Purchase A Garmin Gps V Deluxe?

[+G-Squad]

A girlfriend at work is looking to spend $200 - $300 on a mapping gps for her husband. He is a commercial flooring contractor that has to work out of town. Sometimes, he will finish a job in one city and then have to drive to another city. This could actually extend to 3 or 4 cities. He would always know before he leaves what cities he will be going to. He would use the unit for door to door directions. He is also a hunter and hopefully will take up geocaching. She would be the one to load maps onto the gps for his use before he leaves on his trips. He does not have a laptop so would not be able to load maps as needed.

 

Due to the price range, I zeroed in on the Garmin GPS V Deluxe. It comes with mapping software as well as PC cable for about $250. It also comes with cigarette lighter power cable as well as an automobile mount. Although the model is about 4 years old, the more "modern" units seem to be out of her price range, especially when you consider all the accessories that will need to be purchased.

 

From what I can tell, the only downside I see is the age of the model. Are there any other downsides?

 

Is there an alternate mapping gps that is in her price range if you include all the accessories?

[+Renegade Knight]

It's a good GPS. It's just not as current as the new color wiz bang models.

 

I have a GPS V and I have not upgraded, nor have I been tempted. Not until they come out with a GPS VI.

 

The main drawback compaired to newer ones is the speed of loading maps, and the amount of map memory. The speed is only an issue if you are the type to watch the pot boil. The memory can be depending on how far apart the cities are and how big they are. I can fit all of Southern Idaho and most of Northern Utah down to Salt Lake City in my GPS V but the LA Basin might take up more space than the V has memory.

[+Hemlock]

You can fit almost all of Arizona in a V.

[+briansnat]

Is there an alternate mapping gps that is in her price range if you include all the accessories?

 

No, not even close. The GPS V was a great unit when it was almost $500 and is still a great unit. From what I hear the only downside is that the auto routing is slower than it is on the newer units like the 60C.

 

For the money however, you can't beat the GPS V, especially because it comes with the software included in the price.

[peter]

Depending on the size of the cities, the 19MB memory limit may be a limitation. If you give us an example I could see how much area can be covered with that memory in CitySelect-NA. The basemap in the V is pretty decent for inter-city travel on main roads so he'd probably only need detailed maps for the cities in which he's working. Another option would be the Magellan Meridian Gold which is sometimes offered as a package deal with DirectRoute maps. It wouldn't have the memory constraint of the GPS V since it can use SD flash memory, but overall I prefer the firmware features and physical design of the V (screen is higher resolution, horiz/vert option for dash vs. handheld use, better routing options, better beep alert, external antenna option, etc.).

 

Both of these models are available at attractive prices since the emphasis is on the new color models (Quest/60/76c/cs/LegendC/VistaC for Garmin, eXplorist 500/600 for Magellan), but I think they offer the best overall value at the moment when you include the cost of the mapping software and other accesories. The processor speed is a little slower than in the new models, so if you miss a turn it may take longer to recalculate - but we found it to generally be fast enough. Map loading time is also much longer, but with the 19 MB limit it's not that big a deal - about 45 minutes total.

 

BTW, I just got my wife a GPS V last week from www.tvnav.com. The factory remanufactured ones are $215 with full warranty.

 

PS If he ever got a laptop later, Garmin has a free downloadable nRoute program that works with the City Select maps and any Garmin receiver to give you a navigation system with voice directions and the big laptop screen for maps.

[+Team DEMP]

Depends what someone classifies a city as whether it will fit in the V. I had the V (still do) and it's a great unit. The limitations are the speed of the calculations, the limited memory, and the slow serial interface.

 

Speed of calculations: Calculates (or recalculates) a route slowly, and when you miss a turn (on purpose or by accident) it doesn't always recalc quick enough and you miss the next turn you should have taken, which requires it to continue recalculating until you have to drive enough for it to calc and still have the road it wants you to turn onto ahead of you.

 

Limited Memory: 19MB sounds like a lot, but only to those not loading in routing detailed maps. 19MB is, in the scheme of things, only good if you are traveling within maybe a 50-75 mi radius, depending on your location, and could be less if you're around, for example, the NYC area.

 

Slow Interface: The connection between the computer and the unit is serial vs the new USB connections. That means loading a full 19MB of data onto the unit takes about 1 hour. It's something you typically need to plan ahead for since you can't just grab the unit and go to some new area without loading the maps.

 

It might help if you tell us what zip code the person is located in and we can show you a picture of the area of coverage around that zip code that 19MB of data would cover.

 

As for a unit that costs that much and provides more memory - I'm not sure you'll find it. As Brian posted above, the GPS V Deluxe comes with a copy of City Select which is the software that provides the detailed maps you load onto the unit. That software is ~$100 itself. It might be an older version, but upgrading is free if you're purchasing it new, and then $75/yr after that for the updated data. If you bought a newer model, City Select doesn't come with those, so factor in another $100 or so for that as he wouldn't likely find the basemap useful for his needs.

[+G-Squad]

Thanks for all the replies. For the cities, he would keep one of the Phoenix area, say from Casa Grande in the southeast upto Wickenburg in the northwest, on the unit all the time. Then he would need Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and El Paso; possibly all at the same time. Based on what y'all are saying, it seems all of these should fit. Would any of you be kind enough to check?

 

Many thanks,

 

AJ

[peter]

For the cities, he would keep one of the Phoenix area, say from Casa Grande in the southeast upto Wickenburg in the northwest, on the unit all the time. Then he would need Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and El Paso; possibly all at the same time. Based on what y'all are saying, it seems all of these should fit.

Not quite. The Phoenix metro area takes four map regions (5 to include Wickenburg) and the other cities are one apiece. So the total is 8 maps that take almost 22 MB including the auto-routing data in CitySelect-NA version 6 (the latest). But if he could reload maps before leaving Phoenix and drop part of that metro area then the other three cities would fit fine.

[+Team DEMP]

Just remember, reloading is ~ 1 hour. I'm guessing it's not something that would be useful. He would need more memory, assuming he wants street level data.

[+Team DEMP]

Here's a screenshot of what takes up 18.1MB around Phoenix. Click the image to see a large version you can read. What is highlighted in pink is what takes up the 18.1MB.

 

Edited January 26, 2005 by Team DEMP

[peter]

Just remember, reloading is ~ 1 hour.

Personally I've never found the 45 minute or so reload time to be a problem. I generally only reload maps prior to significant trips that are planned in advance. Afterall, other trip preparations take some time as well. Since I know I'll want the maps, I setup the PC and start the download going while packing and getting other things ready.

 

Now if I were on-call for Search&Rescue in a large area or something of that type it would be a big issue, but I've never had a situation yet where I had to make a trip out of the local area with less than a few hours notice.

[+G-Squad]

The map helped me out. I showed it to my coworker and I could see the light go on. So, if we drop the Wickenburg quad and just use the four main ones for the Phoenix area, he will be able to add at least one more city and probably even a third one. But would not be able to fit a fourth city. If he needed to go to all three out of town, they would have to delete the Phoenix maps and load the other three city maps. Is that correct?

Edited January 26, 2005 by GeoGeorge

[peter]

Or, he would be ok with Phoenix and one or two other cities?

Yes, it's very close to all fitting in 19 MB. He could either have all of the Phoenix metro area plus any two of the other cities or he could have all three of the other cities and about half of the Phoenix area.

 

BTW, when you load any new maps the process starts by erasing all the previously loaded maps. So any time he changes maps he'd be selecting all the maps he now wants loaded into the V.

 

MapSource can store files with your selected maps to make it relatively easy to switch back and forth. For example, I keep one file that has my local area maps, another that has the maps for trips up to Lake Tahoe, a third for Yosemite trips (incl. both Topo and City Select maps), etc. Still takes a while to do the download, but makes the map selection quick - and the actual download can happen in the background anyway.

[+Rattlingcrew]

He probably has a good working knowledge of the Phoenix area anyway. I use a V in a dash mount and it is awesome. Being from central Kansas, population is sparse, but you can get most of the state in the mapping. Leave out Wichita and Kansas City Metro and the whole state would probably go. It is an awesome machine. I also have an IQUE, but the trusty five is a nice ride and mine has lots and lots of hours on it, thousands, I should go check, probably over ten thousand hours now. It never misses a beat. It is slower to map and loads slower than some of my newer GPS recievers, but I would have been well served to have just stuck with the V. A cigarette lighter, a power cord, a dash mount, a V and open country, gotta love it. The easy switch to a compass during caching adventures is great too. Glen*

[+Cache Viking]

It's a good GPS. It's just not as current as the new color wiz bang models.

 

I have a GPS V and I have not upgraded, nor have I been tempted. Not until they come out with a GPS VI.

 

The main drawback compaired to newer ones is the speed of loading maps, and the amount of map memory. The speed is only an issue if you are the type to watch the pot boil. The memory can be depending on how far apart the cities are and how big they are. I can fit all of Southern Idaho and most of Northern Utah down to Salt Lake City in my GPS V but the LA Basin might take up more space than the V has memory.

I am with RK ... I do not go anywhere without my V and have not had any desire to replace it ... not at least until the VI comes out and even then it depends on what the differences are.

[+Crusso]

I traded up from a 3+ to a V. In the Metro NY area it sometimes gets roads confused or will tell me to make a turn off a highway where no exit exists! However for the money and what it does you really can't beat it. The map uploads do take about an hour but as stated before I have various map sets of where I commonly travel saved as files so at least picking the maps is quicker. If only we could turn off the points of interest alot more maps would fit.

Edited January 28, 2005 by Crusso

[+G-Squad]

Thanks all. I appreciate the input. I will go ahead and recommend it to her.

 

AJ

[+Dances With Beehives]

I just got a V a few days ago.....I'm happy, but a downside that wasn't mentioned is that you have to delete waypoints one at a time. If I'm wrong, I'd sure like to know how to delete them all at once. Anybody?

[peter]

If I'm wrong, I'd sure like to know how to delete them all at once. Anybody?

Start by FINDing a waypoint "By Name", then when you get the list of waypoints press MENU and you should get options to "Delete by Symbol" (i.e. delete all waypoints with the same symbol as the selected one) or to "Delete All."

 

It does take a few more keystrokes than on my other GPS, but didn't seem onerous enough to mention.

[+Dances With Beehives]

Thanks Peter, I stand corrected, and glad of it. This a great tool. Whew.....was worried there.