Garmins and phones and toys, oh my!

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

03/08/2010 11:02:42 AM · #1

So my lovely little Navigon GPS thingie I used in Europe won't work in the USA. It has the maps, but I don't have the "key" to unlock them and the customer service folks for that company say they cannot help me. I learned to love the little thing. It tells me where to turn, when to turn, how long I had to go, how many miles/km I had left, did multipoint route mapping, could find gas stations, etc, etc. Apparently a lot of what it did, and it was a basic entry level device, is all "high end" stuff here. This whole "feature" of speaking street names - what do the ones that don't speak street names say? Just "Turn left ahead", "turn left now"? Mine knew all the street names and it was fun to hear the literal pronounciation in English....

Some apparently do not do multipoint routing. Some have traffic enabled, but for a fee. Some you can get one map update or pay a fee for "lifetime" updates.

And now I hear that you can get a GPS function on an iPhone as well. Go figure. (My current phone was purchased at the grocery store. It has no features and in fact has a hard time finding signals to use.)

I'm in the market for a new navigation device - I want it to be one that I can use in a car as well as handheld or on a bike. It seems Garmin is the biggie in the US, but there are just so many models to choose from, and with conflicting reviews it is difficult to know if one is better than the other or which ones are reliable. Looking for recommendations from users of such devices here in North America. And whether I should skip the Garmin-type things altogether and bit the bullet with the silly iPhone and related app craze.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

03/08/2010 12:01:18 PM · #2

Yes, here in the USA most GPS devices are crippled. Only a few of the high-end units do decent multi-point routing, and IMO it is not worth the cost. I've also put Garmin on my black-list for reliability. I had a unit that quit working after a few months of use, and Garmin was *very* slow to respond to support requests. Phone support from them ins non-existent, their lines almost always have in excess of a half-hour wait. They sometimes do not respond to e-mail requests, and will claim that they have "no record" of a request. Their request form does not copy you with an e-mail confirming their receipt of the request, so you have no recourse if they deny that you sent them something.
Units that don't speak street names just say "turn left in 300 feet" or some such. Usually there will also be a street name on the device display, but that does require you to take your eyes off the road to read the display. Spoken street names are useful in high-density areas where there can be confusion as to which is the proper street to turn onto; in most scenarios, they are not so big a thing.
IMO, the manufacturers of portable navigation devices are screwing themselves long-term. Multi-purpose devices like the iPhone will eat their lunch by providing today's expensive features for free.
Note that the FM traffic is available on some models with a lifetime subscription as part of the purchase price. Only works in areas that have FM traffic coverage (major cities) but that's where you need it anyhow...
The usefulness of the traffic feature is greatly reduced because of the crippling of the unit functionality. For instance if I want to use the feature on my daily commute (something that would be of great value to me) I need to "trick" my unit into accepting a multi-point routing, and I would have to enter this manually every morning and afternoon, since the unit refuses to save a route for later re-use, even though it has plenty of memory.
Can you tell I'm not at all happy with the state of these devices in the US? I can't believe anyone is happy with these things. They only do one thing well, and that's guide you from point A to point B in an area you are not familiar with.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED

03/08/2010 12:13:30 PM · #3

Wow. I'm very surprised. Like I said, the very low-level one I had in Germany spoke all the street names, did multipoint routing, etc, etc, and it wasn't incredibly expensive. Is it a turf war in the US or something? I can't see why providing the same basic functions is such a chore.

I just did some reading about iPhones and by gosh the monthly expense is, well, expensive! I suppose you'd have to really use it a lot every day to justify it.

I used to be a gadget geek, but these days I find them more and more limiting and annoying. I think I'm just getting old...

sabphoto

Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+

03/08/2010 12:55:18 PM · #4

I was just reading the Dec 2009 issue of Consumer Reports and they hit on GPS units a little.

Top "traffice-ready" unit (Garmin) is $500!

My family got ones a couple years back for me and my brother-in-law so they were a lot cheaper than that $500. And last year we got my future son-in-law a Tom-Tom on Black Friday. It speaks the names and does lots of cool stuff mine doesn't. And my brother has one that alerts you if you are going over the speed limit (you preset how much over you can go before it alerts you), great for when his kid was learning to drive.

All in all I like my Garmin (have even downloaded software to make my voice be the one on the system...it's funny when I lend it to people), but there have been times when I wanted to see how far I could throw it...like when it told me to turn the wrong way onto a one way street, and when I was testing it I knew where I was going so I was ignoring its route and it kept telling me to make a U-turn to go back but the roads it wanted me to turn around on was ON ramps to the highway I was on! What trouble that would have been if I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I actually haven't done an update on it lately so I bet that would fix those problems.

eta...mine says turn in 500 ft, turn in 40 feet, turn in 3 feet, turn now...but most of the time I have the volume off.

Message edited by author 2010-03-08 12:56:17.

jbsmithana

Nikon D300

03/08/2010 01:19:43 PM · #5

Frintz normally gives great advice but I have to disagree with him here. I have owned three different Garmins; car, boat and handheld for climbing/hiking. All have worked flawlessly. Maybe that is my problem as I have not had the need to use customer support other that one e-mail about an add-on software package I bought which they responded to within 24 hours. I will agree on the multi-point issue as they could be better int hat area. I have also had the experience of having to manually enter each point in the route to make it work. Having the software on the computer and then creating your route and downloading makes this much easier but it is an added cost. I have used Magellan and found the interface clumsy. I have no experience with TomTom.

Seems that the models that would fit your need are the Garmin Novi. Costco has an excellent deal on one right now for $249, Nuvi 765T

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

03/08/2010 01:28:54 PM · #6

Yeah, the Costco one was the one I was looking at. I'm still amazed at how they just now seem to be catching up to what Europe has had all along. Like I said, the base model I had talked, did all the street names, did multi-point routing, you could choose fastest or shortest, get traffic re-routes, kept track of time to go, warned you of speed limit violations - all stuff that is just now appearing in the upper-end boxes here. Why? I'm very tempted to have a friend still in Europe go buy me one that has US maps and send it to me.

The only time it really did me wrong was when I'd left it on bike mode and was going somewhere by car. It was having a heart attack because I was on the freeway, then turned me the wrong way down a one-way street (which was allowed if you were on a bicycle.) I finally figured out why it was freaking out, changed the mode, and it got me where I was going. It was very slow some days to find a signal, though.

I have heard Garmin is the best of those in the US, though I've also heard their customer service does indeed suck if you happen to need it.

dacrazyrn

Nikon D300

03/08/2010 02:27:45 PM · #7

SO you can't buy a "key" to unlock US maps on the Navigon. Can you buy and upload maps to it? Be a hell of a lot cheaper!

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

03/08/2010 02:29:07 PM · #8

Originally posted by dacrazyrn:

SO you can't buy a "key" to unlock US maps on the Navigon. Can you buy and upload maps to it? Be a hell of a lot cheaper!

I HAVE the US maps, and supposedly have the key. I wrote to customer service and they said "Sorry, but you have that information." Obviously I don't, and having reset the stupid thing with the US maps, I can't get it back to my European maps now either.

dacrazyrn

Nikon D300

03/08/2010 02:31:52 PM · #9

Originally posted by Melethia:

Originally posted by dacrazyrn:
SO you can't buy a "key" to unlock US maps on the Navigon. Can you buy and upload maps to it? Be a hell of a lot cheaper!

I HAVE the US maps, and supposedly have the key. I wrote to customer service and they said "Sorry, but you have that information." Obviously I don't, and having reset the stupid thing with the US maps, I can't get it back to my European maps now either.

Hell, I would be calling them, not writing them. and keep asking for a Manager, or hell the president of the company, until satisfied.