HokieBird

I own a 60csx and a friend has the Nuvi. They are both great units, but are aimed at totally different markets. For outdoors use, the 60csx works great. As you know, the Nuvi, with the touch screen and all, is more fragile, and more appropriate for autorouting and non-hardcore use. That being said, you can go geocaching with a Nuvi (albeit carefully) and you can autoroute with the 60csx. To answer your main question, the 60csx is a decent autorouting unit but has the aforementioned limitations (e.g., just beeps and screen shows a banner message for next step). To me, that is more than adequate since whenever I'm driving with autorouting in unfamiliar territory I'm always focusing on what the next turn is quite a bit ahead of time and am rarely caught off-guard. But in terms of pure auto-routing graphics and sounds, the Nuvi wins hands down.

At least compare agains gpsdiscount.com. They sometimes include an autonav kit with detailed maps that makes the price quite reasonable overall.

drbugs - Really sorry to hear about your unit. I know we got ours about the same time (I opted for the 60csx) from the same vendor, so we have a similar history. I haven't been caching as much as I'd like, so I'm sure you have a little more mileage on your unit. Glad to hear that Garmin is being responsive to your problem. Keep us posted. -HB

REI usually has great policies. So you probably can get it locally (e.g., you can purchase on internet and they can ship your local store). If in doubt, give your local store a call.

Exactly what do you notice during autorouting? For me, the only thing I've noticed sometimes is that the screen has a slight delay in showing the details on the very top of the screen (rest of screen is ok but top 1/8th of screen is briefly blank before it gets filled in). This is mostly when you are moving along at highway speeds and when zoomed way in. Have you seen this?

With the autonav kit, which includes either CS or CN detailed maps, you are set. You're going to be happy with this unit.

I haven't heard of this, but there seems to be a simple solution. You have 2 from the back of your PC that work fine now. Plug your GPSr into one of the (suggest to get a simple 3ft extender cable for easier access) and plug a USB hub into the other one for everything else.

Not quite sure what you mean. During autorouting, I've seen my position icon not line up with the highlighted route. This happens rarely, but I have seen it (especially when zoomed way in).

Recently I took a long road trip and had some observations and questions: 1. When zoomed way in, the display would have a slight lag at the very top of the screen when driving. I think this is probably since it is zoomed way in, it takes slightly longer for the screen to "paint" or "come up". This resulted in a blank area at the top of the screen (about 1/8th of the screen size) that was blank and then filled in - about 1 second later. Note that most of the screen was fine, just the top part was blank. Is this normal - and has anyone else experienced this? 2. I had a route planned and loaded ahead of time. However, I started out a different way and wanted to join the route in-progress. Instead of figuring out where I was and allowing me to join at the closest point to the route, it kept trying to re-route me back to the very beginning of the route. Again, is this the way it is supposed to work? 3. When I stopped the car for a couple of breaks, I noticed that the unit went dead even though it was plugged into the 12V adapter. It only happened twice, but was a bit annoying (had to repower it on and reacquire). One interesting tid bit is that when it powered on, it instantly tried to start autorouting again, as if the unit had been turned off suddenly. I've never had this happen when running with the batteries for long periods of time. Overall, I still am very impressed with this unit, just trying to understand it a little better.

First, make sure you have a *micro*SD card (not a miniSD). Also, for purchasing at REI, members sometimes get a coupon for 20% off any 1 item. It does not cover GPS receivers. However, the local REI has said that this can be used for the software - so you might want to check on that.

Well, if I am in my house and and I loose the signal, then I go to a window to get the signal back, and I stand still at the window (not moving), my 60CSx still remains without a fix. Have to turn it off and on to get a fix back. So, I fear it's not only related with moving or not moving. pyt22fr I think I read in the forums here recently that instead of having to power cycle the unit (off/on), you can disable then re-enable the GPS from the Satellite screen. IIRC, it's something like "Use with GPS off". I think that my kick start it to search for signals again.

Agree with the Jo-Ann example. If I put in Wal-Mart, I get the following: Wal-Mart (1 item at a particular location 272 miles away) Wal-Mart (1 item at another location 337 miles away) Wal-Mart (77 items, starting with the local ones and continuing out) Wal-Mart Supercenter (1 item at a particular location 885 miles away) Wal-Mart Supermarket (1 item at a location 46 miles away). Now it works, and I can find the correct one (select the 3rd one above and find it in there). However it's not perfect. Actually, the confusing part is that there can be different entries for the exact same name (see the first 3 above or another example is I also have 2 "Target" listings). Wonder if one contains an extra blank space or something that makes it unique to show up as a separate listing.

One question I've had is - How does one get to be a POI? In other words, it is taken out of the yellow pages (if so, which yellow pages - YellowBook/Verizon/BellSouth/etc), do restaurants have to pay a fee to get to be a POI, etc. Who is the ultimate authority for the POIs???

I was wondering if it was plenty loud if I have a noisy car and am going fast, will I miss some beeps? Ninjakyle - I wouldn't really describe the beep as plenty loud. If I don't have the radio on, you can hear it above regular car noise, even at higher speeds. However, it's more difficult, if not impossible, with the radio blasting. I find that when I am routing in unfamiliar areas, I tend to concentrate on the unit more and am more aware of it (and probably have the radio much lower). So just be aware that the beep is low and you'll be fine. Also, it can display the estimate time and distance until the next turn (and you can preview all turns in the calculated route too), so you'll have some sense as to when the next turn is (e.g., in 2 minutes or 20 minutes). So if you have your wits about you, it works fine. Would it be nice to have a louder beep? Of course. But it's adequate the way it is.

The last bit didn't make sense to me when it just found one address, but it does when you pick a street address like 123 4th. What shows up are addresses like 123 4th Ave S, 123 4th Ave N, 123 4th St E, and 123 4th St W The first two will display in the field and you have to scroll to see the others, and then select the one you want to use. So you need to go through the list if found to verify it knows what you're looking for. Now that I know, it's easy to enter addresses. Hope that make sense... Bob I did the exact same thing - entered and address and lost it the same way as you! Again, I didn't have the manual either but figured it out the next time. EDIT: for typo

I echo alot of NorthFaceHiker's comments. The 60CSx strikes a nice balance between ruggedness, portability, and features. The auto-routing works very well and I don't miss having voice prompts. I find the visuals and the beeps to be plenty sufficient for my needs. I would, however, like the beeps to be a bit louder.

Another question: Can I install (CS or CN ) on 2 computers (say one at work and one at home) and then download to a single GPS receiver? Will this use just one unlock code?

Photo - glad to hear everything went well with your purchase. I've had a similar experience with my 60CSx from them. The unit is really fantastic and is growing on me each day as I learn more features. It's a very powerful device. I was toying with getting the Explorist 600 but am glad I went with this one. Garmin seems slow to adopt the Mac, but hope springs eternal .... DrBugs - thanks for the tip to update MapSource immediately - I did that right away. Did you update the firmware yet (I have not)?

I fully understand the "penny saved, penny earned" argument for rechargeables. However, there is some expense for charging (electricity). Is the amount of current drawn so minute that it's not a factor? Or does is actually cost a few cents to charge up the batteries? Any know how to calculate?

To follow-up on planewood's point, the primary reason I bought from GPSDiscount.com was for their deal that bundles in the Auto Navigation kit. That package seemed to be the best overall price I could find. DrBugs did the same. However, if you are looking to buy just the handheld unit (and not a package deal), then there are definitely other websites that are cheaper (such as Chumbo, as planewood has stated).

Add one more for Garmin GPSmap 60CSx

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm guessing the time is included in the GPS signal itself (with accompanying deltas), sort of like the NTP protocol. I doubt it is strictly a local receiver clock.

Robert4 - I just got my 60CSx last night. Overall, it seems to be a great unit. When it comes down to it, the GPSr is most useful when it is receiving signals, so one school of thought says to go with the best receiver available (i.e. SIRF). It has been argued that the Magellan explorist 5/600 has comparable receiver capabilities, but it appears you don't have them on your final list. That being said, I recommend the SIRF over non-SIRF. The only drawback that I see with the 60c* series is it's size. It seems to be slightly bigger than it needs to be (especially since it's about about 1 1/2 inches thick. Again, assuming this unit came out in 2004, then the design and component selection for this unit was likely done in 2002 or 2003 at the latest. That's 3-4 year old technology. I expect Garmin to eventually come out with a new model that is smaller (at least flatter) with a bigger screen (proportion to the rest of the unit) and without the silly rubberized antenna sticking up. However, life is short and I couldn't keep waiting .......

Just received my 60CSx from GPSDiscount yesterday. Good quick service, everything arrived in good order, no complaints at all. So they are now on my recommended list. It appears that unit has a steep but short learning curve. Seemed a bit overwhelming last night (I tend to actually read the owner's manual) but not so bad today. Overall, the unit is very impressive and powerful. Haven't had a chance to play with the City Select software yet - plan to do that tonight.

Reminds me of the auto industry. There used to be zillions of models of Buicks and now they've streamlined (to compete with Toyota/Honda) to just a few simple product lines.