| So what brought us to the point of asking, "Do | | | | routes, fastest route or toll free routes. Shortest |
| we buy the Garmin StreetPilot c340 or do we | | | | is not always fastest if every other car is trying |
| buy the TomTom One 3rd edition". | | | | to use that road. |
| Maybe you too are in the market for a portable | | | | - Does it have text to speech capability, i.e., the |
| vehicle GPS system. We were looking for one in | | | | audible voice actually speaks out the street |
| the under three hundred dollar range. This article | | | | names instead of "take next right". This is useful |
| tells a little of our story and how we went about | | | | when streets are close together and keeps you |
| narrowing our search down between these two | | | | from being confused or distracted from your |
| units. | | | | driving. "Turn at Main Street" is preferable to "turn |
| This past summer we had the opportunity to use | | | | at the next right turn". It is also nice to be able to |
| a portable GPS on our trip to the coast. I was not | | | | change the "voice" of the computer generated |
| especially impressed the first several hours of use | | | | speaker/guide. |
| as we were primarily traveling on Interstate | | | | - Is the face plate readable and glare free--from |
| roads, and those of which we were quite familiar. | | | | different angles and in bright sun light, as well as |
| As we got closer to our vacation area, the | | | | at night time; can you adjust the brightness of |
| Interstate stopped and we were forced to take | | | | the display at night. |
| two lane country roads the rest of the way to | | | | - Does the unit have an internal rechargeable |
| the beach. This was an area we had not | | | | battery. Is there a car adapter for recharging as |
| specifically gone to before and had it just been | | | | well as an AC plug to use inside your home. |
| me and our map, we would have been quite lost! | | | | - Preloaded map databases should be included. |
| Our GPS delivered us directly to our hotel, going | | | | Most come with all of USA preloaded, but the |
| so far as to tell us which side of the road it was | | | | degree of detail may vary from one model to |
| on (that, I think I could have figured out). | | | | another. |
| Later in the week the "hook was set" when we | | | | - Real time traffic reporting is a nice feature; |
| decided to try out a new restaurant about one | | | | unfortunately the current technology is dependent |
| hour south of where we were staying. Not only | | | | on the timeliness of local traffic reporting |
| did the GPS "find" our restaurant in its POI (points | | | | networks. |
| of interest) data base, but it routed us there, | | | | - Watch for included extra features such as |
| telling us how far it was and how long it would | | | | bluetooth capability, MP3 player, FM transmitter, |
| take to get there. I was quite skeptical of the | | | | and iPod connections. You may want these, or |
| time element, knowing the reputation for bumper | | | | you may want a less expensive unit without |
| to bumper tourist traffic, but our new GPS friend | | | | these. |
| proved to be right and strategically routed us | | | | - Check out the available mounting hardware -- |
| around the heavy traffic on some back roads we | | | | look for this to come with the unit. |
| would never have taken on our own. | | | | When trying to decide which GPS system to buy |
| We returned from our trip and began the search | | | | for our vehicles we found both of these units, the |
| for our own portable vehicle GPS systems to | | | | Garmin c340 and the TomTom One to be pretty |
| keep in our cars. These are the guidelines we | | | | similar in their features. The TomTom lacks text |
| used in our search. | | | | to speech capability, but also runs fifty to eighty |
| - Size of unit -- Portability was important to us. | | | | dollars less than the Garmin. The TomTom has |
| The size, if too big can hinder you moving it from | | | | Home software so that you can update your unit |
| one car to another (or if too big, keep you from | | | | database through your own computer. Both are |
| using it in a pedestrian situation) | | | | touch screen driven and small enough to carry |
| - Does it allow you to choose between shortest | | | | with you if walking around in an unfamiliar town. |