I still use my Garmin 38 and it hasn't failed me yet. It is slower than a unit with 12 channel tracking but not so slow that it is inconvenient. Eventhough this is a "basic" unit it has more functions than I (and I suspect many others) will ever use.

Last Saturday (16 Nov 02) me and Dad went caribou hunting. It was pretty foggy (100-300 meters visiblity) but Dad said it was supposed to clear. I had already logged a waypoint in the area we wanted to hunt. It was a little hill over looking a small valley. Using the Garmin 38 and my suunto compass we got there safe and sound eventhough we couldn't see the hill until we were practically standing on top of it. (BTW, the fog did lift and we bagged a decent sized woodland caribou stag.)

Dad bought a Garmin 38 around the same time I did. He uses his mostly for recreational saltwater fishing (handlining for cod) in the summer. Some of the shoals and under water ledges he fishes are pretty small but the 38 finds them. His gps has seen a lot of hard use knocking around in the boat for the last few years and its still dependable.

A GPS works best when used WITH a map and compass, so don't stop bringing a compass now that you have a GPS.

Hope that helps.