Standalones vs In-Car GPS Devices

Just bought a used vehicle with an in-dash unit. The problem with them is that you get whatever the vehicle manufacturer decided what was best for features and not what you want. I have a nuvi 265wt that just blows the in-dash unit away. To be fair the in-dash is 5 years old and the nuvi 1. The other thing is that it is much cheaper to upgrade the ON-dash (handheld) to newer tech.

I would never consider adding an in-dash unit to a vehicle as a feature after having seen this one. But since it came in the vehicle already, no big loss for me.

starting with the Street Pilot series, a few handhelds and several nüvis, including the 855. I don't doubt that some day the stand alone will measure up but in my experience that day has not arrived yet.

For me the Nippon Denso GPS in my 2010 Lexus is vastly superior to any Garmin stand alone that I have ever had. Every aspect of TTS route guidance is on a level that is much better thought out and executed than the Garmin way.

I truly hope that Garmin is aware that their are worthy alternatives out there.

I prefer the standalone devices because I can always update them easy and can move from car to car since I change different cars quite often during the month.

For me, the deciding factor is cost. The in-dash units initially cost $1500 and up plus the cost to update is expensive. I've been told by owners of in-dash that updates can be as much as $300. The in-dash do have larger screens and better integration with the car but the cost tips the scale to standalone. I figure if I purchase a new car every 3 years, after 6 years the in-dash will cost about $3000 to purchase ($1500 / yr) and $1200 to update ($600 / yr), total $4200. If I were to purchase a new standalone every year for 6 years, total cost would be $1200 to $1500. That $2700 buys a lot of beer and burgers.