Thought I would update following my purchase and much googling of the Garmin eTrex Legend. Overall I'm extremely happy with it as my introduction to GPS and it covers my initial requirements very well, which were actual positioning, recording the actual journey and following pre-determined paths. We took it for a "pre-mapped" MTB ride yesterday and it was faultless, turns and paths that in the past have caused head scratching and tears, were made easy allowing us to concentrate on the fun stuff.

So here are my pro's and con's. Garmin eTrex Legend.

Pro's:
- Met my beginners budget - Unit, handle bar mount and postage at CHF290.
- Met my initial use and performance criteria. Recreational Hiking and biking.
- Altitude readings very accurate.
- Garmin seems to have the market for GPS, so there is a lot of resource and advice on the interwebby.

Con's:
- Satellite reception sensitivity in the city, Zurich 8004, is rubbish with signal regularly lost due to close five level buildings. So yes the SirfIII chip would be a definite improvement, but would add another CHF200 to 400 to my purchase price.
- Storage, 8mb is going to fill up quickly with the detailed maps that my mate got for me.
- Serial connection to PC, outdated and a PITA. My 06 Dell desktop and 04 Toshiba laptop both don't have serial ports, so I'm using my wife's laptop and working on a serial to USB solution.
- Garmin seems to have the market for GPS, so there doesn't seem to be much development or pricing competition for their products, unlike other areas of consumer electronics.
- It's pretty old design and technology. If I get more into it, I'd love DaveA's Garmin 60Cx.

I guess the final word comes from my wife, "I like the GPS because you didn't get shitty because of wrong turns!"