I have often wondered how the Garmin nuvi compares to the iPhone for automotive GPS navigation. I recently had the chance to find out. I found myself traveling with a friend about 6 hours away from home and back.  I had brought my nuvi along when I went to meet them, but I was told it was not needed as they had GPS in their car. Well, their car is much fancier than mine so I believed it came with a GPS navigation system factory installed. Just after leaving my nuvi behind I learned the truth. Oh my! How I missed my own GPS device once we hit the road. We came across a detour which the iPhone had no idea about and had to figure out the detour ourselves by enlarging the map and watching our car move as a blue dot around the screen working our way back onto the suggested route. Well, that was fun - not. Then again, I have become quite spoiled and like it that way.

My nuvi comes with lifetime traffic and helps me bypass traffic jams and scoots me around detours without hesitation, talking me through every step of the way. Instead of reading directions printed on the screen and trying to follow them, my device makes me aware ahead of time which lane to be in and when and where to turn next, readjusting automatically if I don’t make the suggested turn for whatever reason. I do agree that ‘she’ sometimes seems to get frustrated with me if I decide to take a shortcut that takes me off the beaten path, but ‘she’ adjusts to my choices as well as my mistakes and takes it all in stride. I have plans for another trip soon with yet another friend who says she has a GPS device in her car. This time my nuvi will ride along in my purse just in case I again miss her help along the way.

If you know your location before you leave you can use the pre-plan trip optional which is nice for the fact you can see how long it will take you to get to your desired location. The GPS system also shows where you can stop for gas, find local attractions and restaurants so you can eat. The one really cool thing about this system is that you can use the 3-D option so the views are more detailed.

Memory is used to load detailed topographic maps, street-level maps, or additional waypoints into your GPS receiver. Detailed maps can use a great deal of memory on your device, so you need to consider how much internal storage capacity your device has. Higher end GPS devices also usually accept a memory card for additional storage. You can also share data easily between different GPS units of your own, or with a friend if you are using a memory card. There are several sizes of memory cards to choose from to expand the memory of your GPS navigation system. Most are between 1 and 4 GB of memory; although, you can purchase larger or smaller memory cards than this if you are interested, depending on how you plan use your GPS units.