Which Stand-alone GPS system to purchase?

[lance1]

Hello Everyone,

I'm not an RVer but I want to purchase a good Stand-Alone GPS system for car navigation in the next week or so and I would really appreciate some input from those of you that use a Stand-Alone GPS on a regular basis.

I emailed the always helpful Emily Fagan of Roads Less Traveled (RLT), and since they do not use any GPS, she recommended 3 Forums of avid & knowledgeable RVers that I should contact and see what all of you are using and are happy with.

rv.net rvnetwork.com & irv2.com

Note that I will be cross-posting this request to the 3 forums above, so please ignore it on the other forums if you've already replied.

Here are my ideas / wish list .........

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Initial thoughts:

Stand-alone GPS System. No more than $300.

Not interested in any Phone Based GPS.

I've used several different stand-alone GPS units several years ago and I found that all were hard to enter destinations, and were just overall difficult to use.

I'm interested in the following, but not in any order of priority.

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*** I will NOT be connecting a smart phone to the unit for calling or any reason.


- Cost - let's say up to $300

- Definitely MANUFACTURER SUPPORT, ie, a company that stands by their product IF there is a problem and is easy to contact, ie, answers the phone if necessary.

- Prefer a larger screen, but functionality is more important

- Easy to enter destinations and easy RE-ROUTE manually when desired

- Un-cluttered EASY to view/read map screen while driving

- Lifetime FREE map updates

- Includes "traffic" or "construction" functionality.
(Unless there is a consensus that it's useless - please advise)

- is TOUCH SCREEN useful ?

=========================================

I just want a unit that works VERY good AND is reasonably easy to use.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can take the time to share your
experience and assist me in purchasing a unit that I will find enjoy.

Regards to all,
Lance

[fj12ryder]

2oldman wrote:

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Could you explain how it's going to kill him.

Looking for a Walmart, Garmin will direct him around 8 blocks of right turns instead of a single left that's been there for 8 years, and enroute he'll get angry and run a red light, whereupon he'll be T-boned by a semi.

Well, one does have to mix in a little common sense. If you see the Walmart on the left, you should be able to figure out where to turn, rather than blindly following your GPS.

But also you should have known about it before hand when you double-checked the route. Blindly following a GPS, be it phone or stand alone, is just not a super smart thing to do.

[DutchmenSport]

I've been a TomTom user for many years now. We are on our 3rd one. The latest one is cumbersome to learn, but once you learn how it works, it's not so bad. I think it just has a difficult learning curve.

Now the big HOWEVER! However! It's awful at taking you down some of the craziest, most horrible roads imaginable. But, it does get you there. I suppose if I wasn't dragging 41 feet of fifth wheel trailer behind me, some of those Kentucky dirt roads wouldn't be so bad! 😉

And it's not real smart either. Sometimes the most direct route is NOT the best. But on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8. I'd give it a 9 if I wasn't towing.

[2oldman]

D.E.Bishop wrote:
Could you explain how it's going to kill him.

Looking for a Walmart, Garmin will direct him around 8 blocks of right turns instead of a single left that's been there for 8 years, and enroute he'll get angry and run a red light, whereupon he'll be T-boned by a semi.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Google Maps is best when you are in the cell site coverage.

But if you go on remote highways and by-ways, you might find yourself lost with just the Google Maps.

Even in the well-travelled Yosemite routes, Google Maps -- while it will estimate by triangulation where you are, it could make you go blind in some spots specially when it goes into "re-routing/recalculating" effectively because it lost your signal and don't know where you are.

[4aSong]

We have a Garmin 2797LMT (Free Lifetime Maps & Traffic) which we have had for quite a few years and its one of 3 mapping sources we use for navigating. In addition to the Garmin we use google map and a current hard cover map.

[D_E_Bishop]

2oldman wrote:

lance1 wrote:
Not interested in any Phone Based GPS.

Your funeral. Google maps guidance is more accurate than Garmin.

Could you explain how it's going to kill him. I'm interested because we have two Garmin and now the DW is worried.

[p220sigman]

Used Garmin for years and never had any issues. Seems easy to use to me. Tried a Tom Tom years ago (someone gave it to my mother) and didn't like it at all. Out first van had an aftermarket DVD/Navigation head unit that was Garmin-based and it worked well also. Our second van had an aftermarket DVD/Navigation unit that was Magellan based and it was not user friendly at all. Ended up using my Garmin or phone instead.

I would imagine most of them are pretty similar now days. I'd go somewhere like a Best Buy that has a selection and just play with them and see which you feel most comfortable with. I would still verify, but I think lifetime map updates is pretty standard now.

[2oldman]

lance1 wrote:
Not interested in any Phone Based GPS.

Your funeral. Google maps guidance is more accurate than Garmin.

[Busdriver]

Garmin

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Garmin is the best-in-class GPS. Go to the nearest Best Buy to test it. Price ranges to $126 and gets more sophisticated with more features as you go up the price range.