Garmin sat nav

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Whilst we are all in whinge mode I thought I'd get this one off my chest. Taking as an example a journey of around 10 miles from the north of my town to the south, the little lady on the sat nav tells me at each junction which street name to take, and she always gets it right, all 9 of them. However, the street names are not on the road signs (they rarely are in the UK), and she never mentions the fact that it is the A49 all the way. Very confusing if you don't know the area.

I assumed I would be able to alter it in the menus, but no, so I contacted them. 'Nothing can be done' was their answer. Obviously something can, they can stop thinking like a Yank, where street names are on road signs, and think like a Brit, where they usually aren't. If you're thinking of buying a sat nav, check out this feature first.

Edited By duncan webster on 21/08/2019 22:19:48

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Duncan,

The little lady in my Garmin has similar problems. At least she has an English/Australian accent. She does however give a distance to the street where I have to turn and I do not have to rely on a street sign. I do like the Garmin instead of the Tomtom which I previously owned.

I had to pay for map updates with the Tomtom. The Garmin has lifetime free updates.

Paul

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

My sons girlfriend at the time was amazed that I drove from Oxford to our hotel in Turin without a satnav or map, I did know the way as we had been two years previously. I also check where I am going before I leave home. Rather than put up with the wittering from the satnav I only turn it on for the last bit of the journey as roads signs get me close if I have some idea of the route. I do find it tempting to follow the satnav even when I think I know better and a couple of times I would have been better to use my own sense of direction which mostly is pretty good. The satnav did get it wrong on an over complicated junction in Aosta this year and cost me a tenner in tolls, perhaps I should put a claim in.

Mike

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

With excellent free satnav's you can download to a phone it seems a bit redundant to buy a new stand alone version.

About 20yrs ago i navigated from London to a relative's flat in Prague with just road-signs and a school altas. I got the last bit wrong due to overcast skies and no stars and my intent to keep the river on my right failed due to being on the wrong side of it. Due to 3hr queues at the border we were a tad late and OH was getting tratchy so i stopped a taxi and paid to follow him the last bit. He not only knew the short-cuts but found me a rare parking space too.

pgk

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

Posted by pgk pgk on 22/08/2019 01:48:07:

With excellent free satnav's you can download to a phone it seems a bit redundant to buy a new stand alone version….

Even when you see a truck stuck in a narrow road or trains are delayed by a bridge strike?

My son's TomTom routes him to avoid low bridges, width and weight restrictions and holds more of them than either of his trucker's atlases (we checked it against the local bridges thatl are missing from the atlases). It also takes into account real-time traffic, road works and temporary speed restrictions, re-routing and updating his ETA accordingly, so he keeps it on even if he is driving a route he knows. It wasn't cheap, but he thinks it was worth every penny.

Brian

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

One of my Uncle's told a story about his contribution to WW2 and he may have been pulling my leg. Aged 18 in 1945 he was too young to see any fighting and found himself allocated to the Royal Army Service Corps as a driver, a skill he didn't have.

On arrival at Bicester instead of being taught to drive he was ordered into the cab of a large lorry, shown the controls, and told he was driving it in convoy to Greece! No map, street names, towns, or road numbers – the instructions for navigating across war-torn Europe consisted of a long mimeographed list of distances and turns:

• At main gate turn right drive 100 yards.
• At junction turn left drive 6 miles.
• And so on all the way to Athens.

I like to think the jeep leading the convoy had a map, but perhaps it was just following a well defined military route, no civilians allowed to get in the way.

Uncle's memory of his journey across a recent battlefield was probably censored to save my delicate sensibilities. (Soldiers don't like describing what they went through to people who can't understand because they weren't there.) He mentioned being constantly shouted at by Military Policemen racing up and down the convoy on motorbikes, the fact that the convoy rarely exceeded a fast walking pace, and that the lorries whining gears gave him splitting headaches. Other than that, it might have been a picnic.

Dave

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I have two Garmin sat nav's, one which I used to have when I was working and the other one I had at home for when I go anywhere in my own time, although the one for work is really redundant now, but I keep it updated. I prefer a dedicated sat nav over a mobile and the Garmin I like better than a TomTom, the best one I had was a Navman, but they don't seem to be available in our shops now. I don't have any real issues with my Garmin's and I do get road names on them most of the time. They have "Lifetime" map updates, but of course that lifetime thing is only the lifetime of the sat nav and you have to be sure that you keep them updated, I think it is at least four times a year or the sat nav's "Lifetime" defaults to being ended. Both of mine have the traffic avoidance built in, I've used it once, but it caused me more delay than sticking with the original route, I guess many other people on the same route as myself must have switched and made a bigger traffic jam on lower class roads than the one that I was on, never bothered with it since. Just as Mike says, I normally lookup on a map any route I'm not familiar with and actually only use the sat nav's directions from where I don't know the way to go, but I do have it on, which informs me of the speed limits of each road and also of speed cameras and red lights etc., not that I speed or go through red lights deliberately.

Regards Nick.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Brian G on 22/08/2019 08:28:50:

Posted by pgk pgk on 22/08/2019 01:48:07:

With excellent free satnav's you can download to a phone it seems a bit redundant to buy a new stand alone version….

Even when you see a truck stuck in a narrow road or trains are delayed by a bridge strike?

My son's TomTom routes him to avoid low bridges, width and weight restrictions and holds more of them than either of his trucker's atlases (we checked it against the local bridges thatl are missing from the atlases). It also takes into account real-time traffic, road works and temporary speed restrictions, re-routing and updating his ETA accordingly, so he keeps it on even if he is driving a route he knows. It wasn't cheap, but he thinks it was worth every penny.

Brian

My stepson (truck driver) would agree with that!

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I have a Binatone GPS with 'lifetime maps' – tehy neverv issued new maps but offered me £30 off the price of a new GPS.

I've kept it in the car for 'emergencies' but the Google Maps one on my android phone is so much better, plus I can control it by talking to it and never have to touch a button. For car use, I can't see the point of a dedicated GPS. I also sue it for finding my way on foot and by public transport – my phone even reminds me of my train times.

Neil

[ChrisBParticipant @chrisb35596]

I have a garmin satnav and a mobile satnav app on my phone – Navigon by garmin. Much prefer the app on my phone – it's got all the functions of the dedicated satnav traffic, speed cameras etc. and one less thing to carry around.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

I bought a hand-held Garmin some years ago to use in my wife's car (mine is built-in; don't know the actual manufacturer but it works well enough).

The Garmin gave out a loud beep every time I used the touch-screen. I hate things that beep at me at the best of times and that loudly I won't tolerate. So I read the manual and it gave instructions to turn the volume down (but not off).

Didn't work.

So I emailed Garmin tech-support. The gave me exactly the same instructions as in the manual. When I pointed out that I had already tried that – and said so in my original email – they told me there is no way to turn the volume down (or off).

It's still sitting on a shelf somewhere.

 

Edited By Bandersnatch on 22/08/2019 18:21:47

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

When satnavs first appeared, I decided I wouldn't buy one until they became unremarkably reliable.

I worked for a software house with a lot of salesmen, and thought that when they'd stopped telling jokes about where their satnav thought they were for about 6 months, that point would've been reached. So I bought a low-end TomTom in about 2010.

I think I must've jumped the gun.

It's good enough for long motorway trips with destinations not far off major routes, but it shows a penchant for trying to snip off tiny bits of miles by sending us down labyrinths of small 'hard work' roads, and I haven't yet figured out how to defeat that. Must take a look and see if there's some setting somewhere…

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mick B1 on 22/08/2019 18:32:28:

When satnavs first appeared, I decided I wouldn't buy one until they became unremarkably reliable.

I worked for a software house with a lot of salesmen, and thought that when they'd stopped telling jokes about where their satnav thought they were for about 6 months, that point would've been reached. So I bought a low-end TomTom in about 2010.

I think I must've jumped the gun.

It's good enough for long motorway trips with destinations not far off major routes, but it shows a penchant for trying to snip off tiny bits of miles by sending us down labyrinths of small 'hard work' roads, and I haven't yet figured out how to defeat that. Must take a look and see if there's some setting somewhere…

Usually 'fastest' vs. 'shortest'.

Neil

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

The Woman in My Garmin seems to not know left from the other left and says it wrong a lot of the time. The picture is correct.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I have a perfectly functional Tom Tom one which is ten years old. I cannot use it as it is at "end of life".

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

I have a Renault with "MEDIA NAV". This can only be updated on windows computers. Possible if you run emulated windows on a MAC, but I don't want to taint my Mac with windows.

There is an Eastern Block replacement system which purports to have free maps, video player, and all sorts, but I don't have the courage to 'import' it.

The purchased maps are OK, but cost about £100 each year, so mine are well out of date, but still handy.

My gripe is that Renault still believe that an update tool will become available for the MAC even though my car is 5 years old. I just wish they would tell the truth and say that it would not be available for the MAC.

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