GPS Nüvi Blog
Featuring news, stories, and popular sales and auctions
News about Garmin the company, its Nüvi GPS line specifically, and general GPS-related stories of interest from around the world. Also featured are special items taken from our sales listings that have generated significant interest on eBay.
Company selling Nuvi 650 for waaaay cheap for a week
TigerGPS just announced that they have a special sale until April 7, 2008 on the Nuvi 650 GPS.
The online company has priced the unit at $299, far below the suggested retail price of $589.27, and even lower than the lowest eBay vendors, who tend to hover around the low- to mid-$400s.
The 650 is a widescreen GPS intended for the no-frills US market, the only real special feature being the ability to play mp3s. It does, of course, come with the usual array of standard Garmin features like the picture viewer, SD card slot, “Where Am I?” and “Where’s My Car?”, USB interface, etc.
There are a few other deals on at TigerGPS but none comes even close to beating the competition like the 650. Check out the sales page here.
These units are brand new, not refurbished. As GPS watchers, we are impressed: deals like this are quite rare. And there is free shipping from Tiger for orders over $250 so this qualifies.
Everyone loves GPS. So why are GPS companies tanking so badly?
TomTom’s shares are down 45% this year. Garmin’s are down about 40%. SiRF, which makes GPS chips, has seen its shares fall 80% this year, and they are laying off large numbers of people to cope with the losses.
Why is this happening? All the world loves driving, and all drivers love GPS. Right?
Actually, right. People really do love their GPS devices, just as much or moreso than they did in 2007, the year GPSs broke wide. But there are other factors at play in the 2008 automobile market.
Gas prices
Stories on the evening news about gasoline prices reaching (say it with me) “an all-time high” are becoming ho-hum, we see them so often. The price of gasoline is so out of whack with what it used to be that it is actually affecting what add-ons and gizmos people buy - or whether they buy any at all.
Technologies merge
GPS technology may be too popular for the ailing GPS market. Huh?
People love the idea of GPS positioning so much that it is increasingly showing up in other devices - computers, cell phones, PDAs, etc. Consumers love devices but they also, slightly paradoxically, love fewer devices - this is, devices that do the work of several in one unit. Why have a cell phone, an mp3 player, a GPS and a PDA when you can get one that does it all in a small unit, with extra features to boot?
Standalone GPSs may (very) soon look as quaint as “car phones” from the 60s and 70s that were as big (and the same shape) as house phones were. Nobody notices their inherent clunkiness now, but eventually the style and size of GPS found in automobiles will shrink, evolve and be integrated into other devices, and the units now being sold will seem rather ridiculous.
The dramatic fall of GPS’s biggest companies so far in 2008 may already be an indication that the end is nigh.
Nuvi 860 understands voice commands in six languages
The Nuvi 860, which will be released in the second quarter of 2008, comes with the capability to understand spoken commands in six different languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Dutch.
Though Garmin’s specs page on their website is a little vague, apparently you can just start speaking commands in any of those languages and the Nuvi 860 will understand. No selecting a language is necessary.
The Nuvi 860 will be sold only in Europe. We wonder if someday there will be a Nuvi that can interpret spoken Hungarian, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek and every other language all in one unit - or if English will win out as the only option.
Thieves steal GPSs and rob owner’s homes
From the UK: Thieves broke into a car and stole a GPS. This is an extremely common occurrence though.
But here’s the twist: they used it to find out where the owner lived, and ended up going there and making off with his $45,000 car too.
The information you store in your GPS can be every bit as dangerous in the wrong hands as the info in your PDA and cell phone. All of these devices are popular targets for auto break-ins.
Thieves can potentially use your GPS to find out not only where you live, but where you go, how long it takes, and when you are likely to be away from home.
Since having a GPS is basically the same as putting a big red flashing arrow above your car saying “BREAK IN TO ME”, be careful about what your GPS knows, and if possilble get a model that you can take with you when you leave the car in the parking lot.
Cheapest Garmin Nuvi prices online for Friday, March 7, 2008
These are the price comparisons of several leading online electronics vendors for Garmin Nuvi GPS models, as of Friday, March 7, 2008. Google vendors represent the top electronics sellers listed on Google Checkout, chosen by Google for relevance. eBay prices are drawn from the top 100 relevant results for each model, with auction/bidding prices excluded; only Nuvis that can be purchased right now for a fixed price (”BuyItNow”) are represented.
Models with insufficient data (for example, less than two eBay vendors) are omitted.
This information is posted at http://www.gpsnuvi.com/blog daily. For even more up-to-the-minute information, see Price Trends on each model’s details page (click the model numbers below).
To automatically see this list every day, subscribe to the RSS feed.
Nuvi 200
Garmin SRP: $26784
Top 20 Google vendors average: $257.05 [96% of SRP]
Top 35 eBay vendors average: $178.51 [67% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $136.95 [51% of SRP]
Nuvi 200W
Garmin SRP: $321.41
Top 20 Google vendors average: $257.41 [80% of SRP]
Top 63 eBay vendors average: $268.67 [84% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $169.99 [53% of SRP]
Nuvi 250
Garmin SRP: $321.41
Top 20 Google vendors average: $353.87 [110% of SRP]
Top 60 eBay vendors average: $290.65 [90% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $171.95 [53% of SRP]
Nuvi 250W
Garmin SRP: $374.99
Top 20 Google vendors average: $289.17 [77% of SRP]
Top 42 eBay vendors average: $243.94 [65% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $161.95 [43% of SRP]
Nuvi 260
Garmin SRP: $374.99
Top 20 Google vendors average: $354.09 [94% of SRP]
Top 43 eBay vendors average: $278.29 [74% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $214.00 [57% of SRP]
Nuvi 260W
Garmin SRP: $428.56
Top 20 Google vendors average: $340.35 [79% of SRP]
Top 22 eBay vendors average: $384.02 [90% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $328.00 [77% of SRP]
Nuvi 270
Garmin SRP: $482.13
Top 20 Google vendors average: $350.67 [73% of SRP]
Top 27 eBay vendors average: $386.76 [80% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $299.00 [62% of SRP]
Nuvi 350
Garmin SRP: $482.13
Top 20 Google vendors average: $379.75 [79% of SRP]
Top 49 eBay vendors average: $258.57 [54% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $218.99 [45% of SRP]
Nuvi 360
Garmin SRP: $589.27
Top 20 Google vendors average: $352.22 [60% of SRP]
Top 15 eBay vendors average: $291.68 [49% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $275.00 [47% of SRP]
Nuvi 370
Garmin SRP: $696.41
Top 20 Google vendors average: $548.71 [79% of SRP]
Top 32 eBay vendors average: $677.68 [97% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $448.75 [64% of SRP]
Nuvi 650
Garmin SRP: $589.27
Top 20 Google vendors average: $404.39 [69% of SRP]
Top 21 eBay vendors average: $463.29 [79% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $408.75 [69% of SRP]
Nuvi 660 ←Today’s best deal
Garmin SRP: $749.99
Top 20 Google vendors average: $465.54 [62% of SRP]
Top 36 eBay vendors average: $351.14 [47% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $320.00 [43% of SRP]
Nuvi 670
Garmin SRP: $857.13
Top 20 Google vendors average: $563.78 [66% of SRP]
Top 31 eBay vendors average: $670.81 [78% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $449.99 [52% of SRP]
Nuvi 680
Garmin SRP: $857.13
Top 20 Google vendors average: $562.68 [66% of SRP]
Top 54 eBay vendors average: $590.12 [69% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $414.99 [48% of SRP]
Nuvi 750
Garmin SRP: $589.27
Top 20 Google vendors average: $449.80 [76% of SRP]
Top 7 eBay vendors average: $427.26 [73% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $404.90 [69% of SRP]
Nuvi 760
Garmin SRP: $749.99
Top 20 Google vendors average: $555.34 [74% of SRP]
Top 43 eBay vendors average: $553.59 [74% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $449.00 [60% of SRP]
Nuvi 770
Garmin SRP: $964.27
Top 20 Google vendors average: $744.68 [77% of SRP]
Top 27 eBay vendors average: $699.51 [73% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $592.99 [61% of SRP]
Nuvi 5000
Garmin SRP: $857.13
Top 20 Google vendors average: $719.64 [84% of SRP]
Top 4 eBay vendors average: $729.00 [85% of SRP]
eBay lowest price: $729.00 [85% of SRP]