GPS system in vehicles...

[Lexi65]

Your opinion/experience with your nav system. Please be brutally frank and list your ride too ...Feed back please thanks!

[theblob640]

To be honest, I really dont need a nav since almost all cell phones nowadays come with a nav or just download the google map app. On top of that the less features my car has the better, less things to break down on me. I buy the car for perfermance thats why I bought the Super Bee SRT8 instead of the regular SRT8 that comes with all the bells and whistles.

[Lexi65]

To be honest, I really dont need a nav since almost all cell phones nowadays come with a nav or just download the google map app. On top of that the less features my car has the better, less things to break down on me. I buy the car for perfermance thats why I bought the Super Bee SRT8 instead of the regular SRT8 that comes with all the bells and whistles.

I get that. Already have the nav and it sucks! Looking to see
if I'm the only one that thinks they're over rated and probably obsolete!!

[SYMAWD]

The one in my 2012 Kia Optima is great. Extremely fast at everything you tell it to do, very good resolution and just works well. Then again, the free one on my phone that doesn't require data works too.

[VISITOR]

not really needed, especially how much they charge you for it as well. GPS units are pretty cheap these days ($100) and they come standard on most cell phones too...

[Lexi65]

Only thing it's good for is showing location ... Not turn by turn info.

[rmagnus]

I use Garmin's Nuvi it's portable and I don't need to rent one when traveling. Our family has have most every model of Lexus they make and all the navs are a pain in the ass to use.

Garmin gets it and they are super easy to use. For less than $150 I'd rather have a dedicted GPS and use the cell phone for calls.

[parttimer]

I have the 8.4 nav screen in my 2012 SRT8 and 2013 RAM. So far the RAM seams smoother and faster. Don't like you can't work it while in motion. I put a lokpick override in the car so you can though.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2

[dsg03gt]

I like the one in my 2013 Town and Country. I know I can use my phone put I like having the big screen and not having to have to keep looking down at my phone. I didn't need the Nav but glad I have it.

[Bill1234]

I have sync in the Ford edge. Very advanced, however voice commands could be good but might be frustrating

[Calendyr]

I am not sure if you only wanted info from GPS systems that came with the vehicles or also for stand alone units. Either way I can share what I know.

I have a Galaxy S4 phone with a 5 inch screen. Google maps works well on this phone but I pretty much never use it for navigation for the following reasons:

1. The voice directions are no where as good as dedicated GPS units. In a bind I will use it but given the choice I will not.

2. Using the GPS navigation on your phone uses you data plan. I have a small data plan (300 Mb per month) and don't want to use it for navigation.

3. GPS navigation uses a lot of power and drains the phone battery pretty quickly. You can always plug the phone in if you have your cable with you but otherwise you battery will drain very quickly and leave you with a dead phone for the rest of the day.

Now I just upgraded my stand alone GPS so I can give you info on both Tom Tom and Garmin.

On my day job, I do deliveries. So I tend to use my GPS a lot. Anytime I don't know exactly how to get somewhere I punch the adress in and follow directions. Saves me a lot of time seaching for adresses and going places that are dead ends (Montréal street layout is aweful).

My previous unit was a Tom Tom VIA 1535M. It's a midrange unit with 5 inch screen, Bluetooth support, voice recognition and all the bells and whistles.

Here are the points I liked and disliked about it:
- Display is very good. Street layouts are clear and the street you are on is always displayed. So you know exactly where you are.
- Unit is fast, so there is almost no lag to reposition when you turn or if you decide to go off course it will recompute very quickly.
- I had major issues several times with the unit where it would stop working for long periods of time, or have some feature like turn by turn voice direction not working for days and then suddenly start working again.
- There are tons of errors on the Maps Tom Tom uses. The unit will make try to make you do things you are not allowed like turning places where it is illegal or taking an exit where none exist on the highway.
- Tom Tom support is basically inexistant. I have sents several emails to them over the 3 years I had this unit and never received a single reply.

- Power up and shut down is slow. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the unit to shut down and about the same to power up. Not an issue if you only turn it on once per trip but for me who is constantly leaving the vehicule I had to switch to always on to prevent this waste of time.

- Selecting a destination is really badly implemented. The AI of the unit is completelly stupid. Here is how you enter a destination: 1. Enter town name or postal code/zip code. 2. Enter street name. 3. Enter civic number or cross street. Once you have done that, it will list all the Streets who's name are similar to what you asked. The list is about 100 long most of the time over several pages. The problem is, it very often list Streets that are not even in your city on the first pages. I have had to go to page 4, 5 or 6 several times to find the street I needed. And it doesn't show the name of the city besides the street so you might see something like this:
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine W
Ste-Catherine E
Ste-Catherine N
Ste-Catherine S
Ste-Catherine Rt
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine boul

And so on... now you are supposed to guess which one it is, because it will list all the Streets called Ste-Catherine in it's database no matter what city it is in. So you punch one, and it will tell you the address doesn't exist, so you go back and try an other one and repeat until you find it. It's VERY annoying. And very stupid... why even list the Streets in other cities, it's the first thing it asks you?! There are also occasions where you will not be able to find the street you want no matter what you try. I was really happy to have Google map on my phone several times because of this, some of the Streets simply won't show in a search even though they are on the map and if you happen to have to use them when you go to your destination the GPS will tell you to use them during your run.


My new unit is a Garmin 2595 LTM. This is also a midrange unit with Bluetooth support and voice commands and all of that stuff.

Overall I much prefer the Garmin to the Tom Tom. This model was not my first choice since it's last year's model but none of the stores in Montréal had the new line in stock and I did not want to wait for the new models to arrive. Also this model was at a good discount compared to the new model so it was extra insentive to get it.

Here are the major différences between it and the VIA 1535M:

- Maps don't look as good. Instead of having large rectangles lines with the street name Inside the street like on the Tom Tom, Garmin uses narrow rectangles that almost appear as a line on the screen and the street name is besides it. It makes for a less attractive and less precise map when you look at it.

- Info displayed on the screen is less complete, with the Garmin you do not have the distance to destination shown like on the Tom Tom and the name of the street you are on is not displayed anywhere. Both of these things are a minor annoyance to me. It does display distance to next turn and Estimated Time of Arrival but I would like to have the extra info anyhow.

- Maps re-zoom automatically depending where your next waypoint/turn is and street density. This is a very nice feature, makes navigating a lot easier.

- Maps are very precise. I have not seen a map error yet after about 40 hours of driving with the unit.

- Entering destination is quick and effective: 1. Punch civic number 2. Street name. Unit then lists all the street ranked by distance from where you are. It gives complete info including city that street is in. Super fast, no messing around.

- New unit also have several apps that comes with it but I never used them since I have a smart phone, could be useful if you don't have one.

Over all, I think Garmin makes a much better product, I doubt I will ever purchase an other Tom Tom unit again. My experience with it has been very frustrating and now that I have the Garmin unit I see just how bad the Tom Tom ones are.

Hope this helps.

[goldendodo19]

I have sync in the Ford edge. Very advanced, however voice commands could be good but might be frustrating

Contradicted yourself but ok.

I have a 13 focus with sync and I really enjoy it. Works much more seamlessly than my parents Prius. I've found if you mumble or don't speak clearly you may get a wrong result but as long as you're clear the system works pretty well.

[VISITOR]

I am not sure if you only wanted info from GPS systems that came with the vehicles or also for stand alone units. Either way I can share what I know.

I have a Galaxy S4 phone with a 5 inch screen. Google maps works well on this phone but I pretty much never use it for navigation for the following reasons:

1. The voice directions are no where as good as dedicated GPS units. In a bind I will use it but given the choice I will not.

2. Using the GPS navigation on your phone uses you data plan. I have a small data plan (300 Mb per month) and don't want to use it for navigation.

3. GPS navigation uses a lot of power and drains the phone battery pretty quickly. You can always plug the phone in if you have your cable with you but otherwise you battery will drain very quickly and leave you with a dead phone for the rest of the day.

Now I just upgraded my stand alone GPS so I can give you info on both Tom Tom and Garmin.

On my day job, I do deliveries. So I tend to use my GPS a lot. Anytime I don't know exactly how to get somewhere I punch the adress in and follow directions. Saves me a lot of time seaching for adresses and going places that are dead ends (Montréal street layout is aweful).

My previous unit was a Tom Tom VIA 1535M. It's a midrange unit with 5 inch screen, Bluetooth support, voice recognition and all the bells and whistles.

Here are the points I liked and disliked about it:
- Display is very good. Street layouts are clear and the street you are on is always displayed. So you know exactly where you are.
- Unit is fast, so there is almost no lag to reposition when you turn or if you decide to go off course it will recompute very quickly.
- I had major issues several times with the unit where it would stop working for long periods of time, or have some feature like turn by turn voice direction not working for days and then suddenly start working again.
- There are tons of errors on the Maps Tom Tom uses. The unit will make try to make you do things you are not allowed like turning places where it is illegal or taking an exit where none exist on the highway.
- Tom Tom support is basically inexistant. I have sents several emails to them over the 3 years I had this unit and never received a single reply.

- Power up and shut down is slow. Takes about 10-15 seconds for the unit to shut down and about the same to power up. Not an issue if you only turn it on once per trip but for me who is constantly leaving the vehicule I had to switch to always on to prevent this waste of time.

- Selecting a destination is really badly implemented. The AI of the unit is completelly stupid. Here is how you enter a destination: 1. Enter town name or postal code/zip code. 2. Enter street name. 3. Enter civic number or cross street. Once you have done that, it will list all the Streets who's name are similar to what you asked. The list is about 100 long most of the time over several pages. The problem is, it very often list Streets that are not even in your city on the first pages. I have had to go to page 4, 5 or 6 several times to find the street I needed. And it doesn't show the name of the city besides the street so you might see something like this:
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine W
Ste-Catherine E
Ste-Catherine N
Ste-Catherine S
Ste-Catherine Rt
Ste-Catherine
Ste-Catherine boul

And so on... now you are supposed to guess which one it is, because it will list all the Streets called Ste-Catherine in it's database no matter what city it is in. So you punch one, and it will tell you the address doesn't exist, so you go back and try an other one and repeat until you find it. It's VERY annoying. And very stupid... why even list the Streets in other cities, it's the first thing it asks you?! There are also occasions where you will not be able to find the street you want no matter what you try. I was really happy to have Google map on my phone several times because of this, some of the Streets simply won't show in a search even though they are on the map and if you happen to have to use them when you go to your destination the GPS will tell you to use them during your run.


My new unit is a Garmin 2595 LTM. This is also a midrange unit with Bluetooth support and voice commands and all of that stuff.

Overall I much prefer the Garmin to the Tom Tom. This model was not my first choice since it's last year's model but none of the stores in Montréal had the new line in stock and I did not want to wait for the new models to arrive. Also this model was at a good discount compared to the new model so it was extra insentive to get it.

Here are the major différences between it and the VIA 1535M:

- Maps don't look as good. Instead of having large rectangles lines with the street name Inside the street like on the Tom Tom, Garmin uses narrow rectangles that almost appear as a line on the screen and the street name is besides it. It makes for a less attractive and less precise map when you look at it.

- Info displayed on the screen is less complete, with the Garmin you do not have the distance to destination shown like on the Tom Tom and the name of the street you are on is not displayed anywhere. Both of these things are a minor annoyance to me. It does display distance to next turn and Estimated Time of Arrival but I would like to have the extra info anyhow.

- Maps re-zoom automatically depending where your next waypoint/turn is and street density. This is a very nice feature, makes navigating a lot easier.

- Maps are very precise. I have not seen a map error yet after about 40 hours of driving with the unit.

- Entering destination is quick and effective: 1. Punch civic number 2. Street name. Unit then lists all the street ranked by distance from where you are. It gives complete info including city that street is in. Super fast, no messing around.

- New unit also have several apps that comes with it but I never used them since I have a smart phone, could be useful if you don't have one.

Over all, I think Garmin makes a much better product, I doubt I will ever purchase an other Tom Tom unit again. My experience with it has been very frustrating and now that I have the Garmin unit I see just how bad the Tom Tom ones are.

Hope this helps.

my next GPS unit (if i decide to buy another) will be a Garmin. i have 2 tom tom's and while i don't have much to complain about them, i've heard good things about Garmin and i almost purchased one instead of my second/current one. these days you can find them for a decent price at sams club or costco, or when they have black friday deals...

[Calendyr]

Garmin have 3 lines of products. Just make sure you compare models on their website to find the one that best suits your needs and budget.

[oldmodman]

Garmin.
Model 2460lmt
Got it at Costco so it has a lifetime warranty.
hardly ever use it since I always seem to be going somewhere I have been before.
Last time I used it was to get to the Chemical Guys warehouse in El Segundo