Sean, I agree about the maps and compass. Once you have that skill, and use it enough, you'll never lose it. That also applies to knowing how to fold the maps back up! Get 'em a Silva Compass. The one that I used to use was very similar to this:
http://store.silvacompass.com/professional-military-ranger-cl Having a navigator helps immensely, but since I do 99% of the driving by myself, the GPS (if it's a good one) takes the place of having a warm body in the passenger seat.
Rex, since you have first hand experience with both (or all 3) companies, how does the response time of the different brands compare, i.e. how much lead time do you get before getting notified that a turn is coming, or that you should be in such and such lane for an exit?
My Garmin is pretty quick for pointing exits out and which lane you need to be in, like going thru Chicago and stuff with road construction. Having FM, if the area is broadcasting, is really nice. Warns of impending situations ahead and will reroute you as necessary. That feature works really well.
I just leave mine plugged in all the time. Speedo is accurate to Police radar and usually if I pass a speed limit sign, that changes like dang near instantly, if it's mapped.
Only place it led me astray was heading to your place. Other than that, hit the mark right on!
Now, I have the original maps that came with it, no upgraded maps, but it has the 31 bypass in it down to the last detail of exits, curves, speed limits, intersections... That was just built last year and my Garmin is ~4 years old. How can that be? I'm just wondering if I'm getting satellite downloads to this with new updates? Sometimes, it can take hours to load the maps.
Only real thing I don't like, is once in a while you'll loose streaming satellite, but you can manually toggle back and forth to get current data. Suppose it's a firmware glitch tho.
All in all, I kinda like mine, even with the glitches.
I keep telling myself I'm gonna get a new one, but just re-boot the thing and the world is round again.
Hey, it's not my fault Indiana don't broadcast in FM
