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 ------------------------ TOTAL $85 + sales tax
To enter a coupon code in your post please enter the following info:
Coupon Code:
Coupon Offer:
Merchant:
Expires (optional):
Restrictions (optional):
saving...
Quick Summary is created and edited by users like you... Add FAQ's, Links and other Relevant Information by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of this message.
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
RS' website also available "TomTom ONE 3rd Edition GPS Navigation System" at $99 as Refurbished. I never have one GPS, and I really want one. Could anyone tell which one is better? Can all GPS machines be updated map? Thanks!
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.
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.
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.)
Unfortuately, the average consumer isn't going to crack this open in one year's time, soldering iron in hand, and replace the hard-wired battery. I'm in the process of doing this now....
It turns out the black case of the GPS unit combined with lengthy exposure to sun causes the cell to overheat, which causes it to fail.
What? English, m*********r, do you speak it? Yes. Then you know what I'm sayin'! Yes. Describe what Marsellus Wallace looks like! What? Say what again. Say what again, m*********r, say what one more G*****n time!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
Pros 
Cons 
