop with a couple of brands on display and try a few common features like navigating to a favourite, to an address, an intersection, etc and see which works for you.

If you wanted it for offroad use too, the TomTom wouldn't be a good choice!

[solmanic]

You need to decide whether you really want a dedicated GPS device or something more versatile.

I got a Dopod D810 which is a 3.5G phone, Windows Mobile PDA AND has a GPS chip. I run TomTom 6 on it very adequately.

[grumpybastard]

I have only had experience with TomTom ver 5 and now ver 6.

I cant compare it with the other products, but i did find that it took a little while to become accustomed to the user interface especially when driving.

Even after a year i still occasionally find new things that it can do that i never realised.

I also like the fact its on a pocket pc as it allows me to run ozi explorer and can be upgraded as the new version are released.

[Lionel]

If you wanted it for offroad use too, the TomTom wouldn't be a good choice!

No, I realise this type of unit is not suitable for offroad. It will be used mainly in the Magna driven by my wife, who is "navigation-ly challenged! :p

I'll be looking for something different for offroad use, at some stage. Meanwhile this feedback from you guys is very welcome!

Cheers,

Lionel

[loanrangie]

Got a strathfield cat today and there selling a navman unit for $288 which would be ideal.