Garmin Streetpilot c330; WOW.

J

JustinR32

New member
First, on sale at Circuit City for $529. I didn't even check if it could be had online for less, I drove down and bought it and had it right away... just checked, that's a match of the lowest available price online.



Second, this thing is as slick as waxed ice. The learning curve is essentially zero; take it out of the box, plug it in, and navigate. Whoever designed the interface deserves an award.



This is the most impressive consumer electronics device I've seen in years. As disappointed as I was in GPSs 4 years ago, I'm that impressed now. It does exactly what you want a GPS to do; it gives you turn by turn instructions visually and verbally from anywhere, to anywhere, inside North America or Europe (depending on which map set you got and of course where you are using it).



Highly recommended.







Tom
 
I have a Garmin Ique 3600 (a GPS/PDA running Palm OS).

Got 1G sd card in it. Can store most of US map.

(I have not tried the 2G sd card - not sure it would work).

Pretty good toy (crashed from time to time).

Got it 1 1/2 years ago for about $400.



By the way, it is MP3 player too.

IPod kicked its a** in term of user interface, though.
 
I assume the question is for me?

There is OEM's beanbag mount and suction cup mount.

I have the suction cup mount (it sticked to the windshield).

The mount comes with the power cord that goes to the 12v thingie

in the car. The mount also has a built-in speaker (with volumn control) so that the driving

direction from the GPS is loud and clear.

The mount is serviceable - not the best.

There are a lot of after-market mounts. The sky is the limit for some of these

mounts (like the car mods that some of you guys are really into. :grinno: )
 
Thanks for the heads up Scott. I have been thinking about a portable unit for the tow trucks. AAA keeps me busy all of the time and being in a very busy and congested area makes it difficult to remember all the streets. I have a pioneer AVIC N1 in my pick up but its a permanent mount. I think I will go and look into the one you got. If its the same quality as other Garmin products I have seen and used, Its a bargain. BTW... Does it tell you total milage from point a to point b before you leave? Some AAA members only have a basic membership and get 3 free miles before I need o charge them. Many times they dont want to meet me at the destination and wat to pay before I leave. Having a GPS that can tell me the milage of the trip will be a huge PLUS!!!!
 
Big suction cup to the windshield or to a supplied plate that gets mounted to the dash. I put the unit next to the rear view mirror and the mounting bracket is invisible there.





Tom
 
Mosca said:
Big suction cup to the windshield or to a supplied plate that gets mounted to the dash. I put the unit next to the rear view mirror and the mounting bracket is invisible there.





Tom
Click to expand...



mosca would you mind taking pics? pretty please? :)

buy the way i used you qew hall of fame thread the other day, thanks a bunch :bigups
 
Carmin its so so and over priced.

* Get M$ Street n Trips 2006. Hint: get this w/GPS kit at COMPUSA for 99.99 on Black Friday.

* Get a USB GPS from Ebay for 39.99

* A laptop or pocket pc.
 
Glad to hear you like it! I work as a Roadshop Product Specialist at my Circuit City (Vernon Hills, northwest suburb of Chicago), and that has been the easiest of all navigation systems to use. Personally, I liek the Tom Tom's more, but I have a much eaier time showing people how to get acquinted wiht the spC330. Once time, as customer said "I'll but it if you can help me install it...it looks kinda of technical." 4 minutes after he pulled around and had me set it in place and put in the directions, he was gone :).
 
Mitchubishievo said:
Glad to hear you like it! I work as a Roadshop Product Specialist at my Circuit City (Vernon Hills, northwest suburb of Chicago), and that has been the easiest of all navigation systems to use. Personally, I liek the Tom Tom's more, but I have a much eaier time showing people how to get acquinted wiht the spC330. Once time, as customer said "I'll but it if you can help me install it...it looks kinda of technical." 4 minutes after he pulled around and had me set it in place and put in the directions, he was gone :).
Click to expand...





It's all about the people, isn't it? The guys at my Roadshop are great. The work they do is super, and I get better service there by far than I do with the attitude-laden people at the local car stereo shops.



I liked the Tom Tom, but not as much as the price differential between it and the Garmin. $500 was my trigger price on getting a GPS, and I decided to go the extra $30 to have all the maps preloaded (the c320 was a tick under $500). I notice that the price has been creeping up $10/day, btw!



klnyc, please justify your statements. What makes the Garmin overpriced? Why is it so-so? What good is a usb gps to me? How would MS Street & Trips work for me? Why would I want to carry around a laptop or pocket pc? Can I mount those to my dash or windshield? Will they have touch screen navigation? Wouldn't it cost more to do what you're saying, but with less ease of use?





Tom
 
Tom,



Dont take it soo seriosly, its only my 2cents. I had 26xx in the past. The 1st week I use it, there were 8 dead pixels, so I rma to Garmin. Then 2.5 weeks later I got it back and used for 3 weeks. For no reason it wont pick up the satalite. So, I rma again to Garmin, waited 2.5 to 3 weeks more, so I finally got it and put on ebay for sale. 2thumbs:

Im on my laptop w/usb gps and work pretty good. I dont have all the touch screen feature,but I can live with it. The MS TnS 2006 have Voice navigation now ;)
 
I bought mine a few months ago, not at that low a price and think its great.. even better than the GPS in my Acura.. I really looked at it and the Tom Tom and liked the technology behind the Garmin better. no problems with it either. We use it between the truck and the Suzuki.. its interesting to see how it maps some routes vs the Acura GPS too.. We also use it on vacation since we rent a car.. now we dont have to buy the Herts Never Lost option...

I agree. It was super easy to learn and use..

Dana
 
klnyc said:
Tom,



Dont take it soo seriosly, its only my 2cents. I had 26xx in the past. The 1st week I use it, there were 8 dead pixels, so I rma to Garmin. Then 2.5 weeks later I got it back and used for 3 weeks. For no reason it wont pick up the satalite. So, I rma again to Garmin, waited 2.5 to 3 weeks more, so I finally got it and put on ebay for sale. 2thumbs:

Im on my laptop w/usb gps and work pretty good. I dont have all the touch screen feature,but I can live with it. The MS TnS 2006 have Voice navigation now ;)
Click to expand...





I'm sorry, I was being too confrontational. I don't want to get in your face over it, that was wrong. I apologize.



Hopefully I won't have any of those problems that you had. I like the touch screen and the compactness; to me, the incredibly intuitive interface is the best thing about the unit, and going with the solution you chose probably would work but wouldn't give me what I was looking for. Most of the times that I'm going to a new destination is with Mrs Mosca, who wouldn't appreciate all the wires and having a laptop in her... lap! ;)



And re: Garmin vs Tom-Tom: I've heard it a couple places that Garmin reverse-engineered their interface from Tom-Tom....I don't know that it's true, but in the store they seemed very similar. The Tom-Tom had some advantages, but in my estimation they wern't worth $170.





Tom
 
Actually the Tom Tom and Garmin use different methodologies. The other reason I chose Garmin is that they are established here and Tom Tom was making this there first foray into the states (at least that is what I was told). When I bought mine, I bought it over the net and the price for both was the same, so I went conservative and got the Garmin.. its been great ever since.

Dana
 
Mosca said:
It's all about the people, isn't it? The guys at my Roadshop are great. The work they do is super, and I get better service there by far than I do with the attitude-laden people at the local car stereo shops.
Click to expand...



So true. I have Best Buy about 100 feet down the street from me...and their customer service is on par with their care for employees. When I was doing a job search, they did a piss poor job of hiring me and lied to me about openings, stating there was only one opening in the store for warehouse at 7 an hour, yet somehow the guy (from my Gym Class!) who got an interview right after me got a job in Digital Cameras for 8 an hour....on his first interview. They didn't even tell me when to come in for orientation after I got the job on my second interview...and after calling and waiting on hold for 15 mins more than 3 times a week for about a month, I gave up on them. When I went to apply at Circuit City, they gave me a job in the department I wanted for ALOT more than any BB employee could make starting.



This is a perpetual cycle that gives me a smile everytime a customer comes in and bad mouths the BB service. It gets even better when they leave comments on the survey you can take and make even more fun of BB.





Dboat: Yes, this is Tom Tom's first year here...but they established themselves quite well in Europe and are the best selling over there.



Oh, and I now have a new favorite model :lol. Yeah, the Tom Tom 700 was awesome, but the new Garmin Nuvi350 is deh SHIZ! I came in today for work and we had yet another new Navi system (3rd one in 3 weeks). I later find out that the SD card slot is capable of reading pictures and MP3's! I dunno about this info and plan on doing more research, but dayum, what a nice toy!
 
I'd hesitate to call it an "install". I tried it a little lower on the dash, and on the driver's side of the mirror, but this is where the screen can be seen, but still ignored. You get the idea.



DSCF0187.JPG
 
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