All valid points, but I don’t think they are applicable to me. I have a phone charger in the car so the phone gets plugged in when I start the car. I don’t really use the display, just the voice commands so it just sits in its cubby in the dashboard. It’s not clear to me that the directions are any better/worse with a phone vs a dedicated unit. My impression is that they all draw from the same data sets. With real time traffic updates and re-routing I’m getting IMO the same end product.
There’s nothing wrong with a dedicated unit and I suspect it’s slightly more convenient. I only need the GPS on occasion so I don’t need it up and running all the time. I carry my phone with me always so if I’m in someone else’s car we still have good navigation. I sometimes use it walking in the city or biking so I’d need it anyway. Nothing against the dedicated units but I don’t see them as a good value proposition when I have a smartphone in my pocket 24/7.
Same here. It is great to find, say, a restaurant on my phone’s browser, tap on the address and choose “navigate to this address”.
I initially used my Garmin, only reaching for my phone if the Garmin was stuttering around unable to find a satellite or address. The Garmin is now in a drawer in the garage, unused.
Thanks everyone for your help. The thread made me realize a basic Garmin unit with Lifetime maps was my best option. I ordered the Garmin Nuvi 42LM from Best Buy, $129 and it was on sale for $79. A basic unit, 4" touchscreen, with no fancy features like Bluetooth or Voice Command. It does have USB so I can transfer routes from my PC using Google maps.
It’s almost identical to the 50LM that Shagnasty mentioned. I realize now that the more expensive features just aren’t that important too me. I just want something to get me from Point A to B.
One question.
For example you go to a restaurant in a unfamiliar part of town. How do you turn around and get back home? Do these units have a retrace route feature or something? Or do you have to plot a new route home?
That should be a nice unit that does everything you need for a good price. Garmin Nuvi’s have a Home feature on the main screen. You just put your finger on it and it directs you how to get home whether you are across town or a few thousand miles away. You just have to tell it where home is once when you fire it up the first time. It also keeps a list of recently found addresses that you can recall from the main screen if you travel to and from other places commonly.
Don’t worry, all of this stuff is dead simple to set up and doesn’t even require instructions. The user interface is intuitive and well designed. You will see as soon as you get it.
It would be a nice touch if the home button was a pair of ruby red slippers.
Looking forward to picking up my order at Best Buy. The unit was in stock and I could have gotten it later today. But I also ordered a soft carrying case that won’t be in for a week. My email asked me to wait a week and pickup the entire order at once.
Meanwhile I’ve downloaded the manual from the Garmin site and can look over it.
As usual I’m late to the party. You will be very happy with your Garmin especially if this is your first. I travel a lot with kids for sports and have been using one for many years way before smart phones were common.
I now have a smart phone and even bought a bracket and car charger cord to use for navigation. My wife has an uncanny knack though of after I’ve been on the same straight highway for 300 miles and then I hit the messy interchange and series of turns, to call to see if I’m there yet. Suddenly the directions turn off and I’m cursing as I try to figure out how to answer, tell her to hang up (which of course she wants to know why I’m mad and talk about my trip still) then finally disconnect then figure out how to get it back to navigation. By then it is calculating my new route since I just missed a turn.
I’m now on Garmin number 3. Number 1 got stolen (my fault, left in plain sight in an unlocked car). Number 2 is still around and is used as a back-up but the maps are terribly out of date. Number 3 is the go to. I don’t know the model but it is a NUVI wide screen with lifetime maps, and traffic. I got it when I found out how much it would cost to update the maps for number 2.
I didn’t really think I needed the traffic, and often I don’t. It is nice though because it will tell you if there is an alternate route due to traffic and how much time you should save. I often ignore it like when in downtown Chicago it wants to take me into a scary neighborhood to save 3 minutes. But one time it popped up while in the mountains of Tennessee. I was leery about taking back roads in the mountains, but it said it would save over an hour. I hopped off at the exit just before I could see the traffic backing up. Went a few miles on perfectly fine roads and got back on right past the accident that had closed all lanes of the highway until they could clean up the semi that overturned.
Another feature I love but didn’t think I’d need is it displays the speed limit in the bottom right along with your speed. Often I’ll be driving along wondering why I’m suddenly getting passed just to look up and see the speed limit went up from 60 to 70, or vice versa when I’m suddenly passing everyone.
An active mind - do not become one of those folks who drive off the road because the “New! Improved!” idiot box said “turn left!”.
Still do not understand how people can so completely disengage their brains when within earshot of a machine mimicking human voice.
Not to mention all the crap in stores with the “As Seen On TV”! Yeah, if somebody bought a 20 second commercial somewhere in the world, you KNOW it’s a great product…
That was a first generation Motorola Droid… using the navigate app that was pre loaded. When a call came in the screen changed to the caller info and the sound changed to ring then voice. Nav was still running in the background. I’m sure there was a way to ignore the call and continue on, but I’m an old man with old man eyes and while driving along listening to it finally say turn right in… doodly doop de do, and my wife’s gorgeous face replaced the map I was looking at, so I’m trying to figure out where I should turn because there is an A and a B exit right next to each other… figure out how to get my wife off the line, and then get it back to the right mode.
Like I said if it had happened anytime in the previous 300 miles it would have been fine but she was great at catching me at the worst possible time. I’m now on a much newer Nexus and I’m sure the app is much better, but with my Garmin I never have to worry about that issue so haven’t found out.
I have an older Garmin nuvi. Not sure the model, probably out of production so it doesn’t matter to the OP. It is far better when I am driving alone than my iPhone. Just better ergonomics and far less of a distraction. It automatically switches to a night mode for less glare, and the zoom level varies itself to suit the situation, while the phone requires I do it manually for example.The only thing I really hate about it is the keyboard is abcde instead of qwerty… Makes me very stabby. Hopefully the newer ones have qwerty at least as an option.
The phone is fine when I am in the passenger seat and using it to guide the driver. It just requires too much attention if I am the driver.
At that price you should have gotten two. Unless you and your wife are always only using one car.
I used to share a GPS with my parents. It was stupid the number of times I was in my car needing directions, without their GPS. So much more useful if each car has it’s own.
I had a bad experience with Garmin and won’t consider buying from them again, though I’ve had at least 11 of their GPS receivers.
I tried to update the map on my car GPS, which is done online. So I bought the update for $100, but then the web site wouldn’t download it to me. Garmin acknowledged that there was something wrong with the web site but said they couldn’t help me and wouldn’t refund my money. After two weeks of fighting with them I showed all their emails to my bank, who agreed to pull the money back by force, but I had to get a new VISA number and change all my other contacts who use that number to bill me for things. It was all a huge pain in the butt, and probably kept me slightly busy for three weeks.
It was amazing that Garmin would acknowledge that they could not deliver the product to me, but refuse to refund my payment. If it’s their policy to treat customers that way, I won’t be a customer any more!
I had trouble getting Garmin Express to update my map. I finally downloaded Gamin map updater (a older solution) and it worked great. Took almost 90 minutes but it worked. Used Garmin Express to update the GPS software and register it.
Overall I like the unit and can’t bitch about the price. $79 It’s got nice features. I like being able to look up restaurants by their name. Street lookups are easy. I haven’t bothered mounting the unit in my car yet. It happily tells me where to turn lying on the passenger seat. The menu system is extremely intuitive and easy. Garmin still leads you right out of the driveway.
One thing I noticed where Garmin is obsolete. Mapquest and Google maps directions have a new option not to lead you by the hand getting out of the neighborhood. 100% of people know how to drive out of their neighborhood and get on the main road.
A few issues… Perhaps more experienced users have solutions or comments?
Almost every time I turn on the Garmin it makes me accept the license agreement and acknowledge not to play with the GPS unit while driving. That’s getting old pretty quick. Before I call customer service, is there some setting I missed?
Simulation mode is unbelievably, horribly slow. I’d swear it’s driving that darn car at the speed my trip would take. No joke. It took it 12 minutes to get out of my neighborhood and onto the Interstate. Then it had to drive 30 miles before an important turn. After 15 minutes I said screw it and shut the thing off. That feature seems pretty useless, unless there’s some way to speed it up or at least jump to specific points on the trip.
The map is definitely not a replacement for Google maps. You have to zoom way, way, way in to get street name labels. At that point it’s like looking at a painting with a magnifying glass. Zoom out to actually see anything and it’s just unmarked lines.
That feature on Mapquest is labeled I know the area, hide the first few steps It was introduced a couple years ago and saves paper.
It’s not a big deal that the Garmin doesn’t do that. I just set the volume real low until I get on the Interstate. I raise the volume when it’s almost time for directions.
For a guy that learned to drive with paper maps in the glove box the Garmin is quite a nice gadget. My days of printing off my route from Mapquest are over.
