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I used to use a stand-alone GPS, but now I just use Google Maps and Waze on my smartphone.
I use iSailGPS on the boat. In the car, I’m so reliant on Waze and Google Maps that I haven’t touched a paper map in years. I’ve used the built-in NAV in my car a couple of times when I didn’t have cell signal.
I use iSailGPS on the boat. In the car, I’m so reliant on Waze and Google Maps that I haven’t touched a paper map in years. I’ve used the built-in NAV in my car a couple of times when I didn’t have cell signal.
Google Maps allows you to download maps for offline use now, you have to choose the areas you want to download. I haven't used my Garmin since I discovered this feature.
Nobody really needs a smart phone, we all managed to survive just fine 20 years ago without them.
The thread is more about the convenience of a GPS device, which even the strongest opponents of technology would be fooling themselves to deny exists. Personally I favor a smart phone because I've already got it for other uses, why carry around another device?
I used to use a stand-alone GPS, but now I just use Google Maps and Waze on my smartphone.
Traveling in rural Washington and Oregon last summer, both these software packages put me 100% on the most out-of-the-way and time-consuming drives I've ever taken to get between points I know well from living and vacationing in these two states.
Smart phones have maps too, you can zoom in and out all you want. Bonus = they can even show stuff like gas stations, hours of businesses, menus at restaurants, etc.
Google Maps allows you to download maps for offline use now, you have to choose the areas you want to download. I haven't used my Garmin since I discovered this feature.
Yes. And Google maps are updated regularly (you have to pay for this with standalone GPS, right?). And the Google maps interface is better/ easier in some ways.
Best in my mind is the smart phone with a backup external battery (GPS can be power-hungry).
By the way, since a cheap smartphone is so cheap...you could buy one, never get data or phone plan, and just use it with wireless networks. It would be multifunctional (web access in hotels) instead of a uni-tasker.
Yes. And Google maps are updated regularly (you have to pay for this with standalone GPS, right?). And the Google maps interface is better/ easier in some ways.
That used to be the case, but with the steep competition from Google Maps/smartphones, I'm pretty sure everyone can get lifetime free updates. I know I do with my Garmin as does my dad.
What brand of GPS do you use and is it accurate?
I am thinking of buying one for when I travel but
do not need it everyday.
Is it easy to use and install? I don't have a lighter
gadget in my car, but I have a compass symbol in mirror.
Can I use it in a rental car? U.S. companies charge about $14 a day.
I have two, a Garmin 60CSx bought in 2006, and a Garmin 590LM bought in 2014. Both are water and shock resistant. I've had both dunked briefly and nothing came of it. That extra protection cost more, unf, as is usually the case.
The CSx is portable and so full-featured I can't even tell you. For example, it does things for mariners and fisherman I can barely comprehend, but makes sense if you have special places and times you need to be somewhere. I bought a couple mounts for it, motorcycle and car. Back in the days before car dash GPS that didn't involve changing DVDs or other stupid crap, or Android/iPhones with great GPS built-in, this was my go-too and brother, I navigated the country on that bad boy. I think it's greatest day in the sun was on a self-guided tour of Gettysburg Battlefield over 2.5 days summer of 2008. The book said "be here, at station so and so" and I could find to the 10' then glass the area with my binoculars and read the narrative, what they wanted you to see harkening back to 1863. What a 2.5 days that was, in my car and on foot!
Too, I'd wander the woods with it on a belt clip with case, not on constantly but basically as-needed. There were tons of features for dropping virtual breadcrumbs and so much more. Topo maps are free if you know where to look and how to create them, and they often have trails so that kept me out of trouble in the Cascades. I remember doing some bushwhacking one time and getting a little lost, but the Garmin just laughed at me and basically it was, "follow the stream topography downhill to the river, son, and off you go!" The river was the Stillaguamish, South Fork, and from there you basically cannot be "lost" and I was maybe a mile off where I thought. It was amusing more than anything, but glad I had the thing. That would have been summer of 2009. I was a real solo trooper that summer in historic parts of the Cascades.
Each screen was customizable to some extent. I had one with tons of data but MPH in the largest field, then bearing, then time to destination, and more. And another screen with just those three that was most useful of all at glance on a bike or car.
Its last use was 2014, navigating from Prince Rupert BC to Seattle in a couple days. No this was a not a Lewis and Clark expedition, maps would have been fine and served travelers well for hundreds of years, but that Garmin made it easy. I parked it after that and traded the bike six months later.
My Garmin 590 was expensive but is weatherproof. Bought a mount and case for my new bike and it snaps on/off in seconds. That thing is a marvel and I don't use all features, though many since it tethers well to a smartphone. "There's an app for that," as they say, and they are right. Weather, traffic, stuff that matters. Music and phone, too, if you're clever.
After that LONG introduction, answering the questions:
Last year I traveled often for business. That Garmin 590LM always went-with, with hard shell case and a USB to Micro cable. Most cars have USB anymore, right? I've seen none that don't in modern rental fleets, as in zero. For some reason, zero rental cars had GPS either though maybe that's an option. I always program in a couple interesting destinations in that GPS prior, and off I go. I've taken it to LA and a dozen other cities and if T-Mobile or Sprint coverage gets spotty, as it does between Tulsa and Bentonville, AR, that GPS is on the case. I'd take it through Death Valley in a hot second, bad pun intended.
Reading the quoted, OP claims $14/day for GPS, eh? I'm not surprised and that explains why none have it in-dash. In a city, nothing an Android/iPhone can't handle, almost all the time. My current Pixel XL is splendid though I don't bother with any mounts, just plug it in the USB to USB-C cable I always have handy. As in, "always." The Garmin burns no data off my plan, saving a few bucks per trip though I don't fuss much on that. Still, I like the absolute speed and spot-on location displayed by the 590LM, frankly, and for multi-hour drives that's what I use, period.
All that said, stand-alones are skating the edge of obsolete. If I was really clever, there may be a mount for my Fenix 5 watch in a car, which also has full maps of the US(!) and GPS... and I could use that for primitive directions, too. Should I hike or dirtbike in the wild again, where I'm nervous about where I am, OR geocache, I think the Fenix 5 would handle it. If not, I'd bring that 60CSx, thirteen years old notwithstanding (how many electronics are that age and still relevant?)
Garmin is the industry standard for a standalone GPS, although smartphones are far superior for a variety of reasons.
I have two Garmins purchased years ago. They probably still work, although I have not turned on either one in about 5 years. I really should throw them out, and will probably do so when I give the cars a thorough cleaning in the spring.
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