What's your cap set at?

A Garmin Nuvi 350 is about a year and a half old but it's still considered one of the best GPS systems out in the market and it should be in the ~$250 ballpark now.

Navigon 2100 Max is also very respectable; the early Navigons had a huge flaw with the inputs where it would lag slightly but it's more than enough to irritate you a minute into using it. With the 2100 Max it's a more complete, bug free GPS with a larger screen and for a new GPS it's hard to beat at $300.

I'm not completely sure about the Garmin Nuvi 6xx or 7xx series but they seem to be like any of the older or lower end GPS with a lot of bells and whistles that goes above it's intended functionality.

Make sure that any GPS you buy has a text to speech function because it saying out the street names before a turn if infinitely more convenient than saying out how far away in feet before a turn and having to look at the GPS for the street name all the while. You're going to pay $75 to $100 for this function but makes a world of difference especially if you're in a downtown area or any road maze.