It's time to upgrade my car GPS that I have had for MANY years whats the best on the market at the moment?
NOT interested in using a mobile phone in a mount......

Please pro's and Con's of the various brands / models.

Seen some really good ideas on the 4wd forums. They use a tablet linked to the phone.
Depending on your car size of course and if its just for around town driving - it might not be suitable.

I would not buy a navman style GPS as it has 1 purpose, also traffic updates will not be as up to date as a mobile user due to popularity.
An associate of mine uses a Samsung tab and s5 phone and I was blown away with the detail.

I find the wife in the passenger seat with a Gregory's Street Directory to be quite reliable.

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cisco said...

I find the wife in the passenger seat with a Gregory's Street Directory to be quite reliable.

She's a keeper, generally women are shidtz house navigators
Take Tom tom it's not Jill Jill, sexist,? even on the female voice setting I just don't trust them to lead me in the right direction,but the French chick setting gave me a hard on when lost

Do people still buy in-car GPS? a tablet or phone with an appropriate app does the same and you don't have as many issues with having to pay for mapping updates.

I've used Tom Tom and Garmin, and would be happy to have either again.

Make sure you get free lifetime map upgrades. Available from time to time on most brands depending who is running the promotion at the time. That would swing my decision which I would buy. Check out the brochures from the major retailers, and you'll always find someone running that promotion on either Garmin or Tom Tom.

Also, before I bought my GPS, I watched a friend use the voice control on his GPS, and thought it looked so painful spelling out streets letter by letter, but then the first time I was in real busy traffic and was trying to type in an address, I realised I wish I had it, and it was only a few dollars extra for that model.

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Chris6791 said..
Do people still *Steal* in-car GPS? No they dont. ive been able to stop hiding my $100 garmin thanks to smart phones.

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Chris6791 said..
Do people still buy in-car GPS? a tablet or phone with an appropriate app does the same and you don't have as many issues with having to pay for mapping updates.

Agreed. I use a cheap 7" tablet with 'MapFactor Navigator' which can use free maps or tomtom maps. It looks giant attached to its mount but its good.

The best thing about it is that you can use it in portrait mode instead of landscape mode and you can see a lot more of the streets around you and in front of you. Its perfect for me.

If you are worried about traffic congestion, you can also use Waze, but you need internet connection by tethering it to a phone.

The Navigator program I use does not require internet connection, which is better for me and avoids the hassle of tethering it each time.

Just recently been down this road myself.As young bull said,check out the 4x4 forums,some interesting discussions on the matter.4x4 action australia magazine is a great resource.Most crew seem to be using Polaris,VMS etc etc i spent a little more and went with the Alpine advanced nav system.I didn't want tablets and cables cluttering up the cab.It sits neat in the dash and looks like a factory fit.Stoked with it so far.The Pandora internet radio won me over in the end.Its Facebook compatible and can even tell me where the nearest pub is....gotta love that :]

I use my tablet with Navionic maps for sailing, have a problem, even if I keep it connected to the battery it will run out of power after a while???? Is that normal????

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felixdcat said...
I use my tablet with Navionic maps for sailing, have a problem, even if I keep it connected to the battery it will run out of power after a while???? Is that normal????

Could be using power faster than the boat battery can charge it. Happens to my phone when charging in the car sometimes.

(I'm no electrical expert. Just my guess)

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cisco said..

I find the wife in the passenger seat with a Gregory's Street Directory to be quite reliable.

I am with you kid.

Cant beat a Gregory's.

Read it before you go, drive to your destination and enjoy your day. Never get lost using a Gregory's.

ET.

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FormulaNova said..

Chris6791 said..
Do people still buy in-car GPS? a tablet or phone with an appropriate app does the same and you don't have as many issues with having to pay for mapping updates.

Agreed. I use a cheap 7" tablet with 'MapFactor Navigator' which can use free maps or tomtom maps. It looks giant attached to its mount but its good.

The best thing about it is that you can use it in portrait mode instead of landscape mode and you can see a lot more of the streets around you and in front of you. Its perfect for me.

If you are worried about traffic congestion, you can also use Waze, but you need internet connection by tethering it to a phone.

The Navigator program I use does not require internet connection, which is better for me and avoids the hassle of tethering it each time.

Waze is a great little traffic/nav app but to be effective for traffic congestion/hazards/speed traps etc it needs more people on it, not sure how popular it is over east but I can drive all over Perth and barely see any other users but whilst travelling about Kuala Lumpur there are literally tens of thousands navigating around at any one time. Real time traffic speeds and congestion on planned routes gets pretty accurate with that many people feeding data back to Waze.

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E T said..

cisco said..

I find the wife in the passenger seat with a Gregory's Street Directory to be quite reliable.

I am with you kid.

Cant beat a Gregory's.

Read it before you go, drive to your destination and enjoy your day. Never get lost using a Gregory's.

ET.

+1

Car GPS was created by cowards .

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dmitri said..
+1

Car GPS was created by cowards .

...or marriage counsellors.