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With my navigation skills, I knew that I could use a GPS, but I had been waiting for the prices to come down. Based on a recommendation and a lot of investigation, I decided to go with the Garmin c340. Garmin gets the best reviews, the c340 does text-to-speech to read street names, and the c340 is an older model that can be found at a discount. I wanted it for a family trip to Yellowstone, so I started monitoring eBay and found a Garmin packaged refurb with a 1 year factory warrary. It arrived the day before we left. First impression was that the build quality was excellent - better than you see in most consumer electronics. You can tell it was designed to last, not surprising given that they sold for over $800 a couple years ago. I powered it up and went outside, only to find that it thought I was in Kansas and couldn't locate the satellites. A quick check on the website informed me that it can take some time for the device to get it's position when it's been moved a great distance. I left it running on the dash in the driveway, and when I came back in 20 minutes it was set.The satellite location time on the trip was always under a minute. Plusses and minuses from our 8 day/2300 mile trip: + great interface, able to start using it in minutes + very good routes in most cases + good POIs (points of interest): used it to find a pizza place in Cheyenne, WY, first place was carry-out only, so we had it find us another place a few blocks away. - old map data: in two cases the road had moved or been extended, and the GPS showed us driving in no-man's land. I understand that the 2008 maps were probably compiled in 2007, and I can't say when the road moved. - in one case the GPS refused to plan a route with a Wyoming state highway that looked like the best route. It knew the highway was there, but no matter how I set up the route, it avoided that road. It was a decent road, but it went up to 10,000ft elevation in the mointains, so I wonder if it was "flagged" in the database. - in a couple cases it told us to turn in strange places (a snow covered gravel mountain road). We were trying to get out of Yellowstone one night in the dark, and it tells us to turn into a small parking lot on the side of the road. The car in front of us turned in there, and my wife notices that they have a Garmin too. Overall, my impression is very positive. It is not perfect, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it to navigate in unfamiliar places. I would give it an 8 out of 10.Read full review
This is my third Garmin GPS unit, the first two were the i2 Streetpilot models; first one was stolen, the 2nd one was purchased because I couldn't function in my job without one. My motto is "Live free or cheap", so when the price of the c340 came down because they've been discontinued, I figured it was time to move up. Glad I did, 340 was cheaper than the 2 i2's I bought new. Positives: screen is bigger, calls out the street names instead of making me take my eyes off the road to read them, map of N.A. came pre-loaded instead of making me choose a few nearby states, touch screen instead of button pushing & scrolling, good memory capacity makes calculations & inputing info much faster. I was able (after fumbling around with the instructions & emailing Garmin twice) to transfer data off my old unit to the new one, so I still have all my "favorite places" intact. The negatives: mostly the same problems I had with the old unit, even updated maps are slow to get the latest changes (my city streets are always under construction), sometimes the maps think certain streets are thru streets when they're actually dead ends, & the accuracy of these units is not exactly pin-point; if I'm in a parking lot off of a side street that is also near an interstate highway, the unit wants to put you on the interstate. In fairness, MapQuest & Google Earth can lead you astray just as badly as a GPS. A couple of other negatives that weren't a problem with the old unit: the i2 always gave me at least .2 miles warning before a turn, not always the case with c340...I was going 50 MPH (posted speed limit) down a little county road when she told me to turn RIGHT HERE! Fortunately no one was close behind me, & I didn't roll the van making the turn! Less of a problem, more of an annoyance, she starts every trip by saying "Please follow the highlighted route:" I got that already...there should be a "don't show this message again" option. Minor glitches: computer generated voices are all a little gravelly, often mispronounce names, & all English voices say "the" as "duh." I fixed the mispronounced name of an often-traveled st. by switching from US English Jill to AU English Kelly, but she still gets some names wrong. I noticed one reviewer who seemed to think their unit was defective because it lost signal in downtown areas...that's gonna happen with any satellite unit; concrete canyons, overpasses, tall trees with overhanging branches, anything that blocks line-of-sight contact with the eye in the sky with cause problems; sometimes even heavy cloud cover seems to slow down the acquisition of signal a little bit...it just comes with the territory. I work as an independent courier, I couldn't do my job as well without one of these little dashboard warts in place. Only the little glitches mentioned above keeps me from giving it all 5 stars.Read full review
I dont know what took us so long to get a GPS. LOVE IT !! Think of all the trees we are saving by not using mapquest paper :-) This is an older model , but has everything that you need. I would suggest getting a GPS with the text to voice option ( as this one has ). It also has the updated 2008 maps - Its really a great unit. It has everything you need to get from point A to point B & its easy to use. If you want it to do some "silly" things ( like sing to you ) check out the newer models. PS - These are difficult to find at stores EBAY has them for the BEST prices ! I got a refurb that was like new. NOTE - STAY AWAY FROM GE DRYERS ! They must be having issues !!
Overall a good product, but a few annoying problems. Easy to use overall (Didn't even need to read a manual, which is good b/c none comes with it other than a little brochure; at least that directs you to a website where you can download the manual, but even THAT doesn't cover everything, such as downloading maps (new street map upgrade: 69.99) which seems pretty necessary - there is some glaring insufficiency in the pre-loaded maps; they are simply wrong in some areas that clearly have roads that have been there awhile (but it isn't bad around the city). It has a bad habit of directing you the wrong way down 1-way streets (again, the've been there while) and misses a lot of cases where there are restrictions like "no turns"; admittedly, these are street signs that probably cannot make it into the database, but it's still annoying. Routing around cities for longer distance trips isn't bad. On the way to and from work, it's come up with different routes on a number of occasions, and I don't have a a traffic receiver or anything. The estimated time of arrival is usually wrong, but not usually by much; the stop lights don't really account for this. A number of times, the trip data screen has logged my max speed at over 250 mph - my record so far is 379. I drive a truck, and it's not nitro-powered; I'm lucky to reach 80. It IS a hand feature for averages though. Overall however, this is a great, versatile and handy unit for the price.Read full review
What I liked: Never have to worry about getting lost. Figure out for you how to get from one destination to another without going home first - which I use to do. Save your home address and press home anywhere you are, and it will show you the way home. Clear vocal direction, display shows name of next turn and how much further. It also gives estimated arrival time which is really handy. Also it is easy to enter addresses for places you want to go and save under favors. We stop at a COSTCO in Mass on our way to Vermont. What I didn't like: If you are using the "points of interest", call the phone number given first and make sure it is up to date. I drove 6 miles to where it said was a J C Penny on Long Island and there hasn't been one for at lease 7 years. Also, be sure to point the screen toward the back of the car. It the unit is pointed at an angle. The unit interpret as the car is pointed in that direction. Sometime that become confusing on the screen and in the direction. On a build-in GPS, that can't happen since the screen is fixed toward the back of the car.Read full review
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