Automobile GPS's are no good unless you pay >$1,000

I was surfing the net for a good, reasonably price GPS, one with no bells
and whistles, but good mapping data - no blue tooth, no MP3 or picture
viewer ... but one with a good screen, good routing, voice direction, etc.
I was looking at the Garmin 250. But then, in talking to a friend of mine,
he tells me that these units are just toys, good for nothing, unreliable ...
that unless one pays upwards of $1,000 for a "good unit", that these cheaper
models are a nuisance more than anything else.

Is that true? Sure is not what I read in various reviews, but then again,
if I look at PC's for example, I've seen all kinds of reviews out there that
were totally off the mark.

So I thought I'd check with the user community. TIA for your feedback!

Times have change, technology has risen and price have dropped a lot.

The Tomtom One, released only last year, does the job quickly. Its list
price was $400, its street price is $200. Its better than many in-dash
units in performance except for the screen size. I've tried the Mercedes
R500 dash unit, for over 1000 mi of city, rural and highway driving.

I own one a TT1 for over a month and 400 mi later, its a champ. It
answers these questions easily:

stuck in traffic: where is the bypass
lost: how can I get back to X
how long will it take to get to X given I'm at Y moving Z

As for how good it is as a unit, see the reports at Amazon.com for it,
the Nuvi 350 or other units you are considering.

agree. I have an older TT 300 but pretty much the same deal.

are they error-free? nope. will they _always_ route you correctly?
nope.

will they .. in most cases take you straight to a business address in
a big city.. and then find the best way out of the city and back to
the freeway. YES!

make a wrong turn off the freeway into a city... the unit will
competently re-route you to get you back on track.

in fact.. GPS units are small, specialized computers.. that need both
firmware and data upgrades - over time.. and they also exhibit other
computer-like behaviors - primarily that they are far, far from
perfect but after most folks compare the pluses with the minuses -
they come up with more pluses .. and you can now obtain a good basic
unit for $200 or so.. if you check around.. and certainly under $500.

This service is only good in major metropolitan markets and requires
additional subscription costs. Make sure it is available where you
live/work before considering it a major factor in your purchase.

Hi P

I think you mean the real time traffic reports? Not needed. If you see
or hear a jam ahead of you, hit 'road block' on the TomTom and pull off
the highway or the road with the upcoming jam at the next turn, it will
calculate a route to bypass the jam. You can specify how far the jam is,
from 1/4 to 3 mi of bypass. I use this all the time: traffic reports jam
ahead x miles, or I see a jam I just turn off. If I turn too quickly for
the TT1 to calculate a reroute, I just pull over and let it calculate, it
takes seconds, but the pull ofd may be needed if the road Ys or T and you
don't know whether to turn left or right.