I need to buy an in-car GPS for my car to stop me being a lost mofo all the time. Any tips on what brands/models are good and what's s***?

I bought one on ebay for just over $100. Its awesome.

my refedex was $20

I bought a Garmin 260 I think it was for around $250. It does the job.

I bought a Navman a while back and it's pretty good for the most part. There is no perfect system though and the Navman has it's issues.

For instance the other day I was trying to get to an even numbered address on the Pacific Hwy (M1) but it wouldn't recognise any even numbers, only odd. The address was at Springwood so not having accurate directions was a pain. I was sure the Pacific Motorway referred basically to the M1, but I wasn't sure whether the actual address still existed or which roads to take once I got off the motorway. Hard to look for numbers especially in industrial/commercial areas where
office blocks can take up a number of err...numbers.

Also heading outbound on Gympie Rd the Navman took me off onto a sidestreet, through all these backstreets before depositing me back on Gympie Raod again to continue! I must have had the shortest route selected instead of quickest or something.

Generally handy and has been very helpful but I would invest in a street directory as a back up.

Also, I actually got booked for having the Navman in the centre of the windscreen, directly underneath the rearview but towards the bottom half. Probably not the best position but certainly wasn't "obstructing" my view. Although this is where I see so many people put them, I got booked and ended up with a nice little $170 fine. I have doubt that d******* cops were doing some revenue raising. It was so lame as one of the cops was talking to me the other was walking around getting sight lines through the side and rear windows - f***ing tossers. All the cop said was "so I suggest you remove it".

Cbf going to court to fight it although I probably would have got off. Haven't paid it yet as it went to SPERS - dunno if it's too late to contest it. Probably is. Meh!

PS I use mine for work not to drive to the shops and back. Otherwise I think they are probably a toy for people with too much moolah.

last edited by IncrEdible_vEgetable at 15:13:05 25/Sep/08

I was sure the Pacific Motorway referred basically to the M1, but I wasn't sure whether the actual address still existed or which roads to take once I got off the motorway.

Thats actually a big issue for addresses in Logan at the moment. There are heaps of places like this, service roads.
Council wants to change the name so it's easier to find/recognise, but resitends/bussiness fight the change, like you're taking away their home or something. With big road upgrades like Mt Lindsay Hwy (which i'm dealing with now) it's happening more and more.

Main push for it is the Ambo's and other emergency service. As alot of them now rely on Navigation software there needs to be no ambiguity to where they are heading.

I have a Navman, I use it mainly as a backup. Pretty good with directions, if I look at google maps before I head out 95% of the time I dont need to turn it on.
My Advice? Find one you can buy (or you know, not buy) updated maps for easier/cheaper.
Garmen Navman, came with the car.

Best use I have had for it is plotting my various Camping Trips onto maps, which it works pretty well for.

what one u get mongie?

Just dont get a Tom Tom. Their software forces you to search by "city name" first. The problem with this is that the map data provided by Sensis is flawed and not all streets are assosiated with a city/town ect. Hence, you cant navigate to some streets which kind of defeats the purpose.

If Tom Tom would just allow you to search by street as an option, it would be a great little unit. As it stands, I wont buy another one.

I got a tom tom which has a 40gb HDD. The maps are a little out of date now but it sure can carry a crap load of porn.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8545

I got a free uniden unit works pretty good and ipod nano( 1 Gig) and dvd player with my new car.

I'll probly be looking for one of these come next year.. anyone have a model that records 'work' kilometres?

I bought a Tom Tom GO 920 at Costco in LA for US$220. (I think the highest Australian model is the 720). Paid an extra $220 for the LATEST* Australian maps. Drove it 25000km throughout the US and Canada without a hitch -- it even had voice recognition where you can tell it to navigate to an address without even pressing anything.

Brought it back here and those latest aussie maps are out of date, and doesn't accept voice command for the streets. I'm dissapointed.

I reckon go for the high end Garmin units. I hear they're the best.

I got 2 free Tom Tom One V3 GPS courtesy of another HP promotion, gave one to my parents and kept one, never used it though. GPS are for idiots who can't read a map.