Budget GPS units no longer require you to enter feature-free electronic ghetto. We pick the best options for a bit of budget navigating.
(Piggybank image by While MP3 playback, FM transmitters and Bluetooth hands-free are all nice things to have, in these turbulent and slightly unnerving times, financial prudence is not to be sneered at. If you're in the market for a GPS but the razor gang's slashed your gift budget, or you're just reining back the personal purse strings a bit, diving in at the lower end of the market doesn't mean you have to buy a dud, a rip-off or a featureless hunk of plastic and silicon.
All the brand-name, entry-level models we've assembled here have easy-to-use interfaces, the latest maps, speed and red light camera locations and text-to-speech, which allows street names to be spoken in verbal instructions. We've also thrown in an iPhone nav app for good measure.
Again our pick of the bunch is the TomTom model, this time it's the 3.5-inch One 140, which combines good looks, easy to access functionality and a bargain RRP of AU$249. It is also unique in giving you the ability to correct map errors, as well as share your corrections with and download corrections from the TomTom community.
Others worthy of prying money from your hands include the Navman MY30, which until 31 January has had its price chopped to AU$249, traffic messaging thrown in and free map upgrades for three years. The Mio A430 may miss out on quite a few features, but does offer a 4.3-inch screen for the price of a 3.5-inch unit. iPhone owners on a budget may want to consider the best of the current set of nav apps, Sygic's Mobile Maps.
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