Garmin now owns Navionics so that advantage Lowrance products had over Garmin is now gone and many of the big boating and electronic sites regularly rate garmin products very high and their sonar, particularly their downscan imaging, as industry leading.
Radioworld.ca has last years Echomap series (w/ the pre-Navionics lake maps preloaded) on clear-out with an Echomap 75cv, which has both a touch screen and manual buttons, on sale for $650 (the 75sv, w/ sidescan sonar is $100 more at $750). The elite 7ti is $925 at Radioworld and says comes preloaded w/ US lakes maps, while the Echomap comes preloaded w/ the older, non Navionics, US and Canada lake maps. So in both cases you’d have to buy west coast mapping separately. On both units you should look at the transducer and make sure you choose a model in the series, Lowrance, garmin or whomever, that best fits where you’ll be fishing ( lakes vs ocean, nearshore vs open blue)
I checked and the new BlueChart G3/garmin maps, w/ Navionics info incorporated w/ garmin mapping, is $225. The Lowrance C-Map charts for the west coast are $300.
Cheers!
Ukee
