Customer Reviews

Garmin StreetPilot III 3.4-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After using the earlier Color Street Pilot for a couple years I was delighted to have the routing and talking features in this unit. I have a fair amount of experience with Lexus' built-in GPS system as well as the Hertz Neverlost system, both of which I consider "permanently mounted". None of these are perfect and the Talking Street Pilot certainly is a great value.

Pros: Adequately accurate, adequately fast (most of the time), turn by turn instructions, audible instructions so you don't have to take your eyes off the road, generally good routing, availability of large memory cartridges so you can keep a number of geographic areas "on line" - you can pick & choose which ones.

Con: This unit seems to have trouble discerning whether it's on the freeway or the service road, especially when first entering the freeway or driving in one of the rightmost lanes after passing a major interchange - I don't recall experiencing this with either of the two permanently mounted units.

General caveats: As with all units, the most direct route is not always reported; interestingly I've had the most trouble on this point with the Lexus GPS. There is a lag time if (or the GPS thinks) you are off course; the Street Pilot seems to take a bit longer on average than the others to recalculate and you could be further off course by the time it finally catches up. The Street Pilot must have a line of sight to at least 3 signals (4+needed for 3 dimensional and more accurate positioning) and may take a while to acquire them. If you're not keeping the unit on the dash, you'll need the separate antenna (it works fine from the inside of the windshield). Performance degrades around tall buildings and disappears in covered parking areas (somehow the Lexus system kept working, I suspect through some inertial sensing devices). All GPS' I've used have occasionally gotten confused on the exact location (sometimes off several blocks, but typically corrected within a minute or two) and occasionally give really bizarre turns - a right turn, u-turn then another right turn when continuing straight would work. Not all streets are present or accurately depicted. I've noticed a couple incidents of the Street Pilot showing a street as cut through when it wasn't. As always, use common sense and good judgment when evaluating information presented by the GPS. The information is loaded from a CD and over time some information becomes obsolete; you might want to update your maps every couple years (or just get a new unit with the then current bells and whistles). And until technology improves another notch or two, your GPS will not know about construction or accidents on your route - a feature that could be available in future units.

As mentioned by others, take time to become familiar with a GPS prior to needing it in an unfamiliar area. Remember safe driving takes precedence over everything else. If you've not used a GPS before, plan on spending at least an hour becoming acquainted with it's features and functionality before trying to use it for actual navigation.

There are several additional benefits of using a GPS in familiar territory: Frequently you have to go between 2 points where you're not sure about the theoretically fastest/shortest way - the GPS can suggest routes and show you on the map. Sometimes there's unexpected traffic or construction, you can quickly determine if side streets look like they'll work - I've avoided driving down "no-outlet" areas many times by a quick look on the GPS. You can look up nearby stores, restaurants, etc.; I've found this especially useful for location Post Offices when I'm in an unfamiliar area.

Anyone who uses these gets hooked; I take mine with me when I need to drive out of town too.

For several years, I have envied the owners of high end cars equipped with navigation systems. I considered getting an aftermarket in-dash system, but the price was too steep. The StreetPilot III Deluxe is just what I have been looking for. It is a reliable, well-designed, and just plain fun gadget that will please the electronics junkie and the casual user alike.

The high resolution screen is gorgeous and remains clearly visible even in bright sunlight. At sundown (automatically calculated by the StreetPilot), the display switches to black and white and can still be read easily without distracting the driver. Operation is very easy once you get the hang of it. The 128 MB data card included with the deluxe version can store maps covering a radius of 500+ miles. It should be adequate for almost all trips. Programming the card is fairly easy, although the software is probably the system's weakest link. The interface is poorly designed but functional.

The system's autorouting function works very well, but because it cannot account for traffic volume or terrain, it sometimes underestimates drive time and thus doesn't choose the quickest route. 95% of the time, however, the system chooses the best route, and it has identified new and better directions for several of my most common trips. The vocal prompts are excellent. A sophisticated trip computer is an included feature and is a welcome addition if your car does not have one.

I cannot praise the StreetPilot highly enough. In many ways, I think it is superior to an in-dash system, in terms of price and portability (since you can transfer the device between cars). It is the rare gadget that is both useful and fun. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

If you have been looking at $2,000 (and up) factory-installed GPS systems, this device will look like a bargain. If, however, you are looking for a hiking-and-biking GPS device, it will seem weirdly expensive. Think of this as an in-vehicle unit that can can be used as a portable if necessary.

Factory-installed units typically feature bigger screens, don't intrude on your personal space, and don't leave a power cable hanging off your dash. However, this device has one huge advantage over them: It can be swapped between cars and taken on trips for use in rental cars. At the low end, there are many cheaper GPS units more suitable for the outdoorsman. This unit is best used an in-vehicle GPS -- its battery drain and weight might be an issue for hikers.

Test-driving this device for the first time on a commute or a trip to the grocery store, the suggested route may seem odd, crossing and then rejoining a street for no apparent reason. But it can also find shortcuts even in familiar areas.

The real value, however, is in driving in unfamiliar territory, where getting lost could cost time, gas, patience, and may even be dangerous. It can find the nearest gas station, restaurant (Italian, fast food, etc.), shopping, airport, hotel, public library, and many other categories of locations.

When I broke down on the side of a highway recently, I used it on battery power to find several service stations (it gives phone numbers) within a few miles. When I called one, I was able to tell them my exact distance from which exit, and direct the tow truck to my disabled car.

It is also valuable on trips when you rent a car. Just remember to download the maps for your destination and surrounding area -- this should take about 5-10 minutes if you're using a USB cable.

A WORD ABOUT SPEED
This GPS calculate routes less quickly than expensive in-dash systems, which should be no great surprise, given that it can run on batteries and costs less. Unlike a calculator that gives you the right answer in the blink of an eye, this unit is more like a chess computer. It seeks the best route (e.g. fastest time, shortest distance) among perhaps thousands of possible solutions for getting from Point A to point B. Deep Blue took some time to beat the best chess player in the world, but nobody calls it slow.

What does processing time mean for the average driver? Well, if you take a wrong turn or miss a suggested exit, it announces: "Off route; re-calculating." If you do something unexpected a second time or third time while it is number-crunching, it may re-calculate again. At such times, you may become frustrated that it can't "keep up" with the split-second decisions traffic sometimes requires. This can be annoying, but nine times out of ten you'll probably prefer the tradeoff its designers opted for.

The voice prompts are clear and sound more human than robotic. You can adjust the volume, which is helpful especially if you have chatty passengers. These prompts also let you keep your eyes on the road, which is a major safety and convenience advantage over units that don't speak.

The color screen is large and easy to read in all but the brightest direct sunlight. It calculates what time the sun sets and can automatically go into night mode (more black background) so your eyes can adjust to the lower light outside -- a nice touch.

You can zoom in or out on a map to see as much detail as you need, or you can let it pick the zoom level for you. This lets you strike a balance between over-frequent screen refreshing (if you are driving 65 and zoomed way in, for example), and seeing where you are relative to certain highways or exits, which you might want to zoom out a bit to see.

On multi-lane highways, as your exit approaches or lanes divide, it will tell you to keep left or right, which can keep you from getting needlessly into exit-only lanes or from having to cross several lanes.

Lest you think this is a complete rave review, there are a few shortcomings.

Battery life is fair-to-poor, depending mostly on how bright you want the screen. However, if you use the power adapter and use the battery power as backup, this should not be a problem.

You will notice from pictures that there are not many keys cluttering up the front of the device. This was a sound choice from a safety and design standpoint, but it means that you have to flip between screens and scroll to enter addresses, zipping through numbers and letters and entering each -- much the way you might enter your name or initials on an arcade game. It assumes a certain degree of patience and willingness to learn. If your directionally challenged spouse has not yet entered the computer age, this may be more technology than she (or he) is ready for.

BOTTOM LINE
Because of some minor quibbles, I give it 4 1/2 stars, but will round that up to 5 because it offers such good value compared to factory-installed in-dash units. Unless the extra money is a huge issue, or unless you rarely travel far from home, spring for the deluxe version and save the headache of buying additional maps, upgrading memory, etc.

I had gotten very accustom to my factory installed GPS. When I purchased my new truck, I was not able to get a factory-installed unit. I did some research and decided to give the Garmin street pilot a try. One draw back! I have windows XP and it took me 30 minutes to realize that I needed to download additional software from Garmin. It would have been nice if they would have included it with the packaging. I live in the nations capital and around here there are a lot of circles and one-way streets. I tested the unit around the city and it never got me lost or sent me the wrong way up a street. I decided to take it and my new trick on a trip. I needed to pick up my boat from FL. I new were I was going, but I wanted to see how well it worked. I programmed the address into the unit and it took my right there. Along the way, there was a restaurant I heard of in Daytona. I put in the name and the address popped up. The unit took me right to the front door. On the way back to DC, the boat trailer broke down. The Garmin was able to tell me the name and phone number of a repair shop close by. I called the repair shop and had them pick the boat from the side of the road. It then found a hotel close by and a Steak house. The food wasn't very good, but that would have been asking too much. The next day I used it to find the repair shop and to get me home to DC. This unit is well worth the money and I would put it up against the VERY EXPENSIVE unit that came installed in my car. Good Luck.

I've owned my unit for about 5 months and love it. It's one of the few pieces of electronic equipment that has passed my wife's "waste of money" test.

I bought the deluxe package to get access to all of the US, and have the portable bean-bag mount. We frequently trade which car gets the unit based on the day's plans. I routinely use the unit to go to and from work, and hit the "detour" button when traffic gets bogged down. Thanks to this unit I have found some lightly traveled trails during rush hour.

The unit offers shortest-distance or quickest-time to calculate routes. There are options available for how much time the unit calculates each permutation. For those concerned about recalculation speed, such as in a city, try setting this parameter to least optimum and thus fasted calculation time.

The shortest distance route will sometimes take you down dirt roads and trails. I drive an Explorer so find this fun. I'd be less impressed if I drove a low-slung sportster. Thanks to this idiosyncrasy I found a quick detour when a rural bridge on my commute was closed for repairs. It's also helped me find spots for fishing when spring arrives.

The screen is easy to see, even in sunlight and while wearing polarized sunglasses. I always use the cigarette lighter for power as the unit is known for eating batteries. The 128m memory card is plenty for storing the maps I need for my local region. I intend to buy a second card so I can have "home" maps and "road trip" maps without having to spend the time reloading home maps after a trip.

1. Superb engineering, a jewel.
2. Window XP users: When loading maps after purchase : if message "USB device malfunctioning" (or similar) appears, call Garmin support. They will talk you through the known issue--it's not complicated but you'll never figure it out yourself.
3. I bought it for my wife, who has some issues with the learning curve. Prepare to spend time with the device and the wife. Both are equally complicated and equally reward a calm, supportive, non-judgemental willingness NOT TO GET ANGRY AT THE WAY DIFFERENT HUMANS PROCESS DATA. Remember, both devices are better looking than you and smarter in many respects.
4. At least at first, prepare to program tomorrow's hard-to-find destination the night before, because "entering an address" is not as easy as it sounds and will cause you to gnaw fingernails the first six times you do it.
5. If you miss breakfast doing this, don't despair. While en route merely press buttons signifying "Nearest Carl's Jr" ( that's a tasty Southern Cal restaurant chain) and the Garmin will take you there. Also useful: nearest gas station."
6. Conclusion: Don't panic. Familiarity will come.

Please allow me to preface this review with the fact that I have absolutely no sense of direction. For those with excellent sense of direction, this may seem like an extravagant purchase until they come down in cost.
I had to travel to California recently (I only lived there my whole life before 1999), but since I had never driven in California before, I was quite nervous about doing so. The rental car had a GPS very similar to the Street Pilot, and using that gave me a great sense of confidence in driving around.
Shortly after my return I realized how badly we needed a GPS in our car. The Street Pilot was the best option for us because it has all the features of a factory-installed auto GPS, but the added convenience of being portable- now when I head out of town I can take the Street Pilot rather than having to rent a car with a GPS. Not to mention the Street Pilot is about 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost of a factory-installed system.
Some of the other reviewers have complained about how long it takes the Street Pilot to recalculate a route once the vehicle has gone off-route. I have intentionally gone off-route several times just to see how it performs, and I have been very pleased. It does take a few seconds, but from my experience it did not take so long that I got any further off-course than I already was.
A feature that I found to be very helpful in the Street Pilot which was not in the rental car's GPS is a search by company name. If you're looking for a department store, but you can't remember its address, just search by the name, and the Street Pilot will navigate you to the closest one. If you're looking for that great Chinese restaurant a couple of miles away, but you can't remember the name, you can search for Chinese restaurants in your area and find the correct one based on its address. Want to order ahead, or put your name on the seating list? Once the Street Pilot finds the restaurant you're looking for, it displays their phone number on the monitor as well.
About the only two complaints I have about the Street Pilot are very trivial. On the rental car I used, the GPS would automatically lower the volume on the stereo when the GPS needed to announce an instruction. Being an external unit, the Street Pilot does not have this luxury. Since I tend to listen to music, well, at ear-splitting volume while driving, it does take a little getting used to lowering the volume when using the Street Pilot around town, but again, this is a very minor complaint given all of the positive features the Street Pilot has.
My other complaint is that occasionally it does give directions which are not the most direct route. I used this on a trial basis in areas I was familiar with just to see how it performs, and I did find myself thinking on occasion "why is it telling me to go this way, when that way is much more direct?" Especially since I live within a half an hour of Garmin's world headquarters, it would seem to me that they would at least know the most direct routes around here! But even at this, the Street Pilot DOES get you to the correct destination every time, even if it sometimes takes an indirect route.
I noticed that the package includes both a beanbag mount and a permanent dashboard mount for the Street Pilot. Since Street Pilots have a way of being swiped, my suggestion would be to always use the beanbag mount, since a permanent mount could cause thieves to break into the car to find the GPS that is no longer in the car. I drive a new Jetta, and I did not want to get sticky stuff all over my dashboard, so I chose to try out the beanbag. It does not slip, even when making sharp turns. I suppose if I were in a collision this would not be the case, but in normal driving, the beanbag is great.
Of course, as others have advised, do not leave your Street Pilot in the car unattended for any reason. But given the fact that you're going to be spending around $1G for this puppy you probably already knew that.
And one other safety feature that I think is great, but others might be annoyed by it: once you are driving, you cannot change the destination; it goes into a secure mode. To change the address, you need to stop the car. This may be a nuisance to some, but given how badly people drive while talking on cell phones, it's probably best that Garmin tries to curb people from pressing all sorts of buttons on their GPS while zipping down the road at 75 MPH.

An amazingly effective compromise between the more expensive dealer or aftermarket built-in navigation system and the freedom of a portable. This Garmin Streetpilot offers a great deal of power with only a few sacrifices.

The package includes a 128 MB data card and USB programmer. To load maps onto the card, fire up the included mapping software, Garmin MapSource, select the areas and download them. It's just that easy and very quick. This downloads all the low-level map details as well as attractions like shopping, theaters, and restaurants. Because there's not a permanent CD option, the first compromise that you make is you can't take all of North America with you when you drive. I was able to select all of Virginia, Maryland and DC and download it to the data card. I'll have to load all the Bay Area maps or my other locales when I hit the road.

The cabling is simple, but it's kind of messy. The kit includes a power cable that connects to the car cigarette lighter. The cable is where the speaker is, so if you want turn-by-turn guidance, you'll need a cigarette lighter! The power cord connects to both sides of the GPS: one for power, located at the top and the other for the speaker, which is a mini DIN headphone jack. According to the manual, you can connect this to any non-powered speaker that's under 8 watts.

The system is very easy to use, and the included features are very similar to the Hertz Neverlost system. You can enter an address and have it route using less distance or less time. Just to try it out, I had it navigate me from my car dealership to home - about 50 miles. It took me through neighborhoods I didn't even know about - but the directions were exactly correct. The GPS accuracy, however, can be off by about 100 feet. So, in areas where you have a series of turns that are close together, this unit may confuse and frustrate you.

Sometimes, the navigation is a little too ambiguous. It will tell you things like "In 100 feet keep to the right and then keep to the right" Sounds good - until you realize it's a split ramp and it actually meant for you to go straight. It will reroute you, though. That's a blessing for guys like me who are forever lost and will not stop and ask for directions.

The package does not include a carry case, so you're going to have to get one on your own. The cables are kind of messy, so once you have it figured out for your car, you'll probably want to get some computer cable wraps to clean up the clutter.

The screen visibility is excellent and the map detail is wonderful. I really enjoy using this GPS system, which was an upgrade from my less successful handheld GPS that used a PocketPC and a smaller antenna.

You definitely will want to order the mobile antenna. It does wonders for the accuracy of the GPS plotting, and it takes up very little room when you put the whole kit in a bag to take along.

Do not leave this GPS unattended in your car, for any reason. It begs to be stolen.

I bought this little gem for the specific purpose of an upcoming vacation. I just got back this evening, and here are my thoughts.

Price:

I really don't think you can go wrong here for the price. A GPS system for under $500, with a color map (full screen if you choose), current street maps that are fully unlocked, talking directions, visual directions and waypoint setting (marking) right from the main unit.

Look/Feel:

The unit is surpisingly heavy, and when you use the bean bag mount, it stays put. This unit did not slide around my dash on my trip, even when taking curves at 75 mph. Impressive yes, kind of goofy looking though.

The unit feels very well built, and as I mentioned earlier, has some girth, so it won't go sliding all over the place when you are diving into that tight turn.

The buttons are all rubberized and I think they will last a long time to come.

Accuracy:

I didn't have a single problem with the maps and the streets we traveled. What did get a little "off" was if I was on a frontage road, or an exit road that ran with a road I just turned off, sometimes, the unit thought I was on the previous street and told me I was "off route". Not a big deal, as it recovered quickly and kept me going. However, I was in California and several streets seemed to parallel others and I would imagine this could give the Garmin fits.

Odometer accuracy is another area to look into. The mileage on my car read about 15 miles less than that reported by the Garmin. Not a big deal for sure, but it makes me wonder if my digital one in the car is off, or is that within tolerances for a GPS unit?

Waypoints/Routes:

Pretty simple here. Awesome, just awesome. Once we arrived at our hotel, we were kind of hungry so I checked for a steakhouse nearby using the "Find" feature. Numerous showed up, and within 4 pushes of a button, the one we were going into was located, made into a waypoint, routed to and away we went. It delivered us to the restaurants parking lot flawlessly.

Route Calculation:

Read carefully on the differences between shortest distance or quicker time. Shorter distance will tend to take you off main roads/interstates. On our trip, it routed us off I-15 (California) to a couple of secondary highways that were out of the way, and in the end, connected back up to I-15!! How goofy is that?

All in all, I would make this purchase again in a heartbeat. I was initially only going to use it for the trip and then resell the unit. Now after the trip, not only am I convinced on keeping this, so is my whole family!

This GPS is wonderful. I bought it when it first came out and was very impressed. That just got stolen and insurance is paying to have it replaced. This deluxe package is great. 128 MB, FREE unlock, BOTH mounts, and FREE updated software...great deal...and for the same price I paid for less! The updated software has even more points of interest categories such as movie theaters.

These jokers complain about it recalculating a route if you go off of it... this is you can choose for it to do it automatically or not. There are options for you to go the shortest or fastest routes (the joker who said it saved 50 feet probably had it set for SHORTEST route, not FASTEST). You can also tell it to avoid types of roads such as highways, toll roads, etc. I recalculated a route to avoid highways when the highway I was on was a parking lot and it took me off at the next exit and got me around the traffic.

I recommend the external antenna. It is discrete. Thanks Garmin for making a great product.