Should I get a new GPS? Which one?

[braumeister]

About the map updates...I need to update the maps but I do not think the internal memory is enough in the units since mapping is more complex. You guys mentioned using an SD card. How does that work? Do I just plug in the SD card and update maps...or is there a procedure to make the Garmin overflow onto the SD card. I have never done this before.

Garmin doesn't make it terribly intuitive, but here's the procedure I use.

The internal memory is not quite sufficient for recent updates of the North America map set. So you just get an SD card (4GB is plenty -- only a couple of bucks) and plug it in (there's a slot on the unit.

Then when you go to update, you connect it to your computer, select the card instead of the internal memory and go. The device will figure it out and that's all you have to do.

 

[Corporateburnout]

About the map updates...I need to update the maps but I do not think the internal memory is enough in the units since mapping is more complex. You guys mentioned using an SD card. How does that work? Do I just plug in the SD card and update maps...or is there a procedure to make the Garmin overflow onto the SD card. I have never done this before.

Just insert the micro SD card in the slot and it will be automatically recognized

 

[KingB]

Check the owner's manual for the maximum memory supported. I made the mistake of getting the largest SD that is available and it will not work with the GPS unit. I ended up getting an 8GB. Mine, BTW, is the micro SD.

 

[Al in Ohio]

I really love my Garmin Nuvi, but personally I'd buy a new cord on eBay or Amazon. Use YouTube to explain how to handle no cost map upgrading of old GPS devices. It's fairly easy.

 

[Redbugdave]

Thank you! I was wondering about the procedure. That's what I will do. It's good to have people you can ask.

 

[Redbugdave]

Another question...if you download the latest North American map to your SD card in an older NUVI...can you use that SD interchangably with another NUVI? Or does the unit only recognize the SD downloaded to that unit only, and will not work in other units?

 

[sailor]

Another question...if you download the latest North American map to your SD card in an older NUVI...can you use that SD interchangably with another NUVI? Or does the unit only recognize the SD downloaded to that unit only, and will not work in other units?

If you download paid Garmin maps they are locked to a specific device.
Other maps are usually non-device specific.
One surprise for upgrading maps on an older Garmin device is that calculating the route can be 5 times slower than on the original map (we measured it on friends 265WT by timing same routes).

 

[brett]

We have a Garmin 2370 lt. It has maps for NA and for Europe. It will be due for replacement next year. It has been a life saver in Europe-particularly in London, Italy, and Turkey. Very few of the Garmin products include both sets of maps.

We use it in both places. We would not bother buying map updates. Rather, we will just buy a new unit since it will have the most recent technology, specifically larger, faster memory. I would make the assumption, which may be incorrect, that every time you get a new version of the software, that software program becomes larger and consumes more memory.

We do not even use the one in the car. After 5 years it is useless and the cost of an upgrade is ridiculous...not to mention that the basic hardware technology was probably out of date by the time the car was first delivered.

 

[omni550]

Refurb GPS units?

I've noticed tons of refurbished GPS units for sale.

What's the general feeling about them? Avoid the models which seem to show up most frequently on the refurb lists? Buy a refurb, as you know that whatever bug it had has been fixed?

BTW, I got my replacement original equipment car charging cord (eBay $10), so my 255W is back in business.

I'm also trying out the Waze app on my phone.

omni

 

[JoeWras]

I rely very heavily on my GPS, since I do an awful lot of driving in places I don't know well. Typically at least 20,000 miles a year, nearly all of it for recreational purposes. So my Garmin is an absolute essential.

That said, I would never consider going anywhere without a good map book tucked away in the back seat. I find that every 3-4 years is often enough to update my big Rand McNally road atlas, and every 10 years is often enough to update my local road atlas. But you'd better believe that I want them there as a backup if the GPS ever dies suddenly!

DW complains I'm hard to find a gift for.

I may finally ask for a GPS. It is time. We plan to ramp up our traveling as we near FIRE or do FIRE, so I think we can use it.

I'm especially interested in the "services" stuff. You know, food, hotels, parks, etc. Does that work well?

 

[JakeBrake]

For what it's worth we usually rent Hertz cars for our road trips. Often the rental car will be equipped with Hertz Never Lost (Hertz's GPS). We don't don't request Never Lost, but if the car is equipped with Never Lost, you can use it at no charge.

Honestly, I much prefer my nuvi 1450LMT. For one thing, the graphics are better, for another thing, the Never Lost is mounted below eye level, but I can mount the nuvi at rear view mirror height. Maybe I missed it, but as far as I can tell I can't get elevation from the Never Lost.

I do enjoy scrolling through Never Lost to see all the places the rental car has been.

I also have an old Magellan 3250 that I keep in my farm truck. The maps for the Magellan are ridiculously expense, but it's OK on the old roads. The Magellan does have elevation. I like to wander as far as I can go on country roads and then "home" the GPS if I get lost. And say I 've been to a place a thousand time. I like to use the GPS to see if "Jill" can come up with a new route.

I never take a road trip without my paper Rand McNally.

 

[omni550]

DW complains I'm hard to find a gift for.

I may finally ask for a GPS. It is time. We plan to ramp up our traveling as we near FIRE or do FIRE, so I think we can use it.

I'm especially interested in the "services" stuff. You know, food, hotels, parks, etc. Does that work well?

Even with my old Garmin nuvi 255W, there's a manu of items from which to choose to find POIs (points of interest) such as food, gas, hotels, parks, museums, etc....either near where I am at the moment or near my destination. I find it handy to determine whether it's better to stop for dinner enroute or wait until I get to my destination, for example.

As another poster indicated earlier, there are now dedicated websites for POIs that you can customize to your needs and interests and then upload to your GPS.

I think a GPS would be great to receive as a gift, Joe.

omni

 

[Corporateburnout]

DW complains I'm hard to find a gift for.

I may finally ask for a GPS. It is time. We plan to ramp up our traveling as we near FIRE or do FIRE, so I think we can use it.

I'm especially interested in the "services" stuff. You know, food, hotels, parks, etc. Does that work well?

Just returned from a few days trip to Niagara falls and Toronto where we relied heavily on our Garmin 1450 to find restaurants and attractions and it worked very well for us.

 

[zinger1457]

A couple of posters suggested the free Waze app for Android. I just downloaded it to my phone and tablet. It looks like a great crowd-sourced tool for navigating. Love the live police reports, traffic tie ups and traffic jam reports.

I'll definitely try this out on my drives this week.

omni

Can you report on what the data usage for your phone is when using this app? I don't have an unlimited data plan so curious as to how much it burns up.

 

[PokerGrumpy]

I have the Tom Tom app running on my iPhone 4. Updates are free but you have to make sure you have enough available space to do the updates when they come. I don't know the actual amount but 3GB free isn't enough. It cost about $45 when I got it but the last time I looked the price was in the $30s.

If you are interested in taking this approach I'll tell you my setup: I have my iPhone 4 in an Otterbox Defender case and a Slip Grip windshield mount. It's an awesome setup. I like the software and they are continuously improving it. As a GPS it works great.

My only complaint is that I have a lot of favorite addresses stored in the phone and they are in several geographical areas. It would be great to be able to store these in separate folders so that my MA, FL, and PA addresses don't mix together but that feature is not available - yet.

A note about Slip Grip - if you have a phone in any kind of case and can't find a Slip Grip windshield mount (or bike mount or any other kind of mount) for your phone then the odds are you are carrying a custom-made phone.

 

[imoldernu]

Historical note:
My Garmin Foretrex 101 wrist mounted personal navigator circa 2005, is a totally inscrutible piece of digital wizardry, with a 12 page "quick start" guide, and a 62 page small print set of instructions that are totally unintelligible, but useful for insomniacs.
http://gawisp.com/perry/foretrex/Foretrex101_OwnersManual.pdf
Expired and interval tone instructions cover 4 pages, and the waypoints main page covers 12 pages. The map datum pages uses the World Geodetic Survey 1984, which setting should only be changed if you are using charts that specify a different datum. Fortunately,elevation, and vertical speed menus are infinitely customizeable using the three page, 28 step, set up instructions.

A 4 1/2 star rating by the reviewers, who coincidentally are the original programmers.
The features I like best:
It doesn't talk...
The light-up screen can't be read
It is small enough to be tucked into the back of my junk drawer, where it awaits future archaeological study. My 2006 Navigon GPS, takes up much more room in the drawer.

"Now, make a U-Turn..."

 

[nwsteve]

Just got an email from Garmin with promo code for $20 off updates
"For a limited time, we’re offering $20 off nüMaps Lifetime North America or nüMaps Onetime North America. Simply add the maps to your shopping cart and enter code Fall13 during the checkout process. This promo code is only valid through Sept. 15."
Promo code is FALL13
Enjoy

Nwsteve

 

[omni550]

Can you report on what the data usage for your phone is when using this app? I don't have an unlimited data plan so curious as to how much it burns up.

zinger,

I really don't have an answer for you, as I used waze on my phone for such a short period of time. Perhaps someone else can report on their data usage?

I initially played with waze on my tablet (while at home) and was impressed with the quick 'real time' reports on accidents, police, broken-down cars, traffic congestion, etc. and its responsiveness.

Then I tried it on my smartphone while driving around my neighborhood doing errands. A few things I noticed -- the screen was hard to read in sunlight-- both in brightness (I might be able to change the phone setting to improve this, but would always need to remember to change it back when in 'normal use' to preserve battery power) and in legibility of street names (the waze font was tiny and hard to read "on the fly"). This font size and thickness issue might also have a setting that could be adjusted, but I never looked for it. Also, I noticed a lot of glare on the phone vs the more matte finish on my GPS.

There were a couple of things I noticed while I was driving that I found a bit annoying. 1) The waze indicator that showed my location would often 'lag' my physical location (IOW, I'd be driving on street A and turn the corner onto street B and be a ways down street B and the waze location marker was still showing me as back on street A (not even having reached the corner yet)....then it would 'jump' to my actual location. At other times while I was driving, the waze screen image would jump to show something very "close up" for a second or two and then it would jump back to showing the regular view. I have no idea what it was showing me in close-up view, but it wasn't helping me navigate by any means.

There was also a point at which the screen went 100% black (like my phone does, to save power, when 'idle'). I had to hit the power button and swipe the screen to reactivated it.

I was the only occupant of the vehicle, so I couldn't both drive and figure out what the issues were and if they could be rectified by changing the phone settings or if there are some waze settings that can be tweaked.

I only used it for about half an hour or so before I got annoyed and put it away.

I also noticed, that I was having to grab the phone and take it with me (and plug it back it upon my return) every time I stopped (at the bank, grocery, hardware store) which is in contrast to the GPS, which I typically leave attached to the window all of the time.

I really, really WANT to love waze (as it seems like such a neat concept and free!)....but my experience (partly due to my phone, no doubt) has left me unimpressed at the moment .

omni

 

[Redbugdave]

Just an update on updating maps with the Nuvi's. I messed around and got them both figured out and done. I have an older Nuvi, (650), and a newer one, (1310). I have Lifetime Maps for both.

The older Nuvi's...you have to download the maps to your computer, then use their Map Updater software to transfer the maps to an SD card and pop that into the unit. The newer Nuvi uses a micro SD card and can be updated directly with the micro SD card installed in the unit.

A couple links from Garmin explains the process...

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={0b087770-5dba-11e1-dd60-000000000000}

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={a209e880-9319-11e2-65d0-000000000000}

Now it feels good to be driving around and see the new road on the Garmin instead of just blank space...

 

[Meadbh]

I have a one year old Garmin with updates. Before a recent trip I made sure that the maps were up to date. However, it had some shortcomings. For example, it was unaware of this new highway

4 lanes from Winfield to Oyama - Central Okanagan News - Castanet.net

......understandable, as it was only two weeks old at the time, but there was no listing for this hospital in Calgary which opened a year ago.

Alberta's newest and largest hospital opens with family clinics, diagnostic imaging | South Health Campus | Alberta Health Services

Curiously, the coffee shop in the hospital showed up......in the middle of an empty space.

So beware!

 

[Ronstar]

I have a one year old Garmin with updates. Before a recent trip I made sure that the maps were up to date. However, it had some shortcomings. For example, it was unaware of this new highway

4 lanes from Winfield to Oyama - Central Okanagan News - Castanet.net

......understandable, as it was only two weeks old at the time, but there was no listing for this hospital in Calgary which opened a year ago.

Alberta's newest and largest hospital opens with family clinics, diagnostic imaging | South Health Campus | Alberta Health Services

Curiously, the coffee shop in the hospital showed up......in the middle of an empty space.

So beware!

I feel your pain. I've worked with Navteq that supplies Garmin their maps, and they will not pick up any new roads until they do their next round of mobile mapping. And then they have to give the data to Garmin, and then Garmin has to update their maps. So it can take a while for new roads to get into the maps. But a restaurant, hospital, etc can enter their own latitude and longitude (or address) on Navteq's website, and their POI will be added to map. So POI's can get on the map before their closest street does.

 

[Meadbh]

I feel your pain. I've worked with Navteq that supplies Garmin their maps, and they will not pick up any new roads until they do their next round of mobile mapping. And then they have to give the data to Garmin, and then Garmin has to update their maps. So it can take a while for new roads to get into the maps. But a restaurant, hospital, etc can enter their own latitude and longitude (or address) on Navteq's website, and their POI will be added to map. So POI's can get on the map before their closest street does.

Interesting, thank you for explaining the process. That would explain why a commercial operation (the coffee shop) was shown, while the hospital was not. Since they have a map on their website, I guess this was not a priority for the hospital.

 

[braumeister]

I was frustrated by this once while traveling in the midwestern US. The Garmin told me there was a Panera (a favorite coffee shop) nearby, so I let it get me there. Took some oddly isolated roads with lots of turns for about ten minutes, only to arrive at a large empty lot with a sign saying "Future site of XYZ mall."

Grrrr!

 

[omni550]

Based on these latest posts, I wonder how often one should [reasonably] consider updating their GPS maps and POIs? Perhaps its a function of needing the GPS for traveling in areas that have had recent population growth and monies for new developments? vs an area that's been among the worse-off states in the recent economic downturn (thus, not many/any? new roads, etc.)? vs older sections of the country that are so built-up already?

omni

 

[Meadbh]

Based on these latest posts, I wonder how often one should [reasonably] consider updating their GPS maps and POIs? Perhaps its a function of needing the GPS for traveling in areas that have had recent population growth and monies for new developments? vs an area that's been among the worse-off states in the recent economic downturn (thus, not many/any? new roads, etc.)? vs older sections of the country that are so built-up already?

omni

Alberta is the richest province in Canada and I believe it's economy also tops all US states. Calgary is booming. So please don't judge by my experience.