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with a seemingly ever changing market of navigation GPS units, if you have one that is still currently available under the $300 mark and wanna give a short review of its good bad or indifferent points - I , and a few others may appreciate it. So many different ones to choose. Keeping it under the $300 mark should filter out the extras now coming with them like bluetooth, etc. I am more concerned with ease of use, reliability jada jada jada

grab a garmin.

I run mobilePC in my car and MobileXT on my phone. The same software runs on their range of in car navigators. I have used a lot of different GPS software over the years an this is by far the best I have tried.

My sister just got a widescreen garmin in car GPS for 298 from JB hifi. I recommend the bigger screen if you can afford it.

Thanks, I have always been impressed with Garmin, right back to their flying (microlight anyway) nav stuff and more recently seen their graphics on nav

OK, so first question is
do you tend to find yourself looking at a bigger screen, this now raises the idea I am thinking the spoken instruction needs to be loud and clear. The Garmin pass on this?

Recommend bigger screen than widescreen $298?

her widescreen is fine.

I would recommend you go play with one at JB or similar

I find the voice commands very clear. It doesn't however read out street names (some GPS can do this)

Im using a ppc I bought for 215 on ebay with a gps logger bluetooth receiver.

The gps logger is pretty good, it logs the positions and the info for retrieval later throught usb, you can then load it up into google earth etc allowing you to see time speed and distance traveled. I bought for trail bike riding, it's small and could take more of a bashing than a phone.

ATM i'm using igo8 which ive found to be better than tomtom which i was using before. The graphics are nice and the way you input destinations I think is better too.

Ive also put tomtom onto my sister $99 aldi unit to replace that god awful one that came with it, seems to work ok. Theres a site called ppcwarez which has all the pna/pda versions of gps programs well worth a look.

Vincentvega: Where did you get the Garmin MobileXT software from? I *cough* tried it on my phone and it was great, but of course had no maps. I wouldn't mind the $90ish price because it is at least a one-off, whereas to do anything other than look at the map with the nokia maps application that came with the phone I have to pay for a minimum two weeks - up to yearly chunks for $140+


*edit*

There is an alternative for some phones. There's an application called MGMaps (mobile google maps) that, with a download program, allows you to download the images from google maps onto your phone. Technically google doesn't like you doing it, though.

It's somewhat limited, but with an internet connection will allow you to do routing, though no voice. And you're not limited to using google's images. Overall it's good. But not as good as a bought program. I think it's moving towards being open source, so hopefully things will improve.

Who likes Top Gear then? mmm?

That song was the best part of the whole episode. Which says something haha.

I stumbled onto this gem while googling for a GPS for both on/offroad.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.23569



The main attraction with this 5" GPS is that it cost $100 and it is CRACKABLE.
There is a lot of info on the net on how to do this. Info here
http://gpsunlock.net/home/

You can add pretty much any GPS program onto it. I am running IGo8 for onroad and Oziexplorer CE for offroad. With a bit of playing around I also managed to use it as an OBDII scanner with the use of a bluetooth OBDII dongle like this





A GPS that can also clear error codes - cool!
I've had it for over 6 months and it's been reliable and sturdy. There are heaps of other features which I don't use like movie player, MP3 player, ebook reader, bluetooth handsfree, etc. Highly recommend it

Guys - if you get TomTom units down under then for simplicity of use and clear concise driver instruction they are the dogs wotsits.
Get the biggest screen you can afford to for best imagery.

As for Garmin.......I once borrowed one for a trip up to Middlesborough.
Garmin at the time were shirt sponsors to Middlesborough FC.
The damm thing got me totally lost in Middlesborough !
God knows how the sponsored foreign players managed to find their way around town using the freebie garmins they no doubt were issued with !!!!
This is totally true. The sponsors kit bumed out in the town of the footy club they backed!

The units mapping was totally out. I was informed it was totally updated as well before I set out.
Never had drama's with my TomTom.
The outback's on board sat nat cannot find Telford though
So I guess they can all have issues???
However in the last week the Garmin GPS shock and bomb proof unit has just come tops in the UK's gadget show destruction resistance test.

Im trialling a fairly basic setup atm:

Garmin eTrex + old laptop + 4wd raster map/Shonky map collection + oziexplorer.

So far it seems quite good - but if your looking for step by step instructions on how to 'get' to your destination this is not the system for you. Its good if you think regionally (requirement of my occupation) and are a good navigator already.

Next step for me is to intergrate it into car PC with in dash touch screen (n3rd!)

i know its over the 300 dollars,
but the garmin nuvi 500 is the beez kneez, priced at 499.00. somewhat cheaper than most of its multimode competitors

much like the hema navigator, and the magellan crossover, and VMS system,
best price on the market, and best perforamnce on the market, really reliable around the streets, and excellent off road as it is designed for multi purpose use,
also being waterproof fopr people wanting to take it out of the car for a hike, motorbike/quad bike ride, and even on the boat
best value updates online for street maps,
off road maps are 229 bux, for genuine, or 229 still for oztopo (aftermarket)
full touch screen, with NO stlyus pen, so u never need to go thru small file options and setting trying to squint at the small print,
you dont really need off road maps, you can go into off road mode without them, but they have topograhical lines,
kinda handy to know whats ahead?
i take mine out kayakin, it sits above deck, gets splashed etc, no worries, just a light rinse when i get home,

my wife has a Tom Tom One which came brand new with my brumby it works a treat

my niece has a Mio moov 300 which is an interesting device to say the least, the menus are a pain in the rectum to navigate and it gives you instructions to turn as you go past an intersection.

she asked me to update the maps, it was going to cost nearly 60 dollars for the map with no guarantee that it would have the new Forrest Hwy on it, which is all she wanted to update. as when you are on the Hwy the GPS tells you that you are driving in a paddock.

TOONGA