Overview Portable Car GPS Systems

Car GPS navigation is a special form of navigation, as it is not you who navigates, but computer software that tells you how to travel to your destination. And frankly spoken, it does the job much better, than you ever could. Especially the systems with voice output are a great help, without the slightest distraction for the driver. Everybody could use one and everybody can use one, because you really do not need any special skill to operate these car GPS systems.

As with most techniques, also in car GPS navigation there are many different solutions for the same problem. We will only treat portable solutions, so no fixed in car vehicle GPS systems. In every category we will give some examples of typical brands and models.

Self contained, voice prompted car GPS systems
The Lowrance iWAY 500C is a portable color GPS+WAAS navigation system that shows you the way to any destination across town, or across the U.S. and Canada. Pick your destination with the touch screen display and the iWAY 500C automatically displays the best route, and gives you turn by turn directions with voice and visual guidance. Substantial 20GByte internal hard drive, with 10GBytes allocated to built in, high detail mapping and 10GBytes reserved for MP3 music storage to be used with the built in MP3 player.

The SKYNAV 3000 Mobile Navigation System from Cobra Electronics is a "plug and go" system, which comes with North American street level detail map of the entire 48 contiguous states and selected Canadian cities on board the system 20 GB disk drive (no downloading required). Users can beam addresses to the unit from a Palm or pocketPC. The unit contains a gyroscope to track position, even if satellite navigation signals are lost. The high resolution 5.2 inch diagonal 320 x 240 pixel color display has automatic brightness control (day or night) and includes an odometer, speedometer, trip timers, a GPS compass and displays elevation readings.

The SKYNAV 2000 comes with major US interstates and one detailed street level regional map (customers can select from 20 regions) and additional detailed regional maps can be easily purchased by phone or online and instantly accessed on the unit without the need of a computer (no downloading required).

The AmeriGo GPS Navigation System from Royal is a fully portable automobile GPS device, powered by the i.MXL applications processor from Motorola, which provides long battery life for power hungry applications such as GPS. The unit includes 128 MB of RAM and Pharos GPS Software with turn by turn voice prompted directions. The AmeriGo offers six screen variations, favorite destination storage and a one touch Home key and comes with four U.S. map CDs.

TomTom GO is an all in one navigation device for in car use. It works straight out of the box and can easily be moved between cars. The internal Li Ion battery is good for more than 5 hours constant navigation. The software is pre loaded on the SD memory card. The unit contains a two plane acceleration sensor that enables navigation up till 5 minutes, after GPS satellite reception is interrupted. The touch screen allows the route to be planned with just a few taps on the screen. Maps are from TeleAtlas and the GPS receiver comes from SiRF.

Garmin StreetPilot III DeLuxe comes with MapSource City Navigator CD ROM and everything you need to download street level map sets from your PC. The simple, intuitive menus of the StreetPilot III offer access to the shortest and fastest routes, directions, and estimated arrival time of your intended destination. Automated voice prompts alert you to upcoming turns, course deviation, and distance to final destination. For North America, Western Europe, Australia and South Africa.

The Garmin GPSMAP 276C is an all in one, versatile, color chartplotter and automobile navigator, perfect for land and water. On water, the GPSMAP 276C is a dependable, color Chartplotter with built in Autoroute basemap enhanced by Garmin marine cartography. The unit supports external NMEA sources for water depth, water temperature and water speed through two serial interfaces. On land, the GPSMAP 276C Americas or European Autoroute base map features interstates and major highways. With an optional automotive kit that includes MapSource City Select software, data card, friction mount, and 12V power adapter with speaker, drivers can receive voice prompted turn by turn directions to addresses and points of interest throughout the United States and Canada or Europe.

For map transfer or software updates, the GPSMAP 276C features a fast USB PC interface. The unit has a 3.8 inch diagonal, 480 x x320 pixel, 256 color TFT screen with adjustable LED backlight and a rechargeable lithium battery. Stores up to 3000 user waypoints, 50 reversible routes with 300 waypoints per route. The automatic track log can contain 10,000 points and one can save 15 tracks.

The Garmin StreetPilot 2610/2650 is a portable automotive navigation system. Just choose your destination using StreetPilot touch screen or remote control to be automatically guided with turn by turn directions and voice prompts. Both units have color displays, built in maps, and everything needed to download additional map detail and look up points of interest and addresses in seconds. Select maps and transfer data directly to the unit through an USB connection and onto a standard CompactFlash memory card. And both also have a MCX type connector for an optional external active GPS antenna. The 2650 also has dead reckoning capabilities and can only be purchased through authorized installation dealers and is therefore a fixed in car navigation system. For North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

The Garmin StreetPilot 2620 is a plug and play portable automotive GPS navigator that features pre loaded, detailed maps, right out of the box. The unit includes a pre programmed hard drive that stores detailed maps of the entire United States, plus metropolitan areas of Canada plus a database with more than 5 million points of interest. The intuitive, menu driven touch screen ensures that navigating the unit is as easy as navigating the road. The system includes a unique wireless infrared remote control, which allows easy operation of the unit from a distance. New and exclusive software upgrades include: Multiple Destinations, Road Segment and Area Avoidance, Find Nearest on Route, and Adjustable Road Class Preference. For North America and Europe.

The Garmin StreetPilot 2660 is a 2620 with dead reckoning. This means that once the unit is installed by an authorized Garmin installer, you’ll continue to get navigation guidance even if you lose GPS reception. Simply unplug the dead reckoning cable from the vehicle adapter if you want to use the 2660 in another vehicle. It will navigate the same way as the StreetPilot 2620.

The Navman iCN630 portable in car Navigation system now comes with 3D Map View and the latest map data from TeleAtlas. Features include: voice guided navigation, Post code search, user selectable avoid areas and complete route summary display. The unit has a TFT automotive rated LCD 3.8 inch QVGA 320 x 240 pixel screen with 65,000 colors. The iCN630 comes with 64MB of memory to store your local area maps. The built in Secure Digital (SD) and Multimedia Card (MMC) Expansion slot are ideal for additional maps and data storage up to 256MB. For USA, Canada, Western Europe and Australia.

The new Navman iCN 650 is the ultimate Pan European in car navigation system. Incorporating the very latest GPS technology, design and software, the iCN 650 is a feature rich system that sets the standard for transferable navigation. It comes fully loaded with maps for 16 countries in Western Europe on a 2Gb internal hard drive. The iCN 650 is the complete 'Drive Away' solution, straight from the box. The system has a massive in built 2Gb hard drive so it can effortlessly handle street level maps for 16 Western European countries plus over a million pre loaded points of interest and still gives you room to add more. You also get an awesome 3.8inch automotive rated TFT screen, an high sound quality speaker so you can clearly hear the turn by turn voice guidance, a multidirectional GPS antenna accurate to 5 meters all in a rugged magnesium alloy casing. Additionally there is an intuitive remote control giving you full journey management.

The new Navman iCN 510 is a sleek, pocket sized, mobile GPS solution delivering outstanding performance, features and design. The iCN 510 encapsulates Navman style and quality in a compact system that delivers leading edge road navigation. With its contemporary style and precision build quality the iCN 510 offers an outstanding wireless navigation system you can use in car or on foot. The distinct iCN 510 characteristics include a lightweight casing, sleek multi directional GPS receiver, high resolution touch screen, responsive menu system and infra red port for optional remote control. The iCN 510 is a complete 'Drive Away’ solution because it is pre loaded with the very latest regional maps for your country from TeleAtlas and is also pre powered out of the box. You can just 'Buy, Walkout of the store and Drive Away'.

The Magellan RoadMate 500/700 is a portable auto navigation system with voice prompting, turn by turn guidance and the latest touch screen technology. The RoadMate 500 comes with 4 CD ROMs containing advanced mapping of the entire U.S. and major metro areas and highways of Canada. Up to 100MB file size can be downloaded to the included memory card. The RoadMate 700 comes with a single seamless database, built in to a 10GB hard drive, which contains all major city streets as well as federal, state and county roads and highways.

The Magellan 750M Plus is a portable GPS vehicle navigation system. The built in database of detailed maps covers the United States and most of Canada, as well as over 1 million points of interest. No need to load new data. As Route Method you can choose from Shortest Time, Shortest Distance, Most use of Freeways, or Least use of Freeways. For Off road Navigation you can set waypoints along your off road travels and mark favorite trails, hunting and fishing spots, so you can visit them again and again. The unit provides information about your location, even when power is not available (emergency battery).

The Mobile Crossing WayPoint is a new kind of PDA that integrates highly effective satellite guided vehicle navigation with a high performance Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC. In addition to moving maps and spoken directions, this navigation device doubles as a fully functional Pocket PC. The WayPoint model 200 can connect to the Internet via a Bluetooth enabled cell phone, using its built in Bluetooth interface. Once connected, the WayPoint displays real time weather and traffic. (The lower end WayPoint model 100 does not include Bluetooth.)

Small GPS receivers with a cable (GPS mice)
The advantage is that the receiver can be powered by the 12V car battery and that a waterproof receiver can be mounted on the roof of the car for better satellite reception. Examples in this category are the Pharos iGPS 180, the Leadtek 9531 and 9532, the Royaltek Onyx, the GlobalSat BR 305 and the TripNav TN204. For Macintosh computers there is the Rayming TN 200 with an USB connector.

Small GPS receivers with Bluetooth transmission
Here the great advantage is that there is no disturbing cable between the receiver and the computer. This gives a greater flexibility when searching for the best placement for the receiver. This is especially great for walkers and hikers who can put the receiver in their hat, without a cable to the PDA. The disadvantage is that the receiver has to be powered on its own. The whole system depends on the receiver battery life. Examples in this category are the Emtac Bluetooth, the CoPilot BT GPS, the TripNav TN206, the TeleType BlueTooth GPS, the GlobalSat BT 308, the TomTom Bluetooth, the Navman 4400, the Rikaline 6031 X7(Xtrac), the SysOnChip GPS Bluetooth, the Socket Bluetooth, the Holux GR 230 and the RoyalTek RBT 3000 "BlueGPS", which is a datalogger for 30000 records as well. The Fortuna Clip on Bluetooth GPS is switchable between a standard ST mode (SiRFstar II/LP) and the extra sensitive XT mode (+ SiRF Xtrac).

GPS receivers in the form of an extended CompactFlash(CF) card
The big advantage is that the receiver and the PDA/PocketPC form a whole and that the receiver is powered through the CF slot. One disadvantage is that this whole could be rather fragile. Worse is that you have to sacrifice the CF card slot for the GPS receiver and have to store your maps on the much more expensive SD card, if your pocketPC has a SD card slot at all. Some examples are the Pretec Compact, the Haicom 302CF, the Haicom 303E with an Evermore chipset, the Haicom 303MMF with a standard SiRF II chipset, the GlobalSat BC 307 and the Transplant CF Primum.

Newer technology (SiRFstarII/LP + SiRFXtrac) makes that receivers are much more sensitive and can hold a fix under very difficult circumstances as under trees, in (urban) canyons and parking garages. As SiRFXtrac has to do an awful lot of computations in its effort to obtain useful information from weak satellite signals, the whole system becomes a bit slow. At the low speeds of walkers, hikers and bikers this is no problem at all, but at 120km/h a delay of 1sec equals 33m. This means that the instruction to turn could come a bit late sometimes. Examples in this category are the Haicom 303S, the Rikaline GPS 6021 X6 CF receiver, the Holux GM 270 Ultra CF receiver, which comes complete with an external patch antenna, the SysOnChip CFplus and the Fortuna Xtrac CF GPS receiver, which is switchable between standard ST mode (SiRFstarII/LP only) and the more sensitive, but slower XT mode (SiRFstar II/LP + SiRFXtrac). This last named receiver offers the best of two worlds.

GPS receivers in the form of an extended Secure Digital(SD) card
The big advantage is the same as for the CF card receiver i.e. the receiver is powered through the SD slot. As these units are much smaller than the CF units, the whole is less fragile. Build on the latest technology they are low power. And with this solution one can use the much cheaper CF card to store the maps.

Examples in this category are the IO Data SD GPS receiver and the Matsushita Secure Digital GPS Module, based on the SiRFstar IIE/LP chipset. As for golfers small and lightweight are important, iGolf Technologies brings out the iGolf SD GPS Package for pocketPC, which includes a SD card GPS receiver and the iGolfgps v2 golf application. The Pharos iGPS SD GPS receiver is bundled with StarCaddy Golf Software, but you can purchase it separately.

Sleeve receivers for the HP iPaq PocketPC
Advantage is a rather compact, less fragile GPS receiver. The position for best satellite reception may not be the best for reading the screen. Only two examples here: the Navman GPS3450 and the Emtac/Transplant Sleeve.

An ordinary GPS receiver as a car GPS
You don’t need any of the above GPS receivers if you already have an 'ordinary' GPS receiver. Mapping or non mapping does not matter. Almost every receiver that can communicate in NMEA 0183, version 2 or higher, will do the job.

We connected a Garmin GPS II (an 8 channel multiplexer from 1996) to a Dell Axim PocketPC, running TomTom Navigator 2 software and everything just worked fine. Don’t forget to set the interface mode to None/NMEA On newer models this is simply NMEA

See our GPS Car Tracking page if you want to track a car with GPS.

Software and maps to make things work
Examples of excellent voice prompted GPS Street Routing Programs include TomTom Navigator 3 for PocketPC SmartPhone and Palm Tungsten T3, Europe and North America, Powerloc Destinator 3 for PocketPC, Europe, USA, Canada, Austalia and Brazil, Mapopolis Navigator for PocketPC, MS Smartphone and Palm, US, Canada and Western Europe, TravRoute CoPilot Live 4 for PC and PocketPC, Europe and US, EMTAC Navigator for Palm, US and Canada, the PocketMap Navigator for pocketPC, USA only, the Rayming iGuide for laptop and pocketPC, USA and Canada, the ViaMichelin MapSonic for pocketPC and Palm, only Europe and the Pharos Pocket GPS Navigator for pocketPC, US and Canada. Also from Pharos is the Ostia Software for pocketPC, only USA. Route 66 from Route 66 Graphical Information Systems is for pocketPC and Mac, Western Europe (also for Symbian and Windows Smartphones), USA and Canada. Offers free up to date traffic information for The Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and Great Britain. TeleType GPS for PC and pocketPC is available for USA, Canada, Europe, South America and Australia. Deluo Routis is for PC and pocketPC, USA and Canada. Socket's MyNavigator for PC and pocketPC, North America and Western Europe. Infomap Navigator from Directions Ltd. is only for PC and is available for Europe.

Garmin Nuvi 200 North America (Lower 48)

Navigate without breaking your budget with nuvi® 200. This affordable entry level Personal Travel Assistant comes with preloaded maps for the continental U.S., Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Like all nuvi 200 series members, the 200 features an easy to use colorful touchscreen and ultra slim design perfect for everyday navigation.

Garmin nuvi 250w Wide Screen

With its easy to use touchscreen, preloaded maps of North America or Europe and widescreen display, the affordable nuvi 250W delivers directions on the go wherever life takes you. With nuvi 250W's widescreen display, you'll always get the big picture. View map detail, driving directions, photos and more in bright, brilliant color. Its sunlight readable, antiglare, landscape, 4.3 inch display with white backlight is easy to read from any direction.

Magellan Maestro 3200

On Sale thru 1/31/08
Worry free navigation with style! Affordable and complete: 1.3 million Points of Interest and built in maps of the 48 contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Touch the simple menu on the brilliant 3.5" color display to get an instant route with voice guidance to virtually anywhere. Ultra thin, wireless and amazingly easy to use!

Magellan Maestro 3210

On Sale thru 1/31/08
An extraordinary and amazingly easy navigation experience! 6 million points of interest and AAA TourBook guide enable you to find business and recreation spots throughout the U.S. and Canada. The intuitive menu and 3.5" color touch screen make it easy to get an instant route with voice guidance in seconds.

Garmin eTrex Legend GPS

A dependable performer excellent geocaching handheld! The eTrex Legend is also equipped with additional memory totaling eight megabytes. The basemap contains lakes, rivers, cities, interstates, national and state highways, railroads and coastlines. The added memory allows the eTrex Legend to accept downloaded map data from Garmin's entire line of MapSource® CD ROMs.

Garmin eTrex Vista

eTrex Vista combines a basemap of North and South America, with a barometric altimeter and electronic compass. The compass provides