Don't Get Lost--It's Reliable, Accurate, and Worth the Money

My husband has an in-dash GPS unit that came standard with his car, so I'd become familiar with the technology and seen how handy it was to have a GPS. As a woman who drives alone to and from work in heavy, often detoured traffic, it was important to me to have a reliable GPS that would work on demand and have accurate information. I've been using the Garmin StreetPilot c550for more than 3 weeks now, and it's been nearly everything I wanted.

The display is clear, easy to see even in glare, and includes several different views--3-dimensional, north at top, and directional. For fun, there are several different types of vehicles that can be downloaded, including motorcycles, an Army tank, and sportscars. The different types of roadways--freeways/highways, major surface streets, side streets--are displayed with different colors so even if you're unfamiliar with the territory, you've got some idea of what you're getting into.

One of this model's top advantages is its street name voice recognition, so rather than just telling you to "turn left in 50 feet," it will tell you to "turn left on Main Street" and the like. This is a huge plus--just look for the street sign and make the turn. There are many choices for the voice--male or female, in American, Australian, or British English, plus many other languages, so you listen in one language and view in English.

The maps have been completely accurate and complete, even including updates for relatively new streets that have been recently constructed in my area (NY Metro). The only time it seems to be a bit confused is when I'm in a parking lot that's surrounded by other streets...it seems to think I can drive over fences and barriers to get to those streets. But that's a very minor inconvenience that's fixed immediately; the unit recalculates very fast when you ignore its instructions.

I started out with a Garmin NUVI200 and returned it because it took forever to acquire the satellite service. The StreetPilot c550 has never given me a moment's difficulty with that--when I turn it on, it finds the satellite within about 30 seconds at most, usually before I've even pulled away from the parking space.

One more fun thing--the unit is bluetooth-equipped, so I've hooked my cell phone up with it and I can talk (speakerphone) through the GPS, totally hands-free, without that annoying headphone. It's surprisingly convenient, especially when I'm stuck in traffic (always) and calling to tell someone I'll be late.

There are several locations around the country in which you can subscribe to a traffic service and receive real-time traffic updates through the unit. I've done this and I'm not overly happy with the accuracy, but I don't attribute that to the unit, instead I believe it's the service they use, which doesn't update very often.

I'm completely happy with this unit and highly recommend it. It may seem somewhat high priced, but I firmly believe that you get what you pay for, and this is a high quality, accurate, and dependable item that is well worth the extra cost.