GPS V -- good but needs work

Author's Rating:

Pros: Accurate, good reception, rugged, links easily with computer. City Select maps are pretty good.

Cons: Route and re-route calculations are too slow, redrawing the screen is too slow.

The Bottom Line: 
Useful, lots of great features and City Select maps seem pretty good. But route calculation/re-calcualation really needs to be faster!

Author's Review
GPS is an amazing technology. The GPS-V translates GPS position data into usable driving information, like "you are driving North on Vine St., coming up on Healy Ave" instead of "your position is N123894 W134912."

With good maps, the GPS-V is great at determining your street position. The City Select maps I have tried are pretty reliable, unlike what I've heard about other GPS system street maps.

Now when it comes to route calculation and route re-calculation (when you get off-route), I had some problems. The GPS-V was just too slow here. Not that big of a deal I guess when you are sitting in the parking lot at the start of your trip. Just count on waiting a couple minutes or more before heading off. And if you stay on course the whole time the GPS-V is very handy, giving you warnings and graphic depictions of upcoming turns. If the map is accurate you'll get to where you're going with no trouble.

BUT, make a wrong turn on your route and the GPS-V suddenly goes back into thinking mode, recalculating your route. Not the brightest bulb in the bunch, the GPS-V, and it can take a while for it to figure out where you should turn to get back on-route. As it's thinking, you're still driving, trying to figure out what to do ... you can't just stop in the middle of the road and wait for the GPS-V to make up it's mind. Often by the time it figures out where you should turn to get back on course, you've missed that turn too or you're now going a completely different way than the GPS expects, causing it to re-calculate again, and the game starts all over ...

I'm guessing in future models Garmin will put faster processors in to fix this, I think the GPS-V has a screaming 16mhz CPU in right now. 133mhz like what they have in low-end pocket PC's would be great.

As it is now, the GPS-V is still very useful if you are in need of an accurate auto navigation system. Get a good price on it, figure out how to use it, and you'll be happy. It does sooo many cool things, more than I can talk about in this review.