jamminrock2
01-13-2004, 02:02 PM
Right before Christmas I decided to buy myself a present. Deciding years ago that I would buy a GPS when the price went under $600 I saw an ad for the Garmin. In addition I'd get a PDA for free! Not having used a PDA before, I was a happy camper.
Having been on the cutting edge, which evolved to be the bleeding edge once too often, I came to this forum to gather all the info I could before I purchased. I was very impressed with the comments about Garmins service, or else I would not have bought this unit.
Thanks to the many of you I learned more about this unit then I ever really wanted to know. Using this knowledge, I was able to know about the car nav unit and the SD card. I ended up purchasing it through the web, and ended up getting the nav unit also for about the list price of the unit.
In addition I ordered the Gilsson, and am I happy that I did.
Some comments:
Being a newer unit 26xxxx, I have not had some of the problems mentioned. The 2 soft resets I have had were:
1) trying to get it out of the base in the car, and hit the power button about 5 times in a row by mistake.
2) draining the power by putting it in my coat pocket and accidentally turing it on.
BTW, I would have returned the unit after the first problem, as I thought at first I had fried the unit. But thanks to this forum, I knew about soft resets.
I've used it in 5 different vehicles, and have noticed a world of difference between the use of the internal antenna. In one of them the internal actually works almost as well as the external.
The thing that still bothers me the most is not to have the ability to change the battery. I really think that this will be a MAJOR issue down the road (pun intended)
I think that the navagition is well done. A few years ago I rented a car with GPS installed (magellen), and did have a problem understanding when to turn, this next or the next next road?, which I feel Garmin unit does this much better.
I really think that more, and better software should have come with the PDA part. Can't complain too much, but still...
I am very dissapointed that you can not hook up the external antenna through the bean bag base, as I have one hell of a time getting the external antenna out of the unit. And it's even harder when you're freezing your a$$ off and shaking at the same time. A perfect solution would also include an FM transmitter, and an internal radio in the unit. I bought a CD to cassette changer, and "betty" sounds great, almost sexy you could say, :D through the car speakers, but after a while I get sick of just listening to mp3's, and would like to listen to the radio. Back to bitchin' betty in the bean bag speaker. The bean bag worked well in most of the vehicles I used it in, but in one of them it will not stay put and slides more then I like.
For what this small unit does, and the fact that I can use it in multiple vehicles, and the price, I am at this point still a happy camper. (knocking very hard on wood) I really hope that ver.3 of the software improves some of the issues.
Well, that was my 2 cents for the moment.
Having been on the cutting edge, which evolved to be the bleeding edge once too often, I came to this forum to gather all the info I could before I purchased. I was very impressed with the comments about Garmins service, or else I would not have bought this unit.
Thanks to the many of you I learned more about this unit then I ever really wanted to know. Using this knowledge, I was able to know about the car nav unit and the SD card. I ended up purchasing it through the web, and ended up getting the nav unit also for about the list price of the unit.
In addition I ordered the Gilsson, and am I happy that I did.
Some comments:
Being a newer unit 26xxxx, I have not had some of the problems mentioned. The 2 soft resets I have had were:
1) trying to get it out of the base in the car, and hit the power button about 5 times in a row by mistake.
2) draining the power by putting it in my coat pocket and accidentally turing it on.
BTW, I would have returned the unit after the first problem, as I thought at first I had fried the unit. But thanks to this forum, I knew about soft resets.
I've used it in 5 different vehicles, and have noticed a world of difference between the use of the internal antenna. In one of them the internal actually works almost as well as the external.
The thing that still bothers me the most is not to have the ability to change the battery. I really think that this will be a MAJOR issue down the road (pun intended)
I think that the navagition is well done. A few years ago I rented a car with GPS installed (magellen), and did have a problem understanding when to turn, this next or the next next road?, which I feel Garmin unit does this much better.
I really think that more, and better software should have come with the PDA part. Can't complain too much, but still...
I am very dissapointed that you can not hook up the external antenna through the bean bag base, as I have one hell of a time getting the external antenna out of the unit. And it's even harder when you're freezing your a$$ off and shaking at the same time. A perfect solution would also include an FM transmitter, and an internal radio in the unit. I bought a CD to cassette changer, and "betty" sounds great, almost sexy you could say, :D through the car speakers, but after a while I get sick of just listening to mp3's, and would like to listen to the radio. Back to bitchin' betty in the bean bag speaker. The bean bag worked well in most of the vehicles I used it in, but in one of them it will not stay put and slides more then I like.
For what this small unit does, and the fact that I can use it in multiple vehicles, and the price, I am at this point still a happy camper. (knocking very hard on wood) I really hope that ver.3 of the software improves some of the issues.
Well, that was my 2 cents for the moment.