Venusaur Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 I was reading some Gottadeal threads from 2005 and if you wanted a decent GPS you had to pay at least $400. Now you can get a good one for less than $90. Do you think in a few months you'll be able to get a nice one for like... $40? Or is this as low as they're gonna go?
Marcster Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 I was reading some Gottadeal threads from 2005 and if you wanted a decent GPS you had to pay at least $400. Now you can get a good one for less than $90. Do you think in a few months you'll be able to get a nice one for like... $40? Or is this as low as they're gonna go?Considering that map updates have stayed about the same at $60 per update, I think that $90 will be about as low as name-brand basic units will go. If they made a new "nice model" $40, then they'd have to lower their map updates to $10-$15. They'll just keep adding more features to entice you to buy a new model. I think larger screens are going to be the up and coming thing and text-to-speech will become a standard feature. Some new GPS units are coming out with 7" screens. ------------- Take a look at LCD monitor pricing. When they first came out, 15" LCDs were $400. Now a 19" is $100 and 15" and 17" monitors aren't even available. Could manufacturers still make a 15" LCD for $40? Probably. But more people are willing to spend $100 and get a significantly larger monitor.
Venusaur Posted December 17, 2009 Author Posted December 17, 2009 Yeah that makes sense. $40 would be too good to be true. A 7" screen might be too big for me
dullestbear Posted December 19, 2009 Posted December 19, 2009 my father bought one of the 7 inch screen ones this weekend he absolultly loves it, he travels a lot at nite and it is hard to see the gps and drive in busy cities
brainfreeze Posted December 19, 2009 Posted December 19, 2009 $90 seems like a good deal! May I ask what deal that is? Is it a Garmin Nuvi? Thanks
Venusaur Posted December 19, 2009 Author Posted December 19, 2009 Sure! http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+n%26%23252%3Bvi+205W+Portable+GPS/9470556.p?id=1218114755117&skuId=9470556&st=205w&cp=1&lp=1 $90 for the Nuvi 205W at Best Buy. It has a wide screen so that's a plus. The only semi-useful feature this model is missing is TTS (spoken street names), so it'll say "In point two miles, turn left" instead of "In point two miles, turn left on Main Street". TTS doesn't seem like that big a deal though, I mean if you know where the street is, then the name of it doesn't matter much.
Marcster Posted December 19, 2009 Posted December 19, 2009 Sure! http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Garmin+-+n%26%23252%3Bvi+205W+Portable+GPS/9470556.p?id=1218114755117&skuId=9470556&st=205w&cp=1&lp=1 $90 for the Nuvi 205W at Best Buy. It has a wide screen so that's a plus. The only semi-useful feature this model is missing is TTS (spoken street names), so it'll say "In point two miles, turn left" instead of "In point two miles, turn left on Main Street". TTS doesn't seem like that big a deal though, I mean if you know where the street is, then the name of it doesn't matter much.Unless you are driving in a city, the quantity of intersections (blocks) make it more challenging.
brainfreeze Posted December 19, 2009 Posted December 19, 2009 I actually had that model (the 205 without the W.) I bought it 3 years ago and paid considerably more. It was stolen out of the car (always take it in with you!) and I replaced it with a 260 last year which has the spoken street names. Funny thing is, after a few weeks I started finding the new model downright depressing. Her voice was so flat. I tried all the voices and then found my old voice which has beautiful natural speech that is just great, but it's the voice that does not speak the street names. So I switched to the old voice and now run my Nuvi 260 with no street names just to get the voice. I'm, guessing they don't have the storage to prerecord the name of every street on the continent, so they use a more robotic computer generated speech out of necessity. Now I am looking for a starter GPS for my brother who I drew for secret santa. Maximum spending being $100 I didn't think I could buy him a GPS. Glad to find out I can! Thanks for your post.
adewrell Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 Her voice was so flat. I tried all the voices and then found my old voice which has beautiful natural speech that is just great, but it's the voice that does not speak the street names. So I switched to the old voice and now run my Nuvi 260 with no street names just to get the voice.Check out the Garmin Garage. They have LOTS of voices to choose from that have the TTS feature. Elfred is hilarious!!!
Venusaur Posted December 20, 2009 Author Posted December 20, 2009 Check out the Garmin Garage. They have LOTS of voices to choose from that have the TTS feature. Elfred is hilarious!!!At http://www8.garmin.com/vehicles/voices/ all I see are 3 voices. Is there another page with more?
Marcster Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 I'm, guessing they don't have the storage to prerecord the name of every street on the continent, so they use a more robotic computer generated speech out of necessity. If I were to guess, the text-to-speech units don't have every street name on the continent in a recorded form, just every possible sylable that are "assembled" as needed. For instance, a command such as "In one half mile, turn right on Hottenstein Street" is probable broken down into Hot-ten-stine.
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