Looking to purchase a gps for my wife's birthday, something simple and easy to use. Dont need lots of bells and whistles just get you there and home! What one do I want?

Here is the best for the $$$ its last years Mod. I just got one and its all youl need.
PLus you can put your mmc map cards in it also.







http://www.tigergps.com/lowranceiway250c.html?s_kwcid=lowrance%20iway%2025 0|2011697060

I have a cheap older Garmin that works super. No extras like music or phone, just gets you where you want to go.
The option that tells you the name of the street is liked by a lot of people, but I turn the voice off 99% of the time anyways.
Cabela's has the Garmins from $169.99, to $599.99. Personally I'd get the cheapest, they all run pretty much the same map program, just different unit functions (like Phone, mp3, Bluetooth, etc,) up the price.

PS...Did you get Nasty Dan ?? :D

I bought my wife a refurbished Garmin 250W (wide screen) for her birthday earlier this year, and she loves it. The re-furb units carry the same warranty as new. If I were to buy one today, I'd look at the 260W, which adds speech, in other words, tells you the street name to turn on, rather than just showing it on the screen. I got mine from Wade Kuehl's Jolly Ann Marine. Circuit City online is listing the 260W refurb for $230.
HRG

Ya mean old mellon head Dan? LOL!!

I went through the same thing 18 months ago when I was looking to buy my auto GPS. This is when the MP3 interfaces, traffic reports, etc., were all new features. I stuck with the "older" non-fancy technology and bought a rebuilt Garmin C-340 from GPSDiscounts.com.

Works fine. Great price. I LOVE it on long trips or even just finding unusual locations in my home area of SE Wisconsin.

Make sure you get one that SAYS the street names. Makes a big difference when you are driving. You don't want to have to "read" the screen to find your turns. As far as I am concerned, I got everything I need with that "older" model and saved a bunch of money.

The only thing I don't like about these GPS units is the fact that you cannot fully control the routes they choose. For instance, if you are traveling cross-country, you take what the unit gives you. You can insert one intermediate "forcing" point to try to control the route, but that is all (at least on my unit -- the newer ones may allow more).

For instance, say you were traveling from Milwaukee to Atlanta. The unit gives you its own chosen route. If you wanted to by-pass the Chicago tolls and traffic with a specific route you are out of luck. The only way you can do this is to break the trip up into a series of shorter legs (like Milwaukee to Rockford as one trip, Rockford to Indianapolis as a second trip, etc.) and set your next immediate destination at the end of each trip leg.

Or, you can elect to do this a little easier but with much less control by setting your trip up as Milwaukee to Atlanta and then choosing your one insert as Rockford as a forcing point. Then you need to check to see if the route the unit chooses for Milwaukee to Rockford to Atlanta is acceptable.

I imagine as technology evolves this issue will go away. But the issue is a small price to pay for the convenience of the GPS itself!

I would go with a Garmin and she WILL really like voice directions with street names...

Ya mean old mellon head Dan? LOL!!

Yup :exactly:

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/1527241/327795792.jpg

I e-mailed you a song "Nasty Dan" did you get it, or was it to big to get through?

He could ride his bike in front of your wife's car,
and yell out the name of the street where she should turn !!!!