need help picking chartplotter

[fishful thinking]

my dad just bout a new big lake boat and has an ancient old lowrance fish finder on it. my mom wants to get him a fishfinder/gps as a gift. shes left the choice of which model up to me.(im his teenage son) ive been doing my research and it looks like you cant go wrong with the hummingbird 700 models or the garmins. i did hear bad stuff about lowrance. any advice or help on making this choice would be great. my price range is up to 700. thank you.

[Paulywood]

I have Garmin units and have zero complaints. They perform well and the customer service has been great. However, I do think you get a little more, as far as screensize, with the Humminbird units. For $700 you should be able to get a great combo unit. When buying a combo unit I really do think screen size is important. If you look around online you should be able to find a good deal. Good luck, hope this helps.

[Paulywood]

Looks like these units would fit your budget:

http://www.fishfinderdiscounts.com/product/33659

http://www.fishfinderdiscounts.com/product/36350

I just checked one site, if you look around you might be able to find a better deal.

[fishful thinking]

so i was looking at the garmin gpsmap 431 color sonar gps. i think that loooks like a good unit. anyone have any experience with that model of the next size up?

[usmcpaul]

I have an older GPSMAP and it has been a great unit so far. I think its a 231???

Anyhow, here is a site that I have heard good things about, however I have never actually dealt with them myself. Its called www.thenerds.net

They seem to have pretty good prices.

[trucktramp]

Give Ryan at Calumet Marine a shout. He will help you and get you a good price. Just tell him what you want to do and how much you want to spend.

http://www.CalumetMarine.com

(708) 862-2407

[fishful thinking]

thanks for the help everyone. when it comes to this stuff there seems to be a thousand different options available and it gets overwhelming picking one. im pretty sure i have a good idea what i want now.

[Line Dancin]

The stuff you heard about lowrance has been resolved. they were bought out a couple years ago and the old "crew" didn't want change. well change happened, it happens whenever there is a corporate take over, they (the problem matic people) are no longer there and cust service has been great. I have a hds 5 i put on my boat this sping, base map. had an issue. it was past the return time for cabelas. and they were backed up, spring time go figure. the new head of cust service contacted cabelas in dundee for me and got it set up to exchange it in the store so i wasn't without a unit, without me asking for anything special. The new one is the best thing i have ever used and wouldn't recommend anything else. i also upgraded to the lake insight for the better software. I have any other questions and they are there to help in anyway they possibly can.

Also there was a thing going around that there was no customer support for the mapping software that was coming form the factory. that issue also resolved. when the takeover happened they were in the middle of relicensing which happens with software. and it took a month or so. i had questioned that before buying mine and there were people that just couldn't understand the when a company is going through relicensing that they are not allowed to distribute a product with that software. anyways they were trying to explain it to customers and people just wouldn't listen and started yelling that there was no customer support for the software.

I will tell you that the lowrance units can be a little more complicated to use as there are more bells and whistles, but that also allows for more customization and manula control of the unit, giving a better picture of what is going on under the boat.