Not sold on car GPS units...

My brother was recently in town for a visit. He travels quite a bit with his job, so he owns a portable GPS unit that he can plug into his rental car, named "Gypsy". I asked for a demonstration, just to see/hear "Gypsy" do her thing. We chose the local Cracker Barrel restaurant, which is just a few miles up the Interstate from my house. She got us going right to begin with, but suddenly wanted us to exit the Interstate prematurely and take side streets through residential areas.

To make a long story short, with "Gypsy's" help, we wound up next to a vacant overgrown lot, close to a mile (as the crow flies) from the Cracker Barrel.

I wasn't impressed. She DID have a sexy/sultry voice though.

TC

We to have a Garmin GPS and update it often. We did have a problem with it going into Myrtle Beach a few years back. It wanted us to turn into a restaurants parking lot and turn around to go right back the way we were headed to begin with.

Since then, I have upgraded the maps, but haven't been back to check it.

Other than that, ours has been right on the money.

We also just bought a new Subaru Forester with a built in GPS, runs off of DVDs which are dated 2007. To buy new ones its $238.00. Would be cheaper to buy another Garmin.

I use my GPS equipped mobile phone and unlimited data. Then I log onto Bing.com (MSN) and it works great. I always travel with the phone so it's more convenient for me. I only use it when I need finite directions near a destination. 99% of the time I plan trips before leaving home so I don't need turn-by-turn until near the end. Worked great for navigating around LA earlier this summer when we went to Disneyland and Medievel Times. I also used it a lot when we went to Maui last October. As long as I have a signal, I can get the maps for free. The gps will work regardless as long as your a traveling under 170mph. There is an a standalone application with all the maps on a micro SD card so you don't have to depend on a data connection.