GPS car navigation?

Landfall · Guru

GPS car navigation?

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

I have that model and no problems at all

Have you heard from gubby recently?

johnq · Guru

TomTom go live 820 is great for gazetted roads.

I am looking at a Garmin 2460LT presently because Garmin offers mapping options (for off-road). My Mio PDA has lost its battery and its software key code.

Of course if you want to spend big money there are more options with more features - which also attract more thieves when parked.

The big consideration is updates - cost, regularity and ease thereof.

I will put in a plug for membership of Choice, which tested car and motorbike GPS in October 2011. They have online reports on a multitude of common purchases.
http://www.choice.com.au/

Happywanderer · The Master

Can't go past the good old paper maps. I've never been lost once.

pricey43 · Guru

We have had a Garmin for nearly 12 months. Before this my husband used to say ' I don't need a GPS, I've got a Robyn'. Now we have one he has changed his mind.

Yes, it has sent us some weird ways but we use it in conjunction with our maps. All it's extra features are what has won us. Accurate speed, direction, altitude, speed camera sites, fuel economy, local facilities. The list goes on. We would really miss it now on our longer trips.

Pejay · Guru

Hey Dusty, from our experience with a GPS (that I thought was going to make me redundant!) - don't get rid of your partner/navigator, get rid of the GPS instead!!

goinsoon · Guru

We were looking for a way from Kenilworth to the gateway bridge in Brisbane and the Tom Tom took me right into a Bunnings carpark confuse

justcruisin01 · Guru

We are on our second Garmin, had one of the early models & was a very good unit, Its internal battery gave up but still worked on the car battery ok.

Up graded to a new one, NUVI 3760 about 12mths ago with life time updates free. Just love it.

bill12 · Guru

I have one , and thinks its as good as sliced bread. It even found Animalcarers place 10 pm at night, south of Brisbane. I have both,paper maps , but the gps is a good tool and after using it, wouldn,t be without one.My one even plays music though the radio, and can be used as an ebook!And the speedo in the gps is accurate.I like to work out fuel consumption figures from it.Bill

johnq · Guru

goinsoon wrote:
We were looking for a way from Kenilworth to the gateway bridge in Brisbane and the Tom Tom took me right into a Bunnings carpark

Ouch!

Better than lobbing in the Myers carpark though and did they have the sausage sizzle going? smile

goinsoon · Guru

johnq wrote:
goinsoon wrote:
We were looking for a way from Kenilworth to the gateway bridge in Brisbane and the Tom Tom took me right into a Bunnings carpark
Ouch!
Better than lobbing in the Myers carpark though and did they have the sausage sizzle going?

Yeh! so did Bunnings, but I couldn't stop for one cause there was no room to park a 20ft van and Patrol

Duckster · Veteran Member

Have a Garmin 2360LT and is great. Never any issues going up wrong roads. With any GPS you need to have an idea where you are heading and which roads to take as often the GPS thinks like Microsoft it knows better for you than you do. Purchased another 2360LT last week for the MH so don't have to swap as came with Bonus Lifetime Map Updates.

03_troopy · Guru

Duckster wrote:
Have a Garmin 2360LT and is great. Never any issues going up wrong roads. With any GPS you need to have an idea where you are heading and which roads to take as often the GPS thinks like Microsoft it knows better for you than you do. Purchased another 2360LT last week for the MH so don't have to swap as came with Bonus Lifetime Map Updates.

Probably because a lot of them actually run under a version of Windows CE.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

The Prado has an inbuilt GPS, which needs new map-software every few years at great expense. It let us down a few times, but with the latest update its been great. We always use paper maps to double-check though.

What do you call your GPS? (Swear words will be deleted by the censor) Ours is 'Hilda" on a good day.

03_troopy · Guru

Gerty Dancer wrote:
The Prado has an inbuilt GPS, which needs new map-software every few years at great expense. It let us down a few times, but with the latest update its been great. We always use paper maps to double-check though.

What do you call your GPS? (Swear words will be deleted by the censor) Ours is 'Hilda" on a good day.

Our's is called Bitching Betty....

NeilandRaine · Guru

As an old military man I was taught a map is a representation of the earths surface drawn to scale. It is seldom accurate and never up to date.
Unfortunately a gps is really only a high teck road map so the old story still applies.
Having said that our Tom Tom go live usually gets us from place to place but there have been times it has got quite confused.

Landfall · Guru

Pejay wrote:
Hey Dusty, from our experience with a GPS (that I thought was going to make me redundant!) - don't get rid of your partner/navigator, get rid of the GPS instead!!

Exactly what I have just done.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I can't understand what was wrong with the Garmin we had.

No matter what programme you put into it, it would take you the most awkward way possible.

The only good thing I can say about it was the fuel calculator.

The best on we have had was in the Prado Grande, built in and just the bees knees. Multiple routes show up on screen and never lost once.

Pity about the vehicle?

At the moment I am considering one of those cheap Chinese ones on fleabay.

Can't be any worse than the garmin surely? Any advice on these would be appreciated.

At there price I don't care if they only last the two year waranty period.

Dusty confuse

Esmeralda · Guru

I have a Navman 75 - it gives choice three routes - the fastest, the most economical and the easiest - or similar. It will also tell you if the route you choose is unmade or partially unmade and do you still want to go that way.

Cruising Granny · Guru

I have Tom. He's useless for OD (over dimension) routes, but I enter each intersection/township/destination to get distances.
There is an OD program, but not for this version of Tom Tom. He's my second Tom. The old one outlived it's usefullness in technological terms.
This one is not the top of the range but it's good enough for my purposes. I still use the Truckie's Atlas in conjunction with Tom to plot my courses. I haven't been able to update him yet. I'll work on it when I have the time.
On the job the permit tells us which way we have to go. Not always the most ideal route, and for some reason OD routes are the worst, narrowest and indirect routes in most states. For that reason the roads deteriorate rapidly making them worser, narrower and more brokener than they were initially.
As a nomad I would recommend you don't select OD routes on your travels. Apart from the condition of the road, you are likely to meet oversize loads, forcing you off the road to get out of the way. If you have UHF radio you will hear them coming and what size the load is.
Another reason to equip yourselves with a UHF.

Andrea · Senior Member

We have a Tom Tom XL, now three years old, and the only place it really gets lost is in WA, although even that is getting better with map updates. It did try to take us over a sand dune in Geraldton a couple of months ago, though - apparently unaware that the road never continued in that direction!

Although we check paper maps as well, on the whole, we'd not be without it; the early warnings about turns, lane changes, etc. are invaluable.

Andrea

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

johnq wrote:
TomTom go live 820 is great for gazetted roads.

I am looking at a Garmin 2460LT presently because Garmin offers mapping options (for off-road). My Mio PDA has lost its battery and its software key code.

Of course if you want to spend big money there are more options with more features - which also attract more thieves when parked.

The big consideration is updates - cost, regularity and ease thereof.

I will put in a plug for membership of Choice, which tested car and motorbike GPS in October 2011. They have online reports on a multitude of common purchases.
http://www.choice.com.au/

Johnq, not a good idea to leave a gps in your car, or the leads to the ciggie lighter, that only tells the thief that a gps unit maybe in the glovebox, I take both gps & leads with me whenever I leave.

johnq · Guru

_wombat_ wrote:
johnq wrote:
TomTom go live 820 is great for gazetted roads.

I am looking at a Garmin 2460LT presently because Garmin offers mapping options (for off-road). My Mio PDA has lost its battery and its software key code.

Of course if you want to spend big money there are more options with more features - which also attract more thieves when parked.

The big consideration is updates - cost, regularity and ease thereof.

I will put in a plug for membership of Choice, which tested car and motorbike GPS in October 2011. They have online reports on a multitude of common purchases.
http://www.choice.com.au/
Johnq, not a good idea to leave a gps in your car, or the leads to the ciggie lighter, that only tells the thief that a gps unit maybe in the glovebox, I take both gps & leads with me whenever I leave.

Thanks and agreed. It was a wry comment. You are right, any leads, bracket or imprint of sucker cap tells them to break in on spec. I usually drop as much as I can into the centre lidded storage. Mostly cheap stuff, but the inconvenience of the damage to the car is worth avoiding.

However, speaking personally the only losses we have had apart from one attempted screwdriver entry to a vehicle (bare inside) has been from shopping trolleys.

03_troopy · Guru

johnq wrote:
_wombat_ wrote:
johnq wrote:
TomTom go live 820 is great for gazetted roads.

I am looking at a Garmin 2460LT presently because Garmin offers mapping options (for off-road). My Mio PDA has lost its battery and its software key code.

Of course if you want to spend big money there are more options with more features - which also attract more thieves when parked.

The big consideration is updates - cost, regularity and ease thereof.

I will put in a plug for membership of Choice, which tested car and motorbike GPS in October 2011. They have online reports on a multitude of common purchases.
http://www.choice.com.au/
Johnq, not a good idea to leave a gps in your car, or the leads to the ciggie lighter, that only tells the thief that a gps unit maybe in the glovebox, I take both gps & leads with me whenever I leave.
Thanks and agreed. It was a wry comment. You are right, any leads, bracket or imprint of sucker cap tells them to break in on spec. I usually drop as much as I can into the centre lidded storage. Mostly cheap stuff, but the inconvenience of the damage to the car is worth avoiding.
However, speaking personally the only losses we have had apart from one attempted screwdriver entry to a vehicle (bare inside) has been from shopping trolleys.

yes, the sucker mark is a mark for suckers.. wow I'm impressed with that... but seriously, if they see a sucker mark and no device, they know it's worth keeping out of sight. Which means worth breaking in for.

Geoff n Jen · Senior Member

Had two Garmins now no problems