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I use my Droid, it works fairly well. In my one car without any kinda nav, I just set it atop my ashtray. It is fairly accurate most of the time, but at the very least.....gets me in the ballpark to places I had no idea how to get to.
On my Fiesta, I use it's Sync to hook up to my phone for turn by turn directions. No map picture and if I go off course, it doesn't really correct like if I only used my phone, but it will inform me that I went off course and ask if I want to update (it'd have to call my phone again to update) or I can make a Uturn and get back on course on my own and it'll recognize that I did and continue on with the turn by turn directions.
For long trips I will google the map and get and idea of the general direction and major roads I should be on, but will set my nav up to get me there.
Sure, I can use a paper map.........and I can also ride a horse to get to that location using the paper map
I find they are quite handy for finding places such as restaurants, hotels and gas stations and many other places in unfamiliar cities or routes, i always use mine when traveling but i do reference a paper map every once in a while just so i know the GPS is giving me good data as there have been occasions when the thing has tried to get me to turn down one way streets or tried to have me going in a continual circle..
Understand they are logical idiots and you'll do fine
My Garmin 205 Nuvi was $125 and works fine.
Only use them for trips out of state, but YES I do use them. In state I prefer to look up the location on google maps or use my atlas, that way I can actually LEARN the geography rather than mindlessly follow arrows on a little screen. They are truly devolving society (although most staunchly deny this) to a certain degree by serving as another crucial electronic crutch to everyday life... all in the name of streamlining. Maybe not so true with the 30+ crowd that typically knows where they are going but the younger generation uses them like nobody's business, primarily on their cell phones.
Yes I have a GPS in my Civic.
It usually does what it's supposed to do but for some reason Chicago is the only city my GPS malfunctions in. Could be the neverending road construction throwing it off?
Got a Nuvi 205 on eBay for $105. free shipping about a year ago.
I suggest getting a higher model, this one is cool, but sometimes it cant find certain businesses wehn I type the name into the search, and that's very annoying.
If you get one just remember to use your own common sense and keep a map in the trunk just in case. Nice to have but don't rely too much on it. I use mine only as a basic guide.
Strange, I have a 255 which is identical to the 205 except that it has text-to-speech that announce your turns and exits and reads out the names of the streets and your destination as you approach it and the like. I have found it to be extremely accurate in Chicago. There are some quirks about it, such as considering toll lanes to be exits which affects its "mileage until your next exit" calculations. As for not being able to find certain businesses, all Garmins use the same Navteq map data (and they're not the only GPS company that uses them), so if a business doesn't show up on your 205 it won't show up on any Garmin unit or any other that uses Navteq data.
Only use them for trips out of state, but YES I do use them. In state I prefer to look up the location on google maps or use my atlas, that way I can actually LEARN the geography rather than mindlessly follow arrows on a little screen. They are truly devolving society (although most staunchly deny this) to a certain degree by serving as another crucial electronic crutch to everyday life... all in the name of streamlining. Maybe not so true with the 30+ crowd that typically knows where they are going but the younger generation uses them like nobody's business, primarily on their cell phones.
I like to know where I am!
I don't own a personal cell phone and I just got this computer not quite two years ago if that tells you anything? Sure technology is great but the young kids rely far too much on it. There was life before all these gadgets and there is life after they are gone. The same goes for the parts store and how they approach it. They mess around for 30 minutes looking on the internet trying to see if a place has a part when they could have made a phone call or ran down the road a few miles and found out just as quick or in most cases faster. But I'm old fashioned and out of touch. At least I know I won't get into a wreck while yacking on my cell or texting!
I use mine all the time. The disk is expired so a new street or very recent construction will go unnoticed. The disk is not much, under $70 I think. I ewill get it for my birthday or Christmas.
A case in point. Sweetwater, Texas. It is a no-brainer to guess that there are motels in Sweetwater, a half hour further west than Abilene. Sure enough, there are 5 or 6 of them at the interstate exit. All of them are about $60-80 a night. Will your GPS tell you the prices of them? Will it also tell you about the very nice $30 motel, up in town, that has a pool, and is very well run? At the interstate exit there are plenty of chain restaurants, and about a half mile down the road, a couple of the best barbecue places in Texas. Will your GPS tell you how good those are?
Or can you only find out about the nice cheap motel and the great barbecue by guessing that a city of 20,000 with an interstate exit will have plenty of motels and restaurants, and getting off and making local inquiry will yield an overnight stay that will be more pleasant and rewarding by an order of magnitude?
Like, how hard can it be to drive across the country on the interstate highways without GPS?
Do you use GPS? Does it do what you would have expected it to do? How much does it cost and is it worth it?
My boyfriend bought it together with the car, so don't know how much it cost. I personally find it to be very useful, especially when my normal route to/from work is shut down and I'm forced to find an alternative route at that moment. I honestly recommend every driver to have one.
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Sure technology is great but the young kids rely far too much on it. There was life before all these gadgets and there is life after they are gone. The same goes for the parts store and how they approach it. They mess around for 30 minutes looking on the internet trying to see if a place has a part when they could have made a phone call or ran down the road a few miles and found out just as quick or in most cases faster. But I'm old fashioned and out of touch. At least I know I won't get into a wreck while yacking on my cell or texting!
