Looking for a GPS for my car

[XJ98Jeep]

Here's what I need. Whatever I have, I want to be able to plug it into my laptop and view the map on my laptop screen, so the size of the screen doesn't really matter. It also needs to have excellent topo maps, ability to do a breadcrumb trail, waypoints, and so on and so on. What would be EXCELLENT is if I can control it from my laptop.

I'll also use it for navigation on the street every now and then so it also needs to be able to do that fairly well. What models should I look at?
Maybe the Garmin Colorado series? The only part I'm not sure about is the laptop interface.

[Ivan]

Then check out the Delorme PN40. Awesome unit and pretty much does everything you do and then some. It runs on Delomore's Topo USA. I have the PN20 model, that I bought a while and just love it. The PN40 is an update model.

You can either use in conjunction with you lap top, and it works great as a stand alone unit when you are out on foot.

Launch the Demo on the website to check out it's capabilities....

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtdItemDetail.jsp?item=28646&section=10461

[Rob Mayercik]

If it weren't for wanting to control it from a laptop, I'd suggest a Lowrance XOG. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow for "remote control".

[XJ98Jeep]

It almost seems like I could just buy the Topo USA 7.0 software for my laptop and be done with it. I don't need an internet connection to use it do I?

[Ivan]

It almost seems like I could just buy the Topo USA 7.0 software for my laptop and be done with it. I don't need an internet connection to use it do I?

You'll still need some sort of gps to run TOPO USA in real time, to show your location. I did that for while with an older Garmin I had. The "plus" was that the lap top screen was big and nice to work with. It work fine, but found that if wanted to go around on foot, it was cumbersome to drag the lap top along.

With my PN20, I can leave the lap top behind and have full capabilities of TOPO USA in my hand.