Below are the top 5 factors for making a well informed buying decision when picking up the best GPS system for your car.

1 – Go With a Name Brand

It takes years and years of quality products to develop a positive brand name. And you can use that experience to help find a more trustworthy company. Garmin is the market leading brand for GPS units, followed by TomTom and Magellen.

If you are considering brands other than the big 3 mentioned above, make sure you are getting a lot more value, like better features and benefits, to compensate for the lower brand trust.

The best car GPS system will likely come from one of the top navigation product companies.

2 – Get Clear about Your Needs

This is probably the most important tip to the bottom line, or the price you’ll end up paying for your GPS unit. For example you’ll pay a lot more for the newest models with the “latest” features. Early adopters pay more.

The other side of this is will you really use Bluetooth or full European street maps? If not, you’re paying a premium for those features for nothing.

The best car GPS system is not always the one with all the bells and whistles, it’s the one that most closely matches your needs.

3 – Buy from a Reputable Merchant

Yes, you can probably hunt for a couple hours online to find a website that is selling the unit for $10 less. But is that really worth your time?

And furthermore, is it worth the risk. A merchant like Amazon often has the best price on any car GPS system on the market, and certainly has a reputation of being completely trustworthy: it’s worth paying a couple bucks more for the reputation of a merchant and a return policy that is reliable.

4 – Find actual User Reviews

A lot of online reviews are either written by associates of the product manufacturer or they are produced by affiliates who have a vested interest to making the product sound great, so they can get a commission from you when you buy it.

The trick to finding “real” reliable reviews is to search forums or sites like Yahoo Answers to find actual users posting their opinions.

The last tip is to not put too much stock in a single user’s comments, look for trends. If 10 users write about how bad the company’s customer service is, then that may not be the best car GPS navigation system to buy.

5 – Register Your GPS System

Make sure you register with the manufacturer, usually at their website, quickly after purchase. There can be free updates that can make a big difference in the quality of your car GPS unit and your access to them can expire 30, 60 or 90 days after purchase.

You’ll want to get the latest software and firmware updates and install them and of course, get the latest maps to make sure any changes to roads and points of interest are as current as possible.

Overall finding the best car GPS system doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Get clear about your needs and follow the steps above and you’ll be enjoying worry free car navigation for years to come.

Post from: GPS Consumer and User Reports

5 Tips for Finding the Best Car GPS System

The fairest way is probably to find a model of comparable price to base the comparison upon. So for this review, we’ll compare the following two GPS units:

Garmin nüvi 760 – $339.49

TomTom GO 730 – $399.99

Consumer Ratings

The first factor we looked at was actual consumer ratings (the following are averages of all the ratings found online):

Garmin nüvi 760 – 8.5 out of 10

TomTom GO 730 – 8.6 out of 10

Features

As you would expect with similarly priced GPS units, most of the features are identical. Here we list the features that are different for each unit.

Garmin nüvi 760

• FM traffic receiver with 3-month subscription to TMC real-time traffic services
• “Where Am I?” helps find closest hospitals, police & gas stations, nearest address & intersections.
• Qwerty or ABC keyboard

TomTom GO 730

• Voice address input
• Map Share technology
• IQ Routes – finds smartest routes
• Advanced lane guidance

Maps

TomTom’s Map Share and the ability to correct errors right in the 720 itself and have them updated so that other users can be aware of the changes is a really powerful feature.

Compared to Garmin where if you find an error in a map and report it, the only thing that will happen is that the change will appear in the next upgrade, which may cost you money to install.

Other Factors

Screen

The nüvi 760 is brighter, but the TomTom seems clearer and easier to read.

Multi-Point Routing

User’s report that creating a point to point route is able to be done much more accurately with the TomTom 730.

Setting up a route to an off road or new location (like a new construction site) is possible on the TomTom, but requires much more configuration (using custom POIs) compared to the nüvi 760.

The TomTom lacks the route optimization abilities that the nüvi 760 includes. These can save a lot of time if you are trying to find the fastest route on a complicated itinerary.

Conclusion

Overall, actual users rate the units very similarly. We’d give a slight nod to the TomTom 730 primarily for the Map Share technology which should provide you with faster map updates and less map inaccuracy.

You’ll pay about $60 for this benefit, but it is well worth it to have constantly updated maps which is the main reason to have a GPS in the first place.

click to see the best price for the 760 >>.

click to see the best price for the TomTom GO 730 on Amazon >>.

Post from: GPS Consumer and User Reports

TomTom 730 versus nüvi 760

Magellan Maestro 4250

Price*: $235.00

Our Rating: 8.1 / 10

Positive: multi-point destination routing with optimization, excellent address and text inputting system.

Negative: questionable routing system, outdated map data, inconsistent voice recognition, cumbersome custom POI interface, poor text-to-speech quality, poor customer support in United States.

TomTom Go 920

Price*: $315.87

Our Rating: 6.9 / 10

Positive: advanced voice recognition, enhanced positioning technology, map share, excellent customization options, multi-destination routing.

Negative: questionable routing system, outdated map data (possibly offset by Map Share user map information sharing service), no routing optimization, awkward user interface.

Garmin nüvi 760

Price*: click to see the best price >>

Our Rating: 8.5 / 10

Positive: routing engine works very well, multi-destination routing optimization, good Points of Interest (POI) database, more frequent map updates compared to competition, intuitive user interface.

Negative: touch screen is not sensitive enough, outdated map data out of the box, FM transmitter is useless, more expensive.

Garmin nüvi 680

Price*: click to see the best price >>

Our Rating: 8.3 / 10

Positive: most of the same features and functionality as the 760 but with MSN Direct live traffic, louder speaker volume than nuvi 760, much better value than the 760.

Negative: no multi-point destinations, looks slightly dated compared to 760.

* prices on these units change rapidly, click the link to get the best price (you may be pleasantly surprise as we have seen some units go down over 25% from one week to the next).

Post from: GPS Consumer and User Reports

TomTom vs Magellan vs Garmin nüvi

TomTom’s new GO 730 promises that this GPS with its detailed maps and text-to-speech instructions will make you feel like a native where ever you travel. Let’s find out from actual consumers, if these bold claims are true. Highlights: Voice address input Map Share technology IQ Routes – finds smartest routes Advanced lane guidance Hands free calling Built in FM Transmitter

TomTom 730 Best Price found On Amazon.com >>

Post from: GPS Consumer and User Reports

TomTom GO 730