Garmin StreetPilot

Price Paid:  $375.00

Year / Model Reviewed:
 98

Summary:
No this GPS does NOT have turn by turn instructions, so what do you expect for $400!!

I can not believe that other people have given this gps a bad rating because it does not give driving instructions if you want that go buy the Garmin Street pilot III ($900 from www.thegpsstore.com) Do not try and compare this product to the Alpine N751 ($1500) or Carin 522 ($1300), apples to oranges.

If you just want a gps to replace the paper road maps, give compass directions, be removable and not require 5 hours to install the sreet pilot II GPS is for you.

If you want something to tell you how to get to the closest McDonalds buy the Garmin street pilot III which is also removable!!

And if you want the lowest price mapping GPS buy the Garmin GPS III $300 from www.thegpsstore.com (smaller display than the street pilot II)

Garmin makes the best GPS products on the market: LOW PRICED, reliable, user friendly and powerfull recievers.

Strengths:
Good GPS reception: have used it in dense cities around the world.
Lowest price MAP GPS that can sit on your dash!
Big display.
Can download more map detail to a memory card.
REMOVABLE can move it from the minivan to the boat and hide it when you get to the walmart so they do not break in to steal it.
Not permanent and does not take up space in your car dash.

Weaknesses:
Can not enter sites via Lat and Long.

Similar Products Used:
Many Garmin models
many magellan products including the ones in the Hertz rental cars
Alpine 751 nice but you pay for it.

Price Paid:  $499.00

Summary:
Helpful as a general map, especially if you hate the inconvenience of the paper maps as I do. But it lacks the automatic route calculation or the voice guided features of the other more expensive units. Entering the route manually is VERY tedious and I simply stopped doing it after a while.

If you can spend only around $500, then I would recommend it. Otherwise, go for the more expensive units like VDO/Carin or the Alpine.

Strengths:
1) Clear display (in monochrome) of the major roads.
2) Helpful as a general, moving map on dash display. With the optional Metro Guide chip insert, the city level street map is quite detailed.
3) Can use it to track the speed and record the top speed achieved, etc.
4) Relatively cheap.
5) No installation needed, and you can move it easily between cars.

Weaknesses:
1) Routes must be entered manually-- usually need to do it the night before if the travel is for long distance. You must select by hand which exit to take and manually click on each exit, one by one. Very tedious and doesn't always work well.
2) If the travel involves getting out of one Metro Guide cartridge area, then good luck. It doesn't work well between the general map and the Metro Guide map interphase. But I think that with the newer model that comes with a flashable/loadable map, this may be a little less of a problem, since you can select the area of the map to download onto the cartridge.
3) Many of the POI are inaccuate on the Metro Guide (I've used Philadelphia and NYC area).

Similar Products Used:
I have not personally used the other Alpine or the Carin/VDO products.

Price Paid:  $300.00

Summary:
Overall very good for the price with a large, clear screen and helpful information.

Strengths:
Very accurate and lots of information. Very useful and locates itself very quickly. Does good job estimating ETA.

Weaknesses:
Temp mounting bracket does not hold well enough. Should include Power plug adapter. Could have better mechanisim (and cheaper) to load local maps

Similar Products Used:
Garmin eMap - smaller and better for travel, has some modes that would be nice on Street Pilot.