[BigLew]

I worked at Boat US/West Marine just after the acquisition a few years ago. (The emp. disc. was quite something, but not any more.)

Anyway, I was able to spend a fair amount of time going over the different electronic units and really taking the time to compare them from a variety of perspectives. As far as depthsounders/ff go, unless I was going to bite the bullet and go for a Furuno (I have a NOS unit waiting to be installed), I would probaly go for a Garmin unit.

Here is my reasoning. 1. They are a quality manufacturer of electronics and GPS in particular. Marine products are not their only market, in fact, marine is one of their lessor markets. 2. They want market share and are willing to pay for it to get product out there while they build product recognition in the customer's mind to match their position in the GPS/Pltter market. Keep in mind that they want some of the commercial market as well. 3. They just seem to be a little better in customer attentiveness and I have seen them not only acknowledge a poor design/ execution of a product, but stand behind it up to and including giving the customer an upgrade or newer version product when the customer has had a problem that could not be quickly corrected.

I just wish some of the others would step up and do the right thing.

With regard to a combo unit, I like the idea at first and there are some compelling reasons to but that way; economy, space limitations, current draw, etc. However, having said that, I come back to the fact the the odds of loosing all of it if something should go wrong in the display unit or CPU board (most likely more often) you loose all of the associated information until the unit as awhole is relaced/repaired. Sometimes that is not such a great situation to be in on the water, waves pounding, storm on its way and 15+ miles from land.