I have a Garmin 276c in the car - this is the same as the 278, but without the built-in mapping (Europe street-level), and therefore Ł200 cheaper. You will, however, need to buy a large memory card if you want to use the 276 for land use, and this will set you back about Ł140, and you need to buy the mapping.

You will also need to buy the blue-chart mapping for Marine use - this needs to be unlocked for each unit, but Garmin allow you to run it on 2 units at no extra cost, so if you have a Garmin plotter on board, and maps on CD, you can use the same maps.

My land maps are now a couple of years old, and the post-code search is not up to much - this may have improved with later releases, but I don't know.

My pet hate about the unit is the data cable - the plug does not stand-up to repeated use, and I am now on my 3rd one.

However, it is a fully self-contained unit, and can be used as a back-up on the boat (see the other threads for discussions on redundancy) The 276 battery will last for about 6 hours use.

It has the same user-interface as the Garmin 3000 I have on board, and this, for me, is one of its main strengths. Not sure I would buy one now just for road use.

John