Tips on buying a GPS?

[zamble]

After being lost on the roads twice this weekend, I decided I really need a GPS for my car. Never had one of those, and have no idea what makes a good GPS. Since there are so many tech lovers here,I guess someone should know about those little life-savers.
Any pointers/tips/advice? Thanks!

 

[Pimppeter2]

Get a phone that has Google maps/Gps

Such as a Mytouch 3g


That way you get a GPS and a cool new phone!

 

[BonsaiK]

After being lost on the roads twice this weekend, I decided I really need a GPS for my car. Never had one of those, and have no idea what makes a good GPS. Since there are so many tech lovers here,I guess someone should know about those little life-savers.
Any pointers/tips/advice? Thanks!

My advice: don't.

* You spend time looking at the screen that you could spend watching the road. Taxi drivers have devolved from quite skilled drivers into downright dangerous hazards in my town, because these days they spend all their time glued to that damn screen instead of looking where they're going.
* GPSes often send you in the wrong direction. An electrician knocked on my place of work the other week, to do a job. We hadn't ordered an electrician. His GPS sent him to us. What he was after was another business with the same address on the other side of town, an hour's drive away.
* GPSes are dumb and don't understand concepts like road rules. They will often get you turning right in places where it is illegal to turn right, going the wrong way down one-way streets etc.
* A street directory is cheaper, and the skills you learn in reading one will last you a lifetime.

 

[MorsePacific]

Here's an idea: buy a map. Why spend hundreds of dollars on something that can just as easily be fixed by cracking open a map and taking a look? I have no idea when society became so lazy that we had to have a computer calculate the best route for us, when our brains and some paper drawings work just as well.

 

[Jark212]

My sisters phone with GPS told her "Make illegal U-turn"
I loled hard...

My advice: Get something simple and don't trust it completely...

 

[syndicated44]

You get what you pay for.

 

[FalloutJack]

Your GPS is not the perfect directional support and must be taken with a grain of salt. It's an aid with about as much common sense as Microsoft Word has with grammar. (i.e. Not much.) Please keep that well in mind for ANY of them.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

get one with vocal directions. there's a few places that disallow gps's unless they have vocal directions, ie "turn left here" and such.

other than that, go to the store and demo them, find out which one you like and get that one

 

[Ganthrinor]

My GPS? Compass + Map.

Learn it, love it.

 

[Spaghetti]

My GPS? Compass + Map.

Learn it, love it.

That's my personal choice any day.

I don't know much about GPS's (although I prefer to call it a "Satnav". It sounds cooler) apart from the epic battle I had with my mum's "TomTom" thing. What I DO know is that GPS/Satnav/Whatever, follows the old rule of "More Expensive=Better". A cheap one doesn't know it's arse from it's elbow.

 

[Ganthrinor]

I don't know much about GPS's (although I prefer to call it a "Satnav". It sounds cooler) apart from the epic battle I had with my mum's "TomTom" thing. What I DO know is that GPS/Satnav/Whatever, follows the old rule of "More Expensive=Better". A cheap one doesn't know it's arse from it's elbow.

*Pictures a GPS with both an arse and an elbow, then giggles*

That does seem to be the case though. Haven't toyed with them myself, preferring to label them as Witchcraft and Heresy.



/tinfoilhat

 

[wizzerd229]

wow im too in a gaming mood, i saw gps and thought it was a variation on a shooter game like a fps or tps

 

[ma55ter_fett]

Buy a GPS that has a sexy voice, that way you'll be less likely to smash it when it gives you crazy directions.

also you can say "thats what she said," constantly.

GPS: *in a hot sexy voice* "turn right at the next exit"

A totaly aroused you: "thats what she said baby"

 

[xDarc]

My friend got me a Nextar GPS as a groomsmen's gift. His wedding was in NJ and we're all from Michigan. I made it out there with printed out maps just fine. The GPS made it a breeze getting back to the D and I have loved using it for trips around the state. It's also handy if you want to go to a new restaurant as it has a directory stuffed full of them along with other businesses/attractions.

Some things aren't on the card that came with it- like roundabouts put in in the past couple years where I live. You can update it online- but no biggie.

 

[zamble]

get one with vocal directions. there's a few places that disallow gps's unless they have vocal directions, ie "turn left here" and such.

other than that, go to the store and demo them, find out which one you like and get that one

Thanks man, I tought all of them had this.

Buy a GPS that has a sexy voice, that way you'll be less likely to smash it when it gives you crazy directions.

also you can say "thats what she said," constantly.

GPS: *in a hot sexy voice* "turn right at the next exit"

A totaly aroused you: "thats what she said baby"

I guess that's a bonus to what cleverlymadeup said...

Ok, voice is a must-have. Something alse? What brands to look for?