What GPS to buy?

Well I am bit of a GPS nut, but that si because I used to live in places where there were no maps (or maps which were bit useless).

My recommendation is to have two GPS units. One for car one for hiking or serious 4x4 off the beaten track driving.

I have TomTom Go920 in the car, which I find very good for normal city driving and town to town driving.

Now for 4x4 experience and the uncharted territory you should get a Garmin (I am not sure about Hema never used it, as it is Australian based unit). But I just got Garmin Oregon 550 (before that I had antohre two garmin units), it is a lovely unit, and what is the best is that you can import custom maps (images from GoogleEarth for example, or any other maps you might have JPG image of (but you need other software too – Universal Map downloader and MAPC2MPAC).
It is a bit complicated time consuming process and there are limitations, but to have a detailed and calibrated satellite image of Olgas, or the whole Katherin Gorge on your GPS is amazing.

The problem with Garmin is that the maps are expensive, you can get a road map of Australia and also topo map of Australia, you cannot used them both at the same time, but can swop memory cards as you need it. There is also a handy software that comes with Garmin, the Map Source and Base Camp, that helps you to plan your trips and hikes.

I have just scratched the surface of the topic, but definitely look up Garmin Oregon range if you are interested.

I use combination of Garmin maps, OziExplorer and GoogleEarth to plan my trips, you cannot go wrong with that.

I guess I might have confused you more than anything else, but it is complex topic if you go deep into it.

Hi
As per the post above, two units would be best, I have a Garmin 60Cx hand held for walking and boating, and a Garmin Nuvi in the 4x4.
On a slightly different track you could convert a generic Chinese gps, with a different menu system to allow you to use Garmin, Ozi Exp CE (as per the Hema), iGO and Tom Tom all in the one unit.
You get one of these, then change the menu system with this, you can get most of the info you need from the net.
There are a couple of us on this forum that have done it.
Cheers
Neil

G'day Maggie
I'm considering GPS for in car (4WD) and on foot use, with street navigation being a third order use. I'm also starting from scratch - no little netbooks, no digital maps or mapping software already purchased.

FWIW after a lot of research I am still tossing up between 2 systems - a) Garmin hand held and 5-7" Chinese units as mentioned here and b) Twonav Aventura which is a hybrid in car and hand held. (From my perspective the Hema unit doesn't represent value for money.)

Of course, there are +'s and -'s for each. eg Having 2 units for backup, having 1 unit for ease of setup and familiarity of use - no bleeping around with software etc. As always, there isn't a clear winner in all respects.

Interestingly, when I roughly costed the above two systems and a netbook system with remote touch screen, all up (hardware and software) all three came in between $1,000 and $1,200. At the price of 2 tanks of diesel, the cost difference is effectively zero.

For me it means carefully and *realistically* thinking through my needs, prioritising them and comparing with the system capabilities (and limitations). If I had to decide today I'd probably go with Garmin/Chinese and trust that with help I could bumble my way through the reprogramming stuff. Since I don't have to decide today I'm stalling to see what the experts can do with the TwoNav.

Cheers
Mark

Get a Garmin Nuvi 765, then purchase the Garmin Topo CD and you'll want no more for the car,

.

I run one unit to do my GPS and many other uses as well.

I have a Ipaq/HP 212 PDA which allows me to run OziCE for off road and country use and Igo8 for city use. Will also connect to the via wifi for browsing, email etc.

I use a bluetooth GPS unit to provide the GPS input. I can also use a laptop with the GPS if I need the functionality of the full OziE (not used very often for simple navigation but used sometimes for the work I do. - also use a GIS system on the laptop when I need that sort of functionality.; This will also connect with the bluetooth GPS) I am therefore not stuck with one system but can use whatever suits best for the situation. I have a large library of raster maps which I supplement with air photos or with "Maps" I prepare using SISGIS and various satellite data or mapping.

This all works well for me but does require some computer savy to set up and use.

The battery life of the Ipaq and GPS also give me all the "Away from vehicle" time I need for the uses I have.