I have a 196. It's very easy to use but you need to read the owners
manual. I've used the yoke mount in rentals. In my citabria, I made an
adjustable mount with panavise cell phone bracket. My plane has a king klx
35 gps/com, basically one of the older generation gps/coms. The gps
features on the 196 are much easiers to use. Reception has always been
very good, I've never needed to use the remote antenna.

You can get a pretty good idea of how the unit works at most marine shops.
Look at the garmin gpsmap 176. It's the same case and most of the same
buttons. I bought the 176C, color version, for my boat. It won't show you
any aviation features, but you can tell if the display size and feel of the
unit meet your needs. My satisfaction with the 176C convinced that the 196
was the right aviation gps for me. Since the 196 has marine features, I
gave my 176C to my father in-law and now use the 196 on my boat. I've
tried to use the gps in the car but I find it's too distracting.

Strangely enough, despite all of the features of my 196 and klx35, I find
that a plain old chart is sometimes the best resource.

Jay, I had a similar experience with a friends boat. He has a top of the
line gps that "quit" working on him. He said "It was working fine last
night". He had set the brightness so low the night before that the next
day, it appeared dead. Took me a while to figure that out!

Dave
'68 7ECA

"Sully" wrote in message
...
I was wondering if I could get some input from others on a few GPS's?
I have been looking at the Garmin 196 & Street Pilot III as well as
the Lowrance 500 & 1000.

The major advantage that I see with the 196 is that you can use it for
turn by turn directions in a vehicle. I have been looking at getting
a GPS for the vehicle that would do just that. From what I can tell
the price between the 196 and most others are only a couple 100 (for
vehicle).

The main draw back to buying either of the ones I have listed so far
is that it looks like the only way I can get them is to buy online
which also means I don't get to play with it first to see exactly what
features I like or don't like. I have found places that carry Garmin
and Lowrance in the area but none carry any of the aviation models.

Thanks for the help.