I am interested in getting a portable Nav unit and the sony's look very enticing. Anyone have one? Opinions?
Thanks.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/....com/index.php

 

I would have a real hard time buying a Nav, other than factory, that wasn't made by Garmin.

 

I really dont understand all the fuss about Garmins. I have one and I absolutely HATE it! I hate the navigation style. I find that big white arrow to be very ambiguous and the way it zooms out then zooms in makes me think the turn is sooner that it is. I really want a unit with a split screen that highlights the turn.

 

The real key with Garmin is they have great support, and a very good following of shall we say, dedicated fans who love maps? Garmin has maps for almost every country in the world and regularly (at least every two years) updates the US maps. All their mapping products are interchangeable with the Garmin GPS units, so you can load new maps on an older Garmin NUVI for example. I'd stay away from other electronics comanies who are building GPSes just to jump on the NAV bandwagon. Not the Sony makes bad electronics, they are fine, I just would rather have a US-centric company making my navigation device that will primarily be used in the US.

TomTom, and Magellan are decent too, but I have had much better reliability and upgradeability with Garmin products.

 

Not to mention that majority of aircraft use Garmin GPS equipment.