Garmin StreetPilot c550 Car GPS Receiver

This is a review for my Garmin StreetPilot 3 GPS Deluxe. I have to admit that at the $900 price tag, I was a bit shy of making this purchase. However, this past Christmas, I needed to be good to myself and buy this new gadget. I divided my reviews into what I think would be important to a GPS user. As I mentioned, I've used this since 12/02 and have had the chance to "truly" explore its capabilities.

First, if you intend to buy this GPS, do yourself a favor and buy the "deluxe" version. This version allows you to have access to all of the detailed maps in the US versus just a "region" of the US. Granted the standard version will still show you all the highways across the US. But it will not show you the detailed streets or establishments (food, ATMs, gas, etc) near those highways.

The kit comes with a 128Meg chip that you use to download the detailed map info. Since I live in Boston, I pretty much downloaded most of New England max-ing the chip out with some sections of NJ where my sister lives. The size of the chip is the limiting factor towards downloading the detailed maps into your Garmin. But hey! What do you want for $900? You could opt to buy the Magellan 750M GPS for $2000ish (cheaper at $1600 if you buy it refurbished – NOT RECOMMENDED) which is exactly what is installed in Hertz vehicles as the "Hertz Neverlost". But this Magellan unit is not really portable. When I say portable, I want to be able to take it out of the car like a radar detector and then install it in another car like a radar detector. You can't do this with the Magellan 750M.

The deluxe kit also comes with a "bean bag" base attachment to allow for the portability of the GPS. It's basically a bean bag with some non-skid surface on the bottom to prevent it from slip-sliding around. I only managed to get it to slip when I was taking a fast turn in my M3. For the most part, this bean bag works. Or you could opt to install the double-sided sticky mount. It would be very difficult for the mount to unglue. I used this in my M3 and the Garmin hasn't flown off the dashboard since.

EASE OF DATA ENTRY
I felt that this was the weakest link for the Garmin. Instead of following Magellan's easy to use method of entering names of restaurants or places, Garmin chose to take the high road. You need to scroll through each letter ONE-AT-A-TIME. Garmin has "predictive" entry which is actually more of a hindrance since you just can't go from A to H by pressing the button 7 times real fast. Pressing the button 7 times fast from A might take you to the letter O depending on your location since it's "predicting" what you are about to enter with what's located around you. The point is, you can't see what letters are about to come up. They only come up one at a time. With the Hertz Neverlost, aka Magellan 750M GPS, you can at least see all the letters at any one time and you can scroll to the highlighted letters for the predictive entry.

ACCURACY
Depending on the number of satellites that it picks up, I've found that it displays an accuracy of 14 feet. That's pretty darn good! The Garmin also shows you the number of and the location of each satellite. The map gives you a scale range down to 120 feet. For comparison, my BMW Z4 GPS only goes down to a scale of 400 feet.

While going through a city – New York, Boston, Montreal, etc. the satellites signals will get blocked by building and you will lose the GPS signal. This happens all of the time and is unavoidable unless you purchase the new Garmin StreetPilot 2650 ($1400ish) which has "dead reckoning capabilities". But this will require professional installation since it will need to be connected to the speedometer and backup lights. So much for portability, huh?

WISH LIST
There is ONE thing that I would really, really, like to see added to my Garmin. I wish that they would have an optional upgrade that would allow the voice to be a little "sexier". When giving directions, I wish it would say something like, "Please turn right in 400 feet, baby." Or something similar. I would absolutely pay extra for this. Since this is merely a software change, it wouldn't take much of a production to implement this. The only upgrade available is for other languages.

Aside from the above, I would prefer Garmin to change their data entry to allow the user to enter the data a lot quicker. Just copy the Magellan system. It works.

Although I don't really need this, a chip larger than 128Megs would be nice to store more data. For convenience's sake, I just don't want to keep swapping chips back and forth if I decide to take the Garmin on a road trip to Florida or drive cross country.

FEATURES
The Garmin keeps track of all restaurants, ATMs, gas stations, landmarks, etc. What's nice is that if I'm looking for a McDonald's or Burger King while traveling, it will tell you where the closest one is from where you are currently located. It will also allow you to "detour" to that location temporarily. I've found that the Garmin has most establishments (I estimate between 85%-90%) loaded into their system. This is on par with the more expensive Magellan 750M system. I'm estimating this from actual use of both systems.

The Garmin allows you to save "waypoints" – or your own special locations. There's a limit to the number of "waypoints" you can store, but I haven't found the limit yet. You can consult the www.garmin.com website for the exact specs.

I found that the Garmin is "water resistant" or splash resistant. This was a surprise to me, but I suppose I could have read that in the specs. Of course, splash resistant does NOT mean that you can go dunk it in the ocean.

It keeps track of time accurately. As soon as sundown occurs, it actually changes the illumination and goes into "dark" mode. This is a pretty nice feature. The $1800 GPS system in my BMW Z4 (see my review!) doesn't even do this. In fact, just so you know, my Garmin has LOADS more features than the BMW Z4 unit.

If you miss a turn, it tells you that you missed your turn and proceeds to recalculate. Again, this is where I'd want that special voice to kick in, "Sweetie, you may have missed your turn. No problem, I'll recalculate."

The Garmin has a built-in trip computer. This tells you what time you'll arrive at your destination, how far it is, your average speed, etc. The cool feature is that it also tells you your top speed. This is extra useful for those banzai runs you might do every so often. With the high speeds you could be running, it would not be safe to take your eyes off the road. Let the GPS tell you how fast you actually went. My BMW Z4 unit nor the Magellan has this top speed feature.

OTHERS I CONSIDERED
I thought about the Magellan 750M GPS, but it was way too costly and not really portable. The less expensive Garmin GPS 5 was another choice, but it did not "talk" and the screen was not in color.