Need a good advice on choosing a Camry with/without Navigation.

I have a small Magellan GPS that I use in the car.

The advantage to portables is the cost of updated software is MUCH lower.

You can also get an excellent program for your laptop and interface it with a portable GPS.

Not as elegant as the installed units, but they do the job.

I have a Garmin GPSmap76CS. My wife has the Toyota navigation in her

2007 Camery hybrid.

The in car SUCKS! You can't use it while moving (not even the passenger) and the manual must have been written by a Neanderthal. I've used GPS for seven years and I can't understand the Toyota manual.

I much prefer the portable GPS because they can be used for hiking, cycling or auto. They have much more information available to the user than the in car navigation systems. And, the auto routing works pretty well now. Annual map updates are not very expensive. The one negative (relative to the in auto) is the display size. I set mine to the left of the steering wheel on the dash and run a Gilsson antenna out the door to the top of the car. That way, it's close to the driver and the screen size is not a problem. See:

Regardless of what you wind up with, there is a pretty steep learning curve - probably more so with the hand held than with the Toyota. If you have a lot of computer knowledge, you can hook up a portable to a computer and use the computer screen for navigation but it's somewhat akward.

Arthur Hass

success snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Hell, it's far more elegant than a handheld GPS if you use a Verizon Wireless Broadband Access EVDO card and Google Earth on your laptop. Get your choice of Satellite View, Roadmap View, or Hybrid.

I have to get the USB GPS unit for total slickness, right now if I'm really lost I have to plug the Lat/Lon numbers from the old portable into Google earth and let it cogitate on where I am.

Or see if the new laptop can understand the antique Magellan Tripmate Serial I have. Have to use it with a USB to Serial adapter.

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Not to mention that if the portable unit needs to be fixed, you don't have to take the whole car in with it.

On my last trip up to Mass I had my Magellan Platinum hand held on a windshield mounted holder, driven power wise by the cigar outlet.

I also had my laptop hooked up to a Delorme Earthmate LT-20 (a piece of SHIT gps receiver).

The Delorme GPS is horrible. It looses lock at the most inopportune times (like finding my Brother's house).

The Magellan has a serial interface and my laptop does not, so I just solved the problem by getting a serial to USB converter.

Next trip will have the Magellan driving the Delorme Street Atlas 2006 program.

I have no room for passengers, but I will know where the hell I am all the time.

It would have been damned nice if the f*ing Delorme GPS had worked on my way back to Florida. I like to travel by Interstate and jump off to 'see America' on the back roads. On one jump off I ended up on one hell of a mountain road going over the Smoky Mountains....lol, but I found a neat old motel for the night.

This next trip I'll know where I am and be able to count on my GPS being locked.

I also have the Delorme Topo USA software. How neat is that to have real time 3D representation of your trip thru the mountains?

Now if I can only make sure I look out the front window a couple of times an hour to see the deer and wild turkeys...LOL