Thread: Sat Nav Suggestions

I cannot answer your question about the ebay GPS but to me the price would be an alert.

I have three Garmins , a Drive 61, a Nuvi 2460 and a Nuvi 65. I have had the 2460 (no longer supported) for about 9 years, the 65 for about 7 years and the 61 for about 3. All work perfectly and do get bounced around.

So my experience does not reflect your experience. You can get a Drive 61 for a list price of about $230 but all I checked are sold out hence I suspect the high prices you found when you looked.

I would suggest staying with Garmin over the cheap ebay GPS but if you have had problems then maybe look at another brand name unit.

Good Luck

Garry

At the price there isn't much to lose. My question is about the maps provided. What is their source? It calls itself a truck navigator; does it take into account load limits, bridge clearances, you know the stuff, Dave. Does it know of B-Double routes or roads banned to trucks? Curfews?

Not enough info there for my liking.

Had Garmin street finders for years,never had an issue.

In fact i still have the very first one that came out,maps are not supported anymore,but i use it just for speed in the Series 1.

Garmin are helpfull,you could contact them and see what they say about the continual failures.

The main thing i dont like about them is sometimes they go the long way to a destination,Google maps seems slightly more accurate around town,and shows the state of the traffic on the route.

In regional areas,both Garmin and Google maps are often not that accurate.

Hi,
Have you reset it?

Garmin DriveSmart 51/61/7 - Resetting the Device

Cheers

Originally Posted by austastar

Hi,
Have you reset it?

Garmin DriveSmart 51/61/7 - Resetting the Device

Cheers

I wish I had of known about this before I spat the dummy with this.

I thought I might bang it on the dash to see if it might have a bad connection.

In my frustration with a 3rd failure I hit it a bit hard and cracked the screen.

Just re-read the reset instructions and I don't think it would have worked.

Mine had not totally stopped functioning. Symptoms were varied from,

1/ would shut down, after a few seconds would restart, go through the start up procedure, select map, map would appear and then anywhere from 5 seconds to 2 minutes would shut down again. Repeat.

2/ Screen would appear with vertical lines on it.

3/ Screen would go to a white blank and it was frozen. Could not power it down. It was so bright I had to remove it from dash and let the battery go flat. Re stared it when flat and other above symptoms would be back.

This happened twice.

Hi,
Mine, Garmin Oregon, would start with the flash screen and go black like the battery was so flat the startup would stop from low Voltage.
Most frustrating, but the hard restart fixed the problem.
Cheers

Originally Posted by scarry

The main thing i dont like about them is sometimes they go the long way to a destination,

Depends on your navigation setting - Fastest, Shortest, Most fuel efficient. Tollways (Yes/No), Motorways (Yes/No) etc - so maybe you need to check your settings.

I've been running Garmin GPS's since 2010 and actually still have my 1st one. I've retired it as it has slowed down to a point it is too slow to use.
My Garmin History:
StreetPilot III
Nuvi 500
Montana 650T
Nuvi 2689LMT (2 of)
Zumo XT


I'm still using the Nuvi 2689LMT for daily navigation & trips & I only use the Montana 650T for touring due to the fact of its ability to be able to upload my tracklogs and waypoints easily + has good Topo Maps. As I get older my eyesight looking at the smaller screen is becoming annoying, so I have now moved to using the Garmin Zumo XT (its for the adventurous motorbike riders) and I'm still learning the ins & outs of it and reckon it's pretty good as well. This one is not really cheap unless u can find a 2nd one...
I have also gone over to use a iPad now due to the bigger screen and I use a few various Apps (OpenStreetMapping; Mapout; PocketEarth; Hema4WDApp)


It comes down to how and where you want to use it. If u are remaining around areas where u always have phone signal, then GoogleMaps or Earth might be suitable otherwise there is quite a few Phone Apps these days that are pretty good. The OSM free maps are getting pretty good these days as well to the point that a lot of dedicated GPS device providers actually use the OSM data.


I once tried using a Tom Tom GPS and realised how much better the Garmin units were at that time... not sure about now but I've always been happy with Garmin but they are changing as the Tech changes, now with BlueTooth/Wifi Map updates and sharing info...


Not sure if this helps u or not...