A company called TomTom, out of the UK, has their newest version of a PDA NAV coming out soon. It's called Navigator 5. It looks like a neat system that you can use in all of your vehicles and as stated previously it works through your iPAQ or Pocket PC. I've read a couple reviews on it and they seemed decent but I've never used one. The concept sounds good though.

 

frbear I got excited about a handheld NAV a few weeks ago and did lots of research. Almost popped for a Navman (510 I think) before I cooled-down and thought better of it.

I like the idea of a portable GPS still, to be able to use beyond the Ridge, but for vehicular use I really think you gotta have a big screen, else you're gonna squint and lean and poke at your GPS until you run smack-into the tail end of some unlucky person at an intersection or something.

Maybe one of those expensive-but-very-cool slide-out, tilt-up 7" or greater LCD units is the way to go. You'll do whatever you want to do, but I suggest:

1. Take it slow; there are lots of options & wildly varying prices on these things
2. Absolutely go to a Fry's or somewhere that some GPSes are on display, and play with them for a half-hour or more. You will learn very quickly that there are huge diffs in useability between these things.

I assume you didn't buy the Nav because like us you don't have money to throw away (we had to draw the line somewhere, having already spent more on the truck than we'd planned). Be careful w/your GPS idea or you could end-up with a useless "toy".

 

I have a garmin 2610 in my ridgeline that I moved over from my old vehicle. It works great -- I have been extremely pleased. It comes with a remote, which I use as it is now situated a good distance from me. Plus, when I travel I can take it with me on the plane and use it rental cars. You can occasionally find it on discount at amazon and other sites for about $600, which is a great deal.

 

Thanks for the replies. I plunked about $812 (that's with 6% sales tax) for a Garmin StreetPilot c330 today. Read a lot of reviews regarding this unit the past few weeks and was convinced that it would satisfy my requirements for a simple easy to use unit with great value for the money. The c330 is ready out of the box. In fact, right after coming out of the store I hooked it up as soon as we got in our Ridge and it was able to display in a couple minutes our exact location.

This unit weighs only 9.45 oz. Dimensions 4.4" W x 3.2" H x 2.8" D. Its display has 64K colors with bright white LED backlight and is touch screen (no need for a stylus pen). It has an internal non-removable memory (no need for SD cards) and comes preinstalled with US/Canada/Puerto Rico road maps and lots of points of interest.

There's a turn-by-turn voice command that is clear enough to understand over the sound emanating from the radio. One drawback I've noticed about the unit is the display tends to be washed out in bright sunlight. This is mitigated by the clear voice command feature.

I will post my observations (and pics of my unit installed in the truck) from time to time on this forum. I appreciate all the feedback. Happy trucking!