Bill,
I'd go with a dedicated system. My first preference would be to get one integrated into the car. I am a huge Honda/Acura fan (been through most of the German cars) and everything that I've read about Honda's GPS system indicates that it's the best on the market. I'm in a downsizing mode so the bike and the boat will probably be history soon anyway.

 

I have thought about buying one, but it seems dumb that they don't have 20g harddrives in them to hold every place in North America. What the hell are they waiting for? I bought my first 20g MP3 player 4 years ago! I am on boycot until I stop seeing how much memory they have.

 

My 2GB compact flash card holds all of North America and Hawaii maps. What would I do with the other 18?

 

Thanks. I'm leaning that way too.

 

I have had the Garmin E-Trex Legend-C color handheld for 2 years now and am VERY happy with it. While the screen is a bit small, it is hand held, and easilly fits in my pocket, or the cupholder of the S. It also has all Points of Interest, so you can find hotels, restaurants, etc. It is great to have a hand held when walking in large cities or hiking in the woods. It has 24MB internal, and stores most of MA, CT, RI. They have a newer version Cx, which uses the new mini-SD card, and can store most of the east coast. Lastly, it runs on 2 AAs (you can use rechargables) and runs ~12+hours on a set. Since these are standard batteries, you can instantly swap them if the GPS dies...

+1 on Garmin in general.

John

 

Hi John!

Aren't you the one I sat with at lunch at Cardinal Honda?

 

A friend of mine is an open-ocean sailor. He always has at least two built-in GPS systems running on his boat, plus he usually supplements that with a handheld. Yeah, it's a bit paranoid, but....

 

Hi Patricia-

Yes, you have an excellent memory! I was honored to sit with the member who had traveled the farthest to attend the S2K event. It was nice to meet you and I hope to see you at future events...

John

 

It was great to meet you, John. Fun talking to you.

 

We have a Garmin GPSMap76CS a Garmin Nuvi 350. We like using both of the units. The major difference between the two is the ability to create custom routes on a PC to use with the 76. The Nuvi is great if what you want is the shortest or quickest route between two points. You can not create custom routes for the Nuvi; you have to take what the unit gives you. When we want to layout fun drives over back roads, we use the 76. The screen on the Nuvi is easier to see and the voice navigation is great; although it is a little hard to hear when winding out the S2000.

A great resource for GPS information is http://gpsinformation.net/. Write down what you want out of a GPS and then read some of their reviews.

Knapp Hudson
Portland, Maine