Garmin C320 Nav

I got the 320 instead of the 330 because I was worried about crashing the hard drive if I ever dropped it or got loose in the car. I'm still getting used to how small it is. I can use it without the power cord for up to 8 hours. It's touch screen only.

The mount has the power cable built in, so It's real easy to unsnap it and take it with you. The whole thing fits into the little Garmin bag.

When I was going thru the airport yesterday, I had a laptop, GPS, Digital camera, ipod and Treo 650 in my carryon. The screener looked at me like I'm strange? What's up with that??:rofl:

Well...I used it yesterday and it got me from the Atlanta airport to Buckhead with no problems.
I just noticed the issue with the polarized glasses myself, and the screen size is a little hard to get used to. Does not matter if you use day or night mode - it's hard to see unless it's close. But....as I found out yesterday - when getting directions, you dont really look at the map that much, you listen to the voice commands and look at the text (street names) at the top of the screen.
I was mounting the unit on the left of the dash (E46) and was not bothered by the cord, but the on a hunch I set the unit on the console in front of the shifter, pointing up at about 45 degrees and it had enough view of the sky and still worked - but I did not like looking down at it. I think that once it locks in all the sats, you can move it around.

cchan: if you look at the upper corners of the screen you will see a "+" and "-". You can zoom in and out with those.

Man this thing is GREAT!

It's bailed me out a couple of times already. I have a Dodge Magnum (V6) as a rental, and because of the steep windshield rake I can mount the 320 up high next to the rearview, and that makes it much easier to see. I switched between the Maui Jim's and the Ray-Ban's (both polarized) and see no difference in the viewing, so I think that the only real drawback it the brightness. It's hard to see in some conditions - there is not enough brightness or contrast.
The mapping and guidance is superb. Another cool feature is that I can leave the mount stuck to the windshield, and quickly pop off the Nav unit (and it powers itself down automatically) and put it in the console when leaving the vehicle. I also like the auto day/night feature where the contrast reverses at night (black on white) so it does not light up the inside of the car.
I think becasue the E46 has so much more greenhouse than the bogus Dodge it was harder to see because of the low brightness level. The Dodge is almost like a coffin inside (minus the squeeks). I'm thinking of trying the external antenna connection and mounting the nav unit lower - out of the sun - in the BMW.
No regrets though. Was worth it just for the help today alone.

Dave: Click on my link and you'll see that I paid $549.

I upgraded to a 1 gig 66x SD card from Newegg.com for $59 and loaded 3/4 of the USA. I think the entire US of A takes up 1.3 gigs, so you could almost cover it with a 1 gig card plus the 128mb they give you.
I'm gonna switch back to the 128 MB card when I get back to L.A. and keep the 1 gig for my digi cam. I noticed that Southern Calif took up about 64mb of the card, but some entire states only take up 16mb. I'll load states as needed.

Any SD card will work. I use a 512mb card that has half of the U.S. on it - including California.

I just got back from another trip/family wife's reunion. Indiana, Ohio, Tenn. and Kentucky. We ended up drving to some real remote lake in Tenn. (think Deliverance.....) on the back roads, at night in the rain, with no street lights or road reflectors ... and made it there no problem. All of her relatives we like "how the heck did you do that !?!?"My wifes new Benz has the Command DVD nav, and I like the C320 better. It has a touch screen, and is easier to program.

.