Iswoolley:

The SP 26xx products support custom route preferences and custom avoids, the 276 and 296 (as of the system software available today) do not support these features. I believe that the SP 26xx allows "look-ahead" POI lookups, so you can find a hotel, restaurant, gas station, etc. along the route you are following, on your side of the road (important if you are on a motorway), but the 276/296 does not do this, though I stand to be corrected here.

There are significant differences between the autorouting capabilities of the different generations of GPSR's you mention - the GPS V, SP III, and SP 26xx series. I could write an essay about this, but I don't have the time to do so. Suffice to say that as processor speed and non-vol memory capacity have increased (and as the years have passed, and Garmin has enhanced the software that does the routing), many features have been added. For example, "avoid unpaved roads" is now a choice on the SP 26xx, the GPS V and SP III can't support this because of hardware restrictions.

Concerning memory capacity - I am using the current version of CityNavigator Europe, which is version 6. I mostly ride in Switzerland, which is not a very big country - you can get from one end to the other in about 4 hours. However, to load all the map segments for Switzerland (ONLY), plus the immediatly adjacent border segments (in case I go 3 miles into the next country), with autorouting information, takes 96 megabytes of storage space.

If I wanted to load all the map segments for a slightly larger country - for example, the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) - I would need 150 megabytes.

To load an 800 mile one-way trip from Zurich - in the direction that requires the LEAST data to be loaded - requires about 400 megabytes. This includes street level data, because if I only wanted the basemap (autoroutes, major highways, and major landforms) for the enroute portion of my trip, I wouldn't even buy a GPSR, I'd just buy a large scale Michelin map of Europe, or a $100 handheld GPSR that includes a European basemap but no street level detail.

PanEuropean

PS: You mention that the 276C costs £650 in the UK, and then refer to another £140 for a memory card. Does this mean the total cost is about £790? If so, does this include the cost of the road map CD (CitySelect)? I don't think road map cartography comes with the 276 (because it is a marine unit) - hence my earlier comment that the total cost of ownership of a 276 may well exceed the total cost of ownership of a SP 26xx, all things considered.

[This message has been edited by PanEuropean (edited 05 June 2004).]