Buying a GPS,,

[rolandb]

My "roadtrip" in May is getting closer and have been thinking that maybe I"d download the maps to my Sat Nav here at home (UK) and take it with me,, but have found out that my old Sat Nav is not up to the task,, so rather than hire ( cost is to high) its been suggested to me to buy a cheap one when I get there and then resell at a later date,, either before I leave or maybe put it on ebay,,,

Any way,, do any of you guys,, or girls know of a good but well priced outlet in Las Vegas where I could pick one up from.

Thanks in advance,, Roland

[Lifemagician]

Hi Roland,

Any of the large stores would sell them... Best Buys, Walmart and such. Why necessarily buy a cheap one? Can you use it as an upgrade, and load the UK maps onto it when you get home. Last time I bought a Garmin Nuvi the accuracy (or lack thereof) was as good as any of the others. I gave it to a friend when I left.

Think I might just buy the same one again.... next month.

Lifey

[Midwest Michael]

I'd certainly agree that renting one is typically a poor use of your money, since you can typically buy a basic unit for practically the same price.

You might also consider upgrading to a new unit in the UK, and still buying the US maps, which may be a better value and a lot easier than trying to sell one at the end.

But otherwise, any big box store will carry them. The biggest electronics stores will be Best Buy or Frys, but any general merchandise store like Walmart, Target, Sears, etc will also have a decent selection and prices should be similar across the board. A basic model should cost less than $100, with prices going up based on extra features. I'd recommend sticking with a Garmin or a Tom Tom, but otherwise, I'd pick a model based mostly on price.

[deejay]

You being already a GPS user, I am quite surprised at your question. In fact you should be asking a question WHICH one I should buy? You can buy it from anywhere, even Amazon will ship you in a day, if it needs.

So You have already gotten answers where to buy. I will answer from my perspective. I moved here from Europe. At least where I lived tolls were not an issue and now every road trip that I go to, although short ones, I pass by at least one toll booth and that really annoys me. Plus, even after paying tolls, the roads are not the best. Its good to travel on non-toll roads for many reasons, like less traffic / scenic routes / though towns and cities (esp. for filling gas tank and food) etc. etc. So I prefer to plan my route on Google Maps or MapQuest (gives you toll-free route, lets you add 'via point').
In ideal world, I would like to export that route to my GPS and then GPS should take me that way. I bought reasonably priced GPS, Garmin Nuvi 1390. Although it has some good features like Lane assist, pedestrian mode, live traffic, it lacks the very basic feature I would like to have i.e. importing per-designed route. Plus, it doesn't have lifetime maps update.

If I were you, I would search on what features I want and get that GPS in UK itself and buy US maps on Garmin website. If UK prices are higher, I would buy the GPS in the US and buy UK maps (but then you will get US lifetime maps not UK ones). Visit dedicated GPS forum and ask for more details. I will not buy my next GPS on price as a feature (even it was not a criteria when I bought 1390). I am willing to pay more for a good feature.

[CalOldBlue]

I have your situation, but in reverse.

I'm planning a road trip to Europe (Ireland/Scotland) in a couple months, and decided to pre-purchase a GPS. Driving on the wrong side of the road, shifting with the wrong hand, and struggling with paper maps is a bad combination (although I WILL have a full set of maps on hand).

In my case, after researching and researching and contemplating.... I found myself walking down an aisle at Costco and saw they had a Garmin for sale so I just dropped it in the cart. I then went online to the Garmin and bought the Europe maps mini-SD card.

What I've found is it is fairly easy to pre-load "Favorites" of places you intend to visit, which should speed up your route selection tremendously.

I put it in 'simulation mode' (GPS off), go into the map and pan over to the general area of my 'favorite', tell it 'I'm here now'; then tell it to find the spot I want (e.g. Rock of Cashel, Avoca Handweavers in Wicklow, Glenlivet Visitor Center), then add that spot to Favorites. I tend to pre-book hotels, so I have pre-entered every night's lodging in the Garmin, as well as the major planned sightseeing stops while on the road.

In the odd case where it doesn't know a location (like a small B&B in Dingle), you can go into Google maps, find the spot you want, right click and select "what's here?" and Google will give you the lat/lon, which you can then input to the Garmin. Call the spot whatever makes sense to you so you can find it in Favorites later.

Hope this helps.

[IceJoki]

Hi Roland
Renting is a waste of money. Best Buy have had good prices look at their website. Find sometime similiar to the old Garmin Nuvi 255 cheap solid GPS with a larger screen and you can't go wrong and you probably won't even want to resell the device.
Have a good trip.
Johann