Garmin StreetPilot c320 Portable GPS Navigator
- Convenient touch screen allows for quick access to features such as addresses, recent locations, food, and lodging
- Features a SD card slot, a 128 MB SD card, and MapSource City Select street data on CD-ROM
- Data can be transferred from a PC to the unit via a fast USB connection
- Customize the unit’s appearance with an array of colored faceplates (sold separately)
- Bright 3.5-inch diagonal, 16-bit color display
Garmin has introduced two new in-vehicle GPS receivers for use in your car or truck, the StreetPilot c320 and Street Pilot c330. We’ll be discussing both in each description as both are virtually identical with one key difference. The c320 comes with Mapsource City-Select award-winning software on CD (for installation into a notebook or desktop computer) and uses a 128MB SD card which allows you to download a particular region for GPS mapping as you drive. The c330, on the other hand, comes pre-loaded with highly detailed MapSource City Select street data of the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The database features an industry-leading five million-plus points of interest?including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, and attractions. So, if you do lots of long-distance continental driving, the c330 may be the better value for you. If you usually stick to driving within a section of the country, the c320 might just be the best for you. Both are exceptional units but y… More >>
Garmin StreetPilot c320 Portable GPS Navigator
Like this post? Subscribe to RSS feed!
5 comments
yosemite sam on September 14, 2009 at 10:28 pm
1. first peek the device looks small and cheap. the instructions are bare MINIMUM and the manual must be downloaded from garmin.
2. the cd took a LONG time to load, then would not go beyond a window stating ‘ error communicating with device’ and there was no going any further…period, rendering the device useless.
3. to unloack the maps you need some type of 25 gigit code…which was nowhere to be found. you had to check a box which them connected you to garmin, supposedly to give ‘the code’. by then i no longer trusted garmin and how they would then have access to data on my computer. some companies plant stuff and some take stuff and you would be none the wiser. so going that route, with all that goes on today, i do not think is prudent.
4. the device as sold is NOT legal in california. you need to buy as they say, ‘accessories’. i called the chp and they confirmed the illegality of using the device suctioned or mounted onto a window. you want ticketed?? i do not. if they are selling in california they should be up front in their ads and state the inability to use their device as sold in california.
5. there are batteries somewhere IN the device. now i do not know of any battery that lasts forever. the batteries are well concealed and i could not find any access door to them. what happens then when they die? is the device kaput? can you change batteries? you just do not know, once again a failure to disclose.
i read the reviews and bought based on them. but i am disappointed and frustrated with the device. it is useless to me and so will go back to amazon. since i was never able to get the device to load, nor get the maps unlocked i have no idea how well it works…but i would be ultra skeptical. and my trust in garmin is at a zero point.
John Sprung on September 15, 2009 at 12:24 am
The most incredible deficiency in this model — and I understand the entire “c” series of StreetPilots — is its near total lack of any way to use numerical latitude and longitude, the oldest, most fundamental and universal of all navigational standards.
Can it display Lat/Long on its screen? No. (Even my cell phone does that.)
Can it output Lat/Long electronically via USB, NMEA-0183 or RS-232, etc? No.
Can you key in Lat/Long on the touch screen? No.
Can you input Lat/Long electronically? Yes, via USB, with some difficulty. You have to generate a .CSV file on a computer, and download some software from the Garmin web site.
Absolutely astounding, it’s like a suitcase without a handle or a TV set without a picture.
Initial setup and installation are also quite difficult. It took me a couple days. The documentation included in the package consists of a few random scraps of paper. The actual manual you have to download from their web site. There’s a cumbersome password thing you have to find and key in. Why I don’t know, it should be fairly easy to make the software specific to the hardware.
Once past the initial hurdles and disappontments, though, it does have some good points. It does a much better job of gathering and interpreting satellite signals than my old 75 did. The voice prompts and simple map display work very nicely while driving. If you choose a different route home than it suggests, it seems to learn your preferences and use them next time.
W. Dixon on September 15, 2009 at 2:35 am
Nice Idea but this product never did work for me. It frozed up soon as I started to use it. That Sucked!!!
J. Lu on September 15, 2009 at 4:35 am
From the reviews provided by GPSer, C320 looks like a perfect machine with reasonable price, but now the price got up more than $150 now at Amazon.com . Personally, I think it is not a good time to buy this unit now, maybe after the new type of the Garmin unit comes out with reasonable prices. I will wait.
Z. Zhou on September 15, 2009 at 7:01 am
There was a discount on this item right after I gave my order so I called for a price match and the CSR asked me to reject the first delivery and wait for the new order with new lower price, which means Amazon will pay for 3 times shipping cost and I will have to wait for more days! what a solution!
This is a very good GPS system though. I substract onw star only for Amazon’s service.
Also, I suggest to hold your orders since recently Amazon’s changing its price so frequently.