Need a GPS for wife for Christmas...suggestions

[Brian Libby]

I have a navigon, the company I drive truck for bought 4 garmins and my smart phone has tomtom for gps-all work very good, all work slightly different, all work good.

[Curt Harms]

=Art Mulder;2016007]

- you won't care about Bluetooth at all, since you have no smart phones or things like that

Au Contraire. I have a several years old Samsung flip phone. It not only isn't a smart phone, it isn't even that clever. It does however have bluetooth. I don't know about Canada but several states have enacted laws banning hand held cellphone use as well as texting while driving. I think some even make doing either a primary offense. A device with bluetooth and microphone/speaker qualify as a hands-free device. The wisdom of such legislation can be debated but it exists.

[John Coloccia]

Bluetooth++ It's like magic

Any Garmin with Bluetooth and traffic will do you just fine. I rarely, if ever, use a GPS, but we do have a couple that we got when a local store went under. IMHO, Garmin is really the only name worth considering for land based GPS, and almost the the only name worth considering for aviation.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Thank you all. Now it's time for me to steel myself to venture out into the pre holiday insanity of the retail world.

[Curt Harms]

Bluetooth++ It's like magic

Any Garmin with Bluetooth and traffic will do you just fine. I rarely, if ever, use a GPS, but we do have a couple that we got when a local store went under. IMHO, Garmin is really the only name worth considering for land based GPS, and almost the the only name worth considering for aviation.

Collins & Honeywell may take issue with that statement . Though Garmin is equipping the newest iteration of the Citation X.

[John Coloccia]

Collins & Honeywell may take issue with that statement . Though Garmin is equipping the newest iteration of the Citation X.

I did say "almost"

[Jim Becker]

For portable GPS, I'd favor Garmen Nuvi models with the larger screens.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dave.... We have a Garmin Nuvi we bought at Costco. It came with free lifetime software and map updates. It wasn't that expensive and.... it has built in bluetooth. What that means is we connect to it with our cell phones and make handsfree calls going down highway. The GPS can provide dialing and it provides a speaker for your cellphone. We can listen and drive without holding the cell phone. I wouldn't necessarily buy it for that particular function but......the maps have been excellent and the lifetime map updates came with it. At Costco they are a price range of $99-$199 including the lifetime map and software updates.

[Mike Null]

I've had a Garmin for several years. Never updated it but it has been very good and reliable.

The Garmin lady has had to re-calculate so often she now calls me Dummy.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

We've got a Garmin that's about 4 years old and needs a relatively expensive map update but when we used it it works well. Getting one with free updates would be a lot better value I'd guess. Now we've got iPhones and they work just as well, assuming cell service is available, and we pay $0.99 cents for each day we use Verizon's navigation app--about $0.99/mo on average. I also bought custom brackets for both of our cars so the phones are in an easy to see spot when using navigation but I've also used it just sitting in the cup holder of a rental car and the voice prompts are good enough to get me there.

I always buy the map with the "free for life" map updates. Cheaper in the long run.

My Android GPS has historically not worked nearly as well as my Garmin units. My unsubstantiated opinions are that:

1. The GPS in my phone is not nearly as good as the GPS in my Garmin, which is only designed to be a GPS.
2. My phone seems to not work well if I do not have the ability to shoot lots of data between the phone and the servers.

About 2 years ago, a friend drove to the eastern side of Michigan for his job. He said he did not need a GPS because he had his iPhone. When he came back from his business trip, he had a GPS because the phone failed him due to connection issues.

My latest Garmin has "lane assist", which is very nice for providing detailed instruction that is easy enough to see while driving. it makes it much easier to be in the correct lane while travelling through complicated exchanges and exits.

So, I will use my phone in a fix, and I have used the GPS capabilities many times, but it pales in comparison to the dedicated GPS in terms of ease of use and ability to obtain a usable signal.

The advantage goes to the phone in terms of keeping the maps up to date, however, because someone else takes care of it for you. If you go this route, consider a front window mount or a dash mount, to hold the phone where you can see it while driving. This will usually also keep it charged. Note also that new features can be added to the phone versions, do not usually see this in the dedicated GPS units.

[rogers kevin]

Garmin from costco for maybe 180 bucks about a year ago. Works great.

I also used it. Good experience.

[Rod Sheridan]

We have a couple Garmin Nuvii 550 models that work on the motorcycle or in the automobile.

One has the lifetime map option, the other doesn't, both work very well.

One thing I don't like about the Nuvii is that it doesn't have an on screen clock. Doesn't sound bad except the display while navigating tells you what your arrival time is, however I have no idea what the current time is. My old Garmin Quest gave me "time to destination" which gave me a good idea of how much longer the trip would be.

Regards, Rod.