Is there a portable navigation system out there that is worth it. In other words, that is as close as possible to the good installed cd rom type navigation systems?

 

...in my wife's car and it is great.

It comes in a laptop case. I found it much better than the Mercedes and Porsche OEM nav systems, but not as good as the Japanese OEV nav systems.

 

I've never seen one in person, but the aftermarket Eclipse navigation system appears to have the same interface as the Lexus nav system. I wonder if 1) it is the same (the very best and easiest IMO) and 2) if they make a portable model.

 

Eclipse is by Fujitsu Ten which makes electronics for some of Lexus's cars.

 

Yeah, I've heard the same about Eclipse. A new model this year has 20gb HD to store music. I concluded Eclipse, Pioneer and Kenwood are the best. Eclipse is the easiest to install since all the CD and DVD drives are built into the head unit.

 

I have the Magellan 700 and bought my parents the Magellan 300. Both are EXCELLENT units for being a completely portable unit that you can take from car to car. I even take it on vacation, makes life real simple for getting places. The 300 is more compact then the 700 with the same functionality, except it doesn't include the entire US in the built-in map as the 700 does, though the entire US is free, you just need to load them yourself if leaving your already loaded area.

I only have extensive experience with the Garmin aviation GPS's, which are the best in their class. I tried a Garmin nav GPS once for a few minutes and it seemed a lot more cumbersome to use. Keep in mind it was a year ago I tried the Garmin so they may have some new models out that are better.

-- Michael

 

my step dad used to work for magellan before it got bought by thales and he retired. Its a great product, and when we did testing for it, it was alot better then garmin and all the rest.

 

I've got the Magellan 700 and it is great. I move it from car to car. The only problem is that I've forgotten how to navigate without it. In time it kinda steals IQ point from you!