After much research I finally settled on the nuvi 260 as my travel guide. I was first introduced to vehicle GPS systems last summer when my father and I traveled to a wedding in Arkansas and I was completely impressed with his extremely cheap Garmin (don't remember the model). That thing told me the lane I needed to be in, what turns were coming up, and limited gas station and hotel info. I knew then that I had to have one of those things.

I waited until the prices came down for some of the more high end models to a level I could afford. The 260 I finally settled on has all the features I have been wanting without the bells and whistles I don't need. I don't really need it for around town driving but there are many times that we need to travel into downtown KC and it would be invaluable then.

How many of you use these GPS thingy's and what do you think of them? I may do some extra road-tripping just so I can use it.

My wife and I are planning on getting a GPS unit sometime next year. In preparation of my internship year for seminary...don't know where I'm gonna have to go, but I at least want to make it there .

I have a pda/gps unit that i like but i've been thinking of selling it and getting a $25 gps kit for my lappy since i take it with me when i travel anyway. There is one feature that u need to look at it's where some can upload your phone contacts.

Never heard of that one BA , mines made by Thomasville and I have to turn the pages to see where i'm goin'

I have the Magellan 4040 with built in AAA travel info ie.. who takes AAA for discounts, info etc. unit comes with bluetooth which is cool on long trips and has a 3 hour long internal battery among alot of other features.
I also have the TOM TOM ONE which is nice to it has real time traffic for a small fee and will reroute you if u want when theres to much traffic and I can get celeb voices like MR.T which everyone hates after about 5 minutes of him saying HEY FOOL!.
About 5 years ago my wife got me our first magellan for Xmas so that we would not fight on roadtrips when we got lost, worked....

These things rock, so much better than looking at a map while you drive or my phone to figure out whre I am going, I use mine alot to for jobs I need to look at or find all over the bay area.

The Nuvi is a good product. Most of the garmin stuff is top notch. I have the Garmin Etrex summit hc. A handheld portable. Good to about 9 feet accuracy with waas implementation. It also has a barometric altimeter and an electronic magnetic compass so even if you are standing still you know what direction your facing. You can load topo maps and basic street maps into mine also.

I love it, haven't spent much time in the woods with it yet but on the road it's a nice addition.

I had narrowed it down to the Garmin 260 and the Magellen 3210, and after painstakingly comparing features and reviews the Garmin won out. I am amazed how prices have dropped on these lately, that was the only thing that has kept me from getting one sooner. Hell, the Magellen 3100 is only $175 now and that is a damn good basic GPS.

My father road trips in his RV quite a bit and tried the laptop GPS adapter but he said it was a real pain in the ass to get everything set up and required too much time with eyes off the road. I know the one he purchased 2006 was a low end model but it sure made driving through KC a lot easier and saved our butt a couple of times driving through Little Rock. I didn't realize how accurate they have become. The first time he really needed it was driving through Los Angeles and even though he doubted the directions sometimes, he went ahead and trusted it anyway and got exactly where he wanted to go each time.

I can't wait to play with it.

I just wish I was single and could meet the sexy woman who's voice comes out of my Magellan giving me directions.

Our Land Rover's got an integrated GPS that seemed pretty cool at first until we realized it hadn't been updated in a year or so and we havn't been able to find updates for it.

It's definitely very cool when it works though.

Now since i know nothing about GPS and always used a map or phone to get directions, i have this question for you all since you are using these different types of GPS systems do you have to pay for some sort of plan being monthly or yearly service to keep them all up to date, Or is that some thing you can download from your computer to your GPS from the provider who makes the GPS.

The map service for my model is a subscription, the maps it came with are free to use but not as detailed. You have to pay more if you wanted more detailed maps or to get them updated. I got it cheaper as a one time update/upgrade as I originally planned to use it for hiking and hunting more than on road use. I'm not sure about the dedicated road systems, if they come with updates or not. The GPS portion is free to use and requires no fees.

My understanding is that you get one freebie when you purchase it, and any other ones are paid for. I would think that updating every other year would suffice. But, after 3 years or so it would be time to upgrade the GPS again anyway.

I think there are some where you can download maps off the internet and put it on a memory card and use that. My friend does that with his. I don't know the model number, but it's made by Nuvi...