Get the Garmin. Don’t know on these new types but I have a Garmin and a Magellan hand held. The Magellan software and techsupport suck compared to Garmin.
I have a Garmin and like it. It should come with a computer cable and ac adapter but double check. The accessories often cost a lot.
Whatever you do, don’t buy the Alpine Blackbird.
Don't need to, but the USB cable makes it a ton easier to manage custom waypoints and also you can link your GPS to google earth after your trip to log you adventures :). Highly recommended.
Garmin Nuvi 200 is the perfect entry level GPS. Borrowed one for a trip to Lake Michigan. It performed flawlessly.
$254.86 on Amazon.
Try making friends with some retired old geezer who knows the area and just bring him along with you.
I can however tell you that I'm very pleased with mine.
I plan on buying one with the larger color screen in the near future as my eyes aren't what they used to be.
L
I have the Nuvi 200W and love it. The wide screen shows a bigger map, more icons on one screen, and makes it easier to see/read.
I chose not to pay the $60 or so extra for the text-to-speech feature. The GPS saying “Turn right” as opposed to “Turn right on Lincoln Road” isn’t a big deal. Plus, if there are roads close together and it’s not clear which one to turn on, the name of the correct road for the next turn is displayed on the screen anyway.
The Garmin interface is very intuitive, fast and easy to use.
Fletcher J
Some of the data points are out of date, especially, for non-chain stores. But that's understandable.
My main complain is that you can have only one destination and only one "via point" between where you are and your destination, I would like to get a model that will plot various stops along the way. But we're not planning on getting another model soon -- the one we have has taken us all over the country by car a couple of times, and we just love it.
Consider if you will use it only in one vehicle or if you’ll need it elsewhere. I have a hand held (a Mio given as a gift) which has a bracket for in car mounting. I am more likely to use it hiking or on boats or in rental cars than in my own car so this works perfectly for my situation.
Get a Garmin Nuvi 200. I bought one at Wally World for $139.95 and I absolutely LOVE it! Great unit!
I think my Garmin is trying to kill me. Could it be she has figured out a way to contest my will? Does she really think she’d be happier without me? I don’t know, but once she sent me the wrong way on a one-way road, and another time I was trying to find my new realtor’s office and Miss Garmin told me to hang a right when I was in the middle of the Highway 59 bridge over the Brazos River.
I called the cops, but they don’t believe me. They ask how something so small and colorful could be that evil.
Real men use maps.
Magellan’s fine. That’s what I have and I don’t have any problems with it. Doesn’t have any cool features like traffic reports or weather forecasts, but it’s inexpensive and will get you from point A to point B.
check out www.epinions.com. It’s a great site and has all kinds of reviews and even links to the lowest prices around.
It looks like people like the Nuvi (I didn’t check the other one)
http://www.epinions.com/GPS_Devices/xDN_~garmin
I have the Garmin and love it. It is easy to use and gets me to my destination without problems.