We are getting a garmin

[hnd]

i've not seen one in car gps system that is worth a crap.

[Apple Guy]

No worse then the guy who spends $60,000 on a walleye or bass boat and uses it 8 months out of the year. Yea, seems too much for just a Focus. The car companies just keep raising the base price and charge an arm and a leg for stuff you want on your car.

[Litchfieldwalleye]

Originally Posted by hnd

i've not seen one in car gps system that is worth a crap.

X2- one of my vehicles has an on-board gps, not worth a poop. Other two have Garmin 'nuvi's' - far better, easier to use, safer (due to flexibility in location), and reasonably priced.

[Catch'nRelease]

I remember paying over $500 for a Garmin when they first came out...very small, black & white screen with very limited memory. You had to individually program every out-of-town trip and select only those area maps that were needed on that trip. You could not load all of Minnesota, for example - just the areas along your particular route for that one trip, each time. And even then those maps weren't always very accurate; I got lost on more than one occasion.

Now you can buy a Garmin with a bigger screen, that's in color, holds very accurate maps of all of North America, for a LOT less money. And of course the biggest upgrade of all is that the price you pay includes map updates for the life of the GPS device you purchase.

Compared with the Garmin I still like the interface and overall "look" of the GPS that came "built in" with my vehicle. But on longer trips I do carry the portable Nuvi with me in the glove compartment as a backup because I know that it has the very latest map updates, which on more than one occasion has come in very handy and has saved me much aggravation.

P.S. I also HATE paying several hundred dollars for the "privilege" of updating my car-based GPS maps when you can get these with your Garmin purchase for free!

[REW]

That is an interesting comment.
With respect to the folks who use a boat 8 months out of the year - how many actual hours does the boat spend on the water being used.

Sitting at the dock does not count unless it is being used as a party boat.

So - if you want, just for chuckles, lets take the typical current 18-20 foot fully rigged walleye rig with a 175 or 200 hp motor on it.

Take the total amount spent - say $60K.

Now, take the total amount of hours spent on the water for say - 5 years.

Lets say that the first year is 100 hours, the 2nd year is 80 hours, the 3rd year is 75 hours, the 4th year is 65 hours, and the 5th year is 50 hours.

Now, we have a total of 211 hours on the boat over a 5 year period.

Now, also lets say that due to health or other issues that the rig is sold after its 5th year for 25K.

So, the total spent for boat , motor and trailer only is 35K.

Now, if we look at the hourly cost of the rig, that is 35K/211= $165.

(for this study - we will not consider the $50,000 cost of the tow vehicle that was purchased only to pull the rig)


I suppose that that is not much different than the hourly wage of the folks who would own a $60K fishing boat.

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Now, if you look at the 30K focus and drive that focus for 5 years at 20,000 per year, that equals 100,000 miles.
Then, figure that we would be able to sell the car for about $10K?? after 5 years.

Thus the cost per mile would be 20000/100000 = 20 cents per mile.
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I suppose that the lesson of the day will always remain in
"the eyes and pocketbook of the beholder".

Be safe and have a great day.

REW