Inspired by seeing Reedz's Street Pilot III at the VA meet last Saturday, I spent the better part of the day doing an install of my own Garmin Street Pilot III GPS system (www.garmin.com). Using a RAM mounting system, which makes possible quick dismounting of the GPS receiver, I mounted the receiver on front roof rail trim where the driver's side visor is mounted (the visor was removed). I hardly need to remove my eye from the road to read the StreetPilot screen. The system is hotwired (I tapped into the live lead for the overhead lights), so it's live, if I want, with the ignition off. For the voice commands, I placed a small CB speaker in the drivers footwell, up in the hidden area behind the headunit.

This is a fantastic system and you can get it for under $800. My neighbor, who has the top of the line Acura with the Honda GPS system, thought the Garmin was better -- more map detail and better capabilities. Plus it's portable, so I'm setting up mounts for the Civic, and I'll be taking it with me on business trips for use in [rental cars.

Here are some photos. My able colleague at work, Craig Goebel, who's trying to talk his wife into an S2000, sat in the driver's seat for the pictures. I have slightly more hair .







Reedz is working on a permanent mount for the Street Pilot on his car, and I'll be eager to see his approach.

The beautiful thing about the Sreet Pilot is its portability. I've got the hardward mounted in the Civic and a suction cup mount and related hardward to use on rental cars when I travel on business.

This is a full featured GPS system, with nearly everything that permanently mounted sytems offer and at a fraction of the price. True, it has a small screen, but for functionality, and with the voice feature, it's more than adequate for its intended purposes.

 

Pictures please!!!!!

 

Typo. It's Street Pilot. I'll post pictures around 9PM EST.

 

A word of warning.. that mounting does not work for all of us. I tried mounting a LED clock in a modified visor and learned something. I can

 

Chris,

Fortunately, I can still focus at that distance. The screen is about a foot away from my eyes, which works fine for me. But you're right. Others may have a problem with it in that location.

I didn't get a change to take picture tonight because it started to rain. I'll try in the morning.

 

Sounds cool... I thought about getting one, but alas I have been spoiled by the ergomics of the Honda/Accura system. I have played with the street pilot and it is nowhere as functional as the nav in our Odyssey. And the Honda's is very readable for my over 40 eyes. While is can download more detail... it has to put it on a much smaller screen. Of course the garman is $1200.00 cheaper! I am willing to bet whenever honda stops the S2000... it's final version will have nav like the jdm car!!

 

chris,
i just flip my glasses over and then the bifocal part is at the top.

try this, it might work for you too.....................

 

Rick-

As I thought back to your adventures trying to find Sterling, VA I read through this article in today's Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2001Aug19.html

Good luck w/ the Street Pilot. Now that I will be creating a better mount for my Libretto (have used Delorme's Tripmate & Street Atlas USA for years) and continue planning for my trunk-mounted PC I hope to have my name removed from the list of directionally challenged.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Red_s2k
[B]Sounds cool... I thought about getting one, but alas I have been spoiled by the ergomics of the Honda/Acura system. I have played with the street pilot and it is nowhere as functional as the nav in our Odyssey.

 

Here's what I have, until I save up enough money to blow on the Street Pilot III.
I have the connection so that if I'm doing some real traveling, I connect it to a Laptop with Microsoft's Streets and Trips 2001, and watch the detail there.