Fed up with Garmin GPS -- any suggestions?

3/26/15 | Me, myself, & I

[EinNYC]

I have a Garmin GPS in my car, about 3 years old. I think it's the 1490MT. It has led me to wrong places. It has not told me to turn until it's too late. It gives me a great deal of trouble trying to find a business. It will list a bunch of the stores of a chain except the one I want, for example. I recently updated it on my computer, so that's not the problem. I am just totally fed up with this thing and want to first smash it with a hammer and then scatter the resulting pieces all over the highway.

Are there better models of Garmin out there, or TomTom (with which I have NO experience)?

[Billthedrill]

I just replaced a Tom Tom with a Garmin - some good and bad about both. The Tom Tom seemed to pick up satellites a little quicker and the maps seemed to be a little more up-to-date, but it proved susceptible to an update that filled the memory and essentially bricked the device. The replacement Garmin has a little more intuitive user interface but the most up-to-date map isn't as good as the most up-to-date Tom Tom was. Mind you, I'm talking about rural Idaho, not New York City.

Just took a trip to Seattle with a friend's Magellan and it performed very well. I think I could get used to the user interface, which seemed at first glance a little less intuitive, or maybe it's just me.

All have served their functions very well. All have bigger screens than my smart phone and easier-to-use interfaces. None of them is really fully trustworthy.

A couple months ago I had to take an alternate route to my destination due to a road closure and in the middle of a blizzard. (Fun times). Frankly, it saved my butt. I'm sure I could have managed it with a map in my lap but not as safely. YMMV. Good luck!

[JoeFromSidney]

I've had several Garmin GPS units in my car and my RV over the years. I have had no problems with them. For hiking and cycling I use DeLorme units, also with no problems. I don't know if DeLorme makes a unit for autos.

[maddog55]

I have a smart phone but it stays at the house most of the time, in my truck or on the bike in a saddlebag.. I never carry it and it’s a nothing more than a damn tracking device and I did fine for years without one.

I get the “I sent you a text or left a voice mail did you get it?” and the answer is usually “probably”.

Nice to have in an emergency but otherwise a pain in the ass.. and expensive as hell.

[killermosquito]

I have a nexus 7 tablet and it has a GPS in. i installed Sygic. it’s a great app.

[EinNYC]

One characteristic of a nice neighborhood, in my opinion, is that it be a neighborhood in which my vehicles are NOT in danger of having their windshields smashed by thieves.

My neighborhood has homes which certainly top $1M as well as nice apartment buildings. Paradoxically, as is common in NYC, such homes can be juxtaposed with housing projects. And there is a housing project about 3/4 of a mile away.

I remember parking my rental car overnight in a synagogue parking lot in San Antonio, TX. When I went out to my rental car after the Sabbath, I found a rock the size of someone's head laying in the front seat and the entire front windshield shattered. That was also a pretty decent-looking neighborhood with spacious upper-middle-class homes. In Tempe, AZ, I found that someone had tried to pry the trunk open on my rental car in the hotel parking lot. So, I have to question whether there really IS such a thing as a thief-free neighborhood.

[doorgunner69]

Nice to have in an emergency but otherwise a pain in the ass.

Yeah, my wife rags on me for never having my simplistic Motorola Razor on. Whatever, it can make calls, take pictures I cannot send to anyone, and I hate talking.

What people find so fascinating with these silly smartphones, I dunno. Good for causing car crashes it seems.

Just recently found out what those stupid postage stamp things are that you see printed all over everything.

I think that is what galls me, the assumption that EVERYONE has a smartphone, so we should gear society for that and to hell with knuckledraggers that refuse to follow the latest trends.

/Rant off....

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

You’re not supposed to be using your phone while you’re driving, so I disagree that GPS units are on their way out. They’re legal to use, your phone isn’t.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yes.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

That doesn’t help you when you’re lost in the middle of Dallas and it’s a cloudy day so that you can’t even tell what direction you’re facing. I’ll take your approach to navigation if I want to die.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Have you ever driven on the freeways (yes, there are multiple) near Dayton, Ohio? There are zero geographical references. You can only see 200 yards to the next grove of trees.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

It’s also much safer so that you don’t wind up in gangland. There’s a reason why they remove street signs and any other signs that show you where you’re at and how to get somewhere. They love to suck you into gangland, kill you, and pick the bones. So listen to God’s gift to testosterone over there if you want to die.