Considering getting GPS

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I will be renting a car in France this summer, and I can see having a GPS could be very handy.

My car rental broker (Auto Europe) has a deal where I can get a "Free" Garmin Nuvi 270 for the duration of my rental (but I have to pay $40 shipping)

Is the Garmin any good?
I would want to program it by an address and also find 'Home'

I have used GPS before (in rentals) but don't know what brand.

I'm also considering just buying one, but I really have no need here, where I live.
Any advice?

Thanks!
 
Buy one and you can use Open Map Project maps.

That's what we did with a Garmin two years ago when we spent 3 weeks in Italy.
 
^ Yup, I used a precompiled open map of canada on my WM special cheapie Garmin.

The cheap ones (used to) tell you to "turn right here" instead of "Turn right here for Main St". You can get by, of course, but it's weird a programming roadblock to encourage upgrades.
 
I own a Garmin nüvi 205W. In fact I'm selling one right now over on the for-sale part of this site. A few years ago when we went to Europe last, I just went onto Amazon and bought the memory card with all the European maps. Just stuck in the slot and it worked perfectly all around Europe.

I don't remember how much the map card cost, but I'll bet that it was more than $40. Seems like a good deal although that you'll have a gps that only has maps of Europe on it correct? Not sure if this matters much to you.
 
Garmin is probably the best supported brand out there.

We have a community here for making maps for Malaysia, Singapore and even Thailand and above
http://www.malfreemaps.com/index.php

If you'll ever visit our region, the above maps are free.
Even local Garmin here is impressed enough to work with the community.
They understand the power of constant updating of maps that the community provides.

I wouldn't hesitate to get a Garmin.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I own a Garmin nüvi 205W. In fact I'm selling one right now over on the for-sale part of this site. A few years ago when we went to Europe last, I just went onto Amazon and bought the memory card with all the European maps. Just stuck in the slot and it worked perfectly all around Europe.

I don't remember how much the map card cost, but I'll bet that it was more than $40. Seems like a good deal although that you'll have a gps that only has maps of Europe on it correct? Not sure if this matters much to you.


Excuse me, I know very little of these things.

You buy a GPS then you buy map cards for any areas that the unit does not already cover?
Are the Map cards updateable? if so, What would it cost?

You talk of batteries, Do they not just plug in to the Cigarette lighter? (Am I showing my age?)

I'm thinking if the Cards are over $40 I might just as well rent the free one.
 
If you only need it for that one single trip, I think $40 is not a bad deal.

Alternatively, if you have a smartphone, you can purchase the Osmand app for about $8 and then you can download any map you want to your phone's memory (so that you don't need an international data plan). But I think having a dedicated navigation device is more practical.
 
I think most of them are rechargeable and plug into the accessory port to charge. You don't have to keep it plugged in unless it's dead. I think some people choose to keep then plugged in at all times though.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
I will be renting a car in France this summer, and I can see having a GPS could be very handy.

My car rental broker (Auto Europe) has a deal where I can get a "Free" Garmin Nuvi 270 for the duration of my rental (but I have to pay $40 shipping)

Is the Garmin any good?
I would want to program it by an address and also find 'Home'

I have used GPS before (in rentals) but don't know what brand.

I'm also considering just buying one, but I really have no need here, where I live.
Any advice?

Thanks!



Garmin is a great GPS, around $100 for a decent one at Sams. Many people are just using a smart phone.
 
We don't have a smart phone.

Last year when visiting Denmark, we bought a Map App for the Ipad.
But as it happened, our rental car was equipped with GPS which was a lot easier :)

Just looking around, there seem to be some real bargains out there (including JHZR2's) I'm just trying to figure out what else (and how much) I need to get, to get a functional GPS working in Europe.

My fall-back would be to get the Free rental (But I pay $40 for shipping) unit.

But it might be nice if I only need pay a little more, and get one I can keep.
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: expat
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I own a Garmin nüvi 205W. In fact I'm selling one right now over on the for-sale part of this site. A few years ago when we went to Europe last, I just went onto Amazon and bought the memory card with all the European maps. Just stuck in the slot and it worked perfectly all around Europe.

I don't remember how much the map card cost, but I'll bet that it was more than $40. Seems like a good deal although that you'll have a gps that only has maps of Europe on it correct? Not sure if this matters much to you.


Excuse me, I know very little of these things.

You buy a GPS then you buy map cards for any areas that the unit does not already cover?
Are the Map cards updateable? if so, What would it cost?

You talk of batteries, Do they not just plug in to the Cigarette lighter? (Am I showing my age?)

I'm thinking if the Cards are over $40 I might just as well rent the free one.


You can get the maps free from the link I posted. Just make sure the unit you buy takes SD cards. So the only cost is the cost for a 4 or 8 gb SD card you put in the unit.

Most GPS units will plug into the cigarette lighter.
 
What GPS's typically use SD cards?
Looking at JHZR2's I see no reference of it taking a card.

If I download a Free map to the card, will the GPS function in the same way as with the manufacturers map?

What kind of area will the downloaded map cover? (I would want the whole of France with details of most cities)
 
This is what I have.

Yes, it will use both the maps loaded into the unit from the factory and any maps on the microSD card.

Yes, it functions in the same fashion.

I'm sure there are units with more bells and whistles. But I can update the US maps at Garmin as well as load any OSM maps easily downloaded from the web.

There must be dozens of websites that discuss the OSM Open Mapping project and using those maps with a Garmin.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
What GPS's typically use SD cards?
Looking at JHZR2's I see no reference of it taking a card.

He posted a link to its specs. And it says:

Quote:
Accepts data cards: SD™ card (not included)
 
When we purchased our Durango last summer I talked the owner into including a Garmin Nuvi-it is a 40LM model.

The few times I've used it did not leave me impressed. The only thing it seems to do well is to predict the time of arrival accurately as long as you don't stray from the route it selects.

For example, last week as we were driving to and from Colorado I had it turned on (I updated it the day before we left, so everything should be accurate). When we pulled off at a Nebraska rest area, about 100' from the interstate it suddenly told us to proceed 140 miles on an unpaved road. No only is there no unpaved road within sight, it didn't have the sense to know we were at a rest area.

When we'd pull off the interstate for gas the Garmin would tell us to do something utterly bizarre, such as "Drive north 72 miles on Blue Bird Road".

As we were visiting friends I entered the address of some friends who live north of Ft. Collins on one of the county roads-they live about 1/4 mile east of S. Taft Hill Rd. We were on in Loveland on Taft Hill Rd. and I would "assume" it would simply take us up S. Taft Hill Rd, and then make a right turn on their county road. The drive is really just that simple. However, the Garmin decided that we should turn right at every major intersection in and north of Ft. Collins. Trilby Rd, Drake Rd, Mulberry St were all right turns that it suggested. I assume it wanted to route us over to highway 287 or I-25-either of which would have taken much longer and had much more traffic than simply going straight north on the road on which we were already traveling. The funniest part was that when we approached the county road on which we had to make a right turn, it told us to continue to go straight ahead rather than tell us to make a right turn. When we pulled into the driveway it at least told us we had arrived at our destination, so it did know the location. It simply didn't have the sense to route us the easiest way.

I'll probably get rid of it at some point. I can do better than the Garmin by looking at a paper map, memorizing the most direct route, and using a bit of common sense.
 
There are people who still don't own a GPS?

I have a Garmin 2555LMT, and I refuse to use anything but Garmin. They are the easiest to use and rarely let's me down. the only exception is it sometimes doesn't know a street is one way, in some areas.
 
If this is your one time use of it, just get the rental for $40. If you want to use it going forward, you are going to spend about $100 for a decent unit with lifetime map updates for the US (and maybe Canada depending on model) and then either download a free map of Europe (as people mentioned above, I've never used this) or pay upwards of $70ish dollars for the Europe map.
 
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