I made a GPS choice, feed back welcome

Tom_Diane

Member
I followed with interest the thread on GPS units on here. I was really holding out for the 465T but Black Friday happened and "Target" had a Garmin 1450LMT ,regular price is $319.00 but was reduced for Black Friday to $159 plus I got a $30.00 off coupon in the store. All said and done, I walked out with this unit for $133.00. This is just my assesment of the basic needs of GPS is in no way a pitch foror against others choices. Anyway,here is my .02 worth. So far I am satisfied with the unit except it doesnt know which side of the road it lives on because it tells me "Arriving at home on right" But we live on the left. Checking into this but havent heard back from Garmin yet. All else seems to be fine. Like I said, I really wanted the 465T but around here it was an order item and couldnt really justify the cost of having it telling me about low over passes or truck restrictions especially if it was going to take me way off my route. Being a former Truck driver I have conditioned myself the read every sign and watch for every over/underpass as well as restrictions and mileage signs etc. So I eliminated that need for what travel we do although we do see a need maybe once or twice a year, maybe! Basically when I got down to the bare bones of what I realistically needed, or wanted, I got lifetime maps and traffic with the goodiesthat are standard on most all units. The only drawback that I didnt want to give up ,but now am ok with is the bluetooth but I couldnt get lifetime maps and traffic with bluetooth without moving up drastically in price thus defeating the Black Friday deal. My son who is a deputy sheriff says that they have bluetooth in their GPS units in their squad cars but he prefers his own because of background noise you get between voice and mic. and you have to talk so much louder to be understood in some cases if around hiway traffic so I was glad I decided I could live with out it.
 

jnbhobe

Well-known member
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

I am waiting on a Garmin 1490LTM my kids got me for Xmas. I want to see how the bluetooth works also. Got it from Gps city for $169. We'll see how it works compared to my old 2620 Street Pilot.
 

Tom_Diane

Member
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

I really considered going up to the 1490t I think it was but really wanted lifetime maps as priorty one. Not sure if I saw the 1490LMT. Lifetime traffic was a bonus but would have been happy with the bluetooth instead. As far as background noise, I think that he may have more in the background from his squad radio. This is my first GPS so Im curious to say the least about how it will work out. I did see that some units had mp3 capabilities. I was going to buy an IPOD shuffle or mp3 but got told in a hurry that I didnt want a shuffle and I needed something ellse, darnedif I know what he said but I think that is going to be my xmas. I figured a shuffle would hold at least all of my James Taylor music.
 

Wharton

Well-known member
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

The not knowing what side of the road I don't think is a Garmin problem. We have concluded there is a "standard" out there based on address number, odds on one side and evens on the other. Garmin makes an assumption based on the address and sometimes it is correct and sometimes not.

We just bought a 1450LMT to replace our 2720 Street Pilot(6 years old). We love the big screen and the clarity of the 1450, still getting use to the changes. It is neat that it can tell you about traffic and speed limits. Like the idea that it shows you the names of the streets and also announces them. Also like the idea that police and hospital locations are just a click away. Gives us some peace of mind, this has always been a worry. Still on our steep learning curve. What we liked on the 2720 was we could display elevation, arrival time and distance to our goal at the same time, so far we haven't figured out how to get this done on the 1450.

Have fun with you new toy.....................
 

dbylinski

NE Reg Dir Retired
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

Working with Sat maps can be cumbersome at times. I use Sat download maps at work everyday to route approx. 5000 kids a day to and from school. Here are some things that may lead to your problem of arriving on the right but the house is on the left.

Some streets are very close together and the GPS may need some calibration to better pinpoint your location. This happens to us all the time as we live on a very short side street (About 250 Feet) that runs between two long streets. As a result the GPS really doesn't know which street we are on at the time. Coming home from one street our home would be on the right. Coming home from the other it is on the left. Usually there is a general rule of thumb with even numbers on the right and odd numbers on the left but the rule is definately is not cast in stone.

The maps work in sections called "street segments". Segments begin and end with a "node". Street number assignments are given in blocks of numbers to a specific segment. Example: Chestnut Drive Between Pinewood Drive and Cedar Lane is assigned numbers 1-9 on the left and 2-10 on the right. That block assignment is broken up into equal parts on the map even though all properties are not equal in size. This is the reason that your GPS will tell you you are at the Wal-Mart when you know there is no Wal-Mart in sight.

Many GPS systems are limited by known abbreviations as well. Some street addresses cannot be found from the information you program in. Many streets have multiple names. If the GPS does not know that West Bay Ave is also County Route 554 and Barnegat Straight Road it just doesn't know where to send you. If I try to input an address and the GPS doesn't recognize it, I go right to Google Maps. If I look around I can usually find something really silly behind the error.

Hope this helps.
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

I went from a Garmin III to Garmin V and thought I really had something! Used on eBay.
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
Re: I made a choice, feed back welcome

We have a Magellan with the large screen. It has the turns down pat on large interstate junctions where you have many lane changes and different freeways coming together. So far it has done very well. Need to upload the new maps of the net for next year.
 

GETnBYE

Well-known member
Tom/Diane,
I got the same unit at target. very happy to replace my old garmin, although it's still ticking, going to put in one of the spare vehicles for emergencies.
Enjoy!

Nita
 
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