Car GPS

N

nobbie48

Well-known member
Site Supporter
I've always run Garmin and been satisfied with the performance, until I got Drive 52. It is Garbage. Slow, fickle keyboard, fickle traffic, and more. Apparently TomTom is getting out of the market, not a shock as a lot of cars have GPS as standard equipment.

Garmin's Drive 53 would be my next choice if I thought they had fired the engineer that designed the Drive 52.

Any comments?
 
I’ve got a bag of old GPS laying around if you want a free one. They’re all older, so I take no responsibility.

I want to put one on the bike just need to sit down and test them.
 
I haven't used a vehicle garmin in a very long time. When I stopped, I hated where they were headed. 50 different sku's, all similar and all with some issues. Just make two or three good ones (maybe one model for each of a couple screen sizes?). I use waze now. Better 99.5% of the time.
 
My SUV has a GPS. Car GPS' do not do multiple waypoint back road routes. Not possible, as I understand it, to download a GPX file to a car GPS.

I have the car kit for my Garmin XT and when we're touring in Canada or the US we use the XT to supplement the vehicle GPS. Also, when we fly to a destination and rent a car we often take the XT as we are almost always not going anywhere directly. We use back roads as much as possible.

So................, get an XT or XT2 and use it in your car and on your bike.
 
ReSTored said:
My SUV has a GPS. Car GPS' do not do multiple waypoint back road routes. Not possible, as I understand it, to download a GPX file to a car GPS.

I have the car kit for my Garmin XT and when we're touring in Canada or the US we use the XT to supplement the vehicle GPS. Also, when we fly to a destination and rent a car we often take the XT as we are almost always not going anywhere directly. We use back roads as much as possible.

So................, get an XT or XT2 and use it in your car and on your bike.
Click to expand...
This!
 
mimico_polak said:
I’ve got a bag of old GPS laying around if you want a free one. They’re all older, so I take no responsibility.

I want to put one on the bike just need to sit down and test them.
Click to expand...
Thanks but I have a few older ones without traffic or lifetime maps. When the traffic feature crapped out on my old one I bought a new model 52. Traffic died on it but it was replaced on warranty. However it's slow and the keypad erratic. Traffic is erratic as well, jammed in traffic and it says everything is good. Garmin has some new models but I don't know if they worked out the bugs. It's as if they lost a key designer.
 
The XT Garmin has a lot going for it. Super fast processor redraws maps very quickly. Updates are very fast and simple. Traffic works great. Only issue is that it can't keep up with 401 construction changes. B uses it to get up north. Hasn't used her TomTom in 2 years.
 
Most people use their phone GPS/Google maps/ etc and cast the info to the car in dash screen. Apple Car Play etc, Andriod Auto what have you. Unless you have a older model car without this capability.
 
I'm assuming the car GPS market has been largely killed by Apple Car Play and Android Auto. If all you care about is getting from A to B as quickly as possible, it's hard to beat Google Maps. There also other GPS apps that you can use (OsmAnd, for example) if you want waypoint routing, which is what I'm using on my bike now.

Unless you don't own a smartphone or are philosophically opposed to connecting your phone to your maps (privacy, etc.), it may be worth looking at one of the cheap screen extender devices available from China like Aoocci. They're cheap, and attach to your phone wirelessly. Something like this will also double as a dash cam:

Aoocci V30(S) Smart Portable Apple CarPlay Display GPS Navigation ADAS
 
In the car, I'm still using a Garmin GPS I bought in 2009... 😄
I keep it updated and it serves my needs well.

The Garmin 396 I have mounted to my bike is also a simpler unit, but again, suits just fine.
 
sburns said:
Most people use their phone GPS/Google maps/ etc and cast the info to the car in dash screen. Apple Car Play etc, Andriod Auto what have you. Unless you have a older model car without this capability.
Click to expand...

This. I couldn't fathom using a standalone device anymore honestly as they just don't have all the crowdsourcing components that apps like Google Maps and Waze have. Over the years the simple reality that these will detect and route around major highway delays/closures has saved me probably hundreds of hours of what would otherwise have been sitting in traffic.

A few summers back waze saved our bacon in one memorable situation and routed us around a major highway closure coming off Cape Cod that had some people sitting stopped for 3-5 hours apparently. Waze detected the accident with crowdsourced reports, told us to exit the highway, took us a few kilometers south to some alternate crossing, and we were on our way again with about a 20 minute delay.

I use all my apps different and for different applications.

"A to B as direct and fast as possible?" Waze.

"A to B with satellite view to get a better picture of where I'm going"? (Important if you have a trailer and want a eagle-eye view first, ie is there somewhere to turn around/park/whatever). Google Maps

"A to D with a B and C stop, speed not essential", Google Maps usually.

"A to Z with all the stops in between on the motorcycle and want fast some days or twisty the next"? I use an app call Scenic on my iPhone. Unfortunately it's iPhone only I believe, and it costs $25 a year or something like that, but it's designed specifically for motorcycles and I am happy to support it's author. It's also amazing.
 
Am I the only guy who still occasionally gets to experience new roads? (I hate to use the word lost)
I'm still using a paper map and as @Wingboy can attest to after the 13/13 run it can make for an interesting ride...
 
Paper maps are something I gladly left in the 90’s.

I can find new roads and explore just as good using Google maps. Just pan and zoom around and it’s effectively just as good as a paper map.

Better arguably as a road that just opened yesterday for example would be listed, and roads that might be closed part way on their length (and would potentially end up with a gong show trying to get turned around or whatever) would also be marked almost instantly.

I spent the first 5-6 years of my commercial driving career using paper maps across the continent. Getting into and out of big cities like NYC and Chicago using little blowup segments, or having to stop at rest areas and buy overpriced city specific maps and then trying to fold them in such a fashion you could read them while driving, and then trying to actually execute that. I do NOT miss that **** lol.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Paper maps are something I gladly left in the 90’s.

I can find new roads and explore just as good using Google maps. Just pan and zoom around and it’s effectively just as good as a paper map.

Better arguably as a road that just opened yesterday for example would be listed, and roads that might be closed part way on their length (and would potentially end up with a gong show trying to get turned around or whatever) would also be marked almost instantly.

I spent the first 5-6 years of my commercial driving career using paper maps across the continent. Getting into and out of big cities like NYC and Chicago using little blowup segments, or having to stop at rest areas and buy overpriced city specific maps and then trying to fold them in such a fashion you could read them while driving, and then trying to actually execute that. I do NOT miss that **** lol.
Click to expand...
I'm never in a rush and I actually really like the look and feel of paper maps.
 
The BMW sat-nav on a hire bike in Spain refused to find the hire agency where the bike came from, then refused to recognise the street address when I looked it up with my phone, and only gave me directions when I fished latitude and longitude out of Google Maps and fed it that directly so that it had no choice but to find it. LOL

In my car, I use Google Maps via Android Auto.
 
Brian P said:
The BMW sat-nav on a hire bike in Spain refused to find the hire agency where the bike came from, then refused to recognise the street address when I looked it up with my phone, and only gave me directions when I fished latitude and longitude out of Google Maps and fed it that directly so that it had no choice but to find it. LOL

In my car, I use Google Maps via Android Auto.
Click to expand...
On a streetpilot III almost two decades ago, all maritime roads were just called "Road". It could route to towns and if someone guided you in, you could see the roads and drop a waypoint but it couldn't search for an address out there. Maybe that was fixed in a subsequent map update, I can't remember.
 
timtune said:
Am I the only guy who still occasionally gets to experience new roads? (I hate to use the word lost)
I'm still using a paper map and as @Wingboy can attest to after the 13/13 run it can make for an interesting ride...
Click to expand...
I often don't use navigation but leave the map on. It helps me find new fun roads as you can see if sideroad is a quick dead end or a series of switchbacks.
 
GreyGhost said:
I often don't use navigation but leave the map on. It helps me find new fun roads as you can see if sideroad is a quick dead end or a series of switchbacks.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. That said you never know what you might see chasing that dead end.
I totally get the technology.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom