Got my weekly e-mail from Crappy Tire (Canadian Tire) and they have a GPS navigation system for sale offering turn by turn voice navigation made by MacVision for $399.
GPS system
As some of you are aware I am, how shall we say, "Directionally challenged" and figured that something like this would be just the thing to help cure me of my "Went across the street to get milk, ended up in Edmonton"
Anyone have such a system or have any advice in looking for one? Any comments about the system CT is selling?
NefCanuck
That system looks pretty pimp, but the dependence on a laptop 40GB HD has me worried about overall shock damping and resilience.
Why not get a handheld and screw the voice directions? Lots come with colour screens and are programmable with route info right from your computer.
EDIT - Daniel, now you've got me wanting one! The wife's going to kill me! ARGH!
Especially if I can pipe the little bastard into my sound system. OMG... so much trouble.
NOS2Go4Me,Sep 22 2005, 03:04 PM Wrote:That system looks pretty pimp, but the dependence on a laptop 40GB HD has me worried about overall shock damping and resilience.
Why not get a handheld and screw the voice directions? Lots come with colour screens and are programmable with route info right from your computer.
EDIT - Daniel, now you've got me wanting one! The wife's going to kill me! ARGH!
Especially if I can pipe the little bastard into my sound system. OMG... so much trouble.
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Hrm, yeah and the warranty is "see store for details" which makes me wonder (Costco is offering a navi system as well on their website, same general specs, but at $800 :blink:)
Thing is, it's much safer to get yelled at to turn left or right than it is to keep looking at a screen (Though the screen on that system looks plenty bright I'd still rather have a nagging co-pilot ;))
P.S. Hey don't blame me if you can't say no to this little gadget :lol:
NefCanuck
NefCanuck,Sep 22 2005, 05:37 PM Wrote:NOS2Go4Me,Sep 22 2005, 03:04 PM Wrote:That system looks pretty pimp, but the dependence on a laptop 40GB HD has me worried about overall shock damping and resilience.
Why not get a handheld and screw the voice directions? Lots come with colour screens and are programmable with route info right from your computer.
EDIT - Daniel, now you've got me wanting one! The wife's going to kill me! ARGH!
Especially if I can pipe the little bastard into my sound system. OMG... so much trouble.
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Hrm, yeah and the warranty is "see store for details" which makes me wonder (Costco is offering a navi system as well on their website, same general specs, but at $800 :blink:)
Thing is, it's much safer to get yelled at to turn left or right than it is to keep looking at a screen (Though the screen on that system looks plenty bright I'd still rather have a nagging co-pilot ;))
P.S. Hey don't blame me if you can't say no to this little gadget :lol:
NefCanuck
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Dan just higher me as your co driver :lol: Be like a rally race everyday :lol:
It will probably be fine. All these things are coming down in price so much now.
Another reason for the low price is that it is probably GPS and not DGPS nor WAAS enabled GPS:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/store...=whatiswaas.htm
If GPS was good enough for the miltary a decade ago it shoul dbe fine for your Focus. Please submit a full report once you get it.
I would look at the Garmin systems - check these out. Smaller than the Canadian Tire one and in my opinion is better. Garmin has been around a long time and makes quality units. These are new this year.
http://www.garmin.com/products/spi2/ - the I5 is the colour version
http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/spi2.htm - you can purchase it through this Canadian internet dealer - I ordered a uni throught these guys and they have the best prices around ( beat Walwart !! )
Gonna hit a local Canadian Tire or two this weekend to see what the skinny is on this thing. I'm curious to see what the warranty is like on the thing for example.
The Garmin systems look okay but at 128MB storage I'm not sure they'll be up to the task of providing street level Canadian coverage and does "audible promt" mean a "turn left or turn right" command or just a beep? I'd much rather have the turn left & turn right prompt than a beep.
NefCanuck
ill seat in your front seat for a 100 buck aday and yell at your sorry ass
hahahaha
NefCanuck,Sep 24 2005, 01:16 AM Wrote:Gonna hit a local Canadian Tire or two this weekend to see what the skinny is on this thing. I'm curious to see what the warranty is like on the thing for example.
The Garmin systems look okay but at 128MB storage I'm not sure they'll be up to the task of providing street level Canadian coverage and does "audible promt" mean a "turn left or turn right" command or just a beep? I'd much rather have the turn left & turn right prompt than a beep.
NefCanuck
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I have a programmable Garmin 64Mb Chip that right now has all of Ontario from North Bay south, the Northern states around Lake Erie (Michigan, Ohio, NY), about 150 miles in from the shore. That's street level data, give me your address I can tell you the phone number of your closest convenience store.
I have a Garmin 196 that I bought new, WAAS-anabled unit that's an aviation/auto/marine unit. I actually bought it for flying, on top of the street data on a reprogrammable chip, it has all of the airport, obstacle and terrain data for North America.
The only drawback is that it's monochrome; the colour ones at the time sucked batteries like no tomorrow (4 AAs in 4-5 hours, mine will go 16 on 4 AAs), and the last thing you want is to have to change batteries in-flight if you can avoid it.
![[Image: gpsmap196PIC.jpg]](http://www.garmin.com/products/gpsmap196/graphics/gpsmap196PIC.jpg)
Most of the "audible" prompts now are voice; that said, I find voice prompts annoying -- a beep with a big arrow on the screen is good enough rather than a canned voice nagging you.
NefCanuck,Sep 24 2005, 05:16 AM Wrote:Gonna hit a local Canadian Tire or two this weekend to see what the skinny is on this thing. I'm curious to see what the warranty is like on the thing for example.
The Garmin systems look okay but at 128MB storage I'm not sure they'll be up to the task of providing street level Canadian coverage and does "audible promt" mean a "turn left or turn right" command or just a beep? I'd much rather have the turn left & turn right prompt than a beep.
NefCanuck
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the prompts will be "turn left / right" - and believe me with the Garmin the street level data will be
very detailed The problem I have with the CT unit is that I have never heard of this company ?? Garmin has been around a long time and they produce quality equipment.
dlb,Sep 24 2005, 06:58 PM Wrote:NefCanuck,Sep 24 2005, 05:16 AM Wrote:Gonna hit a local Canadian Tire or two this weekend to see what the skinny is on this thing. I'm curious to see what the warranty is like on the thing for example.
The Garmin systems look okay but at 128MB storage I'm not sure they'll be up to the task of providing street level Canadian coverage and does "audible promt" mean a "turn left or turn right" command or just a beep? I'd much rather have the turn left & turn right prompt than a beep.
NefCanuck
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the prompts will be "turn left / right" - and believe me with the Garmin the street level data will be very detailed The problem I have with the CT unit is that I have never heard of this company ?? Garmin has been around a long time and they produce quality equipment.
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This is very true. Are there any places in the GTA that sell Garmin equipment where they will let me "play" with it to see how I like it? I'm gonna visit a CT tommorow to see if I can at least get my warranty questions answered about thee unit they're selling...
NefCanuck
NefCanuck,Sep 24 2005, 10:31 PM Wrote:This is very true. Are there any places in the GTA that sell Garmin equipment where they will let me "play" with it to see how I like it? I'm gonna visit a CT tommorow to see if I can at least get my warranty questions answered about thee unit they're selling...
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You can call a few of these guys (Garmin Dealers) to see if they have demo units:
Canstar Technologies
203-111 Railside Rd
Toronto, ON M3A 1B2
Phone: 416 383 0633
Fax: 416 383 9539
E-mail: imissa@canstartechnologies.com
Website:
http://www.canstartechnologies.com
GPSMart
137 Courcelette Rd
Toronto, ON M1N 2T1
Phone: 866 303 5972
416 690 9598
CT, Radio Shack, BestBuy and Walmart are all authorized Gamin sellers but I doubt that they're very knowledgeable or willing to let you open boxes to play.
PS. If you find a Garmin Unit you like, PM me, I've dealt with Field Aviation at Pearson, I inquire about getting you a deal. It's not an Aviation GPS you need but I'm sure you can order one.
OAC_S
yeah this lil unit made me interested in a winter project... a few minutes of brainstorming I figured I would put this unit where the deck now resides including the pocket under it. the deck would then be moved upto the coin holder to the right of the gauge cluster. I haven't taken apart the plastic surround yet but I assume it is empty back there enough to fit the deck.
hopefully you'll pick one up and tell us how you like it cause I would sure love to get one and mod this in :)
nass,Sep 25 2005, 03:59 PM Wrote:yeah this lil unit made me interested in a winter project... a few minutes of brainstorming I figured I would put this unit where the deck now resides including the pocket under it. the deck would then be moved upto the coin holder to the right of the gauge cluster. I haven't taken apart the plastic surround yet but I assume it is empty back there enough to fit the deck.
hopefully you'll pick one up and tell us how you like it cause I would sure love to get one and mod this in :)
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Did a Google search on the MacVision GPS system and came up with a forum on
http://www.RedFlagDeals.com, the concensus being
Stay the hell away from this product! it's apparently on it's third recall already for HD failures and abnormally long boot up times. Also there is no "automatic" route recalculation, you have to in fact tell it to recalculate and that can take anywhere up to five minutes to do.
You get what you pay for obviously :( Looks like Garmin it is for me...
NefCanuck
Exactly !! Personally I've never heard of a Garmin getting "recalled" - I'm sure it will perform as advertised. Report back on your observations and give us a review B)
Wouldn't buying a map, be cheaper???
Slimsride,Sep 26 2005, 03:45 AM Wrote:Wouldn't buying a map, be cheaper???
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well you'd have to find a talking map. If you have a gf that might be a quick solution, but if you've ever travelled with a woman they can't read a map and you end up yelling at her and she starts crying and the vacation is ruined. I'd rather have a HD crash than have to admit I am wrong when I am not.
:ph34r:
nass,Sep 26 2005, 09:57 AM Wrote:If you have a gf that might be a quick solution, but if you've ever travelled with a woman they can't read a map and you end up yelling at her and she starts crying and the vacation is ruined. [right][snapback]144833[/snapback][/right]
Yep.
It's always amazed me that so many women can remember the date, time and place (down to what they were wearing at the time) of everything you've done wrong but can't figure out which end of a map faces up after you've shown her 50 times. :blink:
OAC_Sparky,Sep 26 2005, 12:52 PM Wrote:Yep.
It's always amazed me that so many women can remember the date, time and place (down to what they were wearing at the time) of everything you've done wrong but can't figure out which end of a map faces up after you've shown her 50 times. :blink:
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Reminds me of the accident I had because my lady friend screamed in my ear we had to turn
RIGHT NOW! the resulting shock caused me to veer and get thwacked in the door by someone paying even less attention than *I* was thanks to the yelling <_<
She doesn't give me directions anymore :ph34r:
NefCanuck