I am looking to rent (or possibly buy) your Garmin Nuvi. I am willing to pay up to $10/day (including 2-way shipping to/from PA) and a reasonable bond (refundable deposit). I prefer Paypal.

If you have a Nuvi 300-series and are considering upgrading to the 600-series, tell me what you would take for your 300-series. Don't want to keep your 600-series for some reason? Let me know your asking price. (Keep in mind that a new 360 can now be had for less than $400 and a new 650 for $436.)

I will need it for Aug 16-20.

Before anyone asks, I'm specifically interested in the Nuvi.

Please PM or email me.

Thanks!

 

I picked a 350 up at Costco for $250. Pretty cheap & then you'll have your own.

 

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, A) I cannot find that deal at either Costco.com or our local store (lucky you!) and B) I really do not need a NAV sytem 90% of the time... But we will be traveling through about 5 states and it would sure be handy for this trip.

 

Here's a thought...

Buy this one for $299...
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11225478&search=nuvi&Mo=1&cm_r e=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search〈=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=0&whse=BC&Dx=mode+ma tchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC& Ne=4000000&D=nuvi&Ntt=nuvi&No=0&Ntx=mode+matchallp artial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

Sell it here for $330 when finished..
http://cgi.ebay.com/Garmin-Nuvi-250-...QQcmdZViewItem

Pocket the $30 for gas money.

 

At $299 it still seems like a deal. The cheapest I've seen them for at Beast Buy or Circuitous City has been $400. I found my deal when a nice fellow NAMer posted about it here. Buying it & selling it on fleaBay sounds like a good idea. I didn't think I needed to own one either, but my deal changed my mind. Yep lucky me.

 

This is a little shady, but will work, non the less....

Buy it from Wal-mart and use it for up to 3 months....They return ANYTHING....


Use it (but keep all paperwork and packaging). Return it when done, and they will take it back with NO QUESTIONS ASKED. These poeple work for 5 bucks an hour and will not hastle you for a return. I test their return policy on a regular basis and it works.

Dont do this at a "mom and pop" store, but walmart is a corperate giant and they will just write it off.

Like I said, a little shady, but hey...its Walmart....

 

Costco has the MIO StreetWalker for $179.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11221852&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eC at=BC|79|4842|4843&N=4001412&Mo=10&pos=0&No=7&Nr=P _CatalogName:BC&cat=4843&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1 &lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10607-Cat4842&topnav=

MIO is not a small company. In worldwide PND market share they are in third place just a hair behind Garmin.

http://yournav.com/content/n/347/Thr...ND_market.html

The StreetWalker caters primarily to an Asian clientele and is likely somewhat less refined than the Garmin but you can't beat her price.

 

check www.bizrate.com I got a Nuvi 650 shipped to the house for right around $400.

here is a quick search shows they run as low as $286 from stores that have great reputations. Worth looking into, most have free shipping.

http://www.bizrate.com/globalpositio...__sort--7.html

 

Indigo,
Your post is a bit cross purposed. The best price for a NUVI 650 reported on www.bizrate.com is still above $420. The $286 price you mention applies to a NUVI 250. The NUVI 250 is comparable in size and functionality to the MIO product and $100+ more expensive.

Unless you have access to similar services gratis, the StreetWalker is worth considering.

 

You mean the MIO DigiWalker, don't you? Street walkers do not have that much of a range. LOLOL The article that talks about the "Big 3" GPS makers doesn't really address which of the MIO or Navman units is any good, either. Yet, splattered all over the page are ads for Garmin and Tom Tom....

 

Hmmmm.... I see that the idea of renting isn't going over very well.

I had the integrated NAV in my first MINI, but have been just fine without it for 1.5 years in this MINI... but a great deal could also change my mind.

This never would have crossed my mind. Sadly, I may consider it.

Tough one. Even though I have convinced myself that I do not need a NAV (I honestly don't!), I still secretly drool over the Nuvi 660 and would be content with a 350 or a 250W. It simply is not in the budget right now. As for the MIO - I know it is silly but if I'm going to buy one, I don't know if I can be "happy" owning less than I truly desire. History has proven to me that I generally end up dissatisfied with the lesser product I bought (which causes me to either spend twice or forever regret having spent at all). But your idea has merit for its sheer thriftiness.

...Goes off to investigate Costco's return policy....

 

Dear MINI to go,
I have a 360 and a 660 or rather my two teenage daughters have them. Both are excellent units but neither one is perfect. There are 3 main differences between these two units. The 660 has a better screen, much brighter than the 360 and very welcome in a MINI with the dual sunroof. The 660 also has a traffic receiver included in the box with a 3 month trial subscription. I did not find the traffic receiver particularly useful, the information reported for my area (Tampa) was usually stale. The third difference is the FM transmitter. Given the placement of the MINI's radio antenna the FM transmitter did not work at all well for me. So the decision of 360/660 boils down to the screen.
The 250 has a better screen than the 360 but lacks the Bluetooth and the spoken street names. The Bluetooth in my case was a must have for a teen driver operating a car with a manual gearbox but the spoken street names turned out to be of limited value.
I think your instinct of taking the StreetWalker for a test run and returning it if not satisfied seems reasonable.

 

that is exactly what I meant...Just wanted to show you can get the 650 for around $400, when I got mine, it was around $403 with everything, shipping was free. Prices seem higher now.

The price I mentioned, $286, was for the 250, hence the link. I just wanted to contrast what people are seeing out there, and for those paying over $400 for a 250 should shop around and realize they can get a 650 for about the same price.

Just do your homework

I understand the MIO product is similar and less expensive, but I have not personally seen one or used one, and I have been a long time user of Garmin, so I stick to a brand I can trust. Personal preference

 

I own a Nuvi 360, and think the 350 would have been just as good. The only difference is the 360 has Bluetooth, which is meant for handsfree calling, which doesn't work very well.

So I'd either go for a 350, or a 660 and enjoy the larger screen.

*BTW, Costco has a very generous return policy, but I dont like to abuse it like I do at Walmart. I have a ideological reason for hating walmart.....

 

Alright somewhat a ethical question, but you really don't know what to expect from any of the models do you? Reading a brochure is not the same to actually using it. So purchasing, testing it out over a 4 day period locally and out of town then coming to find out either it is or isn't what you wanted doesn't seem like a bad idea.

 

Thats what I did, and I found out quite a bit...coughing up 500 bucks is a lot of money to spend on somthing you cant try till you buy it, mount onto your car, and drive with it.

I bought one from a walmart in Socal on my honeymoon, and drove all over..I returned it back in the midwest, and chose to go with a different model. (which I bought online).

I dont really feel bad for walmart...They pay horrible wages to employees and give little / no health care. They move into a town and kill all the local stores, so I have no sympathy for walmart.....I use them to test all kinds of expensive electronics because they have no restocking fees..

 

I agree. So unless someone decides that they are willing to rent theirs to me for a few days this month, I guess that is the route I'll be taking (bad pun attempted).

While renting generally isn't the way I like to roll, paying $50 is easier on the cash flow than paying even $179 + tax ~ $200 (or more for a different model). And I may not need the thing again for another year. By then it will be dated and newer models with better features will cost about the same. And for someone else who has paid a chunk of change for a NAV device that they won't miss for those few days, it will help reduce their cost of ownership. No losers as I see it.

 

Its just too complicated to rent one from a NAM member...

Put the 200 bucks or so on a credit card, and play with it for a week...return it....done....

Get a Garmin or Tom Tom. I have used both, and they are simple, accurate, and ready to use out of the box. I never get lost anymore (ohh..unless Im using my Mini's Nav....)

 

If you consider market share there are 3 dominant brands in the automotive GPS market:

Number one with 37% is TomTom
Number two is Garmin with 25%
Number three is Mio/Navman with 20%

See the following article:

http://yournav.com/content/n/347/Thr...ND_market.html

The remaining brands battle it out for the remaining sliver of market share.

I myself have a NUVI 660 and a 360 and bought a 350 for my in-laws. All are excellent units for navigation. Some of the fancier features are not as useful. In the case of the FM transmitter in the 660, it worked very poorly in my R53 likely because the radio antenna is on the back of the car.

Collegues of mine have and speak highly of the TomTom One.

The dark horse is the MIO. From the market share numbers they appear credible but they spend nearly nothing on marketing here in the US. In contrast, Garmin purchased time to air an advert during the superbowl.
I do like the Garmin products but suspect that part of the pricelift between Garmin and MIO does not flow back into making the units better.

Right now Costco has the MIO Streetwalker for $179.99.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...se=&lang=en-US

Has anyone on the forum taken a StreetWalker for a ride?

 

There is no such thing as a MIO StreetWalker. I believe it's called a MIO DigiWalker. On the otherhand, a streetwalker has a very limited range, and to take her for any kind of a ride would be asking for trouble.

 

And technically, the arrangement with a streetwalker would be more like 'renting', since very few people would really want to own one.

 

Yikes, no wonder I got those funny looks from the gal at Wal-Mart customer service when I tried to inquired about their return policy on StreetWalkers.
It was like I was speaking Swahili or something.
The only answer I ever did get was that they will take anything back so long as it comes with the receipt and still has its original box.

 

 

i just recently got the mio c220.

i wanted to get a garmin nuvi as well but i just could not imagine paying that much for a gps. the mio works just as well as my mom's nuvi. the only feature i really really wanted was the street names, and but i ended up turning the thing to mute anyway so it would not have done much good for me.

at first i thought it looked sort of cheesy but now i think the size is perfect for the mini and color matched the mini's pretty well.

 

Does the screen wash out in bright sunlight? I think that's a factor that would be high on my list as well as the announcement of street names.