Which is the Best GPS ?

Hello, My name is Richard, Welcome to my Hub.

I am nuts about Electronic Gadget's, Any Electronic Gadget, but mainly GPSs, and their good bits, bad bits, and even the ugly bits, I will try to be as open minded and informative about them for you as possible, plus a bonus side of repair knowledge to help with the known good and bad, so if I could help someone and inform of the best GPSs around, which will help another person make a right decision, that is all I want, and will be pleased that I helped someone with a few written words of wisdom. any information is purely from my point of view, everybody writes a review of a device, but there may be a few little bits of information that make or break a decision for you. Also checkout the Blog link at the bottom of the hub for Tonnes more GPS info.
I hope I have been informative for you, in whatever way you see it..
All the best to you
Regards
Richard.

In today's fast lifestyle, we need the GPS for the speed, accuracy, and consistency of getting somewhere, and the GPS is the perfect tool for the job !!!
It can locate to within 6 feet of the destination, which is pretty good by any Mapping/compass standard's, there are different GPS for different scenario's, IE: the regular Car Driver's GPS, the Walker's GPS, the Fisherman, the dog tracker, the sailor, the pilot, the runner, the Truck Driver's GPS etc... So as you may guess, they all have different features on them, Let it be said, you get what you pay for, this is not a big surprise, this is De facto in all walks of life, So if you are thinking of investing in a GPS, Digging a bit deeper in your pocket will help in finding a better device, I am trying to inform of good bits, and the bad bits of the GPS world, and yes, some are good, some are bad, and some are ugly :)
But enough about me, let's talk GPS.

There are literally hundred's of GPS flavor's out there today, and a few Vendor's manufacturing and selling them, my first bit of advice is, if your looking for a GPS, buy a GPS system, rather than buying say, a phone or a PDA or some other device with satnav built in, this will have better design, better functionality, most importantly, less things to fail on the system over time.
( overkill, I call some gadget's, try to do too much and create problem's ),
GPSs, they are Excellent piece's of kit to have, I don't know how I lived without one after I bought one ( I can get lost in my home town : ) there are some good GPSs out there, and some not so good, but the super-daddy of the GPS world is Garmin, forget the rest, they are the best, they are the Market leader's, they have the best GPSs for reliability, construction, ease of use, they have better updating services, over 6 million POIs ( points of interest ) and growing, cater for all situation's and all kinds of lifestyles, they offer repairs to device's that are not being sold anymore and unit's that are out of Warranty also, no other company can boast this, I have been repairing Garmin GPSs for a while now and can only say they are the best, no contesting challenger to their no.1 spot, I am not an affiliate of Garmin, I am a regular PC / Desktop Technician, that has fixed and advised people on the GPS, So if I can offer any words of wisdom to anybody reading my drivel :), then it has been worth the typing of the Hub, and if I managed to save you some money too, and point you in the right direction, that is the ultimate goal.
I cannot do any more than that.

In case your wondering if I am an employee or ex-employee of Garmin, I am not, I have never worked for them, I will probably never work for them, I do not earn any money from them, I only repair them for people, and see all the problem's with them, I am here as a relative newbie to the I.T. world, but know A fair chunk about the GPS, and if I can advise people on the best GPSs to purchase, and don't forget the most important part of a purchase is in my eyes has to be ? correct, got it in one !!!

" Customer Support ", After sales support, out of Warranty service's, help desk Service's, then nobody can compete with Garmin, I am not paid off to say this, or even acknowledged by anyone, so this is pure experience from working with them, to advice from me to you the Consumer, for a half hour read for you here, could help save wasting 20 hours and $300, my job has been done. If your looking for A decent 10 year after sales service, don't bother wasting your time on any other Vendor,

Garmin are like Microsoft in the Pc world, They own it, As much as alot of people love to hate Bill Gates and his Empire, hats off to him, Da man !!!, maybe not very Computer literate himself, but knows what people want and gives it to them, this is the killer quality you have to have in Business to succeed, Garmin are the same, I don't even know what Garmin's current sales are, profit's or shares in the Market, I am guessing around 75% of the Market share, this Hub is for Consumer's and the General public, to help inform and give knowledge of experience of the bad too.

They sell you the product, but don't say goodbye after they have sold you the device, there is background work going on all the time, constant map updates, system updates, repair centre, beat that, not only are they pretty good at the after sales stuff, their product's sell by the Million's world wide, and they are actually a fantastic product, well tested, I have fixed my client's GPS that are 6-8 years old, now think you spend $300 dollars on a let's say cheapo GPS and it last 2 years, Buy a Garmin for $500 dollars and it could " quote "
it could last potentially 6-8 years, please do the maths with me, $500/600 dollars times say 6-8 years, cheapo $200 will last 18 months tops with limited support,
( cheap for a reason ) Garmin's are fully kept up to date, software patches/updates for the system, mapping updates, repair's, world maps, editable maps, no body else offers these kinds of updates, after sales services, I know I have worked with GPS repairs intensely fixing all problem's from setup/usage, to changing batteries
( which is easier said than done )
Even Garmin has it's hands full with the project of satisfying all this, I know and I don't even work for them, you can smell the wheel's behind it all rolling and changing with the times, but good for the Customer is they are taking their Customer's with them, not just shop and drop you,

There are Garmin product's spilling out everywhere, Google, Amazon, E-bay has alot of useful "new" thing's,

Please read this next statement twice, if you like your hard earned cash, and want never to be ripped off on the GPS front, NEVER, I WILL REPEAT IT SORRY, FOR ALL THE HARD OF HEARING PEOPLE THAT MAY VISIT THIS HUB, NEVER BUY A SECOND HAND GPS !!! there I have shouted enough, getting a sore throat. :)
why ?, because it will cost you the price of that GPS say $100 bucks second hand, you have just bought a paperweight, probably stolen, this GPS is now useless to you, so please never buy one off a guy in the pub, from a market, car-boot, etc...out of the box, if it has no leaflet's, cables, CD Rom's, car adapter and is not all boxed up, and unregistered, please walk away, this is Rubbish, when you get it home it is useless, it is registered to some one else, and you will never convince Garmin that it is not stolen, unless you have that person ring Garmin with you and get Customer support to switch account over to the new owner,
I have spoken to people that have said, "oh I got a second hand GPS, its great", yeah try updating the software, try updating the maps, try getting any support for it, no chance, what a bargain, I've been ripped off again,

Stick to a new one, stick to Garmin, if you would like to check my how could I put it, the truth of what I say, Go to the Big player's in the GPS world, spend 30 Min's on each website, you will know yourself then,
Enough Rambling it is time to talk about the Different GPSs on the Market today..
Players in the GPS Market, who I rate as top to not so top.
1 Garmin, 2 Magellan.com, 3 Tom Tom, 4 Sony, 5 Pioneer in car GPS, 6 Navigon, there are only 3 main player's really for mobile GPS. Pioneer are the No 1 for In-built-car systems

Checkout the Links for GPS Comparison's !!!