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Looking to purchase the Garmin 172C, I know I have seen on here talk of the bluechart. What should I be looking for, the preloaded data card or something else.

Tod, I'm looking at the same unit. You'll need to buy the AC\PC cable, and the Bluechart software to allow downloading the unit to your PC. For another $50+/- you can buy the card programmer.

I spoke with Garmin about the different GPS units. The 172C is the only unit they build right now that uses the processer it has. It's supposed to be hands down faster - near real time- on map refreshes. That's important to me. I've used other mapping units that were slow to refresh. I would go past a waypoint before the unit showed me I had passed over it. Garmin says this the unit of the future.

I have the 178C and like it. I borrow the AC/PC adapter from a buddy when I need it(not very often). I have the Bluechart on CD and downloaded my areas to the SD card on the 178C.

I probably went overkill, but I am pleased.

I bought the 172C and a preprogrammed blue chip a couple months ago. The weather lately has prevented me from using it more than once, but it worked great when I did get out. I did not want to have to mess with extra cables and software, so I went with the preset.

TC replied to a previous post of mine and sent me to getfeetwet.com, and I got a great deal on the set. The gps was $100 cheaper than anywhere else I had seen them.

I would definitely recommend for someone who is looking for an affordable color unit

Tod wrote:Looking to purchase the Garmin 172C, I know I have seen on here talk of the bluechart. What should I be looking for, the preloaded data card or something else.

I'd recommend the BlueChart Americas v6.5 CD with single un-lock, rather than the pre-programmed Gulf chip and, get a 16MB memory chip. For fishing around here, choose to un-lock the New Orleans to Bradenton region (about a little over 1MB memory).
Why? About $100 cheaper (unless you want the whole Gulf. And you get to do a lot of stuff with management of waypoints, tracks, etc. that the pre-programmed memory chip doesn't allow.
Just for information, go to: gpscity.com and garmin.com
Check prices at several sites and go with the lowest. That's what I'd do!

Thanks for the information, I went the 172c with the preloaded card for this area. The getfeetwet.com did have the best price and West Marine matched for me so I was able to buy from them anyway. Good for them. Can't wait to get out and see how it works.