Buying my first GPS

gezza

I think I am in the same boat.

The bride casually mentioned GPS the other night and whether we needed one. This really means tell me what sort of GPS I need to buy you for Christmas.

Therefore I will watch this thread with interest.

Bob

I reckon Doug T will be along before to long and give an indepth reply as to the Garmin range of GPS's

Cheers Kev

Have look in the ExplorOz shop at the Hema Navigator looks good.

Rob

Gezza

Garmin are easy to use. I was in the same boat as you a while back. Went with a Garmin Nuvi 250w, with shonky maps on a sd card. Seems to work really well for me. Have a look at Doug site. Lots of reading and info on there! Doug's Website

Matt

This is also a really good site GPS Australia to get advice on the various units and their capabilities. I went through the process late last year.

Cheers

Mick

Gessa a very interesting question. Having just been through the process for the umpteenth time then allow me to offer a suggestion that many will not agree with.

Do not go for one unit to do it all. My view and experience is that all are compromises and by that I mean having a single one for topo and street. So in my view you get one for each function and go for the cheapest price in both areas

If you want specifically off-road then go with either Magellan or Garmin and select a unit for its screen size and visibility.

If you are chasing street then spend around $250 and select any of the standard ones as I reckon the lower the price the less complexity and so easier to use. In my experience you will never use all the functionality of the higher spec and more expensive units. After all you only want directions from A to B.

If you take that approach you will spend less than any of the single all singing and dancing units and get a good deal from a decent supplier.

Whilst my comments will be heresy to many I can assure you I spend a heck of a lot of time in hire cars as well as off-road and quite frankly GPS is more important in the hire car than the 4WD as there is not a track around that really needs it. Although I am quite sure the Hay River track remains blown out so that is about the only time we really rely on them. Otherwise it is maps all the way. For example a Simpson Desert crossing definitely does not need a GPS. The maps supplied in the Desert Parks pass are up to date and more than adequate.

Regards

RobA

Gezza,

I am not an expert. I was/am the proud owner of a Garmin PlusII & asked Elect Bug what I could get that would replace this but also give me street map capability.

Now silly me I did not explore other options, but as the price was under $1k and cos SWOMBO said "why didn't you get it", I high tailed it back to them and purchased a Garmin Quest.

The screen is not big, but easily put into the pocket, I have found it to be very good. Having said that the screen is not big, it is more than adequate sized for me & easy to follow and work through the menu options.

Hope this helps, but I guess you have to choose what is in your price range and needs.

Thank you all very much for yourtime and sharing your opinions and experiences with your own GPS systems. There certainly are plenty of different options to consider and I guess it comes down to personal preference and the amount of cash to spend.

Thanks again to everyone who left a response.

See you on the track somewhere.

Gezza

I recently purchased a Garmin Nuvi 760 and have found it very good for our use. Very handy for our infrequent navigating in Melbourne and so far has had good coverage for the country trips we have done. I downloaded Shonky maps and a separate contours overlay to an SD card which I can turn on or off. If I want to get real serious with outback travel I will purchase Oziexplorer