Off-topic / GPS question

A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.

Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually
still sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it
while driving.

This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.

Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought
I would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.

Thanks!

Pat

"pws" > wrote in message
...
>A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.
>
> Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually still
> sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
> I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it while
> driving.
>
> This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.

I think that's where you may come unstuck. Car-GPSs and hiking GPSs tend to
have quite a different feature-set; I'm not aware of any that do both well,
though I may be missing something.

A few years ago I bought the Garmin e-Trex Legend
http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexLegend/ for hiking; it does its job very
well and was good value for money at the time, but I do find the limited and
unexpandable memory a bit of a pain. If I were to buy one again I'd
definitely buy one that either has more built-in memory, or one that allows
you to put in memory cards of some sort.

I did initially use this in my car as well but that's really not what it's
for and it's not particularly handy for it. The main limitations include no
colour and no on-the-fly recalculating of the route (if you take a wrong
turn you're on your own - any route needs to be programmed beforehand on
your computer and uploaded to the GPS, and it can't account for anything
going wrong en route). The screen size and resolution is also not
particularly condusive to being able to see it while driving.

Last year I then bought the Garmin streetpilot i3
(http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexLegend/ ) which has proven to be
excellent value and really does everything you'd need. It's certainly not
the most whizz-bang one out there and buy spending more money you can get
more comprehensive screen information, touch-screen input and that sort of
thing, but if all you want is a low-cost, good value device I can recommend
the i3. It's always got me where I wanted to go with no fuss - can't really
beat that in my book!

Eric


>
> Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought I
> would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pat

On Mar 12, 6:17 pm, pws > wrote:
> A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.
>
> Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually
> still sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
> I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it
> while driving.
>
> This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.
>
> Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought
> I would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pat

I'm in a similar boat (upgrading from a Garmin StreetPilot III).
After looking around on the web a bit I think I'm gonna go with the
Garmin Nuvi 350, their entry-level unit in the snazzy Nuvi line. Very
compact, nice features and is getting good user reviews. Not sure how
good it would be for hiking, but it does have a lithium-ion battery
and would be easy to carry.

It is a little pricey, I think I was seeing prices around 460 to 480.
Before I found the Nuvi I was looking at the StreetPilot c320/c330s
and they look good for less money (~300 range?), but are not as sleek
(though still a sight better than my III).

> I'm in a similar boat (upgrading from a Garmin StreetPilot III).

Out of interest, what do you find missing in the Streetpilot i3? That's the
one I've got, and the features that are missing are cosmetic ones in my
opinion. What's missing in it for you, causing you to upgrade?

Eric

> Last year I then bought the Garmin streetpilot i3
> (http://www.garmin.com/products/etrexLegend/ ) which has proven to be
> excellent value and really does everything you'd need. It's certainly not
> the most whizz-bang one out there and buy spending more money you can get
> more comprehensive screen information, touch-screen input and that sort of
> thing, but if all you want is a low-cost, good value device I can
> recommend the i3. It's always got me where I wanted to go with no fuss -
> can't really beat that in my book!
>
> Eric

Sorry - I should have said that the i3 is for car use, while I still use the
Etrex for hiking.

Eric

(checking to see if Google lost my first reply..)

pws wrote:
> A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.
>
> Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually
> still sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
> I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it
> while driving.
>
> This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.
>
> Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought
> I would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pat

The new Delorme unit looks very promising although I haven't had a
chance to lay hands on one yet.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

"pws" > wrote in message
...
|A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.
|
| Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually
| still sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
| I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it
| while driving.
|
| This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.
|
| Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought
| I would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.
|
| Thanks!
|
| Pat



have a look in alt.satellite.gps.garmin

On Mar 13, 2:43 am, "Eric Baber" > wrote:
> > I'm in a similar boat (upgrading from a Garmin StreetPilot III).
>
> Out of interest, what do you find missing in the Streetpilot i3? That's the
> one I've got, and the features that are missing are cosmetic ones in my
> opinion. What's missing in it for you, causing you to upgrade?
>
> Eric

Assuming we're talking about the same model, I actually don't have any
complaints about the actual navigation function, and I believe its
screen size is in fact a bit larger than what is standard on many
current units, which is a plus for me.

But it is clunky, for one thing. When I leave my car parked
somewhere, I usually stash the GPS inside rather than take it with me
- which with a little Nuvi would be no problem to do. I also take my
III from car to car and I'm hoping I'll like the Nuvi's suction cup
mount a little better than the bean bag mount I've been using
(although I've heard a few mixed reviews on the former).

The other thing for me is, the III's memory card can hold detailed
maps of only part of the US at a time, and to load new parts onto it
is a big hassle if, like me, you have to use a Mac running Virtual
PC. In everyday use it's not an issue (my III has pretty much the
West Coast on it right now, IIRC), but the latest GPSs with their
built-in maps of North America are definitely handier if you're
visiting other parts of the US or Canada.

Justin wrote:
> "pws" > wrote in message
> ...
> |A friend gave me a Garmin emap GPS from 1991. It's old but it works.
> |
> | Anyway, I would like to upgrade to a more modern one, I can actually
> | still sell this for about $80.00 to help offset the cost.
> | I would rather have a hand-held unit, and I won't try to program it
> | while driving.
> |
> | This would mainly be used in the car but may be taken hiking as well.
> |
> | Can someone recommend a best bang for the buck on a GPS? I never thought
> | I would use one but I am finding even the older unit helpful.
> |
> | Thanks!
> |
> | Pat
>
>
>
> have a look in alt.satellite.gps.garmin


Thanks all, I will have to do some further research. The one I have now
has a huge 8 MB data card. I wonder what it cost when it came out, the
copyright date is 1986 to 1991.

My GPS would be used mainly in the car.
It has been a while since I have hiked anywhere that it would actually
be helpful, and I could always buy a dedicated one if I decide that it
is worth the weight on the trail once I do start hiking further out again.

Thanks again!

Pat