I have a Garmin Nuvi 750, and I REALLY like it. As with anything, they could have done a couple things better, but it works very well for a vehicle navigator.
Random observations:
- Voice announcement of streets and turns: Some units do not have any voice capability, some simply say "turn Right" or "Take exit," some give complete street names "Turn right onto Court Street." Mine does the entire name, but I have not found this to be a must have. In fact, most of the time I turn off the voice and sound alerts. I would not pay extra for this feature.
- It is usually very fast to pick up its position when turning on, and has a very sensitive antenna. I was surprised to get a position within a minute inside a parking garage at the Phoenix airport right after I got of the plane. I worked in the GPS Joint Program Office for the Air Force in the early 90s, and these puppies have come a long way since then.
- My unit does not have Bluetooth (altho there is/was one just like it that did have it) because I read that routing your phone thru the GPS speaker didn't give you great quality, and it wasn't all that important. I am glad I skipped this.
- My unit DOES let me run the voice and sound thru my car or truck speakers (it broadcasts on the am dial), but this is not terribly helpful -- the unit's speaker is good enough and running it thru the car radio just ties up the radio.
- I find it very useful locally as I use it quite a bit on VFD fire/first responder runs. Altho I generally know where I am going anyway, it provides great cross check, especially when people do not mark their houses with street numbers. The GPS street number location is some times off a bit on the more rural roads, but 95% of the time it is close enough, and this really helps at night. I also like that I can instantly get nearest street address, crossroad, hospital, and GPS coordinates by tapping the little vehicle icon. The coords come in handy when we set up a temporary LZ for airlife helicopters. I especially like knowing the crossroads and hospitals when traveling in a strange place.
- I find it extremely useful when traveling in strange (to me) areas. Recently I have been on trips to Colorado and Arizona, and it was great for both getting around, and plotting routes to things, especially estimating times. We backed everything up by checking the paper map (don't leave home w/o a map and compass!) but it is excellent for navigating on the move. Even tho I lived in San Antonio for awhile, when I now go back, I find it useful when heading to places I haven't been before. Not so much for finding a location, but for having a better idea of what's around me, quickly finding alternate routes.
- The traffic services are generally subscriptions (i.e. you keep paying money) -- if I lived in a high congestion zone like Los Angeles I might get it, but since I live in the sticks I usually could care less.
I have not used TomTom or Magellan, but I can highly recommend Garmin. As I said, I was in the GPS realm back in the early 90s ,and both Garmin and Magellan were players then. Garmin came out with the first really pocket-size GPS, and I used it in the Middle East (and Scott Grady used the same model to help get his butt out of Bosnia when he got shot down), and it was a very good piece of work (still have it, as a matter of fact). Garmin has a good history.
Keep an eye on Amazon -- they often have great deals on GPS units, and you don't have to get mobbed at the mall...
Good hunting.
