+Roadster Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Since I haven't kept track of what is good/new out there in the way of Magellan GPS units, I was wondering what some of you think is the best one to buy nowadays. I like Magellan and my price range is $500.00 and less, BUT I could be talked into a Garmin... I was looking at the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx and it looks like a good one. A friend of mine had an eTrex and in the car he would have to hold it up by the windshield or lose the sat's, but my Magellan wouldn't lose the signal anywhere in the car, and I noticed out caching if the trees was thick he would lose sats where I would not. I went out with another friend that just bought an eTrex and his did the same. Now does the 60CSx have a better antenna then the eTrex? Quote Link to comment
+JohnTee Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 (edited) Go Garmin, go Garmin . . . I think you would be very happy with a Garmin 60 CSx and it would fit well within your price range. Two local geocachers have switched from Magellan to Garmin, one to a 60 CSx. I don't know the models they switched from, both had compass, but . . . One was a brick, and actually a pretty solid unit for signal strength. It up and died on him. He just bought a DeLorme PN-20 I had. Part of the reason for the switch to DeLorme was his SAR group used the DeLorme Maps. The other guy had a similar, but less expensive unit. We could get in the car and he would have a hard time getting any kind of decent signal. My eTrex Legend would outperform in the car. The other guy's Magellan did a better job. Yes, the 60 CSx has a 'quadrahelix' antenna which gives it VERY good reception. My dad can sit in the house and pick up satellites with it all day long. These units, and Garmin's new 'H' series, seem to compare pretty favorably in accuracy. The 'H' units still have the 'patch' antenna that your friends eTrex had, but come with a 'High Sensitivity' chip. I can set my original eTrex Legend and my new Vista HCx side by side on my living room coffee table; the Legend might get a weak peek at a satellite or two, but no fix. The HCx will give me good signals and a 20-30 accuracy. I can even go down in the basement and get a signal! The 60 CSx seems to have been the Cadillac of GPS units among geocachers, well, Garmin users anyway. We'll see how the new Colorado units do . . . I don't know about the Magellans and maps, but the Garmins don't come with anything more that a crude basemap. Cache On! JohnTee Edited April 6, 2008 by JohnTee Quote Link to comment
earthshaker Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I have a Meridian gGPS, have the sd card capability, after reading and researching a bunch, I will go with either the Garmin GPSmap 60, or 60cs(x). My mom has an older Garmin GPS 76, that she was given. A couple of years ago we went to the same area together, I had a strong signal all the time, she on the other hand kept losing the signal, even under moderate tree cover, my Meridian has the quadrfilar helix antenna, the 76 has a patch like a lot of Garmin units. So to sum up, go with the GPSmap60 series, with the better antenna. Quote Link to comment
+D0T-C0M Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 (edited) I have a Meridian gGPS, have the sd card capability, after reading and researching a bunch, I will go with either the Garmin GPSmap 60, or 60cs(x). My mom has an older Garmin GPS 76, that she was given. A couple of years ago we went to the same area together, I had a strong signal all the time, she on the other hand kept losing the signal, even under moderate tree cover, my Meridian has the quadrfilar helix antenna, the 76 has a patch like a lot of Garmin units. So to sum up, go with the GPSmap60 series, with the better antenna. The old Garmin 60CS and 76 (the ones that don't end in x) don't have the newer Sirf chip and do not hold a signal well. The newer ones such as 60CSx do. I have had many many magellan products and I am now in the process of switching over from Magellan and personally I do not encourage anyone to use Magellan products. They lost this loyal customer because of their lousy customer support which is really really reallllllllly bad and their product support sucks. The do not release timely updates if you are lucky you might get one once a year. The new triton series was promising but again they are full of bugs and needs some firmware update to be any good. I called Garmin once so far and I spoke to someone in english that was very helpful. I was not on hold for more the 30 sec. Garmin does have its bugs but they seem to try to address them by frequent firmware updates and the maps are fairly accurate. I would recommend the 60CSx for a handheld though the Colorado series is also an option in your price range. Edited April 6, 2008 by D0T-C0M Quote Link to comment
+Roadster Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 Thanks guy's! After reading what you all said and I also contacted 'Mopar' and he said the same thing plus some more, and I have decided to go with the 60CSx and I even just ordered it online. It's a shame that Magellan kind of dropped out of the race, I sure did love my Maggie! Their customer support back then was bad as well. Thanks again! Roadster Quote Link to comment
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