GPS

Sandra K · Senior Member

GPS

Sheba · Guru

Hi Sandra, I've got the Hema. It is more expensive, but I wanted on and off-road info. already loaded.
Glad I did now, as I've seen some great feedback re excellant after-sales care by dealers on other Forums.

Cheers,
Sheba.

blaze · Guru

Bit like bottoms, evry one has one, like opinions. I run a garmin nuvi for street navigation, I run a magelan for bush/ off road track sorta stuff (dosnt talk to me), for real serious off road like desert treks etc I use a notebook computer hooked to a usb gps unit with a variety of maps. Gps's are only as good as the mapping and software that runs it and for that reason I like to stick to top brand names so it works out of the box and I dont need to muck around setting it up. I have had about 8 different gps units in the past for different reasons like boats etc and found the easiest out of the box has been the garmin units that I have owned, 4 to date
cheers
blaze

Ma · Guru

We run with Garmin too Blaze. This is the second one. No problems to date.

Firefly · Guru

We have a Tom Tom. Chose it because of the blue tooth capabilities and it has a Juke Box feature which we have found handy in areas with no decent radio chanels.

Also have a Mio his cousin got for us with Henna maps loaded.

Both great units doing two seperate things. smile

jimricho · Guru

I purchased a Garmin 765 a little over a year ago and I'm quite happy with it. I have also purchased a lifetime map upgrade so I can log in any time and get the latest maps. I can also load waypoints from Google Maps and have compiled some waypoint files of caravan park locations. I usually mute the audio so I don't have "Karen" nagging me.

I would have probably purchased a Hema except that I already owned a Magellan Explorist so I was watching the budget.

PS: I'm happy to share those waypoint files with other members who have Garmins provided they are for their own use only. PM me with your email rather than requesting them here.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Depends what you want a GPS for Sandra.
If you just want street navigation, most GPS's will do that for you and even some of the cheapies are very good.

If you want good 1:250,000 Topographical maps plus great touring maps of the whole country (like the HEMA Atlas and Camps 5), you won't beat the HEMA. It comes with them already loaded. You can also load other electronic maps on it that you may need. I have 1:50,000 maps of the Kimberley on mine. It also has a street navigator as well.
The HEMA also allows you to record all your touring tracks and to save them on your computer for trip planning and recording with OziExplorer.

Note that I am biased because HEMA supply us with a HN5 navigator in exchange for field work that we do for them from time to time.

Cheers,
Peter

Covert Operation · Member

The new Telstra 7" Android tablet for $299 has Google mapping with directions included and OziExplorer is coming out shortly for Android. Will give you everything you need. You can also buy Garmin mapping for Android tablet and is link included on Telstra tablet. New era these Android tablets. I have Android phone and playing with the Android tablets at the moment for review purposes.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

We bought a Tom Tom thinking we could upgrade it from the internet... which is true, but more expensive than expected. Its been back to the manufacturer for repairs, still not really happy with it. My partner worked in aviation and navigation so a map which has no control over the changes of scale doesnt do it for him! A personal thing perhaps.

The Prado came with a GPS inbuilt, which is now out of date, we are gonna buy new maps for that.

Smokeydk · Guru

I recently got a Garmin NUVI 1350...not the latest ...bought it from Sprint Auto $255.....

JRH · Guru

We are using the Garmin 1490T and are extremely happy with it. Gave the Tom Tom away as it kept stuffing up and was expensive to upgrade the maps.

The Garmin came with the latest maps and a free upgrade every 4 months for life.

Cost me around $399 all up.

milo · Guru

Gerty Dancer wrote:

We bought a Tom Tom thinking we could upgrade it from the internet... which is true, but more expensive than expected. Its been back to the manufacturer for repairs, still not really happy with it. My partner worked in aviation and navigation so a map which has no control over the changes of scale doesnt do it for him! A personal thing perhaps.

The Prado came with a GPS inbuilt, which is now out of date, we are gonna buy new maps for that.

thats the only thing i dont like about the tom toms is the heavy price for updating the unit online.. and also sometimes if your in the city and have lots of buildings around you can loose your signal ,which has happend a few times to me , very frustrating when you need it the most
also some of these are on ipod touches now as apps, so maybe another option..

JRH · Guru

When I had the TomTom it just refused to find a signal at Mount Barker in the WA South West.

Mount Barker is only 50 K's North of Albany.

Had the same problem at Port Wakefield in South Aust. Switched the TomTom off whilst I refuelled and when I switched it back on it simply could not find a satellite.

So far have not had a problem with the Garmin.

justcruisin01 · Guru

We just bought the latest Garmin NUVI 3760, came with life time upgrade of maps free. Very happy with it so far,as this is the second Garmin for us. One feature of the Garmin,s I like very much is the [ brouse the map] . the old one had it as well & often if a location is not in the program or can,t be found you can go to brouse the map, find the area you want, zoom up & quite often find what you want, select info & lock it in.
Did get a free Mio with a phone deal some time back, dont like it at all.

Zoomtopz · Guru

I suppose old habits die hard - I still prefer Maps .
I learnt to read them before I turned 10 .
I still dig my maps out & read them , I find them very interesting .
No , I'm not technophobic , I don't see any benefits of a gps .
We have them in our Fire Trucks & they stuff up a lot .
I trust the map .

Connie · Veteran Member

I have a Garmin GPSMap 60CSX which I originally bought for flying but it works equally well on the ground on outback tracks as well as navigating unfamiliar urban streets. I was able to buy the roadmaps of North America and used those on a recent trip to the US and Canada, all on a mini SD card.

jimricho · Guru

Connie wrote:

I have a Garmin GPSMap 60CSX which I originally bought for flying .....

That's cheating ! wink wink

When I flew back in the mid 60s to early 80s we couldn't cheat, no GPS, we navigated! wink wink

Jim

Yuglamron · Guru

Hi Guys,
Like many others I bought a garmin Nuvi with Bluetooth.I also bought the lifetime map upgrade.
It has an SD card for music/photos/audible books as well. I joined Audible which is Amazon's spoken book site and download books to my Nuvi. I use 2 gig SD cards and get five average books onto one gig. I have Dan Brown's latest 'The Symbol' and four others which amount to 53 hours of spoken book. Great on a long trip.
You can also purchase Camp5 sites as POI's and download to your GPS.Nuvi, Tom Tom and a few others.Cost about $20 and a short download.Still good to have the camp5 book but find your campsite and Set your GPS .Go To and off you go.
I found that whatever unit you purchase ,Bluetooth and an SD card are greast options.
I am not an offroader so cannot comment on it's offroad capabilities which I think are lacking.
Hope this helps and hope you find something to suit you.
Happy tripping.

Sandra K · Senior Member

Thank you to all contributors, I am now in a position to make a decision.

Popeye · Senior Member

Before you do have a read of this one

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/print/000540.php