ND4SPD

Looking to get my parents a GPS for occasional use. Mom can figure stuff out but gets frustrated easily. I'm impressed that my dad knows how to turn his TV on.

I'm partial to Garmin since I've had two of them. I'd like something that is easy to set up and use and something that has a decent amount of memory - enough to hold the Eastern part of the country. If it can store the whole US or NA, even better. Sub $500 price point, if possible.

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CBRVFR

Garmin 340C or equivalent - all touch screen, text to voice, simple to use, between 200 and 300 retail.

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slickwill

The Garmin Nuvi that I used in Germany was super easy to use. I've seen the 780's which are near the top of the line for under $500.

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seamus

Garmin Nuvi or TomTom.

TomTom maps are now all of US and Canada so they'll pretty much be set no matter where they go. Don't know how accurate the Garmin maps are but from what I've seen of the two devices, they're both great in more populated areas but fizz out in rural, fast growing places like where I'm at.

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HondaGalToo

We just got a Nuvi 760 and love it! Very user friendly and got great write-ups. Consumer Reports #1. We have an old Street Pilot 2610 and the Nuvi is just so much easier to use. Small, too, and has a battery, so you can set destinations inside without having to tether it to a PC.

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CBR929RE

you can also find factory refurbs cheap. I bought my discontinued refurbed 2720 over a year ago on ebay for $300. hasn't really failed me till today when I was driving around Boston getting more pissed off than I have ever been my entire life. but otherwise its flawless.

I say stick with a Garmin cause they are easy to use and if they have any questions you can easily assist them. but the TomTom isn't really hard to use either.

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slickwill

Or even use it when walking around. My wife and I used ours to guide us to a restraunt after we had parked the car blocks away in Germany.

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HondaGalToo

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I no longer have to worry about getting lost in the woods!

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luvtolean

It's all fun and games until the batteries die...

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SheepOfBlue

garmin does decent and if close to a map update (or has done one). they still miss roads like the one on the way to sheep manor as it is a year or two old. Not sure on map updates. My ancient Quest2 still does decent though I can see a Zumo in my future

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gt702

I just got the Costco email that says the Garmin C550 is $199 after $100 off. Don't know if that is good or not.

I have the 2720 and find it fairly easy to use and I'm not that great of a gadget guy. The newer simpler ones should be geared to the tech-challenged.

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SheepOfBlue

...but what is the zumo550?

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SomeStrangeGuy

The Zumo is the best GPS for a motorcycle I've used and owned thus far.

But Z's folks can get that 200$ C550 at costco and have a more functional unit for their needs.

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SomeStrangeGuy

The 2720 is one of the last iterations of the 'hardcore' GPS models. No battery, no bluetooth, but all the configuration and customization you could want - shy of a chartplotter.

The new nuvi's and such are so darned simple it's not funny - but they lack the adjustability and user preferences like the 2xxx's did.

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ND4SPD

I love my 2720 but my parents would never be able to deal with it.

I'll check out some of the suggested models! Thanks kids!

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HondaGalToo

Yeah, they only last about 4 hours, so that walk through the woods had better turn into a run!

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Tuffy6969

I have a TomTom 720. It works great - LOTS of features that are super easy to access via touch screen display. It's Blue tooth ready (for us in Cali that have a new law taking effect July 1st) and it's battery last a LONG time -

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SomeStrangeGuy

I just got a Garmin Nuvi 200w in Piano Black, just for testing purposes ($199). I also got a Navigon 7100 for the same ($299).

Nuvi 200w is KICK ASS for a 200$ GPS, the Navigon could be put to much better use helping me tweak windage and elevation what a complete POS*.

*-aside from the redeeming value that it does show highway signs and lane indicators better than Garmin stuff, admittedly - but uhh, typically highways aren't where I have a discernable difference of "keep left" so its sorta moot.


I'll put a writeup of the 7100 up shortly, once I can actually finish testing the thing. It's damned frustrating to use. I just went to download the "april 30 update" for it and it's 1.86gb ...then I noticed the Powered by Windows CE sticker on it . Oh well..nice try. We'll see how cool the update is.

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SheepOfBlue

WinCE strikes again

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Tuffy6969

Ok...SHEEP "GATES" - when are you going to fix Vista?

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SheepOfBlue

Already been fixed, it is called Leopard Oh and on the GPS topic for Mac users that have a Garmin search on Project Bobcat for a Mac version

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CBR929RE

been looking at it a little for the past week. doesn't seem to do anything I couldn't do before without it. I could plan routes directly in my GPS before, the website had all the updates available before, there was a POI loader before but I think it needed map software, I never tried it so I don't know how it works.

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ND4SPD

Resurrecting this one from the dead. I've more or less decided on a Nuvi 260W since it speaks the street names. If anyone sees a good deal on one or something close in price & features in the next few weeks I'd appreciate a heads up.

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RedRider

I'm looking for something in the $200-250 price range to give to one of my kids for Xmas. Any suggestions on something relatively small and simple? I see several models mentioned here, but I know diddly about them...

SheepOfBlue

Quit being a mean dad and get them a Zumo 550 for their sportbike (or are you so mean they don't have that either)

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