I am looking into purchasing a road navigation unit. I have a budget of about $450 please let me know about any experience that you have with them.

 

Garmin, the rest are junk I hear.

 

I have a Garmin eTrex Venture. It's old but it's been through absolutely everything and works as it did years back. Garmin gets my vote also.

 

The last two guys mentioned hand held units that you can load maps onto. They are not designed for road navigation ie: turn by turn guidance. They are going to be much better for off highway use though, as you can pinpoint your exact location and go there (and also make various waypoints). You can even load topo maps onto the handhelds.

I own a Garmin 60CSX for my backpacking, and use a Magellan 3000T in my truck for road navigation. I would have opted for a Garmin C series, 340 specifically, but I won the Magellan from McDonalds, so that's what I use.

If you have money to spend, I would look into the Garmin C series units. They pack a lot of features, are going to be quick, and not too horribly overpriced.

My best recomendation would be go to a dealer and play with everything. Get the one you are most comforatable with, but know my vote is for a Garmin.


Oh, and a car navigation unit is goign to have a large touch screen, and the handheld unit is not going to have either (small non-touch screen) but they are going to be much more precise.

 

Sarcasm?

 

Oh ok, just checking. I couldn't really tell. Didn't mean to put you off.

 

haha, no worries.


Now, let's

heh

 

I got a new Garmin StreetPilot III with the auto kit off eBay at a fairly inexpensive price since the units were dicontinued. It came with nav software and after I registered the unit, I have received updated maps on CDs from Garmin for free. I think I paid about $285 for everything including shipping.

 

This is actually not true. I have a Magellan Meridian color that is handheld for hiking...can load topos on to it, and it mounts in the vehicle and does turn-by-turn guidance. Mine is several years old, but Magellan has several models that do this. It is an all around awesome GPS if you want to just have one.

I keep my maps on SD cards, so if I want to switch to TOPOS, I just change the card and load the map. The only negative to my particular one is the color screen...you have to use lithium batteries because it has to stay backlit to see the screen. When I bought mine there were 4 Magellan models that would do Turn-by-turn navigation and were hand helds.

I have a Magellan road mate that belongs to my Dad, but he has navigation in his car now, so he lets me use it whenever I want. It is cool, because of the bigger screen, but the menus can be confusing (since I don't use it much, I keep getting stuck in this one part of the menu and can't get out).

Anyway if I could only have one, I would have a handheld that does turn-by-turn because I hike a lot, and I like to go GEOCACHING!

GARMIN AND MAGELLAN'S IN MY OPINION!

 

Well I rephrase. They both mentioned Garmin units that won't give you turn by turn. Well the 60 series can do it, but the small screen and lack of speaker makes it hard to use while driving. It's hard, and usually not cheap to find a happy medium between street navigation, and off highway precision.

 

I am not looking for offroad performance I have a 2wd Tacoma.

 

In that case, buy this one:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=290

Great price, and includes text to speech. This feature allows the unit to say the street names. Flippin awesome.

 

This thread has some good info...
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f97/garmin-magellan-gps-96166/