Garmin StreetPilot c330 Car GPS Receiver

Review of Garmin StreetPilot c330 GPS Receiver (January 9, 2008)

I remember Black Friday, 2007 very well. I woke up early – 4AM, logged on my computer, at went directly to Walmart.com to snap up one of these Garmin units for only $129. After some difficulties with the website, I got dressed and drove down to the brick and mortar store to get my shopping done the old fashioned way. There were about 100 people in front of me in line waiting to get into the store for the crazy prices being offered during this special day. I made up my mind to grab one of the Garmin GPS units first.

When the store finally opened their doors, the crowds rushed in. I found myself waiting on line of about 5 people to pickup one of the Garmin units. There was this big sized woman two people in front of me who grabbed armfuls of the product and threw them into her carts, then took off. That left two units left on display. The lady in front of me picked up one of them, and just then, the other big woman came back and took the last one stating: "I needed 10 of them". Man-o-man! Fortunately for me, the other woman who was directly in front of me decided not to get one, and handed me the last one. "Oh! Thank you so much!"

Got one! I always wanted one, but I could not justify the hundreds of dollar price tags on the better GPS units, and I did not want a cheapy one. After loading up my cart with some Christmas presents, paying, and rushing home, I pulled out the GPS system and immediately put it to use.

My father had stopped by to go with me to the Tractor Supply Company store, which was the only other Black Friday shopping I wanted to take advantage of. It was far from my house and I did not know how to get there. All I had was the store's address from their ad. So, I took the GPS unit out of the plastic shell, stuck it to my windshield, plugged the cord into my cigarette lighter, turned the unit on, and put in the address. It was super easy to use and I didn't even bother looking at the instructions.

My driveway is rather long, and the unit got confused at the direction it was supposed to go, but when I reached the end of the driveway, a woman's voice came on: "Make a right turn in 400 feet". Wow! It gave me accurate turn-by-turn directions all the way along.

I did notice that it had some difficulties at a round-about near my home. It mentioned I should take the third exit, but it really was the second exit from the direction I was coming from, but this was no big deal because it would say "Turn left" at the right spot.

Also, I had to turn off of the programmed path to get gas. The unit immediately responded "Recalculating" to determine new directions. Once I finished getting gas, the unit snapped back into action and led me back to the previous course. Other times I opted to go a slightly different course (prodded by my wife, of course) and the unit would often recalculate, trying to get me to turn around, or go a different way to back track. After a certain point, it recalculates and sends you to the next closest turn off. In any case, the directions are always precise, but I find them not always to be the best way to get to a place (I've tested this out many times with known routes).
The device works off of a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite). The device will send a signal to the satellite indicating the exact coordinates of the car. In internal map loaded into the device is displayed on the screen to show relative position, based on feedback from the satellite. The map view has been very accurate, as far as I'm concerned. It shows the names of roads approached, and the shape of roads ahead. It does not show much other topography (bridges, buildings, etc.)

There is a lot of technology packed into the device. It can store locations for use later on. So far, I have put my home location in, as well as work, and several relatives we visit. When I wanted to visit one of these places, instead of entering the address, I simply go to the menu and select the place from my locations list. I can also ask for the location of nearby gas stations, restarants, hotels, and various other points of interest. I've tried this while sitting in the car waiting in my driveway. It provided several local gas stations, however, it did not supply the closest gas station to my house (although this gas station has been around for years). I have not explored all of the features of the device, although I use it extensively.

I should point out that this model has been around for quite some time now. There are numerous other GPS units on the market that are far more sophisticated allowing for blue tooth connections, MP3s, more screen details, text to voice details and other stuff. However, I do not need believe I need all these extra bells and whistles. The C330 is just fine for me. I only want to know when to make a left or make a right turn.

The audio is crystal clear and easy to hear. You can adjust the volume using the volume control. You can also select different voices to lead you along. I have the default woman's voice giving me directions. She sounds like Angelina Jolie. Hmmmm…

The unit does have some downsides. Often, I will drive along a major highway and the voice will direct me to make a turn. However, when I look at the screen, the indicator arrow shows that I should go straight. This has misled me several times, so I make a habit of peeking at the screen from time to time. Also, the physical size of the device is rather large. This is great, since it makes it easy to read the screen, but bad because I have the unit mounted on my windshield, and it blocks a major chunk of my view. There really is no better place to mount the unit on my dashboard. Finally – and this is really the worst problem of them all – the suction cup that holds the unit to the window will often come loose and the unit will fall (with a clunk!) as I experienced today. I almost crashed because of it….I thought a big stone was thrown through my windshield. Scared the s*** out of me! Needless to say, I will no longer mount the device on my windshield.

Going back to features, the devices comes with a cigarette lighter adapter to provide power to the unit from the car. When the unit is not in use, the internal battery charges. It also comes with an AC power adapter to charge the unit inside. You can take the unit from your car and get directions from your house, office, or any other place. The unit switches to the internal battery for power. There is also a USB port that allows you to download more current maps to the unit. I have not yet tried this, since I have only had the unit for several months. You can download the maps from Garmin's website. The unit comes preprogrammed with the map of the USA in it already. International maps are also available. There are also other mounting hardware pieces (which I intend to explore this weekend) to mount the unit to the dashboard. It also has a clock on the screen and it gives you an estimate (that constantly recalculates) of time that it will take to get to the programmed location.

I've compared notes with several other owners and most people have had similar experiences as me as far as reliability, and needed functions. I've also compared my unit to friends' GPS units of other makes (TomTom, Magellan, etc.) It seems that those people who buy the competing brands are just as happy with theirs as I am with mine. I happen to like my map view better than theirs, but it might be that I am just more familiar with mine.

I would recommend this GPS unit to anyone who does traveling to areas they are not familiar with. It is great for going on long trips, vacations, or even to known places that are far away (you might need to locate a gas station or coffee shop along the way). This is not an essential item for me, as I have a pretty good sense of direction, but it sure is handy. There have been times when I got really, really lost, and this device sure would have been handy then. It would make a great gift for anyone who drives a lot. It is simple to use, and easy to get used to it. It is widely available in many stores and on the internet. The normal going price now is about $169. Thank you for reading my review and best wishes for a nice day!

Mike