The Best GPS Navigation Systems

In the beginning, the Thomas Guide was the best car navigation system available. It was a novelty at first, being used by gadget hounds. Now, GPS and digital-mapping technology have joined forces, bringing many new systems to help you get where you are going with color maps, driving directions and updated traffic information. As with any electronic, they all have their good and bad points.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 has an impressive list of options and solid performance, but its best feature is its accurate speech recognition. The price range is $500 to $800, although you can get cheaper, refurbished systems online.

The Navigon 7200T, Magellan Maestro 4370 and Mio C520 navigation receiver are next in line. All three are very good quality and come with guarantees. Each one has features that the other one does not. They range in price from $180 to $350 and more.

The final navigation system on our list is the TomTom ONE 125-GPS receiver. This one is not the flashiest system, but if you want a good serviceable GPS receiver, at a reasonable price, from $100 to $180, then you might consider the TomTom.

It all depends on what your real need is. If you are basically just traveling around your area or state and need to find certain streets, then any of these can do that for you. These devices are portable and very user friendly. You can upgrade to something more fancy with a higher price, but for normal navigation, any of the above would work great for you.