I am in the market for a gps unit. I have looked at the tom tom's and other units. Show me some pic's, and tell what you have. I want to know the good and the bad. I will be traveling to alot of new places this summer, and I would like the help from something other than mapquest.com. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

The 3d navigation is great on tomtom, I use tomtom USA on my PDA, with my bluetooth GPS, and I love it so I would highly reccomend tomtom.

 

I use an HP iPaq 2215 PocketPC with a Belkin Bluetooth GPS. I just put the GPS unit in the dash tray and set the PPC in the cup holder of the console. Since it is wireless, I can pass the PPC around to my passengers to see the route, map, points of interest, etc. I use Mapopolis for the GPS mapping software. The screen is a little larger than some of the dedicated GPS units out there and I can use the PPC for other things like Geocaching and wireless internet.

 

Is there any way one of the bluetooth GPS units can be hooked up to a indash touch screen unit?

 

Not unless the indash unit has Bluetooth capability. It might be easier to use a hardwired unit and set the antenna inside on the dash or outside under the windshield cowling(commonly referred to as the ice cube tray).

 

I use an HP PocketPC with a Belkin Bluetooth GPS unit as well. I use the IGuideance software and store the maps on a 1GB SD memory card installed in the PocketPC SD card slot. I've been using this combo for a couple of years and it works great. When using it I install mine in an Arkon powered multimedia mount that powers the IPAQ, GPS unit and provide an amplified speaker that makes the unit easier to hear. The mount can be attached to a windshield with a suction cup or it includes an adapter for use in a cup holder.

 

Got a Toshiba laptop at CompUSA for 499.00 after rebate, installed Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 and installed a Deluo USB GPS antenna, waiting on my mount for the laptop plus a 12v power supply. I now have: a 15.4" screen, every address, outhouse, gas station, police station, chinese/mexican resturant, museum, etc in the USA, turn-by-turn directions, night mode plus bunch of other things all for under 600.00 bucks. Streets and Trips is VERY accurate, been using it for years. I can do without the 3D driving stuff for the price. I update construction data by cruising by a Starbucks with WIFI.

 

There are alot of great choises out there from garmin, magellan, tomtom, cobra ect... I was using my hand held unit with auto-routing(meridian color) with windshield mount and it was great for what I needed. This summer I purchased a magellan roadmate 700 and I think its great! it has a built in 10gig hd. and talks and is map upgradable. It really does not have much of 3d, but i'm very happy with it and got it for a very good price!

here is a picture from the net of it.....

 

Awesome, keep em going..

 

There's a Maps & Streets 'kit' that comes with an antenna. You'll find it on the shelf at your local Best Buy, Staples, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc... It's about $115 I think (software and gps antenna). I purchased one of these for a job where I simply had lat/long points that I had to locate and it worked VERY well.

RP

 

"It's not Jim-Jim... It's Tom-Tom!"

I love those commercials...

 

Of course, you could go with an in-dash unit if that's an option for you... The ECLIPSE 5435 is a VERY nice navigational unit that also will give you leaps and bounds of performance over the stock HU... Search 5435 and you'll see oodles of hits... also, check my gallery for pics.

RP

 

I am using GPS 60SC and it works really well!

YOMAN!

 

I have a Magellan 300 Roadmate. I put a plastic mount on it and it rides above my indash monitor. They are handy in a strange city, or when looking for an address.
As long as it's near the dash it doesn't need a longer antenna.
Chris

 

I used the Magellan Roadmate 700, mounted to a pro-fit bracket. This is so much like the Hertz Never Lost, which I am more then used to using, so it was more of a natural selection for me. Got Mom one for XMAS this year, he is used to the version of the NL in the RV, so it works well for her. I guess it is what you get used to. The Iron Butt Assoc guys seem to like the Street Pilot ones instead, don't quite understand why, I never cared for them.

I have an external antenna mounted in the upper left hand corner of the windshield, and ran the cable down to the dash area, where the GPS is at.

The dash mount : http://www.pro-fit-intl.com/

I had a VSM mount in my '01, and ordered the Legend VSM for my '06