GPS devices and/or phones

[Rico]

So, with all this driving in weird places now I was curious about all the GPS devices or phones that can do turn-by-turn stuff out there.  Anyone up on all this?  What's good?  I hear a lot about Tom-Tom??  Does a GPS dedicated device still cost a monthly fee of some kind.  Fill me in.   Thanks!   :)

[moyer777]

I have a Magellan GPS unit that I picked up for under $100.  I don't have to pay a monthly fee, I just update it from the website every three or four months.  It's really awesome.  And it's very accurate.  It's got a nice sized display, comes with a mounting suction cup and fits nicely on my windshield.  I love it.  Especially when it goes into night mode, pretty cool.

[Feathers]

As far as I know, TomTom (and Navigon etc) stand-alone devices are a one-off fee and the model these days seems to offer free software updates too.

What you pay for leter on (if you want to) are new maps. They seem to be released on a regular schedule now and the revenue stream has moved over to them rather than new software versions.

Of course you'd also have to pay for a new device if they release one with more must-have features (i.e. hardware changes) but they obviously have no hold over you for that.

What you do (generally) pay for monthly or annually is the live traffic service that comes with the thing. It's optional but, obviously, if you don't take it, you don't get the service. Personally, I've never used 'traffic' but then I walk most days of the week so couldn't justify the cost.

I should also point out that I'm probably not the most up-to-date on all of the stand-alone units since I've always run phone versions of these things. I've got Navigon for the iPhone at the moment (In its favour, it offers life time traffic for a one-off fee. On tha negative side, there's no traffic service service available in the UK).

[billybob476]

I have a Garmin Nuvi 265WT. It works very well and also does traffic reporting in most major cities. It does this by listening to a dedicated FM radio signal that gives it the traffic info. Based on this it will re-route me around any traffic issues it knows about or will adjust my ETA to account for it.

No monthly fees for the GPS or traffic service.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=13430&ra=true#nuvi265wt

[Feathers]

I have a Garmin Nuvi 265WT. It works very well and also does traffic reporting in most major cities. It does this by listening to a dedicated FM radio signal that gives it the traffic info. Based on this it will re-route me around any traffic issues it knows about or will adjust my ETA to account for it.

No monthly fees for the GPS or traffic service.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=13430&ra=true#nuvi265wt

Ah, the old FM based 'Trafficmaster' service. I'd forgotten that was still running! I'd not realised it had been wrapped into dedicated GPS units but it makes sense (as I said, I'm phone based in all of this). Thinking about it, I think I had seen an 'FM add-on' thing for some TomTom units.

[Rico]

Thanks for the info guys.  I know once I get used to the area and traveling back in forth it probably will end up in a drawer gathering dust.  Even after only a week, I'm getting better in knowing how to get around here.  I'll see how it goes and look into some of those devices.

[billybob476]

Yeah it does generally stay in my drawer, however it comes in handy when I need to go to a place I've never been (like a store or something) even in my own city.