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If you are a first time GPS buyer and want an easy to utilize unit with intuitive touch cover controls and the best unit you can pick up for under $300, I recommend the C320 (or C330 which comes with pre-loaded maps) . I bought this unit for grand more a small over a year ago and so far I am quite jubilant. It has saved me many miles of extra driving! It also makes me a braver night time driver as I have wretchedness spotting a sudden turn in the road at night time. But with my GPS I know exactly when to turn and it even tells me 'stay right' etc. This was confusing at first but now that I know what it means I earn it very worthy to not have to change lanes at the last little. It makes me feel safer on the road at night in unknown places! I can easily type in addresses on the touch shroud with it's titanic present or peruse for a position of interest (a restaurant, library etc.) if I change my mind while at an intersection and then continue on the specified route. I often type in store names like "Target" or "Borders" on a whim and it takes me to the nearest one in the situation. It impartial made a couple of mistakes so far once for a Kroger and once for a Walmart as the store had moved to another status about half a year ago but even Google maps had shown me the heinous plot for that Walmart. It is also convenient to be able to specify the cuisine and locate the nearest restaurant to your unusual region or reach your destination. However the restaurant choices are by no means exhaustive, it may miss a couple of estimable ones here and there but may reveal you ones you never knew existed.
I chose the C320 as you can load whatever maps you need by unbiased getting a larger SD card, especially as SD cards have advance down in heed.
Before using this unit, I had venerable the Magellan Roadmate 300 for a few days, and Garmin's routing is a clear improvement over Magellan in terms of hurry of route calculation and correct routing. The Magellan locked up a couple of times although it was a current unit and I had to pull off on an exit and power it down for several minutes before it started reading the fair route. The Garmin C320 has never frozen on me. If I do not acquire the prescribed route or miss a turn it takes fair about 2-3 seconds to figure that out and recalculates my route, this is intention faster than Magellan or any other GPS system I've encountered so far. This is substantial feature as the next turn might be unprejudiced 5 seconds away and you may miss it again if the unit takes too mighty time to recalculate!
Some reviews complained about the maps saying the unit said that they had reached the destination even though they were 100-200 feet away and sometimes confused between left or true of the street. But if you have passe other GPS systems you would know that no GPS navigation system is perfect and I generally assume Garmin navigation over Magellan.
The C320 allows you to specify your preferences such as - Avoid highways, avoid U turns, avoid toll roads etc. And you can station it to "Shortest distance" or "Fastest time". I've found that the shortest distance can sometimes assume you on backroads or modern roads which you normally may not catch. This option gave me a mammoth fresh route between office and home which avoids traffic but when I ragged the same option on a longer drive it suddenly detoured off the highway ans took me through bumpy abet roads, a most abominable experience! But with experience I have learned the best procedure to calculate my route using the options. There is a bit of a learning curve with all GPS systems and the more advanced GPS users have rated Garmin navigation very highly in the several comparisons I read on the web.
The C320 does accept a bit confused in situations where -a) there is a runt roundabout (like in apartment communities) and may retain missing the exit turn and b) when there are intersecting highways over and under the highway on which you are traveling, especially if it takes you more than 15-20 seconds to wrong that region where the highways intersect c) In very long tunnels. But now that I know this I unprejudiced pause on route and as soon as I've crossed that residence it starts showing the earlier route.
Some reviewers complained that the unit does not present the complete route turn by turn text instructions - that is not correct- as it will explain you the turn by turn text instructions if you touch the green text bar over the route way.
If you want to lift a detour at any point in your route it will calculate an alternative route for you if you touch the detour button, but will try to secure you benefit on the unusual route very lickety-split. You can design points of interest in the route through the software and you can also set your well-liked locations or most primitive addresses on the unit.
I purchase having a portable GPS than an in-car GPS as the software update is cheaper than in car GPS and I can carry it with me to exhaust in rental cars when I disappear. I tried out the in car GPS system in my friend's Honda and Garmin had better routing and a better "narrate". The Honda GPS's high-pitched "Chinese Schoolgirl" deny drove me to distraction....!
January 7, 2007 update: I've gotten so old to my GPS that I don't know how I lived without it. The only complaint I have about the unit is that it is very hard to read in gleaming sunlight and I have to depend on the utter instructions. Also, please don't leave it mounted in the car if it's above 90 degrees as my unit's battery died after it was out in the summer for a few days at 100 degree temperatures and now it takes time to read satellite signals when I initiate out as it starts from a "frosty" region.
May 7, 2007 Update: I called Customer Service last week as my internal battery died and the unit started falling off my windshield as the heat exposure reduced its grip. Beget time was very short, 3-4 minutes each time I called. They offered to have the unit repaired for $150 which is more than half the cost of a modern unit, so I refused as it wasn't a well-known quandary. However, they offered to send me a modern mount (including the windshield mount share and car adaptor) for free despite being out of warranty . It was FedExed and reached me in 3 business days. That's satisfactory customer service!
Overall I am ecstatic with C320. Better GPS systems exist (some made by Garmin) but this one is the best bang for my buck by far!
I've been using it for about 1 week now. Tall exiguous unit, easy to utilize, favorable to the Quest and 2610 that I've also owned because of its faster calculation times and ease of consume. Does indeed update arrival time depending on bustle (at least mine does) . Seems to be true within a couple minutes on my daily 35 dinky commute. Starts the estimate based on it's internal average speeds for highways, etc, then adjusts depending on how swiftly you are actually driving. I would not expend the extra money on the 330. Consume a few bucks on a 512md sd card, I've tried but can't possibly assume of how to utilize more than that on a single paddle. And I would grasp the sd card is a limited faster than the HDD. You come by more batter life, like 2x. Also, I like being able to upload favorites from the pc using the software, so the sd version is actually preferable to me. And it looks like the tag is detached too high here so until it comes down check out pricegrabber or nextag.
Pros
-large touchscreen
-easy to use
-portable, 8 hour battery, pocket sized (in loose pants or jacket
-fast calculation times & device drawing.
-nice mounting
cons
-no route saving or transfering, hence no waypoints can be stored in route but this is remedied simply by saving favorites and touching your current in route, impartial a itsy-bitsy more attention requred.
-weak software.
I bought the c320 the middle of October, 2005, and have updated the software to version 4.8 and the intention data City Consume North America NT version 7.0. This is the latest software and device data as of the date of this review. I really like this unit and would pick it again. I would have given it 5 stars except for the Plot Data being objective a bit too considerable out of date. Peaceful, this is an extraordinary procedure. Here are some snappily pros and cons for those who don't want to read the whole review:
Pros:
- It will collect you to your destination.
- Easy to use; you can figure out how to do most things objective by playing around with it.
- Calculates novel routes very rapid.
- Lots of Points of Interest (POI) .
- Map database shows even very remote roads, i.e. dirt paths out in the middle of nowhere.
- Long battery life: about 10 hours.
- Small enough and good enough to consume while walking.
- North American NT V7 is compact enough to fit ALL on a 1G SD card.
- There is no itty-bitty hard drive to wear out.
- Pleasant British English pronounce.
- Knows when the sun sets to switch shroud brightness.
- ETA is updated in this software version.
- Does not have any spot picking up satellites in any car (or drawl) I've musty it in.
Cons:
- Map data is too far out of date; data must be at least 2 years faded.
- Screen is hard to read in advise sunlight.
- Complex process to unlock recent plan data DVD.
- It's a limited fussy about street names when looking up an address.
Nits:
- No altitude indication.
- Does not know when you putrid time zone to change clock.
I've obsolete this now for a couple of months, including a hiss and car roam from Iowa to Arizona. I've also updated the unit software and the plot data so I have an conception how easy that is to do.
You can exhibit your routing preference (shortest distance or fastest time, no toll roads, no unpaved roads, etc) . This will at times get some funky routes. For example, shortest distance and allowing unpaved roads can send you down some glowing rough roads. If you expend it in a status you know well, you will probably disagree with some of its routes. That is to be expected because it does not know about busy roads or traffic lights or other things like that. On the other hand, since using this locally I have found some first-rate routes I have not known about before.
I took this on a protest wander across 6 Western states. It had no spot picking up satellites if I kept it up against the window. If you situation the unit to explain enough detail, it will indicate you traveling moral down the middle of the railroad tracks. Since this is a car navigation plot it has a preference for roads, so if there was a parallel road advance enough to the tracks the cursor would jump over to the road. Crossing those remote areas showed how distinguished detail is in the contrivance database; some roads that were no more than two dirt ruts showed up on the mask.
We ragged it in the rental car when we got to Arizona. From the middle of nowhere to Phoenix it worked tall. We were able to consume it to avoid some heavy Phoenix traffic by unbiased getting off the interstate and driving city streets. Even though Phoenix is magnificent grand laid out in a grid, I don't contemplate I would have tried to navigate around the traffic quandary without the c320. The out of date plan data spot showed up in Phoenix in particular. The city is growing so hasty that there was several times where the draw data did not expose a current street.
I've old this in 7 different cars (and 1 affirm) so far and never have had a jam picking up satellites. Objective to try it out, I bought an external antenna that I have mounted on my truck roof. With an external antenna, the signal is a small stronger and maybe it might consume a minute less time for the unit to first gain satellites, but the external antenna is not really notable.
Sometimes looking up a specific address can be difficult. If you don't spell the street name exactly as it expects, it won't fetch the street. For example, if you are looking for "East Park Ct" and spell it "E Park Ct", the c320 won't procure it. The solution is to be less specific; fair search for "Park" and seize the apt street from the list it will give you.
I received a free plan data update since the unique plot data was released before I bought my unit. Unlocking a recent version of the method data is too complicated. After getting a modern DVD, I had to visit Garmin's web station several times to finally figure out how to derive my "unlock code" for the recent data. Once you bag the data unlocked, loading it into a SD card is easy. The "MapInstall" software Garmin gives you is simple to utilize.
The City Take North America NT version 7.0 plan data is the same data as is in version 6.x, but V7.0 is more compressed. As a result, all of the V7 data will fit on a 1G SD card, including all 50 states, all of Canada, and Puerto Rico. Since you can now procure all the plot data on one SD card, why rob the c330? (The c330 is exactly the same as the c320, except the c330 has its procedure data preloaded on a petite hard drive.) Here is how I inspect the c320 and c330 compare:
c330:
- Map data is preloaded.
- If the internal hard drive crashes you are screwed; it's not user replaceable.
- Some reports of the c330 not working above 10,000 ft, but will open working again when it's moved below 10,000 ft.
c320
- Map data must be loaded onto a SD card by the user.
- Even if you contemplate in paying for a 1G SD card, the c320 is serene about $100 less than the c330.
- No spirited parts.
- If the SD card fails (not likely) you can unbiased replace it with a current one and reload the arrangement data.
- About twice the battery life of the c330
- Works above 10,000 ft.
Overall, I believe I would bewitch the c320 over the c330. I don't know why Garmin doesn't sell a c320 with way data preloaded 1 G SD card and end the c330.
