GPS

[Toyboy]

I think I better warn all of the Garmin users/future owners, that the lifetime maps is only good to the original owner, which would be the registered user. As long as it's never been registered with Garmin, you can register it, you will become the original owner.

Now saying that, 90% of my friends don't register their unit and never get the updates. Why?? I guess they never read the instructions. They just buy it, plug it in and use it.

They've come to me and asked me to update it for them and once I tell them what happens, some go home and log on themselves and others just don't care. Just update it.

So if you come up with a used one (family, friends, etc.) make sure you can get the update's, otherwise you may be 15 map updates behind, and end up is some lonely cornfield or at a dead end road.

 

[dickfoster]

I think I better warn all of the Garmin users/future owners, that the lifetime maps is only good to the original owner, which would be the registered user. As long as it's never been registered with Garmin, you can register it, you will become the original owner.

Now saying that, 90% of my friends don't register their unit and never get the updates. Why?? I guess they never read the instructions. They just buy it, plug it in and use it.

They've come to me and asked me to update it for them and once I tell them what happens, some go home and log on themselves and others just don't care. Just update it.

So if you come up with a used one (family, friends, etc.) make sure you can get the update's, otherwise you may be 15 map updates behind, and end up is some lonely cornfield or at a dead end road.

Once you have lifetime updates both of mine will come up with a nag screen to login and do the update about once a year.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I only bought one GPS, a Garmin. With smartphones and Waze and Google maps, don't use it any more.

 

[k0ua]

Aaron, thanks again for the info about google maps and the ability to download data of interest. I played with that today, and downloaded a couple of areas of interest. This should come in handy in a few of the areas I go that cell service is spotty.

 

[Code54]

For my work I often have several address I need to find in a day and it is nice to put them all in the GPS then have it set the most efficient route. Ends up saving me a TON of time every week.

 

[k0ua]

For my work I often have several address I need to find in a day and it is nice to put them all in the GPS then have it set the most efficient route. Ends up saving me a TON of time every week.

Probably pays for itself in no time.

 

[Toyboy]

Once you have lifetime updates both of mine will come up with a nag screen to login and do the update about once a year.

It's actually 4 times a year that they download updates. It has been for me anyway.
Log onto Garmin Express and see whats available for your unit.

 

[Code54]

Probably pays for itself in no time.

You are absolutely right - sometime we have several cars hitting address so in one day they can easily pay for themselves in saved man-hours. Plus it sure is handy when I'm in a new city and I can type in my favorite place to eat and it pops up where the nearest one is.

 

[grsthegreat]

I use mine every day for work. Most of the hillbillies i work for are afraid to post their addresses so the black trucks and black planes wont find them. But my garmin does. I do 4 free updates a year. Mind you the updates can take 6 hours to complete.

 

[check]

Garmin has lifetime updates if keeping current with POIs and stuff is important to you. You only pay once and it's not very much. Some units come with lifetime map updates. I have life time updates for my Nuvi 500 which I use in the truck because it has topos for off road and street road and highway support for getting there and back. I have an auto centric 70LMT in my wife's car which has lifetime map updates. I got it for the large screen, backup camera and traffic avoidance. We were using the lifetime traffic avoidance this weekend to get through rush hour traffic in the San Francisco bay area Friday afternoon and navigate all the bad traffic in Sacramento caused by heavy rain yesterday. Traffic avoidance really works well and was invaluable this weekend. It picks the best route based on existing traffic conditions and keeps you up to date with what's going on up ahead.

Traffic avoidance! I wonder if I could get that installed or updated on my 2016 F150 navigation? We can get the traffic display option on our cell phones, but it does not suggest an alternative route. We have to figure that out for ourselves. Have had to do that several times on our way to win from the college, when traffic got backed up.

 

[newbury]

When all you have is an address that you don't have a clue where it is or the best route to take, the google maps on the phone is invaluable. You just say the address into the phone (or key it in if your prefer) and she says "OK, lets go!" and you are on your way to your next client.

And don't trust Google maps if you are searching for an address in the boonies.

Perhaps part of the reason I got such a deal on my retirement farm is that Google maps located the street address about a half mile away.

Back in 2011 when we were looking for house and land in Northeast Mississippi there were several times we would see an ad for a house with several acres or more, look it up on Google maps and find there was no house there, but eventually find the house by seeing the "for sale sign" within about a mile away on the same road.

Concerning the place we bought, Google maps had located the address about a half mile to the west down the correct road. But the house is not visible from the road due to thick woods and the realtor didn't like putting a "for sale" sign out. I think he was afraid of vandalism.

About 2014 they must have corrected the database and now our address is correctly mapped.

 

[California]

And don't trust Google maps if you are searching for an address in the boonies.

Yep. I'm a quarter mile in on a shared easement that goes to two parcels beyond me. Mailboxes for me, and the neighbors beyond, is at the intersection of my driveway and this easement. But the postal addresses shown on our maiboxes for the past 100 years would logically be on the county road where the easement starts. Incorrectly, Google, Mapquest, Garmin GPS, Zillow locate our postal addresses as unknown but somewhere up the county road a few hundred feet beyond the easement.

The county property tax bill shows a unique road name for the easement. Google and the others show that street name over in town where its a Street, not Road, nothing near here.

The name we see on Google Maps for the easement is the name that used to be on paper maps for a nearby parallel lane that is accessed from a different county road. Confused yet?

Google Streetview came down the easement when they first started mapping so I'm visible but this mixup over what out easement is called has led to a lot of confusion for guests. I've given up and told guests to use the Google name then look for my mailbox when they get in a quarter mile.

Google should have used the street name on the County property tax record, to identify this easement.