Cheapie Nav Guide?

[AlanL]

I have a Garmin 2720 StreetPilot and now have the Oem NAV in my Coupe. The ONLY calling card of the built in unit from my perspective is the fact that it is always there and I don't have to remember to bring it along. It does allow for more enhanced tweaking of the sound system but this is not relevant to the question being asked here.

On all other usability counts the external unit wins hands down. With an external unit I can sit down at my computer before leaving on a trip and add in all of the locations I need to know about easily and then dump it into the NAV before I take off. I can plan out interesting routes and add those in as well. When I get back I can dump all of the tracking data back into my computers to examine it later on.

None of that is possible with the built in NAV. Adding in a new destination is a crude task at best with a very clumsy interface and there are no real routing options besides find the fastest/shortest path.

The last pieces that make the built in NAV a joke are a) the price for admission with a fraction of the features and b) the one time you need a NAV the most is when you jump on plane to a city somewhere else - there is no way to take your OEM NAV along. I pump mine Garmin full of the destination locations like hotels, etc and then immediately plop it down on the dash of the rental car. As soon as the unit knows where it is, stash the location of the rental car place so you can use it to get back when you need to leave.

I have never used TomTom so I can't contrast Garmin vs TomTom. I have hand held Garmin GPS as well (Vista HC) that I use when hiking so the ability to use my laptop/desktop mapping software and map sets on both devices is a big plus. I am very used to the Garmin user interface and find it quite trivial to use.

Map set accuracy and needs are everything so my comments are really on relevant to my own needs and experience. YMMV.

 

[2 Zero]

You want a cheapie just call me I'll tell you where to go!!




I just bought a Tom Tom to go to Key west and it has work flawlessly. I am very happy with it.

 

[20ducks]

You want a cheapie just call me I'll tell you where to go!!

What do you call cheap then, Mark? 8)


Alan, as usual, a thorough report.

 

[2 Zero]

You want a cheapie just call me I'll tell you where to go!!

What do you call cheap then, Mark?
:

Just a phone call away and I won't charge you anything!!

 

[AlanL]

You want a cheapie just call me I'll tell you where to go!!

What do you call cheap then, Mark?
:

Just a phone call away and I won't charge you anything!!

The directional advice might be free but ducks would likely pay a price by following it oke:

 

[pmeloche]

I have used a Garmin Nuvi 350 and 250W in a rental car and I own a Nuvi 650 that I use with my X5 and my Z4MC. I like it a lot. I've had no problems whatsoever with these units. Being french speaking I use the french voice (Virgine from France) and it's a bit annoying when driving in non-french countries since the Text-To-Speech translation does not always go well. I find myself turning off the Text-To-Speech feature to get only the basic voice commands, which is more than enough.

The Nuvi 650 cost me CAD $250 on TigerDirect and I bought the Europe maps for an additional USD $79 on eBay.

I can't fault the Garmin devices. My brother has a Magellan unit (I do not know the exact model) and he is quite pleased with it.

 

[20ducks]

Is Canada a French speaking country with non-French areas or an English speaking country with non-English areas?

 

[2 Zero]

You want a cheapie just call me I'll tell you where to go!!

What do you call cheap then, Mark?
:

Just a phone call away and I won't charge you anything!

The directional advice might be free but ducks would likely pay a price by following it oke:[/quote]


Directional advice??

I just said I would tell him where to go!!

 

[20ducks]

You've already told me where to put things and that didn't cost me a telephone call. :?

 

[WaZZZZman]

WaZZZZman, how does the bluetooth play through your car speakers? Do you connect it to the AUX or use an FM transmitter? Either way, are you limited in what you can listen to if you want the bluetooth accessible? I also own another GPS nav device (Harmon Kardon GPS-810) that has all the bells and whistles. I found that the pictures, SD card I personally didn't use. I will say that the HK has the best screen resolution I've ever seen, which is why I bought it. I also like the way maps are displayed. I never use the bluetooth because I have it in my car.

I take the audio out of the speaker via the 1/8th speaker jack on the side of the Garmin. I run that into a splitter where I connect my I-Pod or Zune and then run that into the back of the radio on the Zed. I am not limited at all. If I have the radio in the Aux mode listening to the I-pod, and I get a phone call I can hear it on the car speaker system. If want I can then pause the I-Pod if I want or just talk with it in the background. If I want to just use the Bluetooth without being amplified via the radio I just don’t turn it on and use the internal mic and speaker in the Garmin. You are not limited at all as far as I can see. I can play the radio or listen to a CD as well and use the Bluetooth features of the Garmin. Very flexible and extremely easy to use as well as reliable. The only problem I have had is that the Zune and Garmin, and my phone are all Bluetooth and I had my Zune lock up once but no big deal. Had the built in Navigation system in my wife’s Cadillac now that was an expensive PITA.

 

[pmeloche]

Is Canada a French speaking country with non-French areas or an English speaking country with non-English areas?

A very interesting question. Canada has ten provinces and three territories. Nine provinces out of ten are overwhelmingly english and the tenth province (Québec) is mostly of french descent. Québec has a population of roughly 7.5 million people, with 6.5 millions being french. 90% of the english speaking residents of Québec reside mostly in the Greater Montréal area so if you are a visitor from the U.S of A and you happen to stay in the western half of the island then you may not even notice that french is spoken in North America.

If you venture outside the Greater Montréal area 99% of the people speak only french. In the large urban areas (Québec City, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke) you should have no problems
getting served in english however.

if you want to know, Québec was known the french colony known as Nouvelle-France when New England was still a part of the British empire. When New England seceded from England the british folks who did not accept that situation emigrated from the U.S. of A and formed Upper Canada in what is now known as the province of Ontario. When France lost of their numerous wars against England King Louis XV gave Nouvelle-France to the british and we are suffering their oppression :roll: ever since. We became at this point Lower Canada. A
sad footnote of History is that half the population of the region of Acadia (in current New Brunswick) got brutally put on ship and deported overnight to the faraway land at the delta of the Mississippi river, giving birth to the Cajun people.

I've been to every region of Canada so far west of Québec and I have met only nice people. Sure there are racist bastards who only want to see the french population disappear but I think they are an extremely small minority. The Rockies region of Alberta/British Columbia is absolutely stunning when it's not raining and is a prime Z4 country.

Canada is a great country if you like the outdoors and we enjoy an exceptionnally high standard of living thanks in major part to our neighbour to the South who buys 80% of everything we produce. I just wish the Canadians realize that and would stop whining about the U.S. of A.

Cheers.

 

[20ducks]

Thank you, Patrice. A fine summary from an obviously proud Canadien. May we always be good neighbors.

Beware the storm on the horizon as a group of well intended but myopic lawmakers will be pushing to end NAFTA (Accord de libre-échange nord-américain [ALENA]). We will be less neighborly because of their poor vision.

The Acadians were sent packing due to, amongst other things, indiscrimination. Matters like that were frowned upon back then much more than today. Their history is another interesting facet in this diamond called the United States.

Regards,
Greg

 

[WaZZZZman]

Just a quick question….do they teach both English and French to school children in Canada? :?

 

[rabman5]

I grew up in Ontario and attended an English speaking school. French classes were mandatory from grade 3 on. There were also French speaking schools available in my area. We used to like watching the French football (not soccer) team practice and call plays in French. For some reason we found it entertaining.

 

[20ducks]

I grew up in Ontario and attended an English speaking school. French classes were mandatory from grade 3 on. There were also French speaking schools available in my area. We used to like watching the French football (not soccer) team practice and call plays in French. For some reason we found it entertaining.

Well crap, that explains it all buddy. :lol: :lol: :rofl: :lol: :lol: :wink:

 

[pmeloche]

Just a quick question….do they teach both English and French to school children in Canada? :?

That's another interesting question. At least in my province (Québec) it's unclear to me what is the rule anymore. In my school days, we had unofficial english classes in the sixth grade because english was mandatory in high school (7th grade and up). I know that by law now an immigrant must go to a french school first and learn english there however if the immigrant is from another canadian province he/she can send their children to an english school.

There was talk at one point to unilaterally teach both languages starting in the third grade but I think it fizzled.

For as much as I love my french heritage and absolutely want to preserve it there is also a day-to-day reality that the 6.5 million french-speaking Quebecers are surrounded by a sea of 325 million english-speaking north americans. It only makes sense for a french-speaking individual to learn english so that this english-speaking market can be opened to it. Sadly, a lot of politicians seem to think that to preserve the french heritage we need to isolate ourselves from the rest of North America. I personally think it's a mistake.

Cheers.

 

[pmeloche]

I grew up in Ontario and attended an English speaking school. French classes were mandatory from grade 3 on. There were also French speaking schools available in my area. We used to like watching the French football (not soccer) team practice and call plays in French. For some reason we found it entertaining.

The funniest is to watch a Hockey game in France on TV. They have totally different french words for every piece of equipment. I was pissing on the floor laughing. :lol:

 

[20ducks]

Se habla espanol?

 

[Yal]

no entiendo esa basura

Hablas besa mi culo?

 

[rabman5]

no entiendo esa basura

Hablas besa mi culo?

Si. No es bueno!