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I'm in the same boat as you, Wayne, needing to give up my paper maps. We recently rented a car on a trip and it was my first close-up look at one. I did find that the Tom-Tom was excellent, and "Bonnie" did not yell at me or constantly tell me she was "recalibrating" like the Garmins of friends. She just quickly came up with an alternate to get me back to her way of doing things. I'll be interested in information you get about this.

schlepporello wrote:OK, I've always said that I will live and die by the paper map, but the impracticality of my being able to haul every map I may ever need in my daily truck-drivin' routine is making it to where I really need to consider one of them new-fangled GPS thingies. Based on a recommendation from one of my cousins, I've been looking at Garmin products, and the model that currently strikes my interest is the Nuvi 40LM. Reasonable price and free lifetime updates make this an appealing choice. What about you other guys who are more technologimically advance than me? Anyone got any experience with either this model or others that might be worth considering?

Welcome to the dark side.

Wayne,

I quickly looked up the Garmin Nuvi 40LM you're considering and it looks very good. Nice price ($129), nice features with free lifetime maps and has a 4.3" display. I've not owned a Garmin myself, but might go with a Garmin next time.

My current GPS is a TomTom XL-335TM. What I like about this TomTom (besides free map updates) is it also has free traffic where it will offer a re-route. Most of the cities though it's just major highways, and some cities just during rush hour. One downside of some of the TomToms is they use the old 1.1 USB connection. Very slow. Takes almost 2 hours for a map update.

From the reviews I read, that Garmin looks pretty good.
Eleven reviews of Garmin nuvi 40L

Be aware that there's probably no going back. GPS junkies like me, who used to navigate cross country with no plan but a set of maps to follow, now can't go anywhere new without punching the destination into my GPS. I've been using them for a number of years, have a factory unit in my CRV, and have several portable Garmin units (bicycling, hand held, auto). My latest Garmin automobile unit (nuvi 2555 LMT)doesn't harp about 'recalibrating' in a vaguely deprecating tone like my older one does. I actually sort of miss harassing the unit by deliberately taking a different route just to get verbally reprimanded by the electronic nanny.

The Garmin naming convention 'LMT' means lifetime maps and traffic. The 'LM' units have lifetime maps. Be sure to investigate all of the different units to compare features and options, and fine someplace to read the reviews. I personally like the larger 5" screen rather than the 4.3" one. You can pick up a 'LM' 4.3" Garmin for less than $100. I bought mine at Best Buy because Sam's was out of them in Nov. to use in a rental car in MI. I would recommend that whatever unit you get you take it out for a test drive or two during the daytime just to get accustomed to it. We arrived at night and I had difficulty navigating from Detroit International to the Sidetrack in Ann Arbor because I didn't know the unit's peculiarities. On unfamiliar multilane roads 'Lane Assist' is a very useful feature. The 2555 also has a pedestrian mode which I found very useful in getting around near and on the UM campus.

You people, What is this world becoming? Where is your sense of adventure? It's not getting lost, it's exploring. Would we remember Lewis and Clark or Columbus or Magellan if they had had GPS thingies? I don't think so.

My first trip through Mexico, almost 30 years ago, all I had was a Rand-McNally road atlas. And somehow, in the dark, I managed to miss Mexico City. I still don't know how that happened, but that wasn't on my destination list so I don't mind at all.

Oh, yeah, I think I know when I left my sense of adventure, it was about the time I grew up and became responsible. Or maybe raising a family is just a different kind of adventure.

alfredr (starting on another one)

I have a NUVI 3790 & couldn't be happier.

the one that comes on the iphone works just fine for me...

The wife has an older Nuvi and it does what we need it to do. I've been using the Navigation by Google Maps app that came with my android phone and aside from the smaller screen on the phone I much prefer it, but they both get us where we need to go.

Wayne,

I just remembered that there are different maps available for truckers which give preferred routes to avoid toll's, low underpasses, and weight restrictions on bridges. I remember hearing about a trucker who followed a GPS almost under a low overpass.

No doubt, GPS units are helpful. However, I don't feel as though they're a replacement for paper maps or for directions given by someone who knows.

[Anecdote]

I live out in the country, off of a dirt road. If you typed my address in to your GPS, you'd be directed to my neighbor's driveway. Now, my neighbor is a fantastic person once you get to know him, but if someone pulls into his driveway that he doesn't recognize, he'll great you in his drive way with a loaded shotgun. I've told people "don't trust your GPS; pay attention to my directions and watch your odometer," but still, most of them end up meeting Gordon.

[/Anecdote]

I use a GPS unit along with topo maps when I'm out backpacking, hunting, or exploring. I don't think I'd trust them for road travel without a backup map.

Steven "being drug by the short and curlies kicking and screaming into the 21st century" Ranney

A year ago I got a smart phone and gave up my GPS. I use the phone now and abolutely love it. One less box to worry about and the software is wonderful. It automatically updates so I don't have to worry about stuff being out of date.

I finally started using a Garmin (cheap model from Costco) about a year ago. I've had my moments when I wanted to yell at it, but overall, it has been much more helpful than annoying.

But I'm committed to making sure my kids learn how to read and use a real map . . .

I bought one last year and shopped around a bit before then... for the most part, they are all fine and all about the same as each other. The really cheap ones are a little worse, the really expensive ones are a little nicer (but probably not worth it).

The problem with (pretty much) all of them is that the software/interface is a few years behind what you use in other things like phones and computers. The touchscreens are lousy and the software is clunky and annoying compared to smartphones and tablet computers. That's why some people (like tbn.al above) like the smart phone versions a little better. Those are a lot better, but the problem there is that the smart phone isn't really "installed" in the car, so it's a smaller screen and cumbersome to deal with while driving.

My preference is to have a GPS running, and a smart navigator (my wife) in the front seat next to me. The box ain't always right.

Good point by bort above...

The touch screens on most GPS units use 'resistive' rather than 'capacitive' technology, so it takes a bit of pressure to activate. I find that using the back of my finger or the finger nail works best on my GPS. If you're used to using an iPad or smartphone, the tactile feel is different.

Also... resistive screens are not as bright so if you put it on your windshield in the sun, it may be hard to see. I put mine up high next to the rear-view mirror where the roof provides some shading.

Some models can sort a list of delivery points into the best order. If this is important to you, make sure you get one that do this.

Mark I (better at GPS than tuba)

bort wrote: but the problem there is that the smart phone isn't really "installed" in the car, so it's a smaller screen and cumbersome to deal with while driving.

My phone has a 4 inch screen and becomes installed in the car evey time I get in. That way I don't have to mess with it while driving. I use a bracketron mount( http://www.bracketron.com/products/mobi ... dash-mount" target="_blank" target="_blank ) and a blue ant phone speaker (http://www.myblueant.com/products/speakerphones/s4/" target="_blank" target="_blank), to hold the phone and carry on conversations. I only touch the phone when I type stuff in at a red light. Works great.

I got a Tom-Tom a few Christmases back. I changed the voice to the sexy torch sounding chick. Her voice and a lot of coffee help keep me awake at night.
toots

The trick to effectively using a (paper) map is to not only identify where you are going, but also what is near (either directly before or directly after your destination). A map doesn't tell you where to go, but lets you know what to expect along the way. GPS units are effective because they give you both -- plenty of warning about when you are approaching your destination, and it'll tell you if you've driven past it.

In fact, even with a GPS, I really only like to use it for driving in cities. Seems pointless on long highway drives, it's not hard to know that I have to drive straight for 70 miles...

It's not a traditional GPS device and since I don't have a car I really haven't tested it , but if you want to try something different check out one of the Samsung Galaxy Players. I have the 5" 5.0 model but there's also a 4" model. Basically they're wifi only smart phone/mini tablets without the cell parts. They can give you a route if you cache the map before hand OR you can download a full on map application that doesn't require you to be on wifi.
As a plus, it'd be a nice portable email checker when on vacation in a hotel or on a plane. You can also use it as a wifi phone.
http://m.samsung.com/us/mobile/mp3-play ... G70CWY/XAA
That price is a little high.

schlepporello wrote:Well, I committed myself to buy the 2455LMT, but when I got to the store where I had found the bargain price, they were all gone. Kind of makes me wonder why they had it marked down so low to begin with. So still having cash in hand, I ran off to another store and bought a Nuvi 2555LMT. I got it all registered and updated last night and tried it out today on my way up to Springfield, CO. Granted, it's a straight shot north from here, any GPS ought to be able to handle it. But Boise City, OK has a newly finished bypass wrapping around the northeast end of their town. Garmin apparently doesn't know about it yet. It was kind of fun listening to the unit freak out when it couldn't figure out where the road was I was allegedly on. The display would rotate this way and that, then it sought alternate routes to get me back onto roads it knew about. This was great fun! Coming back, my trailer was placarded as containing non-flammable gas. This means I had to take the haz-mat route around Amarillo to get back to the dock. This wasn't what the Garmin wanted me to do. All the way around the haz-mat route, it kept trying to get me back into the center of town until I passed the last possible turn off. It was at that point that it finally surrendered and showed me the "right way" to get back to the dock (per D.O.T. regs).

Some of the fun using GPS units is watching them try to catch up while they never catch on when you're driving routes you know to be superior to the GPS's chosen path. You never heard a snotty 'recalculating', though, did you? We humans when we are intimately familiar with the territory we're driving will always outsmart our GPS. But the GPS almost always wins on territory unfamiliar to us, and that's why we use 'em. I even use my GPS's map just to thread through unfamiliar residential areas here in town when I'm avoiding heavy traffic...you know, those rats nests deliberately designed to keep people like me from traversing them as a short cut.