Bill,
Check out true flights Cheetah GPS, they will also give you a $700 trade in for your 296. I think the Cheetah is a much better value then the 496.
this unit comes with aviation/marine/road maps. I think if you are to use this in an auto I would reccomend getting the street upgrades from garmin.
Unit was seldom used as a back up to my 430. It has manuels, yoke and dash mount, charger, power cord. Very little use and in good condition. I'd like to get $950 for it. I will spend 1200+TX and $50 mo. for XM WX service.
Not familiar with the Cheetah, but will go online and check it out. Just never had the loss of reception or any other problem with Garmin, therefore a fan!
Bill,
Loss of reception does occur with the Garmin, there are two reasons for that,RF interference or the unit forgets where you are and you need to wake it up.....wakey wakey
Seriously if you loose the satellites with a Garmin you go to the satellite page and hit menu, new location, automatic and Boom your in business again, also if you travel with a Garmin while the unit is off then try and use it you might have to do this because it does not know what altitude you are at.
