GPS experience?

Nope...but I have the Garmin 350 Nuvi, and it's great. Compact, easy to use, and has a ton of points of interest.

One thing I like about it, that some GPS don't have, is it verbally tells you the name of the street you're about to turn on. Instead of saying "turn right," it says, "turn right onto Main St."

The tomtom is rated terribly by most consumers. Scrutinize it hard by reading reviews at consumerreports.org and crutchfield.com. Very few buyers like them. SlappyDooHoo, I've also heard great things about the Garmin Nuvi's but I've never used one.

Based on reviews and friends' experiences I purchased the Lowrance iWay 250. I like it VERY much. Its one shortcoming is that it is a bit slow to keep up with changes. For instance, the other night it told me to turn left on a street that had recently been made into a boulevard with a center divider. I couldn't turn left, but it really wasn't a big deal. As soon as I turned right it recalculated a new route.

Other than a very few instances of incorrect data, its been a wonderful unit. It finds your location rather quickly (but not lightning fast) and has good directions with a clear and audible speaker built in. I thought about stepping up to the 350 model but it only added an FM tuner so that it announces (or plays MP3s) through the stereo, but we have an FM-tuned iPod anyway and it wasn't worth the money to upgrade for us.

The other reason I chose the Lowrance was that it has all of North America already loaded. Its a no-maintenance unit. If I want to drive in L.A. (where I live) I just type in an address and go. If I want to find an ATM in Kansas, it already has it. If I need to drive to Alaska, its there. Some of the others require downloads or different chips for different regions and that would have ticked me off. I suppose if you live in one area and only drive there it would be one thing, but my wife and I travel cross country at least twice a year and it has made those trips nice.

This is why I'm leaning towards the TomTom's. They're One is one of their newer devices with the latest maps uploaded on it. Slappy is right, it doesn't have the text-to-speech (saying the name of the street), but the 510 does. I've been doing quite a bit of research in the last week and from what I'm seeing, tomtom has drastically improved their maps which is why I'm leaning towards their devices.

Curtis, when did you buy your lowrance/ when was the last time its maps were updated?

I bought it for my wife this last Christmas, so 4-5 monts. Its not so much a matter of when the maps were updated, I think the issue is that in L.A. there is always a ton of construction with things being upgraded. The boulevard incident I mentioned had been completed within the month, but even if I updated the maps, the new information hasn't made it to Lowrance yet.

really dont like gps, my boss knows exactly were im killing time.

LOL... I guess there's a down side to everything.

I've actually been borrowing the ONE XL for the last couple weeks and have found it to be a pretty neat device. It screen is pretty big, but I really like how easy its been to use. My boss hasn't been tracking me, but it has gotten me out of a few jams where I had no idea where I was going.