We recently added a portable navigation device to our Long Term Ford Edge. We could have opted for a factory installed unit when we purchased the car but that would have added $2,380 to the bottom line. That price includes an upgraded stereo too.
Retail price for the Magellan Maestro 4050 is $699... Plus the Magellan has traffic info, Bluetooth, a built in AAA tour book, and the ability to use voice commands. Even if you opt for the Edge's factory nav system you won't be getting Bluetooth, it's not available. The built in AAA info should be nice for traveling.
In California, it's illegal to mount anything to a car's windshield so we opted to to suction cup it to the top of the dash. That just didn't work. The screen bounced around so much we got motion sickness. We ended up just sticking it to the windshield anyway and plan on taking our lumps should we get stopped - it's a fix-it ticket anyway.
So far we're just getting used to the unit. We recently reviewed 10 portable nav system and found the Magellan, along with a Garmin, to be the best of the bunch - look for the article in the next few weeks. Straightforward menus and simple graphics make the Maestro 4050 easy to use. Now, it's time to see how it does over the long haul. Road trip anyone?
Brian Moody, Road Test Editor.
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Impressive screen, nice setup. Unfortunately the power cord would mess up the tidiness of the cabin. Any GPS nav comparison test coming soon?
Major prob is having to remove/hide them when you park as they are a magnet for thieves.
You do have to plug it in to charge but the Magellan has decent battery life so the cord doesn't need to be there all the time.
I'm working on a nav comparison as we speak.
Hassle of removing could be lessened if people actually park in their garage.
The last GPS article didn't include in-dash units like the Pioneer AVIC-Z1 or the JVC in Karl's Ford GT. Will this upcoming article include them?
No, only portable devices. The hassle and expense plus risk of voiding warranties was enough to keep us away from those. We like Pioneer's stuff in general but opted to go just with PNDs.
Portable units are very popular simply b/c anyone can buy one, hook it up and start navigating.
Plus they are fantastic to take along on vacation, able to swap them car to car, some are waterproof and can be taken hiking, some you can load trail maps etc etc.
Looknig forward to the test.
Is it just me, or does that nav screen take up a lot of your whindshield area. Any blindspot issues?
we almost purchased a Lowrance Iway 250C but they were sold out! I thought it was a great nav for just $190 bucks. It had text to speech! But only for numbers...
then we almost bought a Magellan Rodmate 3100 for $200 but they sold out also...
Finally we dug out the atlas and drove to Birmingham Alabama. We only got lost because we took back roads like US-280 and US-84. It saved time but going 100miles with no gasstations in an expedition was unnerving. Our trip computer said we had 7miles to E when we saw a gas station. This happened between two small towns in GA... Cuthbert and Dawson. Luckilly is was during the day!
We getting the Tomtom Go910!
man, the edge has ugly gauges
Looking forward to your comparison test. I just ordered a tomtom one but haven't received it yet. Hope it's in your comparison. My understanding is that it performs the basics pretty good without all the bells and whistles. For $250 the price was right. Since I am going on a house hunting trip to a new city - thought one of these things would work to enter the addresses of the homes I wanted to visit and save me some time on my intinerary.
In regards to the no suction cup mount, you should take a look at www.proclipusa.com. While I don't live in CA, with my Valentine1(life saver!) and my Garmin Nuvi 360(kick bootie!), my windshield was getting a bit crowded. So, I got a proclip. They are available for most vehicles and sometimes offer diffrent mounting positions(kinky, eh?) dependant on the particular vehicle. They mostly mount by wedging between molding on your dasboard, they come with little tools to open the gap a little to get the proclip in, very easy, and no damage.
You pick the proclip, then you choose what you would like to mount to it. They have mounts for everything!! Cell phones, PDA's, IPOD's, and GPS's. The mount for the EDGE, wedges in on the top left corner of the radio(refer to photo), mounting high enough that satellite reception shouldn't be compromised(mine mounts high on the dashboard and gets perfect reception/2002 Volvo C70 Coupe). http://www.proclipusa.com/
For those who were waiting eagerly for it, here is Brian's portable navigation system round-up.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/techcenter/articles/122247/article.html