Garmin Talking StreetPilot III GPS Deluxe Package

Rating:
Summary: Worth the Money
Review: I love it! It was extremely intuitive. Easy to use, lots of features, voice/speaker feature is great.

Rating:
Summary: Battery placement destroys SPIII
Review: I just destroyed my unit by getting one or two of the batteries reversed. I removed it from my truck to update the software from my PC. I never used the internal batteries while it was in the vehicle because of temperature conditions. It was always plugged into the lighter socket. So I connected it to my PC and of course it doesn't work with out batteries. So I got some fresh alkaline AA cells and put them in. I got a low battery indication right away when I turned it on. The batteries were brand new.

Anyway it wouldn't stay powered on for more than a minute or so, not long enough to upload new data to it. So I set it aside for a while. An hour or so later I picked it up and liquid was leaking out of one of the AA cells, it had ruptured. I quickly pulled all the cells and washed the compartment down with soap and water. The unit is fairly well sealed so this is no problem.

The alkaline ate away the battery polarity symbols so I checked my manual, it had no picture indicating battery placement. I had to download a picture from a newer on line manual at Garmin. Well it seems Garmin used coil spring battery contacts for some of their + positive connections! Two of the AA cells have the + ends against these coil springs. The rest go against flat springs!

I guess in my haste to add batteries I used the old fashioned method and ended up putting the negative ends on the coil springs and the positive ends on the flat springs. Now the unit only beeps and nothing more. Garmin wants $255 bucks to fix it, flat rate, out of warranty. I'd still end up with a 3 year old GPS. Time to look for a different unit, and perhaps a different manufacturer!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Product, Highly recommend
Review: I tow a show car around the country and didnt want to fumble with road maps, so I bought the Street Pilot III. The thing works great, its very portable, and rarely gives me any problems. I load in the data for the area im traveling to before I head out, then use all the preloaded info to help me find restaurants, hotels, whatever!

I recently upgraded to a 256 MB data card because I had to drive from NY to Las Vegas, It stored the data for the whole route I chose and worked great the entire time. Driving 12-13 hours a day with it on and no problems. It also found some cool stops along the way that were worth checking out on a cross trip. The data card it comes with is fine for the normal traveler, but a cross country trip you should upgrade to the 256MB card.

Easy to work with, easy to navigate, and very accurate!

Rating:
Summary: This thing is pretty cool
Review: I bought this for a 4300 mile road trip I was planning. I'm not real computer smart and did have to call the 800 numnber to help me set it up. The book isn't real clear for someone who has never had a GPS before and is not familiar with the phrasing they use. But once I got the help on the phone, it was kind of "duh". Their hours could have been a little more user friendly. We used it around town before we left just to get the feel for it. On the trip it was great. We realized we should have brought some paper maps with us, just as a reference but Gina (we gave her a name) got us everywhere without much problem. We had a little trouble in Bakersfield when we asked her to get us to LV. She said it was 2700 miles over and over. I finally realized days later that I must have missed a map and she was just routing us there the best she knew based on the maps she had. We also went off of our planned route so I learned to put as many surrounding maps in as you can, in case you want to take a side trip. The searching feature was a little weird. Not everything in the world is in here and if you don't have an address you have to just find the city. This is where the other maps would have helped. Fortunately, we stayed mostly at KOA's and had a KOA book with us. I was surprised at what was not in there. We had some trouble finding the University of Utah. There was about 16 of them in there but none seemed to be the main campus in SLC. Since we didn't have the address it made the search hard. We finally asked someone who had us follow her there. The re-routing feature is so nice. When we'd take a wrong turn, Gina would get us back on track. It would be nice to have a feature where you could put her on hold when you stopped for gas or a bite to eat. She didn't like that and kept trying to get us back on course. The rest of the time she worked like a charm. Getting us right to the doorstep of the places we were visiting. The directions are clear and come early enough that you can change lanes or whatever even in traffic. We had a little trouble also in Duvall, WA where the streets where we were going were all numbered and some were Courts, others were Streets and others were Drives, all with the same number. She didn't like that and we ended up going in circles. All in all, I love this thing and can't imagine why I never got one earlier for long road trips to new places. Even for around my town and surrounding areas I'm not familiar with. She's a permanently driving tool from now on.

Rating:
Summary: A lifesaver for those who travel for work
Review: I am admittedly directionally challenged. When I took a new position doing on site software training throughout New England, what worried me most about the new job was getting lost.

After 2-3 times getting confused or mislead by Mapquest directions, I took the plunge and bought this GPS for my car. I was truly concerned about spending this much money for something I wasn't sure I needed. I've had it 3 years now, and if it broke I would be at a store in 20 minutes to replace it with the same model without thinking twice about it.

Likes -
- The talking direction feature is a MUST for an in-auto GPS. I was afraid I would get in an accident trying to look at maps or printed directions before buying this. Now it alerts me verbally to upcoming turns.

- If I go off route (by mistake or because of a detour) it automatically warns me, then recalculaates my route from my current position.

- Having stores, restaurants, and gas stations as a searchable feature is an immense help. I have been low in gas in unfamiliar areas, or looking for a particular style of restaurant, many times. It's a great feature.

- The screen is large enough to read, full color, and you can display your route by a picture, or by typed directions onscreen. It is dimmable at night and also easy to read in full sunlight. It tells you how far to go until your next turn.

- It is portable, so I can bring it into my husband's car or on a trip and use it in a rental (get the bean bag holder for it if you plan to do this often.) This is the main advantage over buying a GPS as a permanently installed car feature.

- The map detail is almost always right, much better than mapquest. It covers areas more rural than I would expect. If it doesn't know a street level address, you can at least get to the city in quesiton and go from there.

- Being able to save favorite places and look up recently found places is a huge help.

- I find reception of the GPS signal is great. It can be a little slow to kick in on a heavily overcast day, or lose signal sometimes in deep downtown cities (highrises) but does quite well overall.

Wants
- I wish the memory card I had were larger - it came with a 32 MB chip when I purchased it ( I think larger is standard now). While that holds most of New England, I occasionally had to load new map sets on before a trip to get coverage in my territory.

- The rocker system for entering addresses takes up little space and is easy to use, but a keyboard would be SO nice.

- I wish map updates were free. Street level updates are available, but I only got one free update. In 3 years a lot has changed, and I worry that my maps will get out of date. Still, other than the Big Dig in Boston, 99% of my maps are still fine.

Overall, I love this purchase and recommend this product highly. MANY of my coworkers who have gone on the road with me bought their own after seeing mine and are equally satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: Great system for certain places
Review: I have traveled all over the US and never again will I do it without this device. It is the ultimate in driving directions. I drove from SC to NYC with this system and back. It talks and it gives great directions. If you are looking for a particular type of restaurant and you don't know where you are, this device will help you out. If you are in the middle of maine and want to know where the closest restaurant, amusement park, or hotel, this device will do it. The only problem I have had with this device is using it in places like Manhattan. With the tall buildings, satallite reception is horrible. So if you are driving through NYC, it is good to know the city before you get there, so if the buildings block teh reception, then you can find your way around. Now, dont' think when any building is around it, it will mess up. This is only when you have building around you that are like 80+ stories that it causes a problem. NYC was the only place that I had problems. If you are not living in NYC, then you will never have a problem.

Rating:
Summary: Police Officer
Review: If you have new or old model vehilce that is not equipt with a navigating system, it is the best and inexpensive unit to have. You don't need to spend extra money on a remote control to set you destination(s). You can preset it before you hit the road.

No more stopping your vehicle, ask a total stranger, and or wait for police officer to ask for directions to your destination. As a 19yr veteran police officer, I strongly urge you to purchase it!

Rating:
Summary: Close
Review: This almost does what I want it too. I bought this as a replacement for a GPS V - a very good GPS mapping system in its own right. I require a larger memory capacity, and a larger screen, so I got it here. The color screen is much easier to read. The 128 MB card and USB programmer are wonderful, and provide me with a set of maps for nearly all of my trips without having to hook up the unit to the computer for an hour or more for a half day's worth of maps.

It has a couple of flaws, the mount isn't perfect, so if the car vibrates, then the GPS does too. The GPS V, didn't have this problem, it was rock solid. Nor can I alter the fields that are displayed in map navigation mode - the GPS V would allow me to change the fields, so I had miles to go until the destination - now I have to switch to the directions page for that.



Rating:
Summary: I bought Three
Review: I bought 1 then after using it. After using it for a week or so we bought 2 more for my family members. They work great. We take long trips and don't know why we didn't get one before. You will never get lost again. The speaker is small but works great.Shipping was very good. I have no complaints at all.

Rating:
Summary: Second unit died
Review: I just found out that my friends SPIII deluxe unit died one week before mine went on the fritz. Both units were ~20 months old. Mine is ignoring key inputs. His died by failing to power up despite the choice of power source. The only consolation is that Garmin is willing to fix them for $225 each. At this point, one has to wonder if shelling out the 225, plus $150 for the v6 map upgrade is better than getting a new unit (either WAAS enabled Magellan RM700 or a Garmin 2620) for ~$940. Seeing the two units die so close to each other in time is a bad testament to the product design. Hopefully the new designs of the last 6 months will be better. SPIII is a design from a few years ago.