Can Anyone Recommend a Good GPS?

[RobertInOntario]

Rob:
we bought a Garmin 255W. They seem to be on sale in the 150 range. With it we managed to get to California and back and get all around Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Antonio. We call her Hilda or She Who Must Be Obeyed.

You should have a set of maps to go with it. It is not totally infallible. We have been going along following her directions and suddenly she'll say, "Recalculating", which is GPS for "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear." We were crossing one bridge, looking at the arch in St Louis, passing a long line of cars in the right lane when she said "Take the ramp to the right", far too late. There was another route a few miles down the road -- just before the road construction. We got caught in a 2 hour traffic jam in LA -- eventually we moved to a different expressway which was moving, because i had the maps. If you want to use it near cities, you should look for one with traffic features.
She lost satellite contact in New Mexico for a long time -- fortunately we just had to stay on the Interstate.
And she doesn't know about the extension to Hwy 410 that opened 2 months after we bought her.
She takes a camera memory card, but I don't know what for; she won't read maps from Trips & Streets.
Suggest that you buy the sandbag mounting that can be slung on the dash to replace the suction cup. Also store it out of sight when you park.

Thanks, David. These are all great points, especially about the traffic features. I didn't think of that but, living in Toronto, I should have! We have some Quebec and New Brunswick road maps but now I need to get one of the Montreal area. Cheers, Rob