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We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~ Hilaire Belloc |
Garmin c330 Street Pilot GPS
We bought this GPS Unit in August of 2007 and used it till February of 2008. During that time we used the Garmin c330 almost every day. Some times it was our best friend, other times I had to hold Cindy back from throwing it out the window. It seems to do great getting us to any location that has been around for many years, but anything that has been built in the last 3 to 5 years, it seems to have trouble with? I recently found that Garmin offers a 2008 update for their GPS Units, but we have yet to receive it to know if it solves the miscalculations. PROS: The first thing is the price. Like I said we bought this almost a year ago and it was still under $300. That's not bad for a nice, easy to use GPS unit. I think you can pick one up now for under $200 which makes it an even better package. For the ease of use factor, I'd give it an A+. It's so simple to use, it didn't even come with directions, it's just that simple. You plug it in, turn it on and the prompts will either ask you where you want to go or just allow you to view the current map you are driving.
It's also easier if you get lost to just blame it on the Dumb Bi*#$ that's barking out the orders....or at least that's what I always do. Another thing that I really liked about it was how it showed me enough of the road ahead of us, that if we were driving on routes we had never traveled before, which we almost always are, I could just glance at the screen and know if I had a sharp curve or an intersection is approaching. The battery lasts for multiple hours when it's off the charger, and if we needed to take it with us while we went for a ride on the motorcycle, it's small enough to stuff in a jacket pocket and not be cumbersome. Everything you do is by typing with your fingers on the touch screen. The screen was plenty big enough for typing on, and while typing, it will usually jump to the next screen after the first few letters you've typed. This speeds up the process and really helps if you're changing directions while driving and need to find the new route fast. The cigarette lighter cord came with plenty of length to it, so we could mount the unit on either side of the dash and not be limited to where we wanted it. The reception was also very good. We would usually lose our Satellite radio reception way before we lose the GPS reception. In all the time we've had it, I think the only time we'll lose reception is when going under a long tunnel. I liked how many of the locations we would type in would also include the phone number if it was a business we were looking for. I don't know if this is normal with all GPS units, but this came in handy many times when we would be looking for a certain something. We could usually just type it in the GPS, find the phone number and call before we would drive there. We used it like a free 411. CONS: I have a few gripes with this GPS unit and I'll list them in no certain order.
1. The suction cup
mount that came with the unit barely sticks to anything? It wont
stick to any part of our Ford dash, and the little sticky pad that came
with
The only way I could get it to stick to the dashboard, would be to screw it on. We chose to use the windshield instead. But then just about every morning we would come out to the truck, and find the GPS is lying on the dash board because the suction cup has fallen off the windshield. We've cleaned the suction cup, the windshield and tried everything we could think of to get it to stick, but usually within ten minutes of sticking it on there, it falls off? 2. This isn't that big of a deal, but I'd like a on/off button that is a switch, and not a button that I have to hold in for 5 seconds. I cant count how many times I would think I had held it in long enough, only to come out to the truck a few hours later and the unit was still on! Just put a toggle switch on it so we know if it's either on or off. 3. The maps didn't seem to be that up to date? Like I noted earlier, I've heard that Garmin has released updated software, but we have yet to have received it so I cant comment on it. 4. Another item that I didn't like at all and something that was very hard to get used to was how early it would tell you to turn. The first 10 times we went some where I would make at least one turn before I was supposed to. It tells you to turn, and you almost always still have a few hundred feet to go. When you're in a busy city area, there can sometimes be 2 streets in-between that short of a distance. Conclusion All in all, I liked the Garmin c330 a lot, and it helped solve many arguments between the two of us. We realized if it couldn't find the exact location, we could either call and get a near-by landmark, or just punch in the cross streets to get us there. The only time it really had trouble was when we were out in the middle of nowhere and we needed exact directions on how to get back to our camp that might also be out in some random field. I wish it had the option of punching in the Latitude and Longitude marks, but it is one of Garmin's base models, so that's asking a bit much for a $250 unit. I'd probably recommend it to anyone who does a lot of driving in city traffic or in busy areas or larger cities. It seemed to work fantastic when ever we were in these areas.
On a scale of 1 to
10, I'd give the Garmin c330 a 6.5 or a B- Cindy's Opinion I would have to say that I don't like this model Garmin. It barley has any Landmarks in it, very few campgrounds or state parks and it often takes us on a wild goose chase to find roads that aren't there. Many times the Garmin brought us to a location that was completely wrong, even the wrong name and address. I am giving this Garmin away, that's how much I like it. I would give it a c- since I now use the old fashion map instead of the Garmin so that I am sure to get to the right place. As many arguments that Pat talks about it mending, there were just as many that it fueled up because I'd be yelling "Don't listen to that woman, I'm telling you it's this way!" He might be dumb at times, but he knows who to listen to when I'm barking out orders like that!
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The
screen is plenty bright and big enough that it can be seen from across
the vehicle in bright light. The volume of the voice prompts can
be adjusted from no volume, to loud enough to hear over normal music.
There are multiple voice accents, but all are women for some reason.
Maybe Garmin knows that no driver wants another guy telling him where to
go. 
the
unit so the suction cup could stick to it wouldn't even stick to the
dashboard! Now I don't know if this is a problem with Ford
dashboards, but I ended up having to clean the sticky residue off the
dash and throw out that piece.