MG MGB and MGB GT Tech Talk
this looked like a good deal, so I bought one
Amazon had it at near full price
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206577937&adid=17653&dcaid=17653
it has built in MP3 player too, so it can serve two uses.<G>
Mac, let us know how it works out. I've never been directionally challenged, but we've definitely decided to get a GPS for the Missus. It'd be good to have one that could move from car to car without costing a fortune.
You'll love it. The hardest part is learning to trust it when in a strange area and your instict tells you it's taking you in the wrong direction. It won't always use your favorite routes but catches on more to what you're doing the closer you get to your destination or when your route gets to the point it is shorter or quicker than the route it advised. I use mine all the time on hauls for the machine shop even though I don't need it any more for most of the runs. It tells me a lot of other things I want to know along the way.
Tom tom on corrects you if you go wrong and if you know a better way or preference it will pick it up and continue .
My MIO does that too and my Finedrive did until it conked out and there was no support. Finedrive had a great operating system but a lousy sense of doing business. Both of them had features I haven't used and probably never will, I'm sure most GPSs do.
Toyota did the same as Finedrive when they first started in this country. They had to pick up their marbles, go home, and regroup. I keep wishing Finedrive makes a comeback and does it right and I can get mine going again.
Great aquisition Mac, I have the Garmin, travel to shows and meets in four states in obscure locations and always get there. Love the lodging, food and fuel finder.
If you want a leisurly ride to a destination sometime set it NOT to put you on a highway, it will get you to your destination through small towns and backroads you would never see from the interstates. Happy motoring !
I've had a Garmin 350 for about a year and rely on it for frequent travel in unknown cities.
An unadvertised but very real advantage the Garmin provides is to remove stress 'twixt navigator and the driver. My wife and I enjoy traveling together, but she disliked having to provide the navigation duties.
We first noticed the difference during a trip to San Francisco. I would previously have been pushing for a decision on an upcoming fork in the road, during heavy traffic. She would have been trying to verify her route and the decision point was lost. With the Garmin, we slipped right along. The Garmin even warns me a mile in advance to prepare for a left hand turn.
On another trip, she drove for two hours - at night, during the rain - into Kansas City and pulled us into our hotel with nary an intervention on my part. In fact, I had been asleep for the last two hours.
I bought myself a Garmin Nuvi 250W for Christmas (along with a "Britain and Ireland" map card). It doesn't have the bells and whistles of some models (no MP3 player for example), but from a navigation standpoint it is amazing. It worked especially well in England!
Do read any reviews and comparisons you can find before you buy. There are small differences between the brands that can make a difference. For example, I found THIS review of the Garmin very helpful. The comparison with Magellan and Tom-Tom was very revealing!
What is the differnce between the one Mac is showing and this X3? X3 has "Voice-guided directions with Turn by Turn voice prompts" and text to speech. I want to get something, but I have never used one and don't know what I need. Don't want to have to put on glasses to read screen while driving.
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/EP31124640.htm
I looked at that too. If any of you have never used buy.com, it's a helluva site for good deals. You can sign up for email specials, which this deal was one, prices are great, often free shipping and shipping is fast. I'd recommend them to anyone.
lhess Wrote:
A GPS is one of the best tools for driving in areas that you do not know well.
Last December on a very rainy night we were on our way north on the I-5.
A 20 mile section of the highway was closed down due to flooding. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2007_Pacific_Northwest_storms>
The dept of highways was recommending a 4oo mile detour.
Using our GPS we navigated the side streets and after about 50 KM we were back on the I-5 heading north.
This detour was done on roads we had never driven before with visibility only about half of what our headlights reached.Simply amazing!
The GPS used was a $100 version of MS Streets and Trips in the laptop. If you have the room. The laptop is the way to go as you still can get your MGBE fix while on the road. Try doing that with a Garmin, Magellan or Tom-Tom.
I like my Magellan but if I'm trying to go against the GPS it tells me to turn around until it computes my new route.
I travel extensively on business, and have for the last 30 years. I always said that GPS units were for those who could not read a map or compass, besides, the last thing I needed was another woman in my life telling me what to do.
Well I found a deal on a Garmin Nuvi that I could not pass up. I am only sorry that I didn't buy one years ago.
Happy motoring
Paul
G/F has a Garmin. I have a Tom-Tom.
I think the Garmin is a bit more user friendly.
Jim, I run a laptop with MS Streets and Trips also, I love it. (and it doesn't tell me where to go...) Could see that as a drawback at times
Well I can tell I would be totally lost with one of those things. I just don't like new technology :(
Garmin Nuvi 350 here. Have been using it locally since Xmas and now trust it enough that I'd take off for California tomorrow with it.
tdecell Wrote:
For us Canucks, Blacks has the nuvi 250 on for 179.99 this weekend :)
Garmin also recently offered a package...software and hardware for your laptop for ...$99. I've yet to check it out though. A very slight drawback of all portable systems rather than OEM installations is the lack of dead reckoning. If you loose satellite signals, dead reckoning is a fall back to figure out where you are. Portable systems also something think you are still moving when you stop or that you are on that road over there and not this one. minor rare annoyances though.
I believe the Pioneer Avic Z1 is the only aftermarket GPS (radio, DVD, CD, mp3 player, 30 Gig hard drive, etc..) that receives speed info from the car's electronics. Not really an issue for MGs, since we don't have any electronic speed data. The really cool part of the Pioneer Avic Z1 and Z3 is that they can be operated by voice commands and that by all reports are very good at understanding you. Cool comes at a price though $1k. Cha - Ching. But it really is a mobile carputer/ entertainment system.
Then of course there is the do it yourself solution by turning an old laptop, a touchscreen and a lot of other bits and time into a carputer see mp3car.com. Be warned, it will suck you in if you like to tinker with and make your own gizmos.
None of them play 8-tracks though.