GPS Navigational device ?'s
 

Going to be in italy for two weeks, renting a car. would really like to have a gps unit. looked at buying one and way out of my price range. my friend has a nice one, but he said it wont work in italy. said he didnt get the program. my question is, can you purchase the "program" for european countries? also, can i rent one. the car rental website cant guarantee there being one when i pick up.

grb

I got the Garmin iQueue 3600 GPS. It has maps for US and Europe (europe was $100 extra). I really like it and i use it extensively when renting cars at home and abroad.

i got mine at gps4fun.com about 2 years ago.

I should also mention that it worked fantastic when house hunting. I plugged in all adresses and it would route me to the closest address as i worked my way through the neighborhoods i've never been to before. Highly recommended.

I have an older Garmin eMap that supports their optional local content packages. Used it in the south of France four years ago with great results. I highly recommend buying a unit here and making sure the optional map for your area works properly before you leave. The unit described in the post above looks good.

is it still possible to add the european maps to an existing gps?

Totally a model-specific question. Best bet is to check the manufacturer's website for info on your device.

I just checked the MapSend Europe CD that I have for my Magellan handheld and it does cover Italy.

Since price is an issue, were you going to be taking a laptop? You can get a GPS unit that connects to a laptop fairly cheap (<$100) You would just have to make sure you buy maps for Italy.

It's a pain in the b**t to try to use a laptop based GPS while driving. I tried it and it just doesn't work out trying to get the laptop into the passenger seat (or horrible thought, in between seats). Get a GPS with voice driving directions, works awesome and is much safer than something you have to look at to understand.

I travel with a laptop that I have added Garmin's GPS 18 system. It has all the features of the built in unit plus a 15" screen. I can update the Map Source at anytime from the Garmin website. I find that Hertz is renting cars with a two year old GPS system.

I can give my laptop a quick sweep and see that I need to exit to the right onto Exit #18. I can press the space bar (without looking) and get the voice direction repeated. I can enter my customer addresses, hotel location prior to leaving home. I can have it remember the exact location that I picked up the rental car and then request a route to that exact location when I am ready to return the car. I will not leave home without it.

PS. Cost $110 about a year ago. At $9 per day at Hertz, payout was 12 rental days. I can add Europe to my system at any time. BTW, Handheld Garmin's were going for $499 in Costco today.

I just checked, the iQueue 3600 is going for $499 including US maps (it uses the maps that most garmins use - the mapsource maps). You really need the $149 automotive 12 charger with builtin speaker in order to make it really useful. Since it's a palmpowered device it's fairly small and it fits on the dashboard really nicely. But you're looking at close to $700 for the hardware and US/Europe maps. I got a larger SD card so i can download the entire westcoast into one SD card rather than just a state (another $50 or so).

I tried the new Windows PocketPC version but i thought it sucked.

I got to admit that i like gadgets, but this is one of the most useful things i've ever bought. I keep it in my regular car most of the time since it works so well and is unintrusive.

http://www.gps4fun.com/gar_ique3600.php (i have no affiliation with this company or with garmin).

You can get an iQue 3600 for less than that price. Go to gpsnow.com or tvnav.com, both are very reputable. Be sure to put the GPS unit in a shopping cart to see the price, ... because of some odd marketing rules, when you buy from a website, Garmin doesn't allow web vendors to display a price below the list price.

Also, you can get a package that includes an auto accessory kit and the iQue 3600 for $475 from gpsnow. Also watch amazon, at times they sell the mapsource maps (if you need something not included in the iQue box) less than the two sites mentioned.

Check into the TomTom. (one that takes an SD card) It's a European product to start with, so it may be possible to buy the European maps and install them on the memory card along with the GPS software.

I have a TomTom GO use here in the USA. I've taken in on the road a few times, most recently to Miami. It did a pretty good job, for the most part.

You can get the Ique 3200 for a couple hundred bucks cheaper. I have one that I've hard for about 8 months now. My dad just got one last week on costco.com for $299, which is a heck of a deal. I'm not sure of all the diffs between the 3600 and 3200. I know the 3600 has an MP3 player, but not sure about anything else.

I have both the 3200 (mine) and the 3600 (wife's). The 3600 has a larger display area (i.e. screen area) plus the mp3. The 3200 comes with a suction cup mechanism. Both are excellent machines for what they do - but note that they are both prone to resets and both have rather poor battery life. That's why I've gotten backupman to make backups to SD card.

To the OP: you can buy garmin city select maps for Europe (somewhat pricier than just Garmin maps for North America) to load into the iQues.

From what I've seen, the screen resolution is the biggest difference, 3600=320 x 480-pixel, 3200=320 x 320-pixel. Even though the 3600 is two+ years old, 320x480 resolution is still very good.