WHAT'S THE BEST GPS OUT THERE?

The Nuvi 13XX series' are nice. The only drawback is that they come with pre-programmed ads.

I love my new Nuvi 1690. But whether it is the best is like saying what is the best truck or best boat. It just depends on what you need it for and what bells and whistles you must have vs nice to have.

Wow, can it be erased? The GPS should be free if you have to be forced to look at ads!

I have the Nuvi 1490T with lifetime traffic and it's a VERY nice unit. It doesn't actually come with pre-programmed ads, but it will occassionally pop up a very small "coupon" for a local business which helps them defray the cost of life-time traffic. They only pop up when you're stationary and I've only noticed them when I was using the traffic receiver, not on battery. They really aren't any big deal.

I have really enjoyed my 880 with voice activation; however since I have had it awhile, I am looking to upgrade to a newer unit with similar features.

Ouch dude! Caps Lock key off please...you're shouting.

That said, the best GPS out there in my view is a Garmin, depending of course on how much you want to spend. On the low end you can get a 205W for about $140. That 755 you have a deal on though has features the 205W can only dream of, such as text to speech.

Best GPS..? Garmin of course.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

Garmin 1860???....

I like this one if anything it is the 5 inch screen. or if you want the mp3 player and bluetooth then the 1490

Depending on what you want of course...Costco has the 765T with free lifetime traffic and free lifetime map updates for $249.99. Lifetime maps is worth almost $100 alone. They also have the 1450 for $199.99. Both have free shipping and handling. Personally some may think I am crazy but I will not buy a GPS from anyone but Costco because of there return policy. 6 months from now and it goes bad you can return it with no questions asked unless you want a refurbished unit from Garmin.

I like my 1490T..

What is the story about pre programmed ads? I have not heard of this before with newer Garmin units.

This is the way Garmin makes you feel your getting something for nothing. While other GPSr's truly give free traffic Garmin doesn't give us anything for free, ever only take features away. You only see the ad's while stopped or using the traffic receiver.

The ads on the Garmins are only on the ones with the free lifetime traffic. They are not real intrusive and are worth not having to pay for a traffic subscription.

If you stick a GTM20 on a 760 or 780 you get free lifetime traffic without the ads.

As to what's 'best'? It would probably be one of their avionic models - for my money I am keeping my 780 - it hasn;t been lobotimised.

I just purchased the 755T a few weeks ago and am very satisfied. (It was a choice between the 1490T and the 755T, but we decided on the 755T in the end.)

I paid around $155 for a new unit. I got it because it was ranked 2nd best GPS with real time traffic: http://www.bestcovery.com/best-gps-with-real-time-traffic

You may wish to check out the other rankings too: http://www.bestcovery.com/best-gps-overall

I don't expect Garmin to clarify the issue on their web site.. Thanks again

Here is another web site so you can compare some of the features from various units:

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/buyers_guide.php

I've owned all the major brands and I like Garmins.

Before you buy anything read this!

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/28555

The Garmin nuvi 885t was at the top of the product line for Garmin until the MSN service announced it was stopping.

So since the MSN receiver will be worthless after Jan.2012, Garmin announced it was a "Discontinued" unit.

But you can alway buy the other FM TRaffic receiver and it will work with the 885t.

You will find some decent deals around on it if you look.

Other than that, the nuvi775t is a nice unit and it comes with both the North American Maps AND Europe pre-loaded.

It seems that Garmin has left a hole in their product lineup by discontinuing the 885T. It is the only voice enabled unit with bluetooth. It is too bad they didn't repackage the 885T with the GTM-20 and a Navteq or Clear Channel subscription.

Exactly why I got my 765T from Costco:
Price
Return policy
...and after experiencing the cost of updates for my Garmin 296, those free lifetime updates sure are a bonus!

New user, first GPS

Pros:
- big 5’’ display don’t need reading glasses
- lane change available in big cities only,
- after we get used to it, it is very easy to use and very useful in new parts of a large city,
- when going to new places, after programming the address, just go. Don’t need to unfold paper map in the car.

Cons: needs some getting used to…

"- Screen froze on initial opening, downloaded user’s manual from Garmin. It needed system updating on Garmin’s site to function correctly.
- The first programming took more than an hour, with the help of the user’s manual.
- Setting up secure location with the car parked in our driveway, Garmin chose the neighbour’s address 30 feet away. I had to adjust the address manually.
- Sometimes it does not accept postal code.
- Lane change and traffic information are available in large cities only.
- Free map update took more than two hours to download and install.
- In major cities, sometimes we are not allowed to make left turn on some streets between certain hours. The GPS doesn’t know it. It suggests a left turn anyway.
- Have to be patient with the touch screen and on-screen keyboard programming. It takes time for Garmin to digest the command.
- used it on 10 trips before it rebooted and lost it's destination on one of our trip. Not practical to restart and reprogramm on highways.

In overall, it is a very useful gadget when it works, with a big and easily readable screen.

After the rebooting I sent it back for a refund.

Garmins are still the best in my opinion.

they offer a nice way to compare different GPS units feature-by-feature..

http://www.gpsreview.net/

I like my Garmins!

The 885 is now $158 on Amazon. I guess discontinuation does that. Also, I read that it is slow to refresh, probably because the voice activation uses a lot of processing power. Hopefully, Garmin will replace the 885 and add a faster processor.

I like the all-in-ones like Garmin G60, M10 or M20 nuvifones. You don't have to carry an extra piece of equipment with you and you can use the GPS function whenever you want!

I have had a C550 with a TTN subscribed GTM20 for some time now. I recently acquired a Nuvi 765T with the free NAVTEQ lifetime subscription on the accompanying GTM20. To date, I have been using the GTM20 that came with the C550 to drive my Nuvi 765T and it works fine. Just for fun, I have tried hooking up the GTM20 that came with the 765T to my C550 and there things go awry. The C550 will receive perhaps one to five RDS-TMC messages and then stop receiving. The signal remains fine but in the diagnostics, you see the message count stop incrementing. Apparently, either the C550 is barfing on the ad messages inserted into the RDS data stream or the C550 is not providing some kind of acknowledgment back to the new GTM20 telling it to continue processing. When I hook up the new GTM20 to my 765T, it works fine so it is not a hardware problem.

Great info, good read. A couple takes both units on a 3 month trek from Canada to the desert SW.

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=131509

Love my garmin 1450.

I like my Garmin Nuvi 255W, it is noot the newest model, but it's great! The batterry in this unit is also very good.
I strongly recommend it.

I have had my 855 for about one year and love it. I don't use the speech recognition very much but this unit has got a lot of great features for the price.

I would recommend the 265wt or 255wt (one is w/o bluetooth, but most ppl won't really use the horrible bluetooth implementation anyway). It has traffic, widescreen and txt to speech and a fast GPS reception signal acquisition.

I bought mine 755T from amazon and extremely happy with unit. and updated with latest Map 2011.10

I'm looking for the one that will calculate the best route to multiple destnations

I have a 1490T from Costco ($249.95) and think it is the best Garmin I have owned to date. 5" bright screen, blue tooth (works great on with my phone, lifetime traffic, routes, lane and traffic guidance, much better speaker than other models and much, much more....

Visit Garmin's website. Click 'On The Road" and "Automotive." On the left side of the screen is a checklist. Just check the features you're looking for and the site will zero in on the models that have the things you're looking for.

For example, if your priority is routing to multiple destinations, just click that box and you'll be presented with a list of 27 stand along units ranging from the Nuvi 205 to the 3790T. You can then compare those units to see what they offer to help narrow your list further.

Cheers

Why do you think the checklist does not show the 765t?

Does voice activiation feature work good when the windows are rolled down ?

Thanks

I think it is on the list to be discontinued since it has so many problems.....

But isn't the 755t exactly the same except for bluetooth? That shows up.

Have had the 755t since it came out. Very happy! Garmin as a company still sucks.

I don't know why other than they may have different firmware. All I know is I had tried two 765T's and the units did not work well. Garmin kept telling me that they were aware of the problems and a fix would be out shortly but nothing ever happened.(and to my knowledge still hasn't)

It does show on the main list before you select the features you want. It looks like someone just forgot to enter it properly to make it appear for features.

Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I apologize for this over sight.
This is obviously an error on the Garmin website. The nuvi 765T is also not showing when the Bluetooth feature is selected and the nuvi 765T does also have this feature.
I have forwarded the information to our web content design team to have this corrected.

With Best Regards,
Rita S
Product Support Specialist
2nd Shift Automotive Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-440-8280 (fax) Attn: Rita S, Associate #6044

It will have troubles picking you up with background noise present. It does work better with an external mic plugged in, especially if you have it close to you.

Steve

I like my 1490T

I guess that while there's a lot of discussion as to model, there's no discussion as to brand. Garmin.

Beas

THE 780 has all the Bells and Whistles at the best value.

Blue-tooth,FM transmitter, MP3 Player, Audio Book player, Picture Player, MSN Direct, Lane Guidance(But No Super ARROW)Text To speech, Routes, Multiple Destination Sort, SD Slot and MORE!

WHY do you think I have TWO!!!

AT UNDER $160.00 Brand NEW... How can you go WRONG?

Some Have COMPLAINED about the FM transmitter being weak but I have Driven all over the USA and have not had a problem in BIG or small cities. Could be a weak RADIO?

Tried,Tested and True... Go with the 780.

glwilbert,

Where can you get it for $160 new?