<p>With college visit road trips coming up, I thought I’d bite the bullet and try out GPS (as opposed to Mapquest) travel. If I find a system I like, I want to buy one for each of the kids’ cars.</p>
<p>I know that some systems are ultra-cheap and some are expensive. How much does one have to pay to get a decent one? Any brand or model recommendations?</p>
<p>Get a Garmin Nuvi from Costco. If you like it, keep it. If you don’t, Costco will take it back within 90 days. There could be some specials and sales at this time of the year (graduation and father’s day gifts).</p>
<p>Do you know, I almost put in my original message: “Please do not suggest Costco because we are not members.” </p>
<p>Seems like everyone loves Costco. Our closest Costco is just too far away to justify membership.</p>
<p>Just checked on Amazon. The Garmin Nuvi’s range in price from $120 to $400. How much do you have to pay to get a decent one?</p>
<p>Do you have a Best Buy close by? We just bought one for our daughter as a college graduation gift since she’ll be moving halfway across the country from us. I think I paid $120 for a very nice Garmin Nuvi that has more features than the one I paid $600 for my husband for Christmas five years ago. Best Buy has a good selection of GPS units, or at least I thought so.</p>
<p>The reviews make it seem like the Garmin Nuvi 255W is a good one. $119.99 on Amazon. I think the price is the same at Best Buy, but of course, no sales tax on Amazon.</p>
<p>Navigon is really good… not well known but functions well and has many good features.</p>
<p>My daughter and I went on a 3,000 mile college trip this spring. My husband bought me a Garmin Nuvi from Costco, about $200, and it was invaluable! It was a big help in finding our hotels and restaurants, money well spent.</p>
<p>our Garmin works great and moves between cars and cost somewhere in the low $100s (on Amazon) … a great Xmas gift from me to me!</p>
<p>If you’re thinking about upgrading your phone and you’re interested in the iPhone, it has built-in GPS.</p>
<p>I realize it’s not a stand-alone unit, but my son has found it quite adequate (his old GPS was stolen). </p>
<p>The other nice thing about the iPhone maps/GPS is that it includes traffic. They get the traffic by looking at all the iPhones in the immediate vicinity. It’s quite accurate.</p>
<p>My company provides me a Blackberry Pearl so I’ll stick with “free” on the phone. </p>
<p>The pleasantly surprising thing is that (so far) no one has said “don’t buy ___, it’s a piece of *!@#.”</p>
<p>Target has this Garmin Nuvi on sale this week for $149 - I had thought about getting one for D - seems to have a decent size screen too:</p>
<p>[Garmin</a> 4.3" Widescreen Portable GPS (Nuvi 1300) : Target](<a href=“http://www.target.com/Garmin-Widescreen-Portable-Nuvi-1300/dp/B001U0O7T4/ref=br_1_1?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&qid=1274977794&searchView=grid5&sr=1-1&node=13003411&searchRank=pmrank&searchPage=1&searchSize=30&id=Garmin%20Widescreen%20Portable%20Nuvi%201300&searchBinNameList=purchasing_channel%2Ctarget_com_category-bin%2Cprice]Garmin”>http://www.target.com/Garmin-Widescreen-Portable-Nuvi-1300/dp/B001U0O7T4/ref=br_1_1?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=1&qid=1274977794&searchView=grid5&sr=1-1&node=13003411&searchRank=pmrank&searchPage=1&searchSize=30&id=Garmin%20Widescreen%20Portable%20Nuvi%201300&searchBinNameList=purchasing_channel%2Ctarget_com_category-bin%2Cprice)</p>
<p>Oops, missypie, I did not know you have not been assimilated. :)</p>
<p>Any Garmin Nuvi will do. Ours is more than 3 years old, and it does take a while for it to get the maps loaded after a plane flight to a new state. Just make sure yours has all of the US covered.</p>
<p>I got a TomTom iPhone car kit, and I feel that I’ve been taken for a ride. The expensive kit does work well as a hands free device, navigation enhancer for iPhone maps, and phone charger, but to make it work as a “talking” navi system I have to buy a $80 app! Outrageous.</p>
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<p>D’s cheer gym is moving. Now instead of being 10 minutes away from Nordstrom Rack, I think I’ll be about 10 minutes away from Costco…I may need to join…</p>
<p>^^As long as you stick to a shopping list, your budget will be OK. And Costco has some nice healthy foods options as well.</p>
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<p>When we belonged to Sams I’d come out with the 48-pack of chocolate pudding and the mega-box of frozen steak fingers.</p>
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That’s the exact one my kid has and we used it on a coast to coast road trip. It worked fine. My other kid bought a different Garmin that indicated traffic as well via a built in FM receiver (so it doesn’t require a monthly subscription fee) that might be a useful feature but I’ve never seen it in action. </p>
<p>You don’t necessarily get much more in the way of usable features by paying more money. Since you’re planning on multiplying the purchase cost times some number of people you’re buying them for then the difference in cost is important.</p>
<p>btw - I also used the map with traffic function on my iPhone but you really need to have a navigator to use it effectively since otherwise the display is too small, it requires hands-on to zoom in effectively, etc. The iPhone’s ability to acquire satellite reception while in the car isn’t always that great either. It would be dangerous to use an iPhone for this purpose too while driving. </p>
<p>Also - consider how you’ll mount it in the car. Depending on how you decide to do this you might end up buying another mount - like the bean bag mount, which will add to the cost.</p>
<p>I’ve got the Nuvi 205. It’s alright, but not always the most accurate. I need to update it… got it for Christmas in 2009, but it has roads missing. And those roads have been there for 7-8 years! It’s not the greatest thing in the world, but I’m sure I’ll appreciate it in a couple weeks when I go to Wisconsin…</p>
<p>So for those of you that have one, can you give a list of important things to look for?</p>
<p>Like at least a certain size screen, etc. and what “options” are not really necessary for the average roadtrippers?</p>
<p>I only spent $100 on my D’s Garmin Nuvi (non-widescreen) GPS. It does all she wants it to do.</p>