Using Garmin, or your nose?

Which system, if any, do you use for navigation?

  • Garmin

    Votes: 50 32.3%

  • TomTom

    Votes: 21 13.5%

  • Mobile Phone with GPS

    Votes: 33 21.3%

  • Other GPS system

    Votes: 9 5.8%

  • I don't use GPS to navigate

    Votes: 42 27.1%
  • Total voters
    155
Map books? damn. Do you post your messages here with a pen and paper, then post them to the mods for typing up?

Whats that, oh you use technology to make it simpler. I see. novel idea :D
 
carudden said:
Map books? damn. Do you post your messages here with a pen and paper, then post them to the mods for typing up?

Whats that, oh you use technology to make it simpler. I see. novel idea :D
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Hmmm ... that was sarcasm, was it?

There's a difference between posting a message on a forum and finding your way to the shops. If I can drive all the way to a city 1,600km from my house and find my final destination with the aid of a book that cost me R100, I don't see why I should have to rely on a piece of technology that costs R2k+, and by its nature, is less reliable than a book.

At least, I've never heard of a mapbook suffering from a technical failure ...
 
GPS comes built in to most of today's phones. Cheap stuff.
How is the GPS unreliable? To compare failure we'd have to look at how the book fails:

1. becomes outdated almost as soon as walking out of the shop.
2. Can be torn.
3. Can cause an accident while being used.

GPS is "new" to the mainstream market, and like all new technology you get the die hards that can do without it. These same arguments were made about cell phones. In the end we all own one.
 
Nah ... I love my phone - I wouldn't be able to live without it. Comes without GPS anyways. I still say I don't need it. And the book will only cause an accident if someone is stupid enough to drive while looking at it. Same with a GPS mind.

I reckon half the people that do have it (I'm not including you necessarily, mind), just have it for bragging rights, since they probably never go further than 20km from their house.

As for reliability - any technology, by its very nature, is unreliable. Broken circuit? Screwed. Flat/faulty battery? Can also happen.

If our lovely little rock we live on moves into a major cloud of space debris (however unlikely) and half the GPS sats get knocked out - you won't have GPS either, and the roads will suddenly be populated with a mass of moms in SUV's who can't figure their way to the nearest shopping center.

Difference between a phone and a GPS - a phone is pretty much necessary if you're not going to be in one place most of the day - and therefore out of contact. A GPS - useful, but seriously, you can live without it.
 
I don't use a GPS to navigate locally, but I love driving long-distance with one to see silly things like elevation, POIs, avg speed, etc, etc. My wife fails to understand the reasons. It's a dick thing, I s'pose.

When driving in unfamiliar places abroad I use GPS, either the Nuvi 710 or GMXT on the Touch HD. The Nuvi makes a great hands-free for the cellphone, and with the 8GB card I have plenty of music and audio talks - the Nuvi plays it through the FM radio. Great for long distance.
 
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/me thinks it is the guys that do the off road 4x4 thing through africa that uses Garmin 9 out of 10
 
HTC P3300 with Navigon

I am very happy with my HTC P3300 + Navigon. A bit slow to start up, but much better than my wife's Nokia Navigator! :)

My only issue is Navigon doesn't provide updates, and my maps are now defintely dated. :(
 
I have a Garmin and love it. I dont have experience with tom tom though, so I cant compare. But a gps unit brings ease of mind while travelling about. Got stuck once and I could give the AA exact coordinates, beats trying to figure out where you are, especially in an unfamiliar environment.
 
XCentricdave said:
I resent the implication that I use my nose to navigate, this is a patent nonsense; the complaint against Garmin is invalid and I demand that it be withdrawn immediately. My constitional right to navigate with whatever part of my anatomy I please is being infringed.
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constitutional ;)

Weasley said:
i dont know some1 personel that uses a garmin every1 I know uses tomtom so i wonder about the 9 out of 10 thing in any way
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jetlee said:
Ditto .. love my TomTom
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dalmine007 said:
To all the Garmin users, dont think you tried tom tom yet, tried both and there is no comparison tom tom is by far the winner
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I haven't used a Garmin, but I do have a TomTom, so I can't make any comparisons, but the TomTom is great:). Just got mine about 3 weeks ago, and I would have been totally lost on a 1000km trip I did last week, if I didn't have it.

Arthur said:
I don't use a GPS to navigate locally, but I love driving long-distance with one to see silly things like elevation, POIs, avg speed, etc, etc.
...
Great for long distance.
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Yep, you don't need it for short trips. GPS is great for long trips to unfamiliar places.

I thought I read a comment in this thread about the units being >R2000, but don't see it now:confused:. I got mine from Game on special for R1439.
 
The poll should include the GPS software you're running on your phone.
Like TomTom Navigator or Garmin XT, etc.

I'm using TomTom Navigator 7 on a Windows Mobile Phone so although I'm not using a TomTom GPS unit I'm still using TomTom GPS software that pretty much does what the stand alone unit does.
You'll probably find that if you add the TomTom GPS devices to the mobile phones running TomTom Navigator they'll outnumber the Garmin units.
Garmin were #1 up until about a year ago but they're a bit pricey compared to TomTom and feature wise they're pretty much the same.
 
Actually Nuvi 200's can be had at R1800 if you look around. I am also a map book preferer, but ocassionally I have to head off into the middle of nowhere that my mapbook doesnt cover and my Garmin has gotten me there and given me co-ordinates that I used in my research. I wont say I dislike my GPS, I have just found it quite handy. (Its also fun to tell it to go elsewhere and then go to another address... keeps me amused).

Qwikslver said:
No, you were right. No garmin is under R2000. It's only tomtoms that are so cheap.
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