Best GPS for auto and caching

[+ziggy&fuzz]

Sorry if this is a repost but with technology changing I decided to post it anyway.

 

My sister is looking for the best GPS for use in a car and for geocaching. She has been using an old Geko of mine and is tired of manually entering coordinates (so it needs a USB connection) and my brother-in-law wants one that talks to him in the car (which leaves out my favorite, the 60Cx because it only beeps at turns instead of talking). Any ideas are appreciated.

[+Miragee]

I believe the Garmin Quest and Quest II might work. Someone suggested those in these Forums the other day.

[+TrailGators]

I believe the Garmin Quest and Quest II might work. Someone suggested those in these Forums the other day.

Those are good choices.

[+Chuy!]

The most affordable voice prompted Garmin you will find appears to be the Nuvi 200 at about $275. However, battery life life is a dismal 5 hours due primarily to it's large well-lit screen. It's a modern dashmount in that it comes preloaded with regional maps and supports external memory.

 

A more all-around performer is the Quest I at about $350. Its battery life is about 20 hrs and is waterproof. But, it has no removal memory card; it's internal memory is 115mb. That's enough memory for about three large counties. Not too bad, but if you travel alot, it will be annoying having to download new mapsets.

 

The only drawback is that is not as well protected from a drop as a handheld unit. I've dropped my handhelds many a time. I'd hate to see what happens when a Quest bounces off a rock. It's bound to happen.

[+briansnat]

I believe the Garmin Quest and Quest II might work. Someone suggested those in these Forums the other day.

 

I agree. The Quest or Quest II are the best of both worlds. More for car use, but they work fine as a handheld.

 

A bit pricey but the maping software is included in the price. It's a $120 add on for most other units.

[+briansnat]

I's internal memory is 115mb. That's enough memory for about three large counties

 

It will get you way more than 3 large counties. It should get you several states. I just checked and I got all of Maine, VT, NH. MA, RI, CT a good chunk of eastern NY state, NYC, Long Island and northern NJ in 115 megs.

And that is a high population area that chews up memory.

 

Out west I fit all of Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, ND, SD, Nevada, Utah and small slices of NM, AZ and CA in 115 megs. That is a lot of coverage.

[appletree]

The Quest is still the only unit that is well suited for car navigation (voice prompts are essential for safety) and caching. Plenty of memory for even very long road trips as you only need to load map segments for destinations and stopovers, the base map will serve for the long stretches in between. There are better hand-held and better in-car models, but amazingly, after all these years, there are no other acceptable dual use models. The price on the Quest original, including the current maps, should be about $315 or less, new.

 

I use mine with an external antenna which greatly improves reception, lets me keep it in my pocket without losing the lock, and has saved the unit from many accidental falls to the ground.

[Rhialto]

Where is the next Quest? An updated Quest with higher sensitivity chip like most unit have now?

 

I guess it will show up one week after I will have bought the Vista HCx I'm looking at.

[+embra]

I use mine with an external antenna which greatly improves reception, lets me keep it in my pocket without losing the lock, and has saved the unit from many accidental falls to the ground.

I think very highly of my Quest for autorouting. My only hesitation for using it caching is that it tends to lose lock easily under tree cover. An external antenna seems to take care of this deficiency pretty well (from what I've read).

 

I'll also pass along that while the Q2 has all the maps built-in, it seems to be a little more sluggish than the Q1 in some things like redraws and searches. The 115Mb of memory in the Q1 should be adequate for anyone except those undertaking cross-country trips.

 

It is a little odd that the Quest, which has been around a while now, still is among the best crossovers. I suppose I should mention the Magellan Crossover series. But I'd do a search in this forum for the experiences of those who have tried them out for geocaching. I haven't paid close attention, but I seem to recall there were "issues."

[imaroon]

Here are a few more models that do both gps for auto and caching

[+mousekakat]

We have decent experiences with our TomTom ONE unit... It takes a little finagling to figure out, but once we did, it gets us where we're going, on foot or in the car.

[TopangaHiker]

Sorry if this is a repost but with technology changing I decided to post it anyway.

 

My sister is looking for the best GPS for use in a car and for geocaching. She has been using an old Geko of mine and is tired of manually entering coordinates (so it needs a USB connection) and my brother-in-law wants one that talks to him in the car (which leaves out my favorite, the 60Cx because it only beeps at turns instead of talking). Any ideas are appreciated.

 

We just returned on July 3 from a 1700 mile road trip from Cali, NV, Utah, Colo, NM and AZ that involved hunting a few GC's as well.

The GPSr we used was a 60CSx. It worked great and I'm not sure that I would want to hear some canned voice coming out of it anyway.