Garmin Auto Navigation

[Kamal]

Anyone on the board buy a Garmin Nav for their car ?? Anyone hack it any ? Any good sites for programs / APIs that we can load for added features ?

[Jenks]

Re: Garmin Auto Navigation

i'd be curious to see one of these thing in action to see how it stacks up to the in dash navigation in our acura. about ready to sell the acura and get something different, wondering if i should shell out for nav in the new car or go with one of these external units for less money.

[Kamal]

Re: Garmin Auto Navigation

external for less money hands down, I've used even the more expensive models with built in bluetooth and the unit connected faster than the BMW built in bluetooth did AND sounded 100X clearer. Not to mention how much cheaper they have become vs. the in-dash car navs still being the same in price.

I'll also recommend Garmin cause we bought a different brand (Lowrance iWay 500) for a limo service our company started and that thing is an A-Class POS in terms of ease of use. The only reason you wont be able to effectively use a Garmin is if you were an amputee.

And the biggest benefit of these navs is you can switch it from car to car (we have 2 and so we always have a Nav unit no matter which car we take). Moreover when you travel anywhere in the US, Canada, Europe and some parts of South America and are in a rental car, you can just carry this unit and use it. My brother in law traveled to Canada and carried his Nuvi 350 with him. Plugged in his hotel coordinates from the airport and boom not once did he get lost.

If you get the Garmin 6XX series with MSN Direct, they will tell you Gas Prices at Gas stations in your local, Movie listings, Traffic updates, Weather updates, they have built in FM transmitters to connect wirelessly to your car radio, ... the list of benefits / features just goes on.