magellan or garmin gps??

[wave15stx]

i have the garmin etrek legend but im buying my brother one for his b-day i see the magellan explorist 100 and the etrek legend in alot of stores and i can get em for like the same price which unit should i go with? mostly gunna be used to tell speed,thanks guys

[Hypertoys]

I like the garmin ,it seems to track faster.

[TM1]

I had an etrex legend and currently have a Magellan Meridian Color, both units work fine, but you get a lot more base content from Garmin than Magellan. Magellan really sucks in that department. I had to buy $100 worth of software to get the marine navigation I wanted, whereas Garmin included enough in the default map (yes, I got more features with the Blue Nav software, but the same base features would have been fine) Also, I have to uninstall the Blue Nav if I want to use the GPS for land and the street level detail sucks compared to the Garmin default (unless I buy more software).

So, unless they've changed all of this with the new models, I'd go with Garmin. My wife has a Garmin C330 that she uses in her car, it also works very well.

[baldguy50]

I had the 99.00 etrex for years bought 2 of them when the first one cracked. I just purchased the Garmin 76Cx with color map and it is the best for me. I ride off the waterway in Myrtle Beach on all types of trails and rivers, It is simple and accurate and is so informative. It shows everything, Not only does it work on highways, but it shows lights, buoys, wrecks & obstructions, it also shows shoreline details, boat ramps, mile markers and campgrounds. The brilliant color handheld boasts 128 megabytes of expandadle memory on the macorSD card allowing you to store tons of optinal map details. It also features a high-sensitive receiver by SiRP* so you stay locked on in any environment. The battery life is great. I have ridden about 200 miles with it and the same batterys are still in the unit. It automatically tracks everywhere you go even if the trail you are on is not on the map. It is not cheap, 399.00 for the GPS, 26.00 for the mount, and I think 199.00 for the MapSource CD Rom (Topo Eastern US) maps that can be down loaded to your computer and you can highlight the areas you want to ride and download them to the Garmin. It is truely and awsome unit. Even I can't get lost now and I have been riding the waterways for 6 years and trust me without this I would not have ventured into some of the areas I have gone since purchasing this unit. Ride with complete confindence that you will find your way back.

[jpack]

I have a Etrex legend cx. Base maps suck, cant believe magellan is worse. Screen is on the small side. Plan on upgrading your map most likely no matter which unit you buy. Nice to have the usb to connect to your pc.


Jim

[Beagleman62]

I have a Garmin Etrex Vista CX. I agree that the base map sucks. I bought a 1 gig mini sd card for this unit and have not come close to filling it up with maps. Other than the base map (most units don't come with a good one)
I really like the Vista cx. It's rugged and waterproof. I also like the removable mini sd memory card. Garmin seems to have a lot more accesories and maps for their units than does magellan

[jpack]

I have a Garmin Etrex Vista CX. I agree that the base map sucks. I bought a 1 gig mini sd card for this unit and have not come close to filling it up with maps. Other than the base map (most units don't come with a good one)
I really like the Vista cx. It's rugged and waterproof. I also like the removable mini sd memory card. Garmin seems to have a lot more accesories and maps for their units than does magellan

For fathers day my wife got me an Inland lakes micro sd card. The map upgrade is cool, but buying the preprogramed sd card was the wrong way to go. Buy the cd's so you can store what map you want to use that day. Once I insert the programed sd card i cant add any other maps to it. I dont know if I could load anything on to the units base memory. Does anyone else know if that is possible? I would like to upgrade the road maps as well without switching out the Inland lakes Micro SD card.

[Beagleman62]

For fathers day my wife got me an Inland lakes micro sd card. The map upgrade is cool, but buying the preprogramed sd card was the wrong way to go. Buy the cd's so you can store what map you want to use that day. Once I insert the programed sd card i cant add any other maps to it. I dont know if I could load anything on to the units base memory. Does anyone else know if that is possible? I would like to upgrade the road maps as well without switching out the Inland lakes Micro SD card.

I have the inland lakes eastern version on CD. I have about 3 states worth on my card.

[wave15stx]

i went with the garmin etrek legend works great! thanks for the info guys..