Best Auto GPS

Garmin dominates reviews as the best GPS

In the $200 to $350 range, you'll find auto GPS receivers with extra features that can really make navigation easier, reviews say. The critics' favorite, the Garmin nuvi 765T (*Est. $350), improves on budget-priced Garmin car GPS receivers in several ways.

The Garmin nuvi 765T auto GPS has all of the features experts value in the budget-priced Garmin nuvi 265T (*Est. $180), including free traffic information for the life of the GPS device. But the nuvi 765T also has a wide screen (it costs extra on the budget model), shows buildings in 3-D and tells you which lane to be in at major freeway interchanges.

Unlike the budget-priced Garmin GPS receivers, you can enter all of your errand destinations into the nuvi 765T (day care, dry cleaners, Chinese takeout) and the unit will pick the best route to catch them all. If you particularly like certain routes, you can save up to 10 of them. The nuvi 765T also automatically remembers where you park your car, so if you remove the GPS receiver from its mount and carry it with you in your pocket, you can use it to navigate back to your parking spot.

In addition to its GPS navigation features, the Garmin nuvi 765T plays MP3s and audio books and allows you to make hands-free calls via Bluetooth. Its built-in FM transmitter can theoretically route the GPS receiver's sound through your car stereo. However, tests at GPSMagazine.com find that the nuvi 765T's speaker isn't nearly loud enough to carry on phone conversations, and the integrated FM transmitter is "so underpowered that it's almost useless." The Garmin nuvi 755T (*Est. $305) drops Bluetooth and costs significantly less. The Garmin nuvi 785T (*Est. $420) adds an MSN Direct traffic receiver for live traffic updates.

For the first time, you can get a midprice GPS for your car that's nearly fully controlled by voice commands. The Garmin nuvi 855 (*Est. $275), recently introduced as part of Garmin's luxury line, has seen its price drop into affordable territory. Testers say the voice commands really work; you can operate nearly every aspect of the unit without taking your eyes off the road or your hands off the steering wheel. Besides the wow factor, experts say this represents a giant leap forward for safety (although auto GPS receivers warn users not to type commands while driving, some allow it anyway). You'll give up a few of the Garmin nuvi 765T's useful features, though -- the nuvi 855 doesn't have free traffic info for life, Bluetooth support or a 3-D building view.

Garmin's newest GPS navigators are especially helpful for people who walk or take public transit, reviews say. The Garmin nuvi 1200 series (*Est. $200 to $300) and widescreen nuvi 1300 series (*Est. $250 to $450) are slim and light, with downloadable information for major cities that allows the GPS receiver to plan navigation routes using buses, subways, etc. Garmin also offers a model for truckers and RV drivers, the Garmin nuvi 5000 (*Est. $260), which has an extra-large screen and a video input so you can hook it up to a rearview back-up camera.

Garmin's final midprice GPS is designed to be the only GPS receiver you need. The all-in-one Garmin nuvi 500 (*Est. $255) is built to handle driving, hiking, geocaching, bicycling, motorcycling and boating. "If you've been looking for a single GPS solution...;the nuvi 500 is the best option to date," concludes GPSMagazine.com.

The Garmin nuvi 500 is waterproof to IPX-7, which means it can withstand being submerged in one meter of water for 30 minutes. It comes loaded with street maps for the lower 48 states, plus U.S. topographic maps (for hiking and camping). The nuvi 500 GPS doesn't pronounce spoken street names out of the box, but a downloadable update adds this feature. Users at Amazon.com are very happy with this GPS receiver's performance in the car, on the trail and on motorcycles. The Garmin nuvi 550 (*Est. $260) skips the topographic maps in favor of street maps for all of North America.

Most other automotive GPS brands don't give Garmin much competition in the marketplace. A few midprice GPS navigation devices from minor brands get some respect from reviewers, including the Nextar I4-BC (*Est. $230) and V7 NAV740 (*Est. $330). A couple of sources recommend the TomTom Go 730 (*Est. $265) as a comparable alternative to the midprice Garmin auto GPS systems -- but the only real threat to Garmin's supremacy comes from a newer TomTom model.

TomTom web-connected GPS: 'The next generation of GPS navigation'

TomTom isn't the first manufacturer to launch an Internet-connected GPS. That was 2008's Dash Express, which triggered a flurry of excitement among critics but couldn't gain enough of a foothold in the market to survive. Experts say another attempt, the TeleNav Shotgun (*Est. $300), does a decent job, but it lacks polish.

Now there's the TomTom Go 740 Live (*Est. $340), the first Internet-connected auto GPS from a major manufacturer. It can do two things that aren't possible with nonconnected GPS units. First, the TomTom Go 740 Live constantly collects traffic information not only from the usual traffic services, but also from other Go 740 Live units on the road. Reviewers say it can quickly detect when traffic starts to back up and navigate you around the problem.

Second, the Go 740 Live lets you search for destinations on Google -- a virtually unlimited well of points of interest -- rather than the finite databases you'll find installed in most GPS receivers. The TomTom Go 740 Live also uses the Internet to find the lowest gas prices on your route, as well as up-to-the-minute weather conditions and forecasts.

Most experts are impressed with the Go 740 Live, and they recommend it more often than any other GPS unit. But it does have its drawbacks: The online services cost $10 a month, and the GPS receiver's other big feature -- voice command -- is more limited than Garmin's version, reviews say. Craig Ellison at PCMag.com calls the Go 740 Live "the next generation of GPS navigation," although it's not one of his top picks. But one tester absolutely hates the latest TomTom car GPS. Wilson Rothman of Gizmodo.com titles his review of the Go 740 Live "Why TomTom Sucks."

Rothman writes that core problems he noticed in previous reviews of TomTom GPS receivers haven't been rectified: "TomTom is feature obsessed, but doesn't appear to care at all about actually improving the product." Rothman lists a litany of problems with TomTom's basic user interface, prompting a scathing, point-by-point rebuttal from another critic, Tim Flight of GPSReview.net, who says he has "lost all respect for Gizmodo."