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vifferman
2nd June 2009, 12:21
The Garmin website for this (thankfully discontinued!) product says: "Talk about simple!"
I think they meant 'simple' euphemistically, as in 'retarded'. <_<
We paid AU$9.95 to have one of these in our Avis hire car to navigate around Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, and although we got to our destinations successfully, it was a wonder we did.
We assumed "all GPS units are basically the same". WorngA!

We have a TomTom One (Version 3), which AFAIK is one of their less fully-featured models.
We love it! :love:
We absolutely hated the Garmin. :angry:

Here's why:

The TomTom was easy to mount - we found nowhere convenient to mount the Garmin with its crappy little suction cup mount, so opted for the top of the windscreen next to the mirror. It fell off within seconds (too heavy for the mount) so my wife held it in her lap all day.

The menu was unintuitive, had too many options, and had things in weird places.

Everytime we turned the ignition off, the Garmin turned off too, so we had to set it up again.
The screen was garish colours, making it hard to view. Presumably they could be changed? Dunno - couldn't find the option.

The screen didn't indicate the next turn (the TomTom has an icon showing the next turn, which direction it is, how far ahead, and what kind - turn, roundabout, etc.) The Garmin didn't actually tell you which direction the turn was in until you were very close to it, which meant a strong possibility of you being in the wrong lane in very heavy traffic and unable to get across three lanes to make the turn.

There were too few verbal reminders; the TomTom reminds you that you need to keep to the left/right lane on the motorway, etc. The Garmin had the voice of Some Annoying Australian Bint who mispronounced street names, making them hard to identify. Also, roads were referred to by their designation (e.g., "A20"), rather than by name and designation. Most did not have the designation marked on easy to see signs, and certainly not at intersections.
So, you're wondering "Is this A20? How can I tell?", when an instruction of "turn left onto A20 / Wombat Street" would've removed all uncertainty (especially with the lack of adequate forewarning).

The TomTom shows you your speed vs. the speed limit for the road you're on, and lets you know if you're exceeding the limit by more than a (user-configured) amount. Would've been very handy in SA, where the speed limits vary widely/wildly from 40, 50, 60, 80, 90, 100, 110 km/h.

Didn't seem to be a zoom in/out feature.

Annoying prompts to "Put your seat belt on!"

Doesn't allow you to change the destination while the car is moving. Then you have to put in the street number before the street name. We had to invent addresses....

Prompts you with legal warning screens every time it starts up - can't use the device till you click on 2 or 3 "I agree" buttons.

Couldn't find the Airport on the "Transit" menu, nor anywhere else! Had to search to find it. Strangely, the airport Avis was not among the rental car companies that were displayed...

Was fairly bulky and heavy - about twice the size of the TomTom, despite the screen being no bigger.

Even little 'niceties' were missing: the TomTom capitalises the first letter of a name, then defaults to lowercase. To change the Garmin's volume, you had to use a wheel, which beeped loudly for each increment of the volume, whereas with the TomTom, it retains the volume settings (no wheel to bump) and other preferences, remembers the current destination, and you can change the volume or zoom the screen by dragging your finger across any part of the screen.

The best thing about the Garmin was that it removed any doubt about which brand of GPS to buy if/when we upgrade. :niceone:

DISCLAIMER: This review was based only on the model tested. I suspect there may actually be some Garmin models that are user-friendly.
I wrote this merely to vent some of the feelings of loathing and frustration I experienced on Sunday.

Swoop
2nd June 2009, 19:42
The Garmin website for this (thankfully discontinued!) product says: "Talk about simple!"...
Perhaps they were referring to the customers who actually purchased the product?:confused::shifty:

Gremlin
2nd June 2009, 22:32
Some of what you are saying is related to the GPS, some is the mapset. To you, the one and the same, but in reality, not really. Labelling of roads, and the POI (avis, airport etc) are down to the mapset road names (the GPS just reads what is written) and whatever they use as a POI database.

Lane assist (reminding you to keep to xyz lane) is a newer feature for Garmin. NZOGPS maps don't support that yet, for example. Re the GPS going off, I assume the model didn't have a built in battery (or it was knackered).

My Garmin Zumo 550 normally gives final warnings for turns approximately 300m out (or less in tight spaces), and its normally given one or two before that. It also has an internal battery and when vehicle power goes off, it asks if it should continue on battery.

However, the Zumo isn't cheap, but I love it. Done more than 15,000km since October last year with it, and I wouldn't have anything by my side in the middle of nowhere :laugh:

Key advantage of Garmin in NZ is the open source maps, I don't think there is a more accurate and up to date map in NZ...

Devil
3rd June 2009, 09:31
Having fiddled with a new Garmin Nuvi and the Zumo I found the interface ridiculously easy to use for someone who has never used one before.

Looks like the model you used is a sack of crap! Thankfully the new ones appear to be pretty good.

ynot slow
3rd June 2009, 12:45
When looking to buy a gps,was thinking Garmin for car as most had a good wrap here,talked to a salesman who said he'd never have one(was looking at one),his reasoning was much of what you say,plus he used one to goto Welly,it sent him down a 1 way street the wrong way.Also a road which was reasonably new wouldn't show up,yet would on another brand,he showed me this road.Ended up with a navman cheap model which does the business,gives eta,speed at time which is good to suss out speedo,i.e speedo saying 100km and doing 96km so able to sit on 117km or so and still be under 10km tolerance sort of lol.

geoffm
5th June 2009, 22:16
I luv my Garmin Nuvi 760. Eassy to use, and the best advantage (and the reason I go the Garmin) is the free open source maps (http://www.gwprojects.org/forum/index.php?sid=f3d08a0be12ddc7e88ac48e45f414a82). More up to date than the Garmin ones (which were over a year old when i got it and Garmin was not helpful about updating). Garmin, Navman and Tomtom maps run around $150-200 to update.
Geoff

xgnr
5th June 2009, 22:24
Model number would be useful otherwise the post is not a lot of use.

The Zumo 550 is great

vifferman
11th June 2009, 13:30
Model number would be useful otherwise the post is not a lot of use.
Sorry - all I know is it was a Streetpilot. When I looked it up on the Interdweeb, the models that looked most like it were marked as 'Discontinued'.

sinned
12th June 2009, 19:37
My Garmin Zumo 550 normally gives final warnings for turns approximately 300m out (or less in tight spaces), and its normally given one or two before that. It also has an internal battery and when vehicle power goes off, it asks if it should continue on battery.

However, the Zumo isn't cheap, but I love it. Done more than 15,000km since October last year with it, and I wouldn't have anything by my side in the middle of nowhere

I am waiting to for the Zum660 to arrive in NZ. If the bugs are sorted and price right will buy - otherwise it will be the 550.

xgnr
23rd June 2009, 23:03
I am waiting to for the Zum660 to arrive in NZ. If the bugs are sorted and price right will buy - otherwise it will be the 550.

From what I can work out the 660 is not as good as the 550 (smaller speedo display makes it a backward step for a start) .. but what do I know.

What does the 550 sell for nowdays?

Cheers

Stu

slofox
23rd June 2009, 23:07
From what I can work out the 660 is not as good as the 550 (smaller speedo display makes it a backward step for a start) .. but what do I know.

What does the 550 sell for nowdays?

Cheers

Stu

I was quoted $1175 ish by JB Hifi yesterday...

FJRider
23rd June 2009, 23:10
Sorry - all I know is it was a Streetpilot. When I looked it up on the Interdweeb, the models that looked most like it were marked as 'Discontinued'.

Perhaps that is not a bad thing then ... :rockon:

If they are "discontinued" ... there's little use for discussion on them ???

Gremlin
24th June 2009, 01:42
What does the 550 sell for nowdays?
$1100 inc GST from Tony @ http://www.challengermotors.co.nz/

Then you can see all the other toys he has for you to spend money on ;)

sinned
24th June 2009, 07:04
From what I can work out the 660 is not as good as the 550 (smaller speedo display makes it a backward step for a start) .. but what do I know.

What does the 550 sell for nowdays?

Cheers

Stu

Here is the most informative site I could find on the zumo http://www.zumoforums.com/index.php
It seems the 660 is better but not until the bugs are sorted. Then I may buy one.

sinned
8th September 2009, 13:29
Here is the most informative site I could find on the zumo http://www.zumoforums.com/index.php
It seems the 660 is better but not until the bugs are sorted. Then I may buy one.
It looks like it could be ages before the Zumo660 has the bugs fixed and is available in NZ. Even then it will be expensive. So for half the expected price I am buying the GPSMap 60CSX and will load the nzopengps maps. Another nice bit of technology to play with.
Don't you love toys? :woohoo: