Well i've been doing alot of research lately on all the different units and I'm pretty much sold on the Lowrance iWay350-c. Amazon has this GPS for $280 (http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Aut...e/iWAY350C.asp)

Before I actually buy it I wanted to get some opinions and feedback.

What I need from the gps
-lots of POI (point of interest)
-good battery life
-capability for offroad use
-lat/lon waypoints
-under $300

Thanks!

 

I used one last year when they first came out, may have been the 300C but still, and it sucked. The thing couldn't navigate for crap. It got us lost sooo many times. One instance we had it in the car, heading for our hotel, it knew the hotel as a POI, told it to Go To. Follow its directions and where do we end up? In some dudes driveway back in the woods on the other side of town. This was just one instance of it's poor navigation. Granted we were in Kentucky so take it for what its worth.

The last one I used was a Garmin SteetPilot. I used this one in Utah and it worked great! It was soo much nicer than the Lowarnce unit. It gave accurate directions everytime, didn't once steer us wrong even driving into a new development in hills above SLC.

The StreetPilot c330 can be had for $249.99 right now at Circuit City.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Garmi...oductDetail.do

Take what I said with a grain of salt, that is just my impression of these two units in other states, for all I know they could work great in California, the maps may be more detailed or.... So yea, Lowrance makes the best Off-Road and Marine GPS systems, but over the road I felt it was lacking and the Garmin worked excellent over the road but their off-road units are lacking.

Also you may have trouble finding a unit with 'waypoints' like a typical 'gps' has. I know the Garmin wouldn't show lat/lon and you couldn't map trails with it. Likewise it doesn't look like the Lowrance unit does either. For that you may be better off with a 540C and load street maps into it. But at that point you loose the turn by turn that the street units have.

So yea.. that is just my impression of these things from the few I have worked with...

 

^^i have the C330 and freakin love it!

 

I use a Garmin GPS V (in the truck) a GPS III (on the boat) or the TeleNav on my Blackberry Curve (wherever)...

I have always liked Garmin models... If money were not an issue, I'd have this one:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=338#

 

I want the gps for offroad so when we are on a night ride in glamis i dont care about getting lost. The lowrance has a straight line navigation feature for offroad use, where you can set your waypoint at camp and then it will point back to it. I figured I should get one that is mainly for the car and can also do the offroad stuff I need since most of the time it will be in my truck on the streets.

I have read alot of reviews like yours jason saying that it will get you lost more than anything, but I have also read those reveiws on high end systems from other companies.

 

True. But even the 'low' end Garmin worked like a champ, it was sooo much nicer than the Lowrance unit. It's guidance abilities far exceeded those of the Lowrance. But like I said, it doesn't do way points or straight line. So if the Lowrance unit does, and that is what you want the unit to do, that seems to be the one you need to get.

 

Yah, baileys mom has the lower end garmin that we used for a few day road trip and it worked like champ. It took a little while to get oriented once in a while, like telling me to go right, then 10 sec after i turn right it said recalculating cause I was supposed to go left.

I would get that gps in a heartbeat if it could give me an arrow offroad