toller

My Vista is great! I have always gotten a good lock no matter how much tree cover I've been under. I consistently get a lock in my living room, no joke. I've never had a Magellan with which to compare, but I sure like the Garmins that I've had. One thing I like about Garmin is the software updates they put on their website. Good luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy whatever you get.

Mine hit 146 mph while flying with a friend a couple of weeks ago. It also hit 84 mph just before I got pulled over on Friday.

Mine hit 146 mph while flying with a friend a couple of weeks ago. It also hit 84 mph just before I got pulled over on Friday.

The cover on my click stick lasted about a week. I was intitially frustrated but have learned to live without it. My only real complaint is that without the rubber cover the click stick is quite difficult to operate with gloves on as there is so little friction. I use mine so much that I'd go nuts trying to find a time to send it back for repair, free or otherwise. I also have my doubts about whether a new one would last. GPS is such a wonderful thing!

When I bought my Vista I splurged and got the three way cable that allow me to connect my GPS to both my computer and the 12 volt adaptor in the car. Best $45 I've spent. I am very pleased. On road trips I plug the laptop into a power inverter and the GPS into the laptop. The power inverter and the GPS both run off of the 12 volt. I can go across the country like this and play the whole way. www.tvnav.com has a good price on them. Got my Vista for a good price too! With regards to going off of the road. I have no solution. Cell phones are for amateur crashes. GPS crashes are the real ones!

When I bought my Vista I splurged and got the three way cable that allow me to connect my GPS to both my computer and the 12 volt adaptor in the car. Best $45 I've spent. I am very pleased. On road trips I plug the laptop into a power inverter and the GPS into the laptop. The power inverter and the GPS both run off of the 12 volt. I can go across the country like this and play the whole way. www.tvnav.com has a good price on them. Got my Vista for a good price too! With regards to going off of the road. I have no solution. Cell phones are for amateur crashes. GPS crashes are the real ones!

ditto the detail comment When I am loading large metropolitan areas I notice that I suck up memory. When I load maps to hunt in rural areas, it's never full. With Metroguide, I can load all of MN and half of ND. then add a bunch of topo maps. Or all of MN plus an ungodly number of topo maps.

Functionally mine has been fine. The rubber covering it lasted about 3 days. No joke! I've used it without ever since. It's a little harder to use with sweaty hands, otherwise works fine.

To add a little to what Mopar said just in case you weren't aware: Try this link http://www.garmin.com/support/download.html This will get you to Garmin's software update page. These update the operating system in your GPS. This is quite easy to do. Download the update to a file. Use winzip to unzip it. Connect your GPS and make sure your GPS is on and set up to communicate in "Garmin" mode. Double click the .exe file you've unzipped. Things should progress by themselves. If you have any problems, drop a note. Some of the updates have made a noticable difference for me.

I realize that I'm not offering anything new here but... I got my Vista from www.tvnav.com and was very happy with them. They really knew their stuff, and were prompt and easy to deal with. Thumbs up!

I too would not buy it. I use NiMH batteries and am quite happy with them. But I have also had to bail myself out with regular batteries. I take long trips where it would be very tough to recharge my GPS. For around town, where rechargable would be most useful, I have my GPS plugged into my car anyway. Think about how fast cell phone batteries get funny. I do not want my GPS in the same boat.

No doubt that ammo cans are the king. Another option: My local dollar store often has the oversized Rubbermaid containers with the blue lid. They are tough, waterproof, and inexpensive.