A Review of Popular Car GPS Systems

Motor Vehicles have remained a reliable method of transportation for years, even though there are still instances when time and gas are frittered away or intended stops are skipped completely because of obsolete maps or poor directions. To eliminate these issues and enable you to benefit from a rewarding driving experience, automotive GPS devices are now available to aid us and are especially affordable for most car owners. It is highly recommended to use a GPS device on extended drives to be certain that the mose efficient way is available. The effectiveness of specific GPS devices varies by different companies. To attract customers and attention, optional programs are offered with a few models to add value and raise the gee-whiz factor. Below are several of the more practical products that deserve a closer look. A nice option is the Garmin Nuvi 1350 Portable GPS Navigator.

Garmin Nuvi 265W

The drawback to quite a few of the more affordable Car GPS systems is that their feature list is so limited that you wonder if the product is even completed. The Garmin Nuvi is a very basic piece of equipment, yet it still provides all the essentials and level of performance a person would experience with its better developed cousins – the 705 and 805 series. Text-to-speech is incorporated so you shouldn’t have to read the street names as you drive and it is quite easy to set up once you bring it home. The cost may not fit everyone’s financial situation, but because of its powerful applications and minimal drawbacks, this Garmin Nuvi is a great value at any price.

TomTom ONE Classic and Routes edition

TomTom ONE products look to have price tags that are well below their worth, but the Tom Tom’s capabilities and applications show you exactly why these Car GPS devices are dirt cheap. The Tom Tom’s user friendliness is abysmal and several of the popular features such as Bluetooth and text-to-speech are not offered by nearly any of the models. Although earlier models weren’t very well-received by value seeking consumers, new ONE products were offered, including a couple with widescreens and a few more with advanced programming like advanced lane guidance, which is only found in the Routes edition. Tom Tom’s classic edition lacks this feature, but the price might be friendly enough to help you get over that. A good item to consider is Garmin Nuvi 1350 Portable GPS Navigator.

Magellan Roadmate 1212

The Magellan Maestro products continue to be the most popular Magellan products thanks to the fact that they were introduced first, but the Roadmate 1212 is going to easily take center stage on account of its slender profile combined with its tiny price tag. The decent performance combined with the simple user interface obviously makes this a pretty good investment so long as you can work around the slow menu button response. The text-to-speech capability is also included, even though employing it too long will quickly drain the battery with the result that you could spend your time charging the battery within 3 hours.

Bottom Line

When it comes to reasonably priced Car GPS products, you may understandably be deciding between cost and performance. Garmin Nuvi easily moves to the top with its few quirks, but the Magellan and the Tom Tom are far more affordable. The most practical choice to make is to save up for a Garmin Nuvi unless you won’t mind having the GPS device continually distract your from your driving. You might also want to look at the Garmin Nuvi 1350 Portable GPS Navigator.