Need help searching for a GPS Unit.

[Heimz]

Hey gents,

Ive gone through the search on EP and didnt quite find what I was looking for. Ive been looking for a new GPS to put in the wife's H3. Im looking at Garmin primarily but open to others. My needs are simple: easy to use/navigate units options/features, breadcrumb (or ability to save and store a trail I just found off the beaten path), and easily load maps with trails Id like to explore but havent yet.

I am not interested in a portable hand held unit for hiking/geocaching.


I would like a widescreen, and maybe the real-time traffic, but its not a deal killer. TOPO would be nice, but once again, not a deal breaker.

Looking at units priced at and below $350.


Lemme know whatcha think!

 

[paulj]

You are asking for two different sets of features. Breadcrumbs (recording trails), and downloaded maps are most popular in the handheld units used by hikers. Wide screen, route finding, and traffic are features that are popular in the auto market. Mosts drivers don't need topo maps, or a record of where they have been.

A low cost unit is likely to have one set or the other, but not both. Combining both sets with a modest price complicates your search.

 

[Heimz]

Good to know! Then that right there narrows down the search.


Question: I travel to Baja from time to time. What unit would be good for having maps of the race courses and still be able to plot a route home on the highways? The 540C and HDS5 can give me the maps, but no turn-by-turn.

Can I have both Mexico and US maps downloaded at the same time on a Garmin 500 or similiar car unit?

Im very new to the GPS game.

 

[adrenaline503]

My Garmin Nuvi 500 did all that before it was stolen. Well, it didn't have live traffic updates. It was pretty nice.

 

[jim65wagon]

My Garmin Nuvi 780 widescreen leaves a breadcrumb trail, has multi-destination routing (on road), has an SD card slot (supposedly you can put topo maps on the card and use them as needed, but I've never tried it), has a weather icon that pops up when a storm is coming, and has traffic capabilty (but you have to buy a subscription). It will also give voice directions over your auto speakers. And it's 200 on Amazon, no idea how much the traffic sub is, though....

 

[PAToyota]

My Garmin Nuvi 780 widescreen leaves a breadcrumb trail

Thank you for that.

Like the OP, I was trying to find one with a breadcrumb feature. Unfortunately, Garmin's spec sheets on their website really don't have a column for that. Only through reading through all the features did I find this on the 785T (guess the 780 is out of production):

A trip log provides an electronic bread crumb trail of up to 10,000 points, so you can see where you've been on the map.

Searching a bit further, I came across this comparison chart.

Curiously, it has a "track display" column defined as "See where you’ve been. This shows up as a thin blue line as shown below. It can be helpful in finding your way in unfamiliar areas."

That shows that all of the current nuvi models have that feature. But reading through descriptions on Garmin's site doesn't turn that up. Some of the models have the line I quoted for the 785T while most do not. Is "track display" different from "trip log" in some way? Do I want one that specifically mentions "trip log" for my use?

Final question: is it possible to download this "trip log" or "track display" to a computer to plot it out on a map?

 

[fetus]

Yes, you can download the track log and save waypoints aka "Favorites" on Nuvi. You can also upload routes and waypoints. And load Garmin Topo onto the memory.

 

[PAToyota]

Can anyone confirm that they all have this feature? Or is "track display" different from "track log" in some way?