Topic: What Make of automotive GPS do you Use?

[dr_spock]

TomTom One. Ancient (4-5 years). Hasn't been updated even once. Went into "no-man's-land-grey-zone" on a stretch of the Trans Canada through NB. Questionable accuracy (SirfStar 2 I believe). Even paid a small fortune for it at the time...seems like I bought it just before the massive price drops came.

Probably shouldn't use it in Death Valley...

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/137646147/the-gps-a-fatally-misleading-travel-companion

[5 Wheel Drive]

Garmin 1490, large 5" screen. Live Traffic, great feature.

Yup.  That's what I bought. Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT.  $200. 

I also bought the Garmin EcoRoute HD bluetooth sending unit which connects to your car's OBD II diagnostic port and displays a bewildering array of realtime data including oil and inlet air temp, timing, fuel consumption, etc., to the GPS display.  It also lets you view engine codes and reset them too.  Necessary equipment for gearheads like us.

Linky --> https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=38354&ra=true

Reason for editing:  Added link

THAT is cool!!!

[Angry Chicken]

Garmin 1490, large 5" screen. Live Traffic, great feature.

Yup.  That's what I bought. Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT.  $200. 

I also bought the Garmin EcoRoute HD bluetooth sending unit which connects to your car's OBD II diagnostic port and displays a bewildering array of realtime data including oil and inlet air temp, timing, fuel consumption, etc., to the GPS display.  It also lets you view engine codes and reset them too.  Necessary equipment for gearheads like us.

Linky --> https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=38354&ra=true

Reason for editing:  Added link

THAT is cool!!!

Can't go wrong for $99.

[tenpenny]

TomTom One. Ancient (4-5 years). Hasn't been updated even once. Went into "no-man's-land-grey-zone" on a stretch of the Trans Canada through NB. Questionable accuracy (SirfStar 2 I believe). Even paid a small fortune for it at the time...seems like I bought it just before the massive price drops came.

Probably shouldn't use it in Death Valley...

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/137646147/the-gps-a-fatally-misleading-travel-companion

What kind of idiot follows a gps down what is obviously not a road?  Oh, right, lots of them.

I cannot understand people who blindly follow gps directions when the go completely against common sense, like the girl travelling in NB last winter who went down an unplowed road and got stuck, because that's where her gps told her to go.

You've got to use some sense.

[safristi]

..I see Tom Tom are offering a new 7" screen with Sony Audio and Video picture quality with integrated advanced Navvy....
 saw the ad in my latest COR&DROVER Mag........

  sony.com/navigation

[aaronk]

We use a Navigon GPS unit, a subsidiary of Garmin I believe. Apparently they've been doing this for about 20 years, and the practical features on our unit back up that experience. It's not as cheap as some of the other brands but it works well...I just wish it had traffic! We have owned it for about 2 years, I'm sure most of the current models have this feature.

[The Mighty Duck]

My Jensen unit stopped working right, so I downloaded CoPilot on my iPhone. It's free (with a paid option if you want stuff like traffic). It works fairly well - my only complaint is with the way it handles highway exits. My old unit would tell me which lane to be in if the highway split, this one doesn't. It took me a while to figure out where it wanted me to go. It's also a little bit frustrating if there are two turns in quick succession: sometimes it will say "turn left, then turn right". But sometimes it just gives you the first direction, and then as soon as you turn it says "now turn right". Really frustrating if you've just turned left into the left lane of a big road and suddenly you need to get all the way to the right lane to go right with no warning...

All in all, though, for a free GPS app, it's great. It lets me listen to my music while using it, it's accurate, recalculates quickly if you make a wrong turn, and speaks street names (and quite intelligently). I was going to buy the TomTom or Navigon app, but I'm not sure what they can offer that this one doesn't...

[mmret]

TomTom One. Ancient (4-5 years). Hasn't been updated even once. Went into "no-man's-land-grey-zone" on a stretch of the Trans Canada through NB. Questionable accuracy (SirfStar 2 I believe). Even paid a small fortune for it at the time...seems like I bought it just before the massive price drops came.

Probably shouldn't use it in Death Valley...

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/26/137646147/the-gps-a-fatally-misleading-travel-companion

What kind of idiot follows a gps down what is obviously not a road?  Oh, right, lots of them.

I cannot understand people who blindly follow gps directions when the go completely against common sense, like the girl travelling in NB last winter who went down an unplowed road and got stuck, because that's where her gps told her to go.

You've got to use some sense.

Lots of people are compelled to follow authority.

For example those "electric shock button" experiments, soldiers, etc.

[No H2O]

Just wondering what you peeps are using?

Garmin 60 Cx...actually I have two of them knowing full well that they'd discontinue it...sure enough they did.

It does everything but talk and has so many features not found on car units.

I really don't use it to get me somewhere.

[jamie1]

I have a Garmin nuvi 650. It is an older unit. 1st time I updated it I paided $90 for a disc. Today I updated it again and it was a download of the internet. $88 for a lifetime, up to 4 times a year. Thing is, I down loaded the maps[Canada and USA] to my computer and when I went to download to the nuvi, it stated my device did not have enough room. I could only load Canada and the upper US. Not sure if I just wasted $88.

[Gardiner Westbound]

For $88 you should be entitled to assistance from Garmin Technical Support.

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/home/support/supportcontact 

[safristi]

when my Garmin screen cracked 2 years back....wot a run a round getting servicing answers ...their final E Mail ( NO phone calls allowed) response was send the unit back with a pre paid $50 US  payment and WE WILL LOOK AT IT......if it's more than $50 to FIX we will let you know and KEEP IT if you don't want to PAY MORE.......atrocious SERVICE...they fixed the screen for the $50 and sent it back...but it still has issues...with typing in destination addresses...........have only used it once since then...HOPE THEY have improved their QA and service....when I sent mine for repairs there were stories about Garmin service retreating from N AMERICA...............


   any of you had better experiences............

[Angry Chicken]

when my Garmin screen cracked 2 years back....wot a run a round getting servicing answers ...their final E Mail ( NO phone calls allowed) response was send the unit back with a pre paid $50 US  payment and WE WILL LOOK AT IT......if it's more than $50 to FIX we will let you know and KEEP IT if you don't want to PAY MORE.......atrocious SERVICE...they fixed the screen for the $50 and sent it back...but it still has issues...with typing in destination addresses...........have only used it once since then...HOPE THEY have improved their QA and service....when I sent mine for repairs there were stories about Garmin service retreating from N AMERICA...............


   any of you had better experiences............

Well, that sucks.

[Angry Chicken]

Well, Garmin wins!

I'm really enjoying playing with my EcoRoute HD OBD-II bluetooth dongle which connects with my Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT GPS. Having all that realtime information about what the engine is up to is just too kewl.  The diagnostic capability is great, too, since I now know why my CEL is coming on occasionally.  It can even reset the CEL.

[EV Dan]

when my Garmin screen cracked 2 years back....wot a run a round getting servicing answers ...their final E Mail ( NO phone calls allowed) response was send the unit back with a pre paid $50 US  payment and WE WILL LOOK AT IT......if it's more than $50 to FIX we will let you know and KEEP IT if you don't want to PAY MORE.......atrocious SERVICE...they fixed the screen for the $50 and sent it back...but it still has issues...with typing in destination addresses...........have only used it once since then...HOPE THEY have improved their QA and service....when I sent mine for repairs there were stories about Garmin service retreating from N AMERICA...............


   any of you had better experiences............

Well, that sucks.

One garmin I had was returned back to Costco because the battery would last about 2 min. The other freezed frequently so it went back too. Since I used TomTom GO series and they do everything right and well. Only on occasion it gets "lost" - like tries to go through a dead end road, but that happened only twice and far away in suburbs.
There is GO 630 I'm currently using now on sale in Bestbuy.
FYI, if anyone gets one, register a new account through tomtom website, NOT through the unit's software.

[Loudpedal]

My TL has the in dash GPS, and we have a Garmin portable unit in my wife's Odyssey. 

I also use the Blackberry Traffic app which is scary good at providing real-time eta using crowd sourcing.   One of the best apps out there, IMHO. 

[Marko]

The brand of my GPS is Curtis, which is some cheap chinese brand I had never heard of but it was $47 at Canadian Tire so I picked one up. I found out about the deal here: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/curtis-gps-47-canadian-tire-not-only-kingston-707504/

Cheap GPS units aren't rare however what made this one special was that it was hackable, meaning you can install any software you want on it and get the same functionality as other much more expensive units. Although even the software that came with it (Sygic) wasn't too bad.

[safristi]

POLO

                                         POLO.................













 

[life in the slow lane]

Garmin 1490, large 5" screen. Live Traffic, great feature.

Yup.  That's what I bought. Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT.  $200. 

I also bought the Garmin EcoRoute HD bluetooth sending unit which connects to your car's OBD II diagnostic port and displays a bewildering array of realtime data including oil and inlet air temp, timing, fuel consumption, etc., to the GPS display.  It also lets you view engine codes and reset them too.  Necessary equipment for gearheads like us.

Linky --> https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=38354&ra=true

Reason for editing:  Added link

Just bought same model, thanks to your post. I like the fact that the Garmin EcoRoute HD unit connects to the OBD diagonstic port. Website indicates that they are out of stock for the HD unit. I am hoping to find a local dealer that has one in stock.