Thread: Experiences with Garmin Nuvi 500?

I have the Garmin NUVI 700, came standard with the SVX.

I also have a Tom Tom 720, purchased before the SVX. IMHO the garmin is not a patch on the Tom Tom. The Tom Tom is heaps eaiser to use and much faster than the Garmin by a long shot.

However, I have been told that you can now get "topo and track" maps for the Garmin on SD card. If this is true, it might tilt the scales in favour of the Garmin.

If your buying it because it rugged & waterproof, it will do it. If your buying it for the geo-caching features, I'd say don't bother as it's not as accurate, there are better. If your buying it because of street nav & map upgradeable, I'd say there is cheaper. Remember, it's been built as a cross-over between 2 platforms to fill a hole for the market. I bought one & have never since recommended it. Have bought 2 separate GPS units since.

Ive got the Nuvi 1390 - By enlarge its great. My only gripe is that its a bit crap when in the city (Sydney), just when I need it most!! - It struggles to figure out what height your at and thus what junction to take, maybe its just the Defender it doesnt like (?????) but it says its got almost a full gps signal. Its told me to turn off the Cahill Expressway before when there are no turn off's, but I know there are below...

Im not sure if its the high-rise buildings which affect triangulation accuracy... If so, all units will suffer the same.

Appart from that its great.

Jon

Thanks for all the replies so far.

A little more research has uncovered that the Garmin Nuvi 500 and Garmin GPSMAP 60csx are popular choices with the touring motorcyle community.

Interestingly the 60csx is preferred although more expensive as you have to purchase the maps, unlike the Nuvi 500 which has the City Navigator preloaded. Also the voice prompting on the Nuvi 500 is not a lot of use on a motorbike either!!

There's certainly no shortage of choice when it comes to modern navigation aids for the traveller. In many ways I suspect they all have there pros and cons and a final decision comes down perference as they are all more useful than not having one.

Thank again and happy travels.

Cheers, LandieMan.

Originally Posted by omy130

If your buying it because it rugged & waterproof, it will do it. If your buying it for the geo-caching features, I'd say don't bother as it's not as accurate, there are better. If your buying it because of street nav & map upgradeable, I'd say there is cheaper. Remember, it's been built as a cross-over between 2 platforms to fill a hole for the market. I bought one & have never since recommended it. Have bought 2 separate GPS units since.

What do you use now?

Garmin Nuvi 765 for SatNav, only because of Fm Transmitter for music. Would buy a lower model but it doesn't have the FM ability. The software for navigating is getting better all the time. Never needed to look at other brands so have no idea on the shortcoming or advantages.

Garmin Vista HCX for geocaching. Uploadable mapping though I am only running Shonky maps via memory card at the moment. Got this one as it has batteries & buttons, not touch screen & lithium. Also a more accurate GPS chipset than some of the other models

Regards

Hi,

Topo maps from Garmin are really nice (well, Topo Great Britain have some nasty limitations due to licensing issues) but the amount of information shown is so huge that a tiny-moving-screen is just (from my point of view) a small frame with blurry colour lights. So after some disappointments onboard... I chose the "brute force" way: Garmin nRoute with a Xenarc 10.2 inch touchscreen display.







Is not the kind of thing you hide in your pocket after a trip, but it really worth the mess, I promise.

Sorry for the clutter, I wasn't thinking about publishing the photos, they were made for a mate:













It is true that Garmin does not longer support nRoute, they have a new stuff called CampBase (or the like) but it took me so long to cheat the nRoute with a non-garmin bluetooth GPS (I'm particularly clumsy with computers) that I prefer not to try the new software.


Carlos

Nice setup Carlos, it certainly looks the business.

You've given me a great idea too in that I will have a "navigator" (aka my wife) in the passangers seat on all our travels and as we have a beaut little netbook, perhaps a better approach is to rely on that for all the smarts rather than the tiny screens on the GPS units.

Thanks again for prompting the thought.

Cheers, Iain