Comments on: Get a 'Homer Simpson' GPS for $89.99 shipped

Actually, it's a refurbished TomTom One XL-S you can upgrade with the voice of Homer Simpson ($12.95), who provides hilarious turn-by-turn guidance. Wrong turn? D'oh!

[Forked_Tongue]

Tom Tom makes great gps units though it seems overly fixated on highway routes even when choosing "shortest distance" options. The other flaw it has, depending on the person's opinion is the routing around construction, I could drive thru construction at reduced speeds at certain times quicker than back tracking an alternate route to go around it, like most units they each have their strengths and flaws but this to me is much better than the optional service provided by one's wireless cellphone provider.

[viper396]

No GPS system is perfect. It is impossible for any system to have instant knowledge of all road conditions due to accidents, construction, traffic, etc. Nor could they always know what the quickest route would actually be if you assume other people may also be taking that same route.

A GPS is not an excuse to stop using your brain.

[pHenom_713]

I wonder if you make a wrong turn, will homer say "D'OH"!

[rickbroida]

I'll let you know: I just purchased and installed the voice. To the car!

[pHenom_713]

cool!

[Peter715Smith]

Homer is cool but I've just seen over at Navtones that there about to rlease K.I.T.T., it's the real, original K.I.T.T. Let's face it, who doesn't want to be David Hasselhoff for a day.

Check it out. Navtones does a load of celebrity voices. I just got Mr. T and Kim Cattrall. Love it.

I'm sure Homer will be good but I'd say Mr. T beats him. And KITT!

[NotEd]

I'd consider getting this just because it'd cause less at $89.99 to buy the TomTom than to get the map update for my Garmin...

[jcmark42]

So true. With the prices of GPS going down everyday, why doesn't Garmin adjust the price of the map updates? IMO, they should be free.

[darkpoet25]

I can only imagine what the Garmin Nuvi cellphones would cost, given what they charge for their maps.

[planblove]

Hey Rick, I'm a longtime cheapskate fan. I just wanted to pass on this deal from tigerdirect about the Harmony 520 remote(refurbished) for $39.99 - I just ordered myself one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4331481&CatId=358

[Idyot]

Rick, you should ask/beg twitter to reassign http://twitter.com/cheapskate to you. The account to have been idle since October 2007. Then use it each weekday with a short item description and a link back to http://news.cnet.com/cheapskate/

I'm sure that there are thousands like me who can't remember to check the cheapskate page each weekday - because it's too low on the radar - but would do so if provided a link (path of least resistance).

It would be a good bet that you would have thousands of followers on twitter just for this.

[rickbroida]

Thanks for the suggestion! But you do know about www.twitter.com/cheapskateblog, right? :)

[kewell82]

AWESOME!

[rufustel]

This is a super deal, even without Homer, for a large-screen, text-to-speech GPS from a major player, for $90!

[rufustel]

And 2 minutes later, saw this deal, good for the day, at an amazing $49.99 (and new, not refurbed): TomTom ONE 3rd Edition 3.5" Slim Portable Touchscreen GPS Vehicle Navigator with Turn by Turn Spoken Directions & Real Time Traffic Capability - USA Model & Works in Canada.

http://www.1saleaday.com/

Yep, a 3.5" screen and no text-to-speech for street names, but a great deal!

[ANTSCNET]

Unfortunately, TomTom no longer offers their latest map guarantee for refurb units, so if you will be using it in an area that has experienced roadwork in the past year or two, there's a chance that the refurb unit might not be accurate.

Rick - If you plug in your GPS to your computer and load up TomTom Home, you can check how old your maps are....any chance we could get you to verify the above?

[ANTSCNET]

I will also note that unless you have the most recent maps, you can't use the mapshare feature, so if the refurbs don't come with the latest map guarantee, you lose one of the big selling points of a TomTom GPS....

[cldress]

I'm holding out hope that Homer's voice will be available on the upcoming iPhone app

[rickbroida]

Well, even though the deal is gone, the Homer voice is available for many TomTom GPS models. And I have to say: I love it. You hear a lot of the same things over and over, but that's true of any GPS voice -- and this one never gets tiring. Even my couldn't-care-less-about-technology wife loved it.