Hi all,
I am trying to decide whether to get a Garmin GPS with my Avis rent car. I will be driving around the CA Bay Area so it would be very helpful. My concern is that someone told me that this makes the car a target for break-ins. Has anyone else heard this?

Thanks.

We have a GPS thing in our new car and like it. Our car has not been broken into.

I'm thinking that the GPS is a portable unit and you can dismount it from the dash/window when you park the car and carry it with you or hide it in the glove box. My Garmin is, but I would call Avis and ask to make sure. I believe the Hertz Neverlost is permanently affixed in the car.

Call me crazy, but I leave my GPS and its beanbag mount on the dashboard about 90 percent of the time....no breakins yet (invoking fingers-crossed smiley). The other ten percent of the time it gets relocated to the floorboard next to the accelerator. Don't ask me to explain how I make the decision.

I can't imagine that having a built-in GPS makes your car a target for thieves. These things aren't like CD players that can be easily sold; they are most likely designed for specific cars and probably not worth much.

The portable units? Sure, easy to steal. I always put my on-dash Garmin GPS on the floor or in the trunk (tip: keep your Garmin GPS OUT of the sun! they tend to fail when they overheat.)

FYI, I love my Garmin GPS. I've used it for numerous trips, such as recently helping a friend move 1500 miles away and looking for apartments. Very handy to punch in a bunch of strange addresses and say, "Take me there." In Hawaii, I used my Garmin all the time - it was invaluable.

Thanks everyone -- this will be a portable unit that AVIS puts in the car if requested, but it sounds like it is easy to take the device out of its mount. I have a built in GPS at home and now find that I am dependent on it!