49 out of 49 people found this review helpful.
GPS: Find your way? If there's a fork in the road you may be forked.
Date of Review: Aug 15, 2007
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend this. Even with the downsides, I believe this is a terrific device. It's been a lifesaver a couple of times in the short time I've had it.
The strange thing about electronics is that when I say, "I'll never waste my money on that! Who needs it??" I end up spending my money on it and thinking, "How did I ever live without this?" It happened with satellite radio and now it's happened with GPS. I first got the "bug" for GPS when I had to go to NY for a funeral at the beginning of the year. My brother has a Garmin and when I saw how good that worked (for the most part), and how badly the directions worked that I printed from AAA Triptik when I needed to make some last minute changes to where I was going, I felt, "hmm I think I NEED one of these." Guys are supposed to be naturals at directions. I, unfortunately, can hardly find my way out of a paper bag.
Well, we needed to go to NYC for a wedding last month and then drive to the mountains in PA to drop our kids off for a three week stay at a sleep away camp. At the last minute I started looking for GPS devices. The problem was that reviews were so mixed that I really had difficulty in making a decision. I finally decided on a Garmin, but then was in Costco doing last minute shopping before the trip and I figured, "I'm in a hurry. Why make an extra trip to Circuit City, I'll get a GPS here." The Magellan GPS that I read a great review on in Epinions by criteeker was at Costco for $399 and it was the AAA model.
RTFM
That means "Read The {bleep} Manual"
I don't need to explain how to set this thing up. You can do it yourself by reading the manual provided on the CD.
What's her name?
The GPS device not only shows you the maps, but like most models, it speaks to you. This one has a woman's voice. I understand some other brands let you choose male or female.
The Device and getting it to work
You need to charge this up before you use it. It's pretty intuitive on how to attach the enclosed bracket to your windshield. There's also a self adhesive disk if you want to attach the bracket to your dashboard. I don't recommend that because even if you take the GPS off the bracket and someone sees the bracket or disk on your dashboard, a would-be thief may decide to break into the car to look for the GPS. They're hot commodities.
The screen is about 4-1/2 inches on the diagonal. It's plenty large. The map is easy to see. The audio is generally good but occasionally be a bit difficult to understand if there's a lot of road noise in the car.
First thing you want to do is add your home address as home address in the address book. This is so you can easily route from home to a destination or from a destination to your home address. It's easy to add additional addresses so you can route to any number of places that are in your address book.
You should buy a SD memory card to back up your data to the memory disk because if there are firmware updates to download, you can lose all your stored information.
When you're ready to get directions, you can choose "Enter Address" and search for your destination by city, zip code, an entry from your address book, a previous city you've entered, or by intersection. It's easy to touch the screen to enter the data. The screen looks like a standard keyboard and as you enter enough information the device will often come up with a number of choices and you can easily scroll down and choose the city, and street you're looking for. You end by keying in the address number.
Once you've gotten the destination information entered, the device will let you choose the route method: Fastest time, shortest distance, least use of freeways or most use of freeways and if you want to avoid toll roads. It will calculate the route, display the map and then will start directing you showing you where you are on the map and also speaking to you as well. You can also click on an icon to see the directions and then go back to the map. I believe there is also a split screen, which will show you the directions and the map. I haven't tried that yet. There's a touch screen control on the map for volume, muting, zooming in or out on the map. Also, on the bottom of the map it will show you your arrival time. It's been pretty accurate. Every time you stop or get stuck in traffic, it will recalculate your arrival time. Pretty cool.
One thing I really like on this (and perhaps all have this feature, not really sure) is that you can choose to display points of interest: gas stations, restaurants, banks, rest areas, airports, etc. You can click on one of the icons on the screen if you need and you'll get a list of particular points of interest. You can then choose to route to one of those. When you're finished, it will reroute you to your original destination.
There HAS to be a downside, right?
I'd love to say, "no" but unfortunately there are some things that drive me (pun intended) crazy. You really need to make sure you look at the directions carefully before you start driving. These devices cannot exactly pinpoint where you are. If you are coming to a fork in the road and the road immediately forks again you can be in trouble if you're depending entirely on the GPS. Example: Driving to White Plains. I was getting off the NJ Turnpike. I needed to get on I-87 but as I got close, the road forked to the left and right and each of those forked again. The device said, "Bear right I-87 N..yada yada yada." Well, bearing right gave me two more choices at the last minute. I chose the wrong one and I was "forked." I ended up in Jersey City and the device kept recalculating the route but it took too long. Cars were behind me and I couldn't stop for the device to figure out exactly where I was. So I ended up being taken through Manhattan and through the Holland Tunnel. So, an hour late, a lot of extra gas, and an extra toll, I made it to my brother's house. Now I've been driving that route dozens of times over the years. This time I wasn't paying attention to signs but depending entirely on the GPS and that was MY fault. LESSON: ALWAYS check directions first and know what's coming up. Watch the highway signs!!!
There have also been times that I was told I was at the destination when I really wasn't and had to drive around a bit to actually get there. The maps are about 18 months old but the documentation does say that they will update them but I haven't gotten any updates.
Now I do have to say that this thing got us to the sleep away camp from Virginia with no problems (we dropped off the kids stuff first and then drove to NY). The people at the camp said I was the first one who said the GPS actually got someone from door to door to the camp, so I was impressed. This place is in the mountains and not that easy to find. It also did great getting us from Manhattan to the camp, though again, leaving the parking garage it took a minute or two for the GPS to see where we were before being able to tell us to turn right or left. I wish it was faster.
I also took this to Seattle on a business trip a few weeks ago. I just put it in my computer bag and used it in the rental car. It was a life saver.
AAA
This device is the AAA model. When you sign on initially it will ask if you're a AAA member. If so you can enter your AAA membership number. If you need roadside assistance you can use the GPS to transmit your exact location to AAA for them to send help.
Also this model contains all the AAA Tourbook information on attractions, discounts, hours, hotels, and restaurants. It helped my wife and I find a great restaurant when we were out in Williamsburg and wanted to eat dinner after spending a day at Water Country, USA. You don't have to be a AAA member to access the information. Choose the point-of-interest and the device will route you to it. There is also a method to add your own points-of-interest to the database on the GPS.
Bluetooth
This is also Bluetooth capable and supposed to be able to make calls. I have not tried this yet so I can't comment on how well it works (or doesn't work).
Final Thoughts
Overall this device is fantastic. I rate it very highly and recommend it. This model, like other GPS devices, does have it's drawbacks: not always up-to-date on the map data, may not work in large cities like Manhattan where very tall buildings may block the satellite signals, and cannot exactly pin point exactly where you are. But you have to take SOME responsibility for watching street signs and not depend entirely on the GPS.
If I've left something out, please let me know and I'll update the review!
