I am going to be looking to go to the dealer tomorrow and see about ordering my tC. I want GPS in there.

I wanted to know if anyone had an opionion about putting in the GPS system from the dealer: shown below



OR should I get a portable GPS system such as a palm pilot. I do travel alot nationally with my dad for tournaments, and we have a tendency to get lost... Not sure which way I want to go...

Any one wanna add there 2 cents :D

 

Dealer navigation systems are more expensive than portable ones. The portable ones can be used with different cars i.e your relatives etc. If your car gets totaled, the portable one may survive another day in your replacement car. The built in GPS will be totaled with your old car. Test drive a car with GPS to see how they operate. GPS are based on old and new technology. Dealer GPS are normally high end and have a lot of features that may not be in the portables.
Get the high end portable GPS that cost more than $1,000 and has a big memory drive
that can hold the whole US map and not download each city like the palm pilot. Some of the portables have audio and video direction instructions. The portable one can be used for outdoors i.e hiking. Go to cnet.com or to consumer reports online or public library to compare electronic products.

1manila

 

alright i will look into it... do u have any recommendations as to companies for portable GPS systems?

 

or you could always go the cheap route and go to www.mapquest.com
i usually do this but ive never had to leave central florida.

how often do they update maps on gps?
it seems like if a road gets closed for maintenance and gps doesnt know you'd probably be S O L

as far as the actual navigation systems go... i would mess around with them at circuit city, best buy and wherever else they have them... make sure you get one that is not so complex that you cant watch the road.

good luck

 

that radio shown as dealer product is really the eclpse avn2454.

find an eclipse dealer and get a price from them. it will be cheaper than the dealer.

it playes dvd's and cd', no hide-away unit and the factory toyota plugs go right into the eclpse head unit.

 

I have a portable Garmin unit in my xB. I went with the portable unit because I have more than one car. That way I can just move the unit to whatever car I decide to drive :D . Go portable you won't regret it.
http://www.imagestation.com/mypictur...9&from_album=1

 

my friend got the magellan one. its amazing! it talks, and re-routes and everything. But i dont like the look of it hanging off the suction cup on the window. but it rules! i want gps too!

 

I don't know if any of you have seen it yet, but Delphi has come out with a portable unit that talks and re-routes and does color display also, and it's only $550 at Circuit City. I think I'm going to purchase one of these since I intend to keep my stock headunit.

 

yes, that is a concern i get alot. some people have more than one car and want to have navi in which ever one they drive.
if you travel alot (i mean fly some where and rent a car) you can use the portable one then too.

 

Me and half a dozen of my buddies that got this idea from me now have PocketPC based GPS units - most popular configuration is a Dell Axim + CF GPS antenna + Mapopolis mapping/routing software. Total cost (without the software) is around $300-350 including the PDA. I have a ViewSonic V37 + noname GPS antenna + 256M SD card - the total was less than $300, because I got the PDA cheap off eBay. 256M card holds 10-15 states, which is usually enough for any kind of travel. You can travel cross-country having only 16 megs of memory in the PDA because you can put Major Roads and start and destination areas and still get where you need.

I did not wire it nicely in the tC yet, but in the matrix you could only see about 2 inches worth of wiring, and the PDA itself covered up the suction cup mount, so it was pretty clean.

http://zoltiz.com/trix/gps/ - that's how it looked like in my Matrix.

The good thing was that even when wired like it was in the Matrix, I could still take it out and put it in the rental within 5 minutes.

Functionality wise - this thing saved my butt multiple times, I put over 15K miles around the country with it never worrying about having maps with me. It creates routes on the device, reroutes if you make a wrong turn, has voice prompts, gives ETA, miles left, etc. Well worth $300 investment.

 

I had the same decision to make myself. Eventually decided to get an ipaq with tom tom navigation and a fortuna gps. Bluetooth wireless with rechargeable batteries on both so no wires (except i'll have to plug it in for long trips). So far been cool. The place I bought the gps stuff gave me a clip mount that attaches to the vent which is cool. So far its been working and now I have a new PDA. No pictures yet with the setup since waiting for the tC. But here's the good points:

1. It's cheaper that built in. My setup was 700 something but thats really good considering i got a really nice ipaq, not the cheapest one but even the cheapest one woulda worked (wanted a nice one to use at work), and tomtom and the fortuna one are very well rated.
2. I got a pda. I mean I'm not gonna use the gps all the time. Rather than have something which does nothing but take up space a majority of the time, now I have a pda which has bluetooth, can do voice recording, play mp3 and video and come in handy at work.

 

I got the Magellan RoadMate 700 (North America). I'll tell you, it rocks. It has all of North America pre-loaded and is accurate.(or close to if it is a new area) I think I can future upgrade to new maps when they release them on their website.(usb port) I hate getting lost and this unit gives you turn-by-turn voice prompts. The downside is it's over $1000 and the suction cup thing is ok. 2 thumbs up!!! :D

Check it out here: http://www.magellangps.com/en/produc...asp?PRODID=955

 

I really like the Garmin portable I use. It's cheaper and much more versatile than the built-in units.

It's good enough for SpaceShipOne, it's good enough for my Scion!



(look at the top of the instrument stack!)

George

 

That's the one I have. The Streetpilot III deluxe

 

Everyone who chooses the stealerships navigation option, has agreed... the navigation sucks. Go with an aftermarket like the kenwood 7015 and add navigation to it... total overall cost will be about 1900. You will also enjoy it's "birds eye view" and other functions that you can not get out of a factory option. Just my 2 cents.