It’s very tempting to just look at the latest reviews of car GPS units and go out and buy whatever they recommend!
Consumer Reports had a story recently, where they recommended five or so of the top car GPS’s. Although I agreed with their choices, I really think those ae not the only possible “best” GPS’s on the market.
The problem with reviews of car GPS units is the reviewer can only recommend a few models. What if there are a number of good buys at various price points? (This is the case for the GPS marketplace.) You can’t just recommend everything…can you?
What the Consumer Reports article left out were great GPS units in the lower and higher price ranges. So, if you’re an entry level buyer you might have read the article and decided that today just was not your day to buy that GPS you’ve been dreaming about.
If you’re a high-end buyer, then you might have gone out and bought a GPS you would have been disappointed with. After all, as a high-end buyer you expect to get the cutting edge of technology!
So, what I’m going to do in this article is talk about the whole car GPS marketplace and give you a more fair and balanced view of what you should be buying.
To begin with let’s look at a few of the GPS units Consumer Reports recommended.
Their overall best units was the Garmin nuvi 760. Although it’s hard to say that’s the absolute best unit for everyone, the nuvi 760 really is a great GPS receiver! It sells for just under $400, and has a ton of great features. It comes with maps of the U.S. and Canada, has Bluetooth, and can do multiple point routing, along with a number of other cool things.
You won’t go wrong with the nuvi 760–if that’s how much you want to spend!
But what if you’re looking for a lower priced unit?
You can spend as little as $150 and get a great entry-level device from any of the three main manufacturers. There’s the Garmin nuvi 200, the Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, or the Magellan Maestro 3100. All three of these are excellent entry level units.
In the middle of the price range, you might want to think about the Garmin nuvi 350 or the Magellan Maestro 4250. You can get both of these for under $300! The Maestro 4250 even has the larger 4.3-inch screen.
Tom Tom has an excellent mid-priced unit–the Tom Tom GO 920T. Currently selling for around $400, it does everything except multiple point routing.
So, although reviews of car GPS units are helpful, you shouldn’t take them as the end all and be all of the GPS marketplace. What’s so exciting is there are GPS units available at prices virtually everyone can afford.
What you need to do now is to get on a good, informative website where you can browse particular models and check out their prices.
By: Rick Cole
Posts Tagged ‘Cutting Edge’
The Truth About Reviews of Car GPS Units
March 4th, 2010What’s the Best Car GPS on the Market?
December 4th, 2009
What’s the best car GPS on the market. I’m sure that there are a number of opinions, and I suspect you might not agree with me, but let’s take a shot and see if we can sort this thing out.
For one thing, I’m already going to hedge my bet and give you about three “best” car GPS’s not just one.
Okay, that might not be fair, but after all this is my article and I can do what I want to. (Although, my goal is to help you understand the marketplace, so I was really just sort of kidding about that.)
To get a grip on the best GPS, we really have to divide the marketplace into at least three segments. Entry-level, mid-range, and high-end. Let’s take a look at the entry-level segment first.
Best Entry-level Car GPS
By “Entry-Level” I mean under $200. Really with the recent drop in prices that should maybe be under $150! But we’ll stick with under $200.
There are two entry-level best car GPS systems. The Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition and the Garmin nuvi 350.
The One, 3rd Edition sells for about $150 and has a ton of great features like pre-loaded maps of the U. S. and Canada and voice instructions that tell you where to turn.
The Garmin nuvi 350 has a few more features like real-time traffic and weather, but it sells for about $50 more–just under $200! Actually, most people don’t think of the nuvi 350 as an entry-level device, but who can question selling for less than $200 and offering all of these features?
Best Mid-Range Car GPS
Although Garmin has several good mid-range car GPS systems, like the nuvi 760 and the nuvi 660 (both of which sell for under $400), I really think the best device on the market as far as price and features is the Magellan Maestro 4250.
The Maestro 4250 only sells for $250, and includes a wider screen and Magellan’s deal with AAA where they actually have AAA’s famous Tour Book right on the device. For AAA lovers like me, that’s a big incentive.
Best High-End GPS
Garmin absolutely dominates the top of the GPS market. If you want cutting edge technology then the Garmin nuvi 880 has to be your best choice. It sells for almost $900, but it can do everything except tie your trout fishing flies for you. (They’ll have a newer model next year that can do just that. Just kidding!)
But seriously. When Garmin set out to make the top of the line absolutely best car GPS, they succeeded completely with the nuvi 880.
Of course, choosing a GPS is a very personal matter. You might not want any of the one’s I’ve mentioned. And there are certainly many very good GPS systems out there.
What will make your choice a lot easier is a good, informative website where you can browse products and check out their current selling price.
By: Rick Cole
