I stumbled upon this model, the Mio C230, while shopping for something else at a Best Buy store.

It was marked on clearance from $199 to $126, which seemed like a pretty good price. I played with the in store model, and then went home to read reviews. I had a tough time finding any substantial reviews outside the mass produced Cnet page, but Amazon offered some insight and the opinions were fairly positive.

I decided that along with the 12% Reward Zone coupon burning a hole in my pocket, that this was the time to buy. I ended up with the Mio C230 GPS for $111 out the door after the coupon.

My initial reactions were poor, but it was due to my own incompetence. I couldn’t get the suction cup to stick to my window – until I realized that you had to pull the black lever on the back of the suction unit to allow the cup to grasp on, then close it to lock. I also couldn’t stand the interface, but that was because the unit does not default to cockpit mode; rather to an annoying fly-through.

Once I had a chance to sit down and learn the unit, I liked it more and more. Its small enough to fit in your pocket but the screen is big enough to mount on the window or dash and still be able to see it fine. The text to speech is great – the volume is troublesome to adjust, but loud and clear once its set to what you want.

The directions are generally good, but I’ve had a few spots of trouble. If you’re going on a street that is slightly curved throughout, the Mio C230 really has trouble. I’ve found that it “recalculated route” (you’ll grow to hate that phrase) over and over even as I followed its directions. Luckily, I knew where I was; but if this had been in an unfamiliar city, the result would not have been good.

The bottom line - most of the time, it works fine. Its a helpful tool by any means, and this particular unit is not bad. The SD card slot is great for those who want to expand its fairly meager inventory of POI (Point of Interest) or add music, pictures or games to the unit. I would not trust it for mission critical applications (taxi, fleet, trucker) nor would I recommend it to someone like Hertz, because it just lacks the polish to be ready for everyone. If you are willing to learn it and tolerate some oddities, this might be the perfect budget GPS for you.

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