Garmin vs Magellan vs TomTom

[thewayne]

I'm probably going to buy a navigation unit/GPS this week and am looking for recommendations. We're traveling to Maryland next week for a full week, and a friend whom I greatly respect as a very traveled person, said you MUST have a navigation computer for driving in that area. I check with the company that I'm going to rent a car from, and they want about $100 to also have a navi comp, I go to Best Buy's web site, and find I can buy one for about the same price.

So I'm going to buy one.

Just wondering what people think. I own a Magellan GPS and quite like it, but really don't have any predispositions among the vendors. TomTom has one attraction: apparently John Cleese did a voice pack for it, so that would be awesome.

Comments

[deborak]

Bill just uses the GPS app on that's on his cel phone. I don't use GPS at all. I can't imagine ever buying one, but I hope you find one you like. BTW, we still don't know Bill's schedule for the week you're in MD.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately our phones are pretty much just phones, no GPS capability. I'd love to have an iPhone, but I don't want to give AT&T money for crappy service, and they don't have coverage where I live.

I've had a lot of fun with my GPS, mainly going Geocaching. But it's rather old and doesn't want to talk to my Mac, even when I'm running Windows.

We'll play the trip by ear. I have a couple more games to show you, Copts and Robbers is coming along quite well. I should have the second beta card deck done when we come out.

[krzykat.livejournal.com]

Supposedly Garmin makes the best, but I think they are all similar. What you do want is one of the bigger screens, text to speach, etc... I can't remember all the key points.. QVC or HSN hasn't had one on lately. I think both my parents and my brother have TomToms. I know my brother's was useful when we used it in Florida.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I went to three stores tonight gathering info and prices. Turns out Garmin is actually Macintosh friendly, so that's a plus. Some neat stuff. The thing that I really like is that some of them can operate as a coordinate-based GPS, so I can Geocache with them!