GPS system in vehicles...
- Thread starter Lexi65
- Start date
theblob640
New member
- Mar 4, 2013
- 550
- 0
To be honest, I really dont need a nav since almost all cell phones nowadays come with a nav or just download the google map app. On top of that the less features my car has the better, less things to break down on me. I buy the car for perfermance thats why I bought the Super Bee SRT8 instead of the regular SRT8 that comes with all the bells and whistles.
- Thread starter
- #3
I get that. Already have the nav and it sucks! Looking to see
if I'm the only one that thinks they're over rated and probably obsolete!!
rmagnus
New member
- May 28, 2011
- 1,446
- 0
I use Garmin's Nuvi it's portable and I don't need to rent one when traveling. Our family has have most every model of Lexus they make and all the navs are a pain in the ass to use.
Garmin gets it and they are super easy to use. For less than $150 I'd rather have a dedicted GPS and use the cell phone for calls.
Garmin gets it and they are super easy to use. For less than $150 I'd rather have a dedicted GPS and use the cell phone for calls.
Calendyr
New member
- Jun 9, 2013
- 3,996
- 0
I am not sure if you only wanted info from GPS systems that came with the vehicles or also for stand alone units. Either way I can share what I know.
I have a Galaxy S4 phone with a 5 inch screen. Google maps works well on this phone but I pretty much never use it for navigation for the following reasons:
1. The voice directions are no where as good as dedicated GPS units. In a bind I will use it but given the choice I will not.
2. Using the GPS navigation on your phone uses you data plan. I have a small data plan (300 Mb per month) and don't want to use it for navigation.
3. GPS navigation uses a lot of power and drains the phone battery pretty quickly. You can always plug the phone in if you have your cable with you but otherwise you battery will drain very quickly and leave you with a dead phone for the rest of the day.
Now I just upgraded my stand alone GPS so I can give you info on both Tom Tom and Garmin.
On my day job, I do deliveries. So I tend to use my GPS a lot. Anytime I don't know exactly how to get somewhere I punch the adress in and follow directions. Saves me a lot of time seaching for adresses and going places that are dead ends (Montréal street layout is aweful).
My previous unit was a Tom Tom VIA 1535M. It's a midrange unit with 5 inch screen, Bluetooth support, voice recognition and all the bells and whistles.
Here are the points I liked and disliked about it:
- Display is very good. Street layouts are clear and the street you are on is always displayed. So you know exactly where you are.
- Unit is fast, so there is almost no lag to reposition when you turn or if you decide to go off course it will recompute very quickly.
- I had major issues several times with the unit where it would stop working for long periods of time, or have some feature like turn by turn voice direction not working for days and then suddenly start working again.
- There are tons of errors on the Maps Tom Tom uses. The unit will make try to make you do things you are not allowed like turning places where it is illegal or taking an exit where none exist on the highway.
- Tom Tom support is basically inexistant. I have sents several emails to them over the 3 years I had this unit and never received a single reply.
- Power up and shut down is slow. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the unit to shut down and about the same to power up. Not an issue if you only turn it on once per trip but for me who is constantly leaving the vehicule I had to switch to always on to prevent this waste of time.
- Selecting a destination is really badly implemented. The AI of the unit is completelly stupid. Here is how you enter a destination: 1. Enter town name or postal code/zip code. 2. Enter street name. 3. Enter civic number or cross street. Once you have done that, it will list all the Streets who's name are similar to what you asked. The list is about 100 long most of the time over several pages. The problem is, it very often list Streets that are not even in your city on the first pages. I have had to go to page 4, 5 or 6 several times to find the street I needed. And it doesn't show the name of the city besides the street so you might see something like this:
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine W
Ste-Catherine E
Ste-Catherine N
Ste-Catherine S
Ste-Catherine Rt
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine boul
And so on... now you are supposed to guess which one it is, because it will list all the Streets called Ste-Catherine in it's database no matter what city it is in. So you punch one, and it will tell you the address doesn't exist, so you go back and try an other one and repeat until you find it. It's VERY annoying. And very stupid... why even list the Streets in other cities, it's the first thing it asks you?! There are also occasions where you will not be able to find the street you want no matter what you try. I was really happy to have Google map on my phone several times because of this, some of the Streets simply won't show in a search even though they are on the map and if you happen to have to use them when you go to your destination the GPS will tell you to use them during your run.
My new unit is a Garmin 2595 LTM. This is also a midrange unit with Bluetooth support and voice commands and all of that stuff.
Overall I much prefer the Garmin to the Tom Tom. This model was not my first choice since it's last year's model but none of the stores in Montréal had the new line in stock and I did not want to wait for the new models to arrive. Also this model was at a good discount compared to the new model so it was extra insentive to get it.
Here are the major différences between it and the VIA 1535M:
- Maps don't look as good. Instead of having large rectangles lines with the street name Inside the street like on the Tom Tom, Garmin uses narrow rectangles that almost appear as a line on the screen and the street name is besides it. It makes for a less attractive and less precise map when you look at it.
- Info displayed on the screen is less complete, with the Garmin you do not have the distance to destination shown like on the Tom Tom and the name of the street you are on is not displayed anywhere. Both of these things are a minor annoyance to me. It does display distance to next turn and Estimated Time of Arrival but I would like to have the extra info anyhow.
- Maps re-zoom automatically depending where your next waypoint/turn is and street density. This is a very nice feature, makes navigating a lot easier.
- Maps are very precise. I have not seen a map error yet after about 40 hours of driving with the unit.
- Entering destination is quick and effective: 1. Punch civic number 2. Street name. Unit then lists all the street ranked by distance from where you are. It gives complete info including city that street is in. Super fast, no messing around.
- New unit also have several apps that comes with it but I never used them since I have a smart phone, could be useful if you don't have one.
Over all, I think Garmin makes a much better product, I doubt I will ever purchase an other Tom Tom unit again. My experience with it has been very frustrating and now that I have the Garmin unit I see just how bad the Tom Tom ones are.
Hope this helps.
I have a Galaxy S4 phone with a 5 inch screen. Google maps works well on this phone but I pretty much never use it for navigation for the following reasons:
1. The voice directions are no where as good as dedicated GPS units. In a bind I will use it but given the choice I will not.
2. Using the GPS navigation on your phone uses you data plan. I have a small data plan (300 Mb per month) and don't want to use it for navigation.
3. GPS navigation uses a lot of power and drains the phone battery pretty quickly. You can always plug the phone in if you have your cable with you but otherwise you battery will drain very quickly and leave you with a dead phone for the rest of the day.
Now I just upgraded my stand alone GPS so I can give you info on both Tom Tom and Garmin.
On my day job, I do deliveries. So I tend to use my GPS a lot. Anytime I don't know exactly how to get somewhere I punch the adress in and follow directions. Saves me a lot of time seaching for adresses and going places that are dead ends (Montréal street layout is aweful).
My previous unit was a Tom Tom VIA 1535M. It's a midrange unit with 5 inch screen, Bluetooth support, voice recognition and all the bells and whistles.
Here are the points I liked and disliked about it:
- Display is very good. Street layouts are clear and the street you are on is always displayed. So you know exactly where you are.
- Unit is fast, so there is almost no lag to reposition when you turn or if you decide to go off course it will recompute very quickly.
- I had major issues several times with the unit where it would stop working for long periods of time, or have some feature like turn by turn voice direction not working for days and then suddenly start working again.
- There are tons of errors on the Maps Tom Tom uses. The unit will make try to make you do things you are not allowed like turning places where it is illegal or taking an exit where none exist on the highway.
- Tom Tom support is basically inexistant. I have sents several emails to them over the 3 years I had this unit and never received a single reply.
- Power up and shut down is slow. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the unit to shut down and about the same to power up. Not an issue if you only turn it on once per trip but for me who is constantly leaving the vehicule I had to switch to always on to prevent this waste of time.
- Selecting a destination is really badly implemented. The AI of the unit is completelly stupid. Here is how you enter a destination: 1. Enter town name or postal code/zip code. 2. Enter street name. 3. Enter civic number or cross street. Once you have done that, it will list all the Streets who's name are similar to what you asked. The list is about 100 long most of the time over several pages. The problem is, it very often list Streets that are not even in your city on the first pages. I have had to go to page 4, 5 or 6 several times to find the street I needed. And it doesn't show the name of the city besides the street so you might see something like this:
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine W
Ste-Catherine E
Ste-Catherine N
Ste-Catherine S
Ste-Catherine Rt
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine boul
And so on... now you are supposed to guess which one it is, because it will list all the Streets called Ste-Catherine in it's database no matter what city it is in. So you punch one, and it will tell you the address doesn't exist, so you go back and try an other one and repeat until you find it. It's VERY annoying. And very stupid... why even list the Streets in other cities, it's the first thing it asks you?! There are also occasions where you will not be able to find the street you want no matter what you try. I was really happy to have Google map on my phone several times because of this, some of the Streets simply won't show in a search even though they are on the map and if you happen to have to use them when you go to your destination the GPS will tell you to use them during your run.
My new unit is a Garmin 2595 LTM. This is also a midrange unit with Bluetooth support and voice commands and all of that stuff.
Overall I much prefer the Garmin to the Tom Tom. This model was not my first choice since it's last year's model but none of the stores in Montréal had the new line in stock and I did not want to wait for the new models to arrive. Also this model was at a good discount compared to the new model so it was extra insentive to get it.
Here are the major différences between it and the VIA 1535M:
- Maps don't look as good. Instead of having large rectangles lines with the street name Inside the street like on the Tom Tom, Garmin uses narrow rectangles that almost appear as a line on the screen and the street name is besides it. It makes for a less attractive and less precise map when you look at it.
- Info displayed on the screen is less complete, with the Garmin you do not have the distance to destination shown like on the Tom Tom and the name of the street you are on is not displayed anywhere. Both of these things are a minor annoyance to me. It does display distance to next turn and Estimated Time of Arrival but I would like to have the extra info anyhow.
- Maps re-zoom automatically depending where your next waypoint/turn is and street density. This is a very nice feature, makes navigating a lot easier.
- Maps are very precise. I have not seen a map error yet after about 40 hours of driving with the unit.
- Entering destination is quick and effective: 1. Punch civic number 2. Street name. Unit then lists all the street ranked by distance from where you are. It gives complete info including city that street is in. Super fast, no messing around.
- New unit also have several apps that comes with it but I never used them since I have a smart phone, could be useful if you don't have one.
Over all, I think Garmin makes a much better product, I doubt I will ever purchase an other Tom Tom unit again. My experience with it has been very frustrating and now that I have the Garmin unit I see just how bad the Tom Tom ones are.
Hope this helps.
goldendodo19
New member
- Jul 1, 2013
- 638
- 0
Contradicted yourself but ok.
I have a 13 focus with sync and I really enjoy it. Works much more seamlessly than my parents Prius. I've found if you mumble or don't speak clearly you may get a wrong result but as long as you're clear the system works pretty well.
VISITOR
Active member
- May 10, 2007
- 9,859
- 3
my next GPS unit (if i decide to buy another) will be a Garmin. i have 2 tom tom's and while i don't have much to complain about them, i've heard good things about Garmin and i almost purchased one instead of my second/current one. these days you can find them for a decent price at sams club or costco, or when they have black friday deals...
Cyclesafe
New member
- Aug 18, 2013
- 13
- 0
The electronic goodies will be the first aspect of your vehicle to first go obsolete, but then become downright embarrassing. Your toddlers now will be making fun of you as teenagers if you still are driving the car with a navigation system.
Cars are for driving, electronic goodies should be separate and easily upgradable / replaceable / discardable. Oh, and cheap.
Dealers make a ton of money on the gizmos. Resist the urge for the bling and focus instead on the real reasons you are buying your vehicle.
Cars are for driving, electronic goodies should be separate and easily upgradable / replaceable / discardable. Oh, and cheap.
Dealers make a ton of money on the gizmos. Resist the urge for the bling and focus instead on the real reasons you are buying your vehicle.
SYMAWD
New member
- Feb 10, 2013
- 1,667
- 0
If anyone is looking for a GPS app on their phone that does not use data, NavFreeUSA is very good. You only need wifi to download maps to your phone (never have to download them again) and wifi or data if you wish to use Google to find your destination instead of using the app's database.
Calendyr
New member
- Jun 9, 2013
- 3,996
- 0
Hum.. don't know about the us, but here in Canada data plans are very expensive and as far as I know unlimited plans don't exist. Now why would I pay 30$ more per month for a phone nav system that under performs a stand alone unit?