First GPS Reciever? (in car)

[Beachasaurus]

Im looking in to buying my first receiver which will stay in my car. I plan on buying a handheld a little down the road to use for caching. I had pretty much settled on a nuvi 350, 360, or 660, but i saw that the 2720 is down to about $350. I want to be able to enter coordinates, either in the unit or on the computer (preferably both ways). I'm also wondering if the if the SIRF chipset on the nuvis is significantly better than the 12 channel on the 2720.

Does anyone have any comments/suggestions to help me along the way?

Thanks!

[+N55340]

Buy the Nuvi 660 if it is in your budget. You can enter coordinates directly into it and the interface and display is much nicer than the 26xx & 27xx series Streetpilots in my opinion. You can also drop your pocket queries into it and see the caches (and select them as a goto) as you drive along. It is kind of cool when you have it in 3D view.

[+Ellteejak]

It is a good idea to get the SIRF chipset as your placement of the GPS in your car could result in some blocked reception for the older model. But, that said I just bought a Garmin I3 via walmart online for less than $200 for my wife. It is supposedly lady friendly (meaning user friendly). We will see.

[+French.]

It is a good idea to get the SIRF chipset as your placement of the GPS in your car could result in some blocked reception for the older model. But, that said I just bought a Garmin I3 via walmart online for less than $200 for my wife. It is supposedly lady friendly (meaning user friendly). We will see.

 

I purchased the Nuvi 360...I liked the smaller form factor, and it's very light. I can easily put it in my purse when I leave my car (this was important to me). The difference between the 350 and 360 is that the 360 can connect with a bluetooth compatible phone so you can use the GPS as a hands free cell phone device. I will say, I have a rather noisy car (CR-V) and someone called me last week all excited about her engagement and upcoming wedding plans, and the quality of her voice over the speaker was lousy enough that I finally just pulled over so I could hear and understand what she was saying. Actually, the volume wasn't an issue, but she did sound quite garbled at times. Of course, she could tell I was on a speaker phone so she was yelling, which probably didn't help matters.

 

The 600 series Nuvis are wide screen, which I didn't deem important for my purposes.

 

I think the SiRF chipset is a definite must have. I've used GPS without the SiRF and while most of the time it might not be an issue, when it is an issue and you lose connection, it sucks.

 

I've been playing with the 360 for about a week now and while I do like it, I'm thinking it might have been overkill in my case. In all honesty, if Verizon Wireless could figure out how to get their VZW Navigator to work across all networks (even in extended areas), I would prefer to use that service. Searching POIs is easier, the TTS is much better, and it's plenty loud. But I've been in extended network twice now where it just wouldn't work and that is beyond frustrating. Hence the reason for going with a dedicated GPS.

 

I initially tried using a 60CSx exclusively...as a geocaching AND car routing unit, but found that I prefer to be told specifically which direction I'm turning and the name of the street is very helpful. With the 60CSx I was constantly having to look at the actual unit to determine where I was supposed to go, and the beeps weren't as loud as I need them to be in my noisy vehicle. Anyway, I only mention this because if the text to speech isn't critical, you might want to look into this as a possible solution.

 

P.S. You can enter lat and long into the 360 directly, as well as upload POIs AND waypoints.

Edited April 10, 2007 by French.

[Beachasaurus]

Thanks for the help. Also...can you load custom routes on to the 360 and 660?

[+N55340]

You can setup custom routes in Mapsource and download them. I never do it since Garmin's routing is pretty good. I have noticed that routing in my Nuvi 660 is far more aggressive than any of the Streetpilots I own.