GPS Recommendations For This Area Please?

[spleuchan]

I have the TomTom XXL 540tm, which is an older, but still available model. As I mentioned, core GPS features (traffic and routing) are very good. Other things (little things, but still very annoying), not so much. The things I dislike:

1) The mounting device is bad. It worked well for the first 6 months, but then started falling off the windshield. I bought a dashmount beanbag for it and that works much better.

2) When I'm on a roadtrip and want to search for a gas station or food place along the way, it cancels my original route, so I have to reinput it after I make my stop. My garmin always asked me if I wanted to travel to my final destination via the new POI.

3) This TomTom could be a little more user friendly.

4) There are no subcategories for restaurants. My Garmin had fast food, italian, and tons of other subcategories

5) The night/day mode doesn't seem to be automatic.

6) Doesn't let me know what side of the road my destination is on.

7) Doesn't let me zoom out or in for long.

I also have a very old Garmin, and wanted to give Garmin another shot, so I bought the nuvi 2495LMT. It does very well in all the negatives I listed above, but I very much dislike the routing and traffic. I'm not sure if any newer Tomtom models would have fixed the things I dislike above or not, so I can't give you a specific model recommendation.

[CaliTerp07]

I love love love love my Tom Tom. I too have the lifetime traffic and map updates. My parents rolled their eyes when I said that was a requirement for my gps...and then they came to visit, saw the little sucker in action, and totally get it.

I can set the route, it will calculate, and if traffic appears on the map a window will pop up saying, "Faster route found by 12 minutes. Reroute?" and I can choose yes or no. I almost always say yes, but sometimes that means it routes you through downtown, so you have to be careful and look at the route before you commit to it!

spleuchan, I have (I think) the same model you have, and I haven't run into very many of your negatives on it.

Originally Posted by spleuchan

1) The mounting device is bad. It worked well for the first 6 months, but then started falling off the windshield. 2.5 years into the life of mine, and it still holds onto the windshield quite well. It has a twisty knob to tighten the suction cup, which works really nicely.

2) When I'm on a roadtrip and want to search for a gas station or food place along the way, it cancels my original route, so I have to reinput it after I make my stop. My garmin always asked me if I wanted to travel to my final destination via the new POI. This is true. You have to set up a multi destination trip, with the restaurant along the way. I usually just head to the restaurant, then say "travel to recent destination" to get back on the regular path.

5) The night/day mode doesn't seem to be automatic. It is, so long as your clock is set correctly. Mine didn't adjust for the end of daylight savings time, so the night feature was coming on late until I corrected the clock.

6) Doesn't let me know what side of the road my destination is on. If it's a major road, it's always on the right. It will set you up going down the road in that direction--which sometimes results in some obnoxious requests for uturns or driving around the block, when you could have just turned left across traffic. In small neighborhoods, I agree with you that it doesn't tell you--you have to look at house numbers.

7) Doesn't let me zoom out or in for long. There is a function for this, under "view route", I believe? I do find it frustrating that there is no dragging around the map. I want it to work like google maps where you can stretch and move the viewfinder to show streets off to the side, but it doesn't work that way. I don't think Garmin does either though...

I will say that for the techno-phobe, I find Garmins to be more user friendly. You turn on the Garmin, and it says, "Where do you want to go?" right away. The Tom Tom requires you to tap the screen and hit "Find destination" or something like that. It's a couple extra clicks, but once you've done it a few times it's painless.

The biggest negative I have against my Tom Tom, and for all I know it's the same with Garmin (I have only tried the Garmin in California, where this isn't an issue...) is that it takes a long time to recalculate if your trip crosses state lines. Anywhere in Virginia, the recalculating happens within 5 seconds. The shorter the trip, the faster it is. As soon as I am driving from Burke to Bethesda though, if I go off the path in Burke it will take up to 20 seconds to recalculate because it reroutes the entire trip, and something must take longer when it uses maps from another state. When I used my Tom Tom in California, I was able to drive from LA to SF without ever seeing this issue, so it's not a distance thing.

[Jayess1]

Another vote for the Garmin units. Fairly easy to use & update, and the traffic function is quite good in the greater DC area. As for phone based - unless one downloads a resident program (e.g., copilotlive) - they can't route/recalc w/o a signal, which will happen the one time you absolutely need it...

[oneasterisk]

I've been using a Garmin NUVI for a number of years, both in a car and a motorcycle so I can vouch on their longevity. You must have got a lemon unit. I had a Garmin NUVI 350 (now lost) and now a 750. Both are not designed to be used on a motorcycle, but do the job just fine. I've ridden through multiple states and some pretty bad rainstorms. Neither are considered waterproof, but a zip lock bag and a rubber band is all that's needed to "weatherproof" them.

The NUVIs can inject a destination as a way point to your final destination. Once you get to the way point it'll direct you to your next stop. Also the unit I have can do custom routes. You can add numerous destinations and have the unit route you in the order you enter, or the most efficient method.

If you have an issue with the suction cup mount, look into RAM mounts. They make various models that would work in different applications.

I have an android smart phone and have used it's navigation feature. It's OK, but I prefer the standalone GPS model. GPS on a phone really kills the battery. Even with the phone plugged into a charger, it still uses a lot of juice and the phone gets pretty hot.

[mlv311]

I have no sense of direction so when we relocated my husband got me a TomTom. It was not very helpful mostly because when I missed a turn it kept asking me to make a u-turn versus recalculating a new route. It also didn't say the name of the street when asking you to turn. I still remember using it to go to Pirate Cove one time with my kids and the one route it suggested had a road that was closed and it couldn't recalculate another route. The following year, he got me a Garmin and I love it. I've been able to use without any problems in the DC metro area and whenever we travel out-of-state.

[marie5v]

Originally Posted by corinaisland

I'm trying to get a gift and was wondering which is the best rated GPS for THIS area where accurate and timely traffic updates are essential. I looked at the Garmin models but they seem to have way too many of them and that adds to the confusion as to which to pick. I don't need any fancy features - just want a large enough color screen, boots up rather quickly and with updated maps. My own Garmin nuvi died on me after just 6 mths of use, kinda disappointing...... Any recommendations? Thanks!

My iphone is much better than the Garmins that I had. I use TomTom or Wayz. Both better than Garmin was.