S-P-H:

If you are having GPS dropout issues due to the urban canyon phenomenon or heavy heavy tree cover, I would recommend a unit with "dead reckoning". This is where the unit ties into the speedo signal and also includes an accelerometer / gyro. When the unit loses the GPS signal, it starts using the aux information from the speedo and accelerometer to update location. It keeps this up until the GPS signal is reacquired.

I know Garmin makes a few units with this capability, I tried one with a 7 inch display but it was way too bulky. I'm sure other companies offer this capability as well. My only issue with Tom Tom is how brutally cheap and brutal they are to their suppliers. Their products are extremely manual labor intensive with blue wires, manually applied shield tape and a bunch of glue. Yes, over the past three years, I've pulled apart numerous GPS units over the past few years for work, call it competitive analysis if you like, but the company I work for doesn't actually compete with them. The technology level between the major players is equal, the main difference is with the final quality of product design and assembly... Magellan good, Garmin good, Tom Tom not so good.

jorrell


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92 245 250K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!