Vehicle GPS Units - Which Features to Look For When Buying a GPS

Main Car Sat Nav Unit Features

There are standard features which virtually all modern sat navs will have, and without which, the system would be almost useless. These include:

Touchscreen: You need to be able to quickly select your options, and an easy-to-use touch screen is the best way to do this.

Route Maps: If your new GPS unit doesn’t know the area where you live, it would be rather useless woudn't it?

Audio Directions: You can't keep stopping and looking at where the Sat nav system says you should go, you need to be told out loud, “turn right”, “turn left”, etc.

Additional Automobile GPS Navigation System Features

As well as the standard Sat nav features talked about above, there are some extra features you may want to look out for, for example:

POI: Sometimes road directions just aren't enough; you also want to know where the interesting sights are. For instance, if you’re on vacation in a particular area that you’ve never been to before, you’ll want to know the various important historical monuments, or you may just want to know where the best entertainment venues are.

Hands-free Calling: Using a phone while driving is dangerous. Several GPS system can connect to your phone, giving you hands-free access.

Lane Assistance: Several GPS units these days have the ability to give you detailed help with navigating the lanes of busy roads. This way, you'll never take the wrong exit.

The Major In-Car Sat Nav Manufacturers and their Product Ranges

The other factor you need to consider when buying a new car GPS system is the company. These are the major car GPS makes, along with a quick note on the range of GPS units they make:

Garmin: $60-$3,000. Main Sat nav make. More than 200 sat navs available. Very large range.
TomTom: $80-$1,000. Chief Sat nav company. More than 100 sat navs on the market. Large price range.
Kenwood: $320-$1,200. Quite a good range of sat navs. Nearly all of them are quite high end GPS units.
Pioneer: $350-$850. Again, a similar range of products to Kenwood. Decent range of high quality sat navs.
JVC: $100-$1,000. Few gps units, but covers a large price range.
Sony: $200-$840. Similar to JVC. Not many products, large price range.
Boss Audio: $165-$195. Only a few models on the market, all of which are full-on in-car multimedia players with large screens, e.g. for watching DVDs.
Audiovox: $80-$270. Not a lot of models on the market.
Escort: $670. Only one product available, in the style of a replacement rear-view mirror