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Need a GPS for car


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1 minute ago, barcelonaman said:

The most annoying for me is that they dont seem to recognize the laterals in guadaljara. many times tell me to turn right while in on a overpass or main drag with no exit.

That was my problem too with the GPS.  It was so frustrating I found a taxi to lead me where I wanted to go.

 

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2 minutes ago, barcelonaman said:

The most annoying for me is that they dont seem to recognize the laterals in guadaljara. many times tell me to turn right while in on a overpass or main drag with no exit.

Exactly why I gave up on them. I do know people who love them and overlook the problems, but I don't have the patience. I reserve that for the stupid stuff I find in Microsoft Windows...

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9 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

Can't speak to their car maps but the maps for the Garmin GPS on my BMW motorcycle are full of errors and not only in Mexico.  For example, on a recent 4K miles road trip to New Mexico, AZ, and a circle route in Old Mexico, the thing mis-identified roads that have been paved for decades as unpaved, routed to towns totally wrong and would have gotten me thoroughly lost had I not carefully research routes beforehand using Google maps and printed out some critical areas to take with me.

Coming out of Tepic, it said that libre 15 was unpaved and tried to route me to PV to go home.  It misrouted through Durango.  

In New Mexico, it couldn't find a well known road between Cloudcroft and Ruidoso, then identified it as unpaved (40 years or more since it was paved), then misrouted between Ruidoso and Mountainaire, etc.  It tried to send me to Los Alamos to go to the Taos area and didn't know of the existence of the Santa Fe bypass that has been there for nearly 20 years.

The thing cost me nearly $600 U.S. and is basically worthless.  Updating frequently hasn't helped.  The mapping isn't even up to the level of Rand McNally, let alone Google maps, which I find to be far more accurate here in Mexico.

 

If it were my GPS. I would be talking to Garmin customer service. I have used a Garmin for the last ten years to drive from Ontario and to many places in Mexico, and around Guad,  They have worked well, not prefect !!! But well enough that I have always got to where I wanted to go.. I would not leave home without mine.. 

I do have a couple of apps on my iPhone, they work but don't come close to a stand alone Garmin GPS.

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Yes. A map works better for me than these clunky things. They had me driving into concrete walls, exiting onto wrong-way streets, looking to turn off the wrong side of boulevards. And that's just here. Texas was almost as hairy.

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My GPS is hopeless and several cell phones I have tried were better but too often misleading. So now I use Google maps. I make notes of how many kilometers it is to each turn and follow that. It works pretty well.  

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I disagree with the sentence "But as a GPS it is of limited value"..  That maybe just their bike software.. But I don't see why it would differ from auto. 

I drive a BWM as my handle implies.. with a BMW factory NAV system.. Their mapping is terrible...not even close to Garmin..

i travel a lot so a GPS comes in very useful to me, I agree Garmin is not perfect but I have yet to find anything better.  I have severall apps on my iPhone but still haven't found one that works better than my Garmin.. 

I'm always on the lookout for new GPS apps to try out....

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55 minutes ago, TelsZ4 said:

I disagree with the sentence "But as a GPS it is of limited value"..  That maybe just their bike software.. But I don't see why it would differ from auto. 

I drive a BWM as my handle implies.. with a BMW factory NAV system.. Their mapping is terrible...not even close to Garmin..

i travel a lot so a GPS comes in very useful to me, I agree Garmin is not perfect but I have yet to find anything better.  I have severall apps on my iPhone but still haven't found one that works better than my Garmin.. 

I'm always on the lookout for new GPS apps to try out....

"I agree Garmin is not perfect but I have yet to find anything better...." I couldn't agree more a great device to have when driving. BTW, for security one should not place the HOME location as home, but rather a landmark close to home that will get you there.

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Frequently, in Mexico, a GPS will require the complete street name, which you may find on a good map. For example: It may not accept “MADERO“ as a street in Chapala, since the proper name is “Francisco I. Madero“.  It may also require that you know if it is a street, avenue or boulevard, etc.

So, knowing that, I always used Guia Roji maps, made notes and avoided getting lost or worse. No need for a GPS and find that drivers are often distracted by them just as much as by cellphones.  Maps & notes are safer.

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I'm with RV on this one - especially in the cities and countryside. Buy the most recent Guia Roja maps, take this to the copy store, and blow up the map areas you need to 11x17 (or metric equiv). You can mark the map with hand drawn "waypoints" which make sense to you, like "giant cow statue" for instance - plan your route ahead of time, write it down on a sticky paper, and put it on your steering wheel. GPS is nice if you get lost, and need to reorient to the map - just like the ancient mariners used their compasses and astrolabes. Your next trip, on the same route, or return route will then be a piece of cake.

The caveat here is that many roads are under construction right now. Who knows how long it takes for them to be mapped. Even Google satellite has this problem, many of the images are one to three years old.

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