Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I definitely have a love/hate relationship with my Garmin and sometimes want to just throw it out the window. I also sometimes experience long delays connecting to the satellites even at home and my unit is about 2-3 years old. I don't keep the maps updated which I think sometimes contributes to delayed startups and there are many other things I dislike about the Garmin that could be improved.
Got a Garmin Nuvi as a gift and took a trip to PA with it last Nov. It kept wanting to take me off the highway. After about 2 hours out of my way, I finally reached my destination. Same issue coming back. After taking me on a 2 hour detour on back roads, covered bridges, and literally private driveways, I finally found my own way to 95. Then it kept trying to have me get off every exit on 95. I finally had to turn it off. We had the same problem using it locally. There was obviously something wrong with it...maybe refurbished or something. We had turned off all of the avoidances and preferences to make sure it was not avoiding highways, etc. Once back in NC, I took the stupid thing back to the store where it was purchased and got a TomTom instead. No problems with that one at all.
we hate our nuvi for the same reason, that and its inability to get us where we want to go. I love to hear "arriving at destination" when we are nowhere near it. And thank goodness I know the way to the state farmer's market because it certainly doesn't.
Our Garmin takes a long time to acquire sat too. We are used to it, we can usually find our way out of the neighborhood, so its not a big deal. Last fall we all got iPhones and purchased Navigon. Far surpasses Garmin. Love love love Navigon.
My first GPS was a garmin nuvi and after two weeks of owning it it just shut off completely and would not turn back on. I took it back and got a Magellan and this stupid thing freezes up and takes more than 5 minutes to acquire a signal. The one on my phone is just as crappy.
I have a Garmin, a TomTom, and a cell phone, they all take some time to acquire a signal in my neighborhood, probably due to heavy tree coverage.
Strongasabear: there is a setting to select whether to use highways or avoid them on the Garmin, as well as avoid tolls and disallow U-turns
Personally, I'll take the Garmin any day because I have a hard time visualizing the 800 yards the Tom Tom says, but I get 1/4 mile
If Garmin has developers in Cary then I am sure they know of my problems locally with the garmin. It behaved totally different in NJ so I am sure it is a local issue and not a setting. We started using the free navigation with the droid and it is 10 times faster. Smartphones will probably be the death of handheld GPS systems for cars.
I don't have an issue when my Garmin Nuvi starts up (when the car is turned on) but I do have dead spots. 15-501 near Mt. Moriah Rd it just freezes, every single time I'm in the area.
I've never updated it, so it freaks out a little on the 98 bypass in Wake Forest. "Recalculating!"
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"Recalculating!"
