Car GPS, suggestions ?

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Azatotht
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Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Azatotht »

Hey all, my wife got lost yesterday with our old car GPS (global positioning system) and we need a new one :mrgreen:

I know that I can use my phone but I want a standalone GPS.

Suggestions ? Models ?

I'd like traffic updates without cell phone connection if that ever exists... and lane change details. Otherwise I'd like something with a clear readable screen that is fast and reliable..

Brand and models appreciated, thanks !

Oh and free lifetime updates, of course, which my old one didn't have, hence the reason she got lost :FP: :lol:
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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Azatotht »

I am looking at the Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S at the moment... good, bad ?
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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Guard »

Just posting so I'll get notified. My GPS is....guessing 10 years old at least and never updated. It hates when I drive off the Escarpment in Hamilton down the Red Hill Expressway
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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Guard »

That's gold Jerry!!
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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by cap »

I bought the Tom Tom 50S and I am regretting it. It takes forever to boot, the screen is not responsive, the keyboard always picks the wrong letter, the search is super slow and it never finds what you want. It only does live traffic through an internet connection which I don't have on my cell. It was the newer model at the time but it is a huge regression in every way.

I stayed with TomTom because I used to have a good TomTom GO 730 and even better TomTom 2425TM but the first did not have lifetime maps which made buying a new GPS cheaper in the long run. The second one had battery problems after a while and replacing the battery did not fix it. I miss my 2425TM dearly. Those GPS did live traffic through hidden radio stations. The charging cable is the antenna. They only knew about highways and road closures. For example, it could tell you to use an alternative boulevard because it did not have any live info for these streets. I bet internet live traffic is better, but only if you have internet on your phone.

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about other brands.
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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by semicolin »

Nothing comes even close to Waze on a smartphone. I know it isn't ideal for you, but in terms of real-time updates and dynamic routing it's really the way to go. It has leapfrogged a generation beyond any standalone unit.

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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Pinballin' »

I just bought a Garmin 50 LMT 5" to replace a very old Garmin nuvi 250w. The battery stopped holding a charge so I decided to upgrade. The nuvi had a battery life of about 4 or 5 hours. Before I bought the 50 LMT, I looked up the battery life and it said that it was only good for an hour. :shock: I ended up buying it anyways thinking that it was assuming full feature usage and one hour was being conservative....nope, it really does last an hour. :( Now I drive around with it plugged in most of the time. If I had known that the battery life sucked, I would have just kept the nuvi since it worked while plugged in.

However the 50 LMT is way easier to read and the buttons are more responsive. I actually reduce the brightness down to 30% because it's so bright. It does tell you which lane you should be in and this took a little getting used to because it includes turning lanes. It also displays the name of the street you are driving on and the speed limit so you are not guessing. My favourite feature is the red light intersection alert. The boot up is almost instantaneous vs 20 seconds or so for the old one. My previous GPS, I had to enter the province and then enter the address. Now the search feature automatically searches in the three closest province or states. Then you can do a finer search via province if you get too many hits.

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Re: Car GPS, suggestions ?

Post by Azatotht »

I needed this fast so I went and grabbed the Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S.

Like Pinballin said, the battery might be an issue for some but I don't care myself, I always plug it in anyway.

Took it out of the box, configured WiFi and upgraded both the software and the maps via WiFi smoothly. Paired my iPhone with it for calls and traffic, worked perfectly.

One thing I can say is that it is HUGE ! My old one was very small compared to this big screen. It is very bright and very responsive too unlike my old one. It has voice recognition too, tried it quickly, seems to work but who knows if it will be useful.

Only tried it once to make sure it worked but should be able to tell more at the end of the week if my wife does not end up crossing a bridge for nothing again this time :FP:

If you are to buy this, best price I found was on amazon.ca, 249$ with free shipping (I paid for 2 days shipping cause I needed it fast personally).
I am the monster that breathing men would kill.
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