Which Garmin GPS unit should I buy?
 

Just wanted some input from owners:

1) Do you find you use your unit enough to warrant the purchase?
2) Do you use it in the LM?
3) Besides the maps/directions, do they serve any other purposes features?

From what I figured, the 250 is the entry level. So what features are worth springing the extra $$ for?

Does the fm transmitter feature allow me to use my car audio at the same time? Or does the voice of the GPS require for me to set my audio to the fm frequency therefore no car audio?

And I don't see any benefit of the bluetooth feature or mp3

The FM transmitter will not allow u to listen to music at the same time unless your garmin model has mp3 playback as well. The FM transmitter sux. The basic widescreen model should be good enough for most ppl.

Get the 255W, it's served me quite well on the 4000km Eastern Canada roadtrip we just took. It got a bit confused in Montreal, but who doesn't? :(

The Text-To-Speech is quite helpful, and the maps are pretty good though it was missing stuff sometimes.

cool guys. Looks like the entry level will suffice. Does anyone know how well the live traffic report feature works? That'd be useful.

Traffic report will probably need some kind of data connection. I'm not sure if users in Canada can make use of the traffic receiver.

http://chinese.winandmac.com/wp-cont...usnuvifone.jpg

http://topdospods.com/wp-content/upl...fone-m20-2.jpg

Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20, the only Garmin I will buy

Garmin 255w is what you should get.
Should be ~200$ @ futureshop.
I use my older garmin for finding restaurants, hotels that kind of thing

The step up would be the 265wt which gives you "traffic" and bluetooth.
the traffic function only works in Toronto I think right now. Garmin and Navteq (the mapping company) do not have a traffic system set up in vancouver as of yet.
The 265wt is $259, not that much more, potentially a good buy

:werd: on the 255w don't pay more than $300 imo for a GPS, i have 3...
Really disappointed in the Tom tom not having a hotel address in atlanta, ended up selling it for a new garmin, slower reception IMO but at least it's reliable.

I'm not big on the high gadget feature GPS's though, bluetooth, mp3 etc.

What's the difference between the 250 and the 255? Saw a few on craigs for $100 which seems reasonable to me.

i have the Garmin Oregon

its pretty good, its about $300 from costco i belive

Also, you can download 3rd party map packs which are better than the garmin ones for free, while the garmin ones are $179 US

What's so special about it? Isn't it just a regular windows mobile phone with Garmin for WM installed on it?

Actually, they do have Vancouver alerts. Garmin's "free" FM traffic reports are provided by Total Traffic Network. Their coverage map is here:

http://totaltraffic.com/CoverageArea...5-b4441ed564ef

If you browse around their site, you can get a complete coverage map for cities they have traffic reports for. The free FM traffic reports are ad sponsored so you may see some ads on your GPS for nearby businesses. :D

I usually use my GPS only if I'm driving outside of Vancouver/Burnaby. If I'm out of town, it comes with me wherever I go. I have the Garmin nuvi 360, but I'm looking to upgrade to probably a 1490T as it offers traffic, junction view, lane assist, speed limit indicators, CityXplorer maps (optional) and a slimmer profile over my 360. (actually, lane assist is what I want most, since it's most useful on US freeways where there are multiple off ramps on the one exit and I always miss the one I am supposed to be on)

255w for the win

Yeah the lane assist looks neat. However I've never seen it come up before in BC driving. Guess there aren't that many available. I'm using Tomtom Go 930. Lane assist/view, speed limit, BT, MP3, auto brightness, EPT for tunnels, etc.

Yeah, I rarely ever use my GPS in Vancouver, so no Canadian coverage isn't a huge issue (though would be nice). I would expect the functionality to be added with future map updates if it does ever come to Canada. I use my GPS mostly on US highway driving where it seems most major cities have the lane assist support.

I'm probably going to go with the 1390T (it's about $299USD at Car Toys in the US). I'll test it out on my drive down to Portland over the long weekend and see how well the lane assist works.

Thanks for everyone's input. In the end, I went with the 255 since I didn't really want any of the extra features such as bluetooth (I only wanted the TTS option).

For $100, I think it should be useful for my trip across Canada. And if anyone was comparing or in the same shoes as me, The Garmin 250 is an older model whereas the 255 is the newer model with a faster refresh rate and the coveted TTS option. The "w" after the model is for the widescreen version and other letteres may designate which maps are pre loaded.

Garmin has so many damn models it's confusing.

Widescreen is a great feature.. more space to show information.