D and D wrote:

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We're planning on getting a Mazda BT 50 tug but after watching a telemarketing program on the tube about the latest Garmin GPS/SatNav system. I checked out the system supplied with the BT 50 and was very disappointed. The maps appear to be about 3 years old, they use whereis, no updates are currently available and when they are they'll cost about $280 with no guarantee about when the next update will be available. Not real good. My question is what has been your experience with GPS/SatNav systems and what would you recommend and why? The Garmin appears to be quite a good but but I wonder what it would be like outside of the metro areas?

 

Regards

  in all

Mr DMap

 

 

In a former life, I owned a business in London (not that many years ago) and we sold all kinds of GPS systems and as Shogun says, the Garmin wins hands down in all aspects of operation and map updates. 

But there is this to consider.................. ANY GPS is only as good as the operator allows it to be!! 
I have had SO many discussion (translated into the word ARGUMENTS) where a customer has told me that the product is faulty or the maps are wrong or whatever, and just a few km's in the car with the owner tells a completely different storey............ "they know best"!! 
My own dear wife, bless her, does not trust them and she is a fantastic navigator, so when we are in the tug together, the GPS stays off otherwise WWlll may take place, but I have to say when she is in the map reading groove, we don't need GPS. 

I digress;

Map updates are vital, but the truth is that a map update is about 1 year to 18 months old before it hits the market, there are some mapping companies that work VERY closely with local authorities getting advanced information about new roads etc, but they pay for this, and so the smaller companies mapping is as I said out of date before launched. 

One that I would stay clear of is the basic TomTom, it all appears to be around subscription and being "on the net", tried one out for a few months as a test, drove me nuts, and it took me weeks to find out how to cancel a route, ended up calling the help desk who said "it's in the user guide", it's bloody not......................., "Oh no, it isn't, is it"!!

Be aware that if you go to somewhere like Hardly Normal, they are on commission by the manufacturer to "shift" product!!  Go on the web and read the test reports.

Hope this helps
Mark

I've had a TomTom for a couple of years. Found it very user friendly and has taken me through some major Cities easily. They have an update service costing around $50.00 a year which gives about 3 or 4 updates. Highly recommended..

Read the first post

Mr D

I see that smart phones now have GPS. Doesn't that make a dedicated GPS redundant?

Thanks everyone for your comments. I followed what I thought was the most common advice and went for a Garmin - got the latest and greatest and 1 7" screen for MsD (since she's going to be doing most of the driving and that's what she wanted) - it the Nuvi 2797 and so far I'm less than impressed. Got it online from a Sydney mob called Ryda.com good price but when the darn thing didn't work their customer service was to direct me to the Garmin customer support and that was a whole new level of customer service - possibly worse than Telstra's.

So what didn't it do? It didn't actually do much at all. It wouldn't load up the GPS system, it wouldn't locate satellites, it's only maps were of Kansas in the US or Sydney in Oz and why I got one rather than the other I don't know, I couldn't register it online so I couldn't get updates, the battery wouldn't charge off the USB, the off switch is supposed to have a sleep mode - mine was either on or off and when it switched off it reset everything to the factory options and so the list continues.

I went onto the Garmin websites - both the Aussie one and the US one. Downloaded and installed a heap of software that didn't fix the problem - possibly because I couldn't register the unit. Downloaded what was claimed was the manual even though my model wasn't listed on the title page read it and my model appears to have a different user interface as some of the things in the manual are not available on my GPS and it failed to address any of my problems. Read all the FAQ's with the same result. The Aussie help desk is only available 8:30 am till 5:00 pm EST Monday to Friday and they're the times I'm at work so not much help there until I got crook - the silver lining I guess. Called up Ryda and they're solution was to direct me to Garmin's "customer support". Maybe I have a different definition of customer support but being placed on hold for 17 minutes and 38 seconds (my phone displays a timer) before a human appeared is not within my definition. The customer services officer is friendly and helpful and asks me to do a couple of things that don't produce the results she was expecting (eg go into the setting menu, select city and change it to Adelaide - unfortunately the settings menu on this device doesn't have a city option). So on hold again as she disappears. Comes back 5 minutes later with another suggestion that didn't work. When I suggest that she doesn't seem to know a real lot about this unit she replies that Garmin have a lot of products with a lot of features and she doesn't know everything about all of them. Another suggestion that didn't work, on hold again, another 5 minute wait for another suggestion that actually worked.

I'll include this in case someone else has similar problems - from the main menu select volume, on the volume screen press on the top right corner of the screen (there's no icon) until the diagnostics screen appears, scroll down until you find maps (or something like that for reasons that will become clear shortly) and deselect GPS simulation. Now the thing starts to look for satellites and tries to upload new maps. But it still won't work properly because its not plugged into the car. The device can only be set up when connected to the car not through the USB on the computer. Since none of this is documented anywhere I indicate that I think that's pretty stupid which brings the response that that's the way Garmin works. Connection to the USB does not charge the battery and if the unit is set up properly will not enable you to access the controls anyway. The reason the battery wouldn't charge when it was connected to the car was because it hadn't been set up properly. So I had to go out to the car to finish the set up which I did forgetting totally that there were a heap of other issues that hadn't been addressed.

In the car .... switch the damn thing on, no joy, doesn't seem to be working then I notice the signal strength indicator has changed and after a couple of minutes new screens pop up asking me to accept licenses and conditions and it finally locates my house on a map - I'm ecstatic but things still aren't quite right and I figure updating the software may help so back inside to the computer and the USB. For some reason the control screens appeared but neither my computer nor the Garmin software would recognise the unit. Back to the help desk, another 20 minutes on hold, another (different) customer services officer who appeared to know more about the unit that the previous one. Again for anyone else with a similar problem - follow the previous instructions to get to the diagnostic screen, scroll down to MTP and switch it off and select Mass Storage Device and tap the return icon to get to the main menu. Disconnect the unit and wait for everything to switch off. Reconnect the usb cable and wait for the computer to recognise the unit and then the software will recognise it. Options then appear for updating software and some other stuff. I don't know how well it actually works in the car - I'll keep you updated.