I Need a Newer GPS ... or Do I?

[Skitso999]

I have a 2008 Mercedes with the built-in GPS and cannot believe how difficult the interface was. You must dial the letters one by one, laboriously.

I greatly prefer my 10-year-old Garmin to any of the built-in GPSs in my cars!

Its easier to use than a phone as well, I've tried!

 

[swabby01]

Still keep the Garmin around. Every time I rent cars where they charge for GPS so use my own. Was teased by my daughter to my grandkids with "see that's what old people use" right up until her cell lost guidance because they depend on Cell towers in many areas and My GPS was still guiding just fine thank you very much.

 

[Canoeboy]

I had a Garmin Novi some years ago. Worked fine but I found the need for a bigger screen. Also, found lifespan was limited. So I took a different approach almost 8 years ago which I still use on occasion today, both on land and on the water. Using an IPad mini bluetooth connected to a Bad Elf Pro GPS unit and several purchased navigation apps. Navionics app for boating and several apps for road navigation. Worked slick for navigating a houseboat in remote northern MN/Canada boarder. I now have a vehicle with navigation capability, however, I’m too frugal to pay the subscription fees when cellphone app plugged into the vehicle does essentially the same. Still use the iPad and BadElf with tow vehicle when I’m in unfamiliar places.

 

[braumeister]

FWIW, I always carry one of these when I'm going to rent a car. It holds any cell phone and attaches easily to almost any car vent, either vertically or horizontally. I've used it in many states and several countries. Combined with Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, or whatever you like, it's perfect.

Lamicall Car Vent Phone Mount

 

[pb4uski]

... We stopped using independent GPS units after finding out that Garmin's "lifetime maps" meant ONLY through the model lifetime. Once they come out with new models, they can and do drop older ones, so there were no 'upgrades' to download. ...

I think that you are mistaken. I just updated maps on my 2014 Nuvi just the other day.

 

[zippy2020]

I think that you are mistaken. I just updated maps on my 2014 Nuvi just the other day.

Glad you were able to update your Nuvi, but we were unable to do so on the Garmin website - told us our model was "not supported"

FYI: note to Skitso999 re "I have a 2008 Mercedes with the built-in GPS and cannot believe how difficult the interface was. You must dial the letters one by one, laboriously."

Several newer cars have voice interface. Our Ford uses the voice command interface developed by BMW, but the best one we've seen is the newer (2021+) Kia/Hyundai NAVs. Not only voice command but FAST. Way better than anything else we've used so far.

 

[steelyman]

I also have a 2014 Nuvi that still updates maps. The updates (through iMac) are painfully slow but otherwise I like the device. My car doesn’t have its own system. When not driving I use the phone when needed.

 

[KarenF]

I am just here to say that Google Maps or Waze and Android Auto (or Apple CarPlay) would be SO much easier than anything on this thread . Goodness. I am getting a GPS unit for my husband when he will be off the grid for a week mountain biking next summer. I tell him it is so I can find his body. If there is a cell signal google maps is right there lol.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

Our Mercedes EQS has the best GPS I have used yet and the map is a satellite photo with real-time updates on a 57-inch wide screen (only the center is a map but it is ginormous which is good for old eyes). However, I also keep Waze running on my phone as it gives real-time traffic data from other drivers not available otherwise. Here in Hungary, traffic is normally not an issue except when driving to the Budapest airport then having Waze lets me plan an alternate route should there be delays caused either by non-stop road repairs or idiot foreign truck drivers causing an accident. The same for driving to Vienna as we are halfway between both cities. Otherwise, we only use the car GPS as it ties into the charging network and also for many of the services the car has which don't function unless in navigation mode. My wife prefers to not use navigation and is irritated a lot of the automated features "don't work" for her. I point out using navigation turns these things on but it is to no avail. The car is the first legally allowed in Europe (not all countries) to drive autonomously. Personally, I keep an eye on everything and a hand on the wheel but in general, the car drives itself. Sadly, all the other drivers are the problem and no robot system will ever be able to predict what eastern Europeans (or Italians) will do so I keep an eye out for trouble.

 

[xplorer]

We've have been Garmin users for over 20 years and will continue because we use Garmin's Basecamp PC software (also free) to develop specific turn-by-turn routes and easily transfer them to the GPS unit. We travel extensively throughout the US (scenic drives and back ways) and have not found another GPS unit that has a similar degree of sophistication. Sure Google Maps recently added multiple stops to its program but it does not easily allow turn by turn routing... The others are good for point-to-point navigating when your only concern is the destination but when it comes to the journey we recommend Garmin!

 

[ERD50]

... If there is a cell signal google maps is right there lol.

Google Maps works w/o a cell signal if you plan ahead.

They make it pretty easy, go to off-line maps, select the area of interest. It will automatically update ~ 1/month when you are on WiFi.

-ERD50

 

[explanade]

How do they update maps for Garmin units these days? I've had several for boating and built in cars, but the map updates are infrequent, and always way behind. Apple and Google maps are updated far more often and therefore more useful to me, that's why I quit relying on Garmin products. YMMV

I just log in to Garmin on my computer, connect my unit, and select "update". Takes about an hour or quicker on a faster bandwith service.

Yeah I haven’t used my Garmin in about 10 years. Still have it somewhere.

The desktop software for updating maps is not the greatest and map updates aren’t cheap.

They will never have as updated POIs as Google Maps.

Main advantage is if you can’t get a cell connection for some reason.

There are specialized devices for people who hike Backcountry, where there wouldn’t be a cell connection. Maybe they have trail maps too.

Other thing is GPS has mucH slower chips, worse screens, worse software. Garmin did put out more powerful units but they can’t keep up with Apple or Qualcomm chips or the screen quality of current phones.

Look at saving a custom POI. You have to go up and down several menus vs. tapping the favorites icon on the maps app or on the desktop, clicking the icon in a browser.

 

[explanade]

So glad everything I use has GPS built in including our car.

We had several Garmins but eventually got rid of all of them. In Europe Google or Apple Maps became excellent. Google handles public transportation and even buckle routes very well. Apple catching up. We put up with phone GPS instructions for a few years, but because Apple Maps syncs to the watch and gave me wrist navigation info as well as verbal turn by turn instructions, it worked very well.

Hard to beat this built-in GPS display in the car - 17 inch center console touch screen display. (Video feed shown because right turn signal is on)

I haven’t used Apple Maps. Haven’t looked recently but Apple Maps simply lack information about say parking or restaurants in as many places as Google Maps.

But the biggest difference is that I can on my iMac find places of interest and save them with one click as favorites or bookmarks and then see them on the iPhone app. There is a desktop application for Apple Maps but yoU can’t do tHe same kind of trip planning.

Regarding car Nav, yes it has a big screen but maps are more likely out of date because dealers can charge a couple hundred for a map update, talk about a scam. But I mostly use navigation on trips, in a rental car. Different UI, uncertain maps quality and no access to saved favorites. So I always use my phone, get mobile data with local SIM, carry a little phone mount.

 

[aja8888]

When I was doing oilfield projects I routinely used my Garmin Nuvi for the following:

1. Find abandoned oil well bores from Lat/Long data on expired permit applications.

2. Mark sales meter locations with Lat/Long location along a natural gas sales line running through the hinterlands.

Great device!

 

[wmc1000]

I'm an outlier as I don't like Waze.

We stopped using independent GPS units after finding out that Garmin's "lifetime maps" meant ONLY through the model lifetime. Once they come out with new models, they can and do drop older ones, so there were no 'upgrades' to download. From some of the folks here, it sounds like they have stopped doing that, but too late for us. We're not going back. The screen in our car is bigger and easier to read for us visually imperfect folks

Just updated my Nuvi 200W from 2007 and Nuvi 2598LMTHD from 2013 through the Garmin Express app without issue. The Nuvi 200W had to have an SD card inserted many years ago to handle the updated map information which had grown in file size which was too large for the embedded memory alone.

 

[easysurfer]

Just updated my Nuvi 200W from 2007 and Nuvi 2598LMTHD from 2013 through the Garmin Express app without issue. The Nuvi 200W had to have an SD card inserted many years ago to handle the updated map information which had grown in file size which was too large for the embedded memory alone.

I've been doing the same with a Nuvi 260. I bought the lifetime maps updates for $100 almost 20 years ago .

 

[explanade]

One more thing that might make some users prefer old standalone GPS devices instead of phones.

Google will log your location history so they would know where you've been. Possibly if there's a crime, maybe law enforcement will subpoena such records.

Or phone carriers have been caught selling your location data to third parties but that's not based on GPS apps use but which towers you connected to.

I remember one TV show or movie where someone breaks into a car and looks at GPS history in the built-in NAV and use that to find the car owner's home or where he or she was hiding out.

 

[Ronstar]

Who needs a GPS - this is how DW's friends navigated to North Carolina. Took pages from a road atlas, taped them on the wall for route planning. Then untaped it from the wall and took it with them on their journey.

 

[Ronstar]

When I was doing oilfield projects I routinely used my Garmin Nuvi for the following:

1. Find abandoned oil well bores from Lat/Long data on expired permit applications.

2. Mark sales meter locations with Lat/Long location along a natural gas sales line running through the hinterlands.

Great device!

Similar to our survey grade GPS at work. I could compute lat/long of old survey point locations based on angles/ distances/ monuments on old survey plats. Then we would navigate to them. Most of the old survey points were under ground, sometimes stone monuments not detectable by our metal detector, so being able to navigate to within 1/4" was very helpful.

 

[explanade]

If you watch The Amazing Race, a lot of the tasks involve the contestants navigating themselves to an unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar country.

They're given paper maps.

They're not allowed to bring their cell phones on the show.

But they invariably just ask bystanders to borrow their phones or ask for directions from other people.

Kind of a loophole in the rules, you can't use your own phone but you can use someone else's.

The younger contestants have more difficulty if they just use paper maps.

The older ones also borrow phones.

 

[sparky08]

I am just here to say that Google Maps or Waze and Android Auto (or Apple CarPlay) would be SO much easier than anything on this thread . Goodness. I am getting a GPS unit for my husband when he will be off the grid for a week mountain biking next summer. I tell him it is so I can find his body. If there is a cell signal google maps is right there lol.

To each, their own. My Garmins are gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. I use Waze on Android Auto for all my trips, even if it's just across town.

I often mountain bike out of cell range. (Just day trips). For that, I use an app called Gaia GPS. It has detail like no other.

 

[audreyh1]

The Apple Maps verbal turn by turn instructions got so good - precise, and especially look ahead when turns in rapid succession (do x then do y) that we didn’t miss the old Garmins. That plus the Apple watch wrist notifications really made a huge difference.

We generally use the Tesla built in GPS in the car as it navigates with charge state and chargers in mind on the longer road trips, and it is certainly good enough and has the great large map display, but when going through some tricky navigation sequence DH (copilot) will run the Apple Maps navigation in his phone for any look ahead instructions.

We have never found being out of cellphone range (car has cellphone as well) to be a problem as everything caches map data. Even out in some Tennessee boondocks foothills overnight with no cell connection we were able to see a map, missing label details, but when we clicked on the spot we needed to travel to, the car was able to give detailed turn by turn instructions. Once closer to civilization all the map details updated.

Pretty cool stuff!

 

[braumeister]

Who needs a GPS - this is how DW's friends navigated to North Carolina. Took pages from a road atlas, taped them on the wall for route planning. Then untaped it from the wall and took it with them on their journey.

Pretty much what the old AAA Triptik was. I used them a lot back in the 60s.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, I remember when AAA offices were widespread and you could go in one and pickup your triptiks and they had some road guidebooks too. Plus get your American Express travelers checks.

 

[Ronstar]

Who needs a GPS - this is how DW's friends navigated to North Carolina. Took pages from a road atlas, taped them on the wall for route planning. Then untaped it from the wall and took it with them on their journey.

Pretty much what the old AAA Triptik was. I used them a lot back in the 60s.

Yeah, I remember when AAA offices were widespread and you could go in one and pickup your triptiks and they had some road guidebooks too. Plus get your American Express travelers checks.

That's cool. I remember getting free AAA state highway maps but didn't know about Triptik. Just checked out the online Triptik. Not very good. Shows gas stations along your route, but very few if any restaurants.