Refurb Garmin c330 GPS @ RS $85 + TAX after AR,AC, and FC

I just picked up my second Garmin c330 Streetpilot from RadioShack.com. These refurb units come with a 1-year warranty. I seen others with 30 or 90 day.

Pros
- The lowest price I've seen yet for this unit!
- Great Basic GPS Unit
- Easy to move to other vehicle
- Accurate

Cons
- Older Maps
- No Text-to-Speech Capabilites or Traffic options
- Bigger Unit than today's models (although I like the size because you can sit it on the dash)

Sale Price $119
Rebate -$20
10% off Coupon -$12
FatCash -$2
Ship-to-Store FREE
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TOTAL $85 + sales tax

Product Link

$20 Rebate Link

10% Off w/ $75 Purchase • w/ Coupon FRNFM05

They have the same deal on the TomTom One 3rd Edition (refurbished). Which one should I get?

Garmin is more accurate and easier to use IMHO, if all you're wanting is a GPS. The easy, quick turn-by-turn lookahead and side of the road destination directions are sorely needed on TomTom.

I have a Tomtom 720, and I use my old C320 more.

However, if the included maps are as old as the unit, and you can't get a freebie update, I'd think twice.

jonnashville said: Garmin is more accurate and easier to use IMHO, if all you're wanting is a GPS. The easy, quick turn-by-turn lookahead and side of the road destination directions are sorely needed on TomTom.

I have a Tomtom 720, and I use my old C320 more.

However, if the included maps are as old as the unit, and you can't get a freebie update, I'd think twice.

I believe new maps can anyway be downloaded for free using utorrents. Gofor it if u are looking for a reliable unit

pashu said: jonnashville said: Garmin is more accurate and easier to use IMHO, if all you're wanting is a GPS. The easy, quick turn-by-turn lookahead and side of the road destination directions are sorely needed on TomTom.

I have a Tomtom 720, and I use my old C320 more.

However, if the included maps are as old as the unit, and you can't get a freebie update, I'd think twice.

I believe new maps can anyway be downloaded for free using utorrents. Gofor it if u are looking for a reliable unit
Illegally, yes. I bought a Nuvi 350 a while ago, and if you typed in the serial number you could have Garmin send you a CD of the newest maps. I'm not sure what the cutoff was for that, but it may be worth a try for anyone buying these older units.

I picked up one for my parents. I love this GPS and it is very easy for a non-technical person to use! Thanks OP for sharing!

parade92 said: They are refurbs because the built-in li-ion battery only lasts a year. Ask me how I know
Once the internal battery weakens, it has to do a lengthy cold-start to find satellites, which takes several minutes.

OK, How do you know? :-D

RadioShack sells replacement batteries for $30, on eBay, they run around $20 shipped.

Your battery problem is consitent with all equipment utilizing inbuilt batteries ... Li-Ion is only good for around 300-500 recharges ... if you power the GPS from the cigarette lighter, you are charging it constantly ... do that with your cellphone, and see how long it lasts ... Once the Li-Ion battery starts to fail, it does so very quickly. If, as you say, this affects the start-up time, it would indicate that the GPS is attempting to use the internal battery to keep from forgetting what satelites could be heard when it was last used and thus doing a warm-start (see next paragraph for more on warm-start vs cold-start) ... The simple effect of replacing the battery should resolve this issue.

regarding "Cold-Start" and "Warm-Start" :
GPS signals are a fraction of the strength of the background radiation that a GPS reciever hears. It takes a reasonable amount of computation to "find" the signal amoungst the noise... If the reciever doesn't know what satelites it's supposed to be able to hear, then it has to analyze the each frequency that is _possibly_ a satelite, to see if there is a faint signal in amoungst the noise. A "warm-start" tries to predict which satelites are overhead (since the orbits of all the satelites are predictable) based on it knowing where and when it last heard a satelite, and concentrate on finding those, before widening the search. Obviously, if the reciever moves significantly whilst it is off (such as when flying coast-to-coast) it will waste time looking for satelites based on the "warm-start" principle, before trying to find "any" satelite it can. (If you have an HTC based Windows Mobile Cellphone with GPS (such as AT&T 8925), you can get a utility that will download the current location of all the satelites.)

mmmmattd said: fatwalletbarrgan67 said: new no tomtom i have tomtom checktomtom???

What?

What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in what?

FYI the 330 is a dicontinued unit so the maps will not update any longer unless there is a hack for that. It's a darn good price though. I have a $50 GC I may get it anyway. You can't beat $39 AR.

debit said: cedarperra said: FYI the 330 is a dicontinued unit so the maps will not update any longer unless there is a hack for that. It's a darn good price though. I have a $50 GC I may get it anyway. You can't beat $39 AR.

Not so. The NT maps used for this unit will also work with many of the current GPS units (one purchase per one GPS since they keep track of serial numbers). Garmin continues to sell updates for discontinued units. You will have to pay for updates.

Thanks. What I meant was the site has not updated the downloads in a while and mentioned the unit is discontinued. Thanks for the clarification.

ebutash said: I just spoke with Garmin Tech support. I was informed that the c330 support for both map and software is slotted through 2012. They also stated that this could be extended and Garmin would repair the unit up to 18 months from purchase. I asked for this information to be emailed to me. Once I get it I will post it.

For $85 not a deal breaker for me.

Will they give you a free upgrade to the 2009 maps though? I just bought one last night. Cost me $42 total.

This reminds me of the scags that were hanging out a RS for Black Friday thinking they were getting a great deal on one for $200. I was just shaking my head. One person asked me about them. I said if you pay more than $100 for one you got robbed. They were standing in line with 2 of them too. Now I can find my way (and many ways) to work

BobBob said: The spec says:
"Preloaded City Navigator® NT for North America or Europe (full coverage)"

...which makes me uncertain whether this little garmin would be usable on my Euro vacation next month... any thoughts?
Garmin site has nothing more on this...

What I found for you. Cost $300 lol enjoy
SD card
http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010%2D10680%2D00

Or European street maps for $150
DVD
http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=010%2D10373%2D00

I'm unsure if the 330 has this loaded already. You should call support and ask.

Agr8RN said: Any one have the Tom Tom One 3rd edition?

I've been looking for a GPS (i'm jealous, my hubby has one built into his Ridgeline)
The TomTom has a bigger screen; 3.5" compared to the Garmin 2.8"...

Any thoughts? I've read the thread and really haven't seen more than one opinion...
Any help is appreciated!

Amanda
Resident Cruise Goddess

Garmin

jumpfroggy said: Agr8RN said: Any one have the Tom Tom One 3rd edition?

I've been looking for a GPS (i'm jealous, my hubby has one built into his Ridgeline)
The TomTom has a bigger screen; 3.5" compared to the Garmin 2.8"...

Any thoughts? I've read the thread and really haven't seen more than one opinion...
Any help is appreciated!

Amanda
Resident Cruise Goddess
I haven't tried TomTom, except at the stores. When I was searching for a cheaper GPS, I was deciding between TomTom and Garmin. From my impressions, it seemed tomtom was a decent entry-level GPS, but it also had TeleAtlas maps (which many considered inferior to Navteq maps). I ended up going with the Garmin, and it was just amazing. The navigation is almost perfect, the interface is simple and usable. Mine recently got stolen (!!), and I'm going to get a Nuvi 650 to replace it. I've just had such a good experience with Garmin, so I'm sticking with them.

It's funny you should mention it was stolen. My company just sent out a large email about GPS's being stolen in Canada more than ever. I mean they are GPS's. If you know your S/N shouldn't it be easy enough for the manufacturer to follow the fool that took it? The GPS knows where you are so why can't the satellite tell them where it is too? Just a thought.

jumpfroggy said: cedarperra said: jumpfroggy said: I haven't tried TomTom, except at the stores. When I was searching for a cheaper GPS, I was deciding between TomTom and Garmin. From my impressions, it seemed tomtom was a decent entry-level GPS, but it also had TeleAtlas maps (which many considered inferior to Navteq maps). I ended up going with the Garmin, and it was just amazing. The navigation is almost perfect, the interface is simple and usable. Mine recently got stolen (!!), and I'm going to get a Nuvi 650 to replace it. I've just had such a good experience with Garmin, so I'm sticking with them.

It's funny you should mention it was stolen. My company just sent out a large email about GPS's being stolen in Canada more than ever. I mean they are GPS's. If you know your S/N shouldn't it be easy enough for the manufacturer to follow the fool that took it? The GPS knows where you are so why can't the satellite tell them where it is too? Just a thought.
The garmin is a receiver, not a transmitter. The GPS device receives radio signals from satellites orbiting the globe, and from the timing of the signals it calculates where you must be. At no point does the GPS device transmit anything to anyone outside your car, with exception of bluetooth to your phone, etc. So from a technical viewpoint, it's not possible for garmin to track serial numbers because it doesn't have any way to find out your serial, your location, or anything. The most they could do is blacklist the serial number and wait for a warranty repair or tech support phone call.

However, most garmin GPS's have an Anti-Theft device. IIRC, it locks the GPS and asks for a code. If you don't know the code, it'll ask to you to drive to your secret location (hopefully not your home, since that's too easy to guess). If you don't know the code or secret location, then the GPS wont work. It's a great feature, one everyone should enable on their GPS. I know this how? Because I didn't, and now I feel like an idiot . Oh well, next one will def. have it turned on.

Do it! Enable your anti-theft GPS features!

Good to know but I'm sure there is a hack to override that code somehow.

I just received an email that my unit shipped. Not sure why as I selected pick up at store. In any respect I'll have it tomorrow. Who's house should I drive too first?

Netropy said: jumpfroggy said:
However, most garmin GPS's have an Anti-Theft device. IIRC, it locks the GPS and asks for a code. If you don't know the code, it'll ask to you to drive to your secret location (hopefully not your home, since that's too easy to guess). If you don't know the code or secret location, then the GPS wont work. It's a great feature, one everyone should enable on their GPS. I know this how? Because I didn't, and now I feel like an idiot . Oh well, next one will def. have it turned on.

Do it! Enable your anti-theft GPS features!


Yeah, but it's still gone if somebody wants it. It's grab and go. They aren't going to sit there and try it out first. ; )

The point is they can't use it either. At least initially unless they figure out how to hack/reset it.

Netropy said: cedarperra said: The point is they can't use it either. At least initially unless they figure out how to hack/reset it.
My point was that it doesn't help protect it at all. Whatever they can or can't do with it is kinda irrelevant - they can throw it out the window and they're no worse off. Regardless, your GPS is still gone. Not like they're going to bring it back cause it doesn't work ; )
No, they'll dump it instead. My car was robbed by some kids in the area that have been doing this repeatedly in the area for the past few weeks. They just run in and grab a few things and run out. Cops said that they'll grab the purse, get the cash out, and then dump the purse in the neighbor's yard. They don't even take the credit cards or licenses. So if they got a GPS, turned it on, and got an anti-theft prompt right away, they might dump it. More importantly, if they steal one and realize they can't use it, they'll probably test others and not even take the ones that have the anti-theft activated.

And most importantly, they have my GPS and I may never get it back. If I could push a button and let it self destruct right now, I would. In lieu of that, I'd settle for not letting them use or profit from the device.

So no, if someone is determined to steal the GPS, the anti-theft won't stop them. But in the big picture, if more people enabled their anti-theft settings then it would discourage some of the theft, which is really what it's all about. No anti-theft anything is fool proof. It's all "deterrent", since the harder you make it to steal the better your chances are. Everything can be worked around, but even the littlest bit helps.

Got mine today. Comes with a CD with USB drivers on it, and no other software. Where is MapSource!!!???

Also, I tried to get a map update from Garmin.com and it says I have to pay $69.95 to get the 2009 map. Bummer.

Tell them you just bought the damn thing and you want your damn update!

jess888 said: rickforrest said: I tried to get a map update from Garmin.com and it says I have to pay $69.95 to get the 2009 map.
.

That is confirmed. I emailed Garmin; they say this is a discontinued model.

UPDATE - Just got off the phone with Garmin - Software Support. They are sending me the 2008 disc for FREE!

I know it's still old but 1 year newer than the one that shipped with the unit.

Cheers,
OP