Can Anyone Recommend a Good GPS?

[boppa]

My sister discovered something funny about the Garmin, I don't know if it is also true of the Tom Tom. Our typical annual rainfall in So. Cal. is 13 inches per year. This year we are at 15 so far, but for the last two or three years we have averaged less than 2 inches. The rest f the state has also been below normal so that when we went to the Oregon Coast on vacation a couple of years ago, Lake Shasta in the extreme North of the state was very low.

Anyway, my sister lives in Sacramento, and they have a boat that they usually use on Folsom Lake, but for the last few years the lake has been almost a mud puddle! They went to the lake and started driving toward the boat ramp with their Garman turned on. They passed the first boat ramp and were approaching a second ramp farther into the lake that is used for low water conditions. Suddenly the Garman started warning them to turn around immediately. As they kept driving the warnings seemed to get more frantic until the screen started turning blue until eventually the screen was entirely blue. The Garman didn't know how low the water level was, and was presuming that they had just driven under water!

Wow, the GPS's can obviously only take in so much! So obviously they can't keep up to date in terms of traffic and geography, but I'm sure they'll invent some really smart ones in the future that can. Rob

all gps's rely totally on the onboard stored maps
they dont have updates sent via the sats- you have to plug the gps into a internet connected computer to get updated maps
and the maps themselves are only based on the most recent info the map makers have

my country trips show roads that havent existed in over 50 years- because they are still what here is called a `gazetted road' ie the land may be resumed at any time the govnment feels its required- it is still marked as a `road' on surveyors maps (which is what most gps maps are based on in country areas)- but as for actual tar (or even gravel) roads at that point simply doesnt exist- its a `road' purely in a legal sense only, not a physical road

so any maps shown on a gps are on the first hand- age based and on the second hand- legaly based

and on the third hand (????) only as accurate as the origin maps (and in country qld- its often 2 or 3 km out!!)