GPS Map Pricing

Just been looking at the prices of Garmin maps for their mapping GPS units.  For the 25k Lake District map, they cost around £40 more than the equivalent SatMap product.

Anyone got any ideas as to why this is so?  

they'll sell things for a premium and whatever they can get for them helped by their massive advertising and product placement in shops (like memory map too).

people just don't know there are alternatives, often better and sometimes cheaper. 

(waterproof goretex jacket sir. of course we have one to sell you. no? not interested in anything else?)

Mmm.  I like my SatMap unit, but am becoming less convinced of its robustness.  Tried the optional case they make for it-useless.  So, if the Garmin units really are more rugged they are quite tempting.

But-I've invested several hundred pounds all told in SatMap mapping cards.  So, swapping over would only work if the Garmin maps were reasonably priced.  Which they aren't.

So: any ideas about making SatMap Active 10s more robust/weatherproof?

Something like this any good?Aquapac

I haven't used them so cannot comment further. 

If you've got a non-car type garmin, you can just get stuff using openstreetmap data for free. Velomap, openmtbmap (which I use for hiking) and even some routeable road mapping.

As for making the satmap more rugged... have you looked at the transparent-top peli cases you can get? The micro 1010 might be okay if you're happy to just see where you are rather than interact with the device. There are no doubt cheaper alternatives.