As I have mentioned, I don’t have a smartphone. So I can’t use your probably excellent solutions. I just want to keep a GPS in the glove compartment and connect it when I have to find my way to an unfamiliar place, or find a better route to somewhere I’m going. I’m just so fed up with my current Garmin, with it wasting considerable amounts of my time refusing to find a location unless I have an exact address to type in, it often won’t even list the intersection where a store or something is located, and not telling me to turn until I’m right on the corner to turn, making me miss the turn sometimes. Only to hear that odious “Recalculating” warning.
DO not depend on voice commands from your Garmin.
My Garmin shows me the exact distance remaining from the next exit or turn. Very useful!
But that requires watching it. So get hold of a good mounting device. On TV they advertise one for a reasonable price.
If you’re going to keep it in the car when it sunny out, stay far away from TomTom for the previously mentioned problem.
Oops sorry, just read the whole thread & see that you don’t have a “smart” phone. Before smartphones & iPads we used a DeLorme product called “Street Atlas USA” worked great & needed NO data/Internet connection to operate...but required a Windows OS device or laptop.
http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10120&minisite=10020
The major competitor to Garmin in stand-alone GPS navigators is “TomTom”: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405569,00.asp
Check your settings ... if you have checked "no toll road" f'rinstance, you will be directed off of an interstate toll you ALWAYS use ... recalculating at every exit
I think this is your problem. I have used the Garmin GPS units for years, and have not had the problems you are describing. But, I keep mine on the dashboard of my car and keep it turned on all the time.
I think your problem comes from keeping it in the glovebox and only taking it out occasionally. It likes to know where it is and it can't update its location when it is turned off and in the glovebox. DW and I have five Garmin units between us, one in each of the vehicles we drive even a little. (Her car, my car, son's car, sports car, 4x4 hunting truck.) I have had the problems you describe, but in the past few years they have been very rare. Maybe once per year, always in very rural settings.
The unit in my hunting rig even works on the Forest Service roads way out in the boonies.
OTOH, I almost always either look up the address of someplace I want to find, or if I want to find a store by name, I wait until I am reasonably close to the store to search for it. I never expect it to give me an intersection, only a street address. Don't expect it to be something it is not meant to be.
Get a bean bag mount for your Garmin and keep it on your dashboard. The newer models will show your speed and the local speed limit. This has saved me enough tickets to more than pay for the unit. The speed indicator is far more accurate than the one in your car. I connect mine to my Mac every few months and update both the software and the maps. From the reviews I read, there is no better car GPS than the Garmin.
Lots of replies to this thread.
I have not ever had a gps in my car. Rand Mcnalley makes a fine map. I have worn out several over the years. It has not ever sent me on a wrong turn, still have one to this day. Love my paper maps.