Which GPS?

I chose the Garmin Nuvi 360 because Garmin also builds avionics. They by-god better know how to make a good GPS. My main gripe is with the bluetooth connectivity, which is limited to a rediculously small set of phones. The benefits of the Nuvi style is that you can walk around with it, then slip it in your pocket without much fuss. I tried out the Australian and British voices. It was funny to hear WA called Western Australia, etc. Took it for a drive out to eastern Washington State (the very definition of rural) and the maps worked great, even locating our fairly-new hotel.

I have the Garmin c340, which is excellent. No celebrities, but three pleasant enough voices tell you turn by turn and show it well also. It also goes pretty loud. For extra cash you can also get the traffic probe which has been helpful at times.

If price is of any concern to you, I just got (literally yesterday) the Garmin c340. It is a older model which garmin has stopped making (but they still support it). I found it on amazon for 140 (if you look on eBay you can find it for even cheaper). I not sure but I'm tempted to say it is as good as the nuvi 350 (voice says the street names (text-to-speech) - which apparently from some friends I asked was a very important feature - plus the map of the entire U.S. and traffic information). Also as far as I know Garmin has more international maps than tom tom does (if that is important to you at all).

This is secondhand information, but be sure to consider future map purchases. I was talking to someone last night who has TomTom for their Windows Mobile smartphone. Apparently, they won't sell him the latest maps for that device. They say they might in the future. Additionally, they cost more than the Garmin map updates (at least going by what he was saying). Unless you plan on disposing of the unit once the maps grow stale.

nthing the awesomeness of the Garmin Nuvi 350. I'm very pleased with it and it's nice and compact. It gives turn-by-turn voice directions with the street names (lower-end models will just tell you "Turn left" as opposed to "Turn left on Main Street"). The screen is very bright and is easy to see in the daytime. You may run into volume issues if you have very loud children. I often have trouble hearing it when I have the stereo cranked up to a moderately high level. There is a headphone jack, though, which you can use with a regular set of earphones. There are widescreen GPS devices out there, but I'm not sure what the usefulness of the extra width is -- the most important part of where you're going is straight ahead, not to the sides. As for extras, you can change the voices between male/female and among different accents like British and Australian with Garmin. As mentioned above, you can download different car icons as well. Prices have dropped recently, so you might consider going with a better model that includes Bluetooth and traffic updates (well, since it's a present, just go ahead and ask for one with those features). Traffic updates might carry an extra monthly fee, though. If you peruse the product pages of GPS units at amazon, they feature a breakdown of all the features of each of the units (e.g., http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EXS1BS/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/).

I have a TomTom and it's seriously the bee's knees. Love the custom voice options for the fun side, but love the fact that I can actually get to wherever I'm heading. That being the point and all.

I like my Garmin - It's one of their Windows Mobile PDA devices. M4 or M5 (can't quite remember). I bought it so that I could use it in the car, but also as a pedestrian/public transit user while traveling. It even goes camping pretty well, and Garmin has a ton of available topo maps and even fishing/camping specific maps. Having a handheld GPS unit with a setting for "pedestrian" navigation really comes in handy in an unfamiliar city. This was super sweet three years ago, but it has been pretty much rendered a ho-hum feature when so many cell phones are now capable of the same thing. Something to consider though. Of course, now that I know I can get Eddie Izzard doing the voice-overs for navigation, I know what my fiance is getting for Christmas. A Tom Tom. She's going to fucking love it.

I just remembered one problem. The suction mount that comes with the Garmin nüvi 650 tends to pop off the windshield, sometimes while you're driving. The friction mount, which is sold separately, works fine, and the suction mount for the 750 is also fine.

Yet another happy Garmin nuvi 350 user here. I've had it for over 2 years, however... You may want to go with the newer 660 instead. Similar price range, bigger screen, but less compact.