Which GPS unit has both N. American and European maps?
S. Freedman from Thornhill, Ont. asks: “Are there any GPS units that ship with both North American and European maps?”
S. Freedman from Thornhill, Ont. asks: "Are there any GPS units that ship with both North American and European maps?"
The answer is yes — but there aren’t too many of these GPS navigation devices with maps for multiple continents. I find this odd given how much Flash memory is now included inside these GPS navigation units these days, but hey, these GPS manufacturers probably make a pretty penny by selling additional map downloads to users (depending on the unit).
The only GPS unit I’m aware of that ships with Canadian, U.S. and European maps out of the box is the Garmin nuvi 770 ($699 or less). Depending on which continent you’re on, simply tap the country in the Options menu and desired language.
Speaking of languages, while the nuvi 770 offers text-to-speech translation – meaning it will announce the name of the street to turn on instead of only the distance until the turn – keep in mind the English voice might not pronounce street names clearly or with a proper accent when in, say, Italy, France or Germany.
Other features include a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, 2-D or 3-D view, millions of POIs (points of interest, such as gas stations, restaurants, hotels and bank machines), multimedia playback (music, audiobooks, photos and videos — all stored on SD cards) and Bluetooth wireless connectivity for hands-free calling.
The Tom Tom Go 7xx and 9xx also support North America and Europe and have all of the features listed above. A friend just got back from a 3 week tour of Europe using my Tom Tom 920 and reports that it was invaluble on the trip. And yes, he reports, one of the issues of text to speech is the pronunciation of streets in one country being spoken in the language of another. And Tom Tom's Map Share feature means that everytime you connect the Tom Tom to your computer you receive almost real time updates of any road changes reported by other Map Share users.
Hi Wayne.
Thanks for the note. Yes, you're right — some GPS units like those TomTom models SUPPORT European maps but the Garmin model I wrote about is the only one I know of that SHIPS with both North American and European maps in its memory.
Best,
Marc
Hi Wayne,
I looked into it and these three TomTom devices also have built-in maps for Canada, U.S. and Europe: TomTom GO 930, TomTom Go 920 and TomTOm Go 920T.
Marc
I bought the entry level Garmin 270. It comes preloaded with all North America as well as Europe. It was bought for a vacation in France last month and it worked flawlessly. No bells and whistles for sure but half the price.
Dave H
Not so, TomTom also comes with Western Europe and North America.
I have had the the Garmin Nuvi 670 for well over a year now and have taken it with me all over Canada, the US, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and parts of Spain and it has been the best grand that I have ever spent.
Of course the price has dropped a lot since I bought it! Do I feel like I got ripped off?? Not a chance, I'd spend the grand again in a heartbeat!!
The only real odd thing about it is that when you approach a street called (lets say) Water Dr, or Peter Dr, or anything with drive in it, the Nuvi will anounce it as Water "doctor", or Peter "doctor"……a small error, but one that I can live with.
As a side note…….while driving in the UK, it handles the roundabouts very, very good!!
My buddy had a Tom Tom and after the second hardware failure he took it back to Costco and got them to order him the Nuvi like mine!
Don't wait, get one now!
I am moving to Italy in Jan 09. My 2008 Honda Civic has a GPS/NAV unit built in along with XM radio. Will this unit work in Italy? According to Honda and the folks who make the software no.
Do I have any options?
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