GPS Devices

[rochedalescan]

I have a Garmin Nuvi 265T, its a pretty simple device. Touch screen, bluetooth so can be used as hands free custom sounds/image's and can download extra's for example redlight camera's etc. Its powered by www.whereis.com so the mapping system is pretty good however I would say its due for an update as its not noticing alot of the new roads etc especially around The Gateway Brisbane.

[NightFlight]

I have a Garmin Nuvi as well, similar to Rochedalescan's. As stated it is easy to use and the screen is very easy to read from your driver's seat.

Garmin have a very solid reputation in GPS equipment in Aviation and other industries, one of the reasons I chose this unit after looking at others.

Happy Shopping....

[Stretch]

The Tom Tom XL series are good. I have one in my car, dunno bout bluetooth though and this one doesnt say the street names but its still awesome. Plus with Tom Toms you join the Tom Tom community and if you notice an error on the system, you can correct it on the unit then every now and then connect it to the computer and it uploads all your changes and downloads everyone elses changes. That way it keeps up to date.

Recommend it

[Mathew]

My relative have a Nuvi, not a major fan. The Whereis maps are ugly and apparently (from their comments), it doesn't take you the quickest or most convenient way.

[jaskel]

I got a tomtom go 750 with the live traffic active dock..love it..it is an awesome unit and I recommend it!

[BradT87]

I have a Garmin Oregon300, wouldn't say it's the best for a automotive navigation, although I do use it from time to time in the car, however for anything else... it is amazing. Highly recommend Garmin.

I use WhereIs on the internet to look stuff up all the time and I don't particularly like it, I find it gets things wrong a fair bit (long way round, out-of-date...). I much prefer using GoogleMaps over WhereIs on the net, so i suppose a GPS device relying on WhereIs might not be MY first choice.

Get a Garmin product. You'll be happy.

On a random side note, I recently bought a detailed Topographic and street map on a microSD card from Ebay, for about 1/4 of the RRP, works perfectly in the Garmin, so if the unit you buy doesn't have all the stuff you want, don't be scared to search Ebay before you buy over the counter. I got a car mount and car charger aswell (via Ebay), very cheap, from Hong Kong, they work fine.

[Kevaclone]

If you want a really customizable GPS. get your self one of the cheapie chinese things off Ebay
Windows CE powered
and get iGO GPS software(most customized GPS software about)
also you can add
Tomtom
Garmin
OziExplorer
Sigic
and a host of others
all on the one device

I have a Garmin 260W. Gave it to my wife and bought a Binatone Z430 running on WinCE 5
Running the latest iGO Primo software now. and modded to the way I like it not how the GPS maker thinks I want it

[ScannerEars]

I would only recommend Garmin.

I bought my first Garmin unit (Garmin 90) way back in 1995 for aviation use. Still have it and never missed a beat.

I'd say back then, 99% of joe public wouldn't even have known what a GPS was.

Don't know much about Tom Tom except it being a product suitable for the average joe in the family Holden.

Garmin has a solid reputation in Professional Aviation & I would never use any other brand GPS.

ScannerEars

[Kevaclone]

I've always used Garmin buy the problem with Garmin is the cost

I have a GPSMap420 for the boat
the map card for it was $400 on top of the $600 for the unit

My old Garmin GPS12 was a tough old thing. but the data/power cable was almost the same price as the unit

and now the Nuvi260W, map upgrades are the same price as the unit
These days the Nuvi units use the same RXer as even the cheapest Chinese units so they are no better

Meanwhile my Binatone is running fine with Garmin XT(which does Marine/topo/RoadNav maps better than the Nuvi), plus it runs iGo(used the most), TomTom and OziExplorer
that on top being able to use it as a palmtop computer since it's running WinCE

[zbrown98]

We have a navman my50t it works really well with live traffic updates but the bluetooth is rubbish and dosen't really work besides that it is a good radio.

[JAFO]

I have a Navman S50 “Unlocked”.

Still uses the navman street mapping but also have OziExplorerCE on it too, so once the Tar stuff ends and the dirt starts, Ozi gets switched on (manual switched) with Topo Maps for 4WDing

Its a pity Navman and other Manufactures don’t manufacture their GPS Devices so they can load up Topo Maps, and before you say Garmin do, well Garmin’s only seem to load up Garmin Topo Maps which from what I have seen are not as detailed as the Hema Maps and NSW Department of Lands maps that I use.

[Kevaclone]

I have a Navman S50 “Unlocked”.
and before you say Garmin do, well Garmin’s only seem to load up Garmin Topo Maps which from what I have seen are not as detailed as the Hema Maps and NSW Department of Lands maps that I use.

Garmin units can use other than Garmin's own topo maps, there are plenty of people converting topo maps and you can now even make your own from either scanned images or Google naps and images

Shonky maps have some

I quite like the Tracks4Australia Pro and the AusTopo2.1

these show much better detail than any of the Ozi maps these days, show most offroad tracks and walking trails and 10m contours and there is even a 5m contour overlay out now that you can load over any Garmin map, it's over 2gb in size and just overlays the contours over the map

There is also software for TomTom to make your own topo maps for the TomTom, software is called TTmaps