Nuvi/Tom Tom, etc. vs. Prius Nav

The Garmin C-530 works just fine for me.

 

We had the Garmin Nuvi 360 which we now use just for when we travel. What I like about it over the Toyota NAV is I find the maps easier to read. Also, we got lifetime map updates for a third of the cost that it would be to get a new DVD for the Toyota.

What I like better about the Toyota NAV:
Larger display
The Dual screen
I like the hint in the upper right corner about what way my next turn will be so I can prepare with plenty of time.
It recalculates faster than the Garmin, and doesn't yell at us about it. Just dings.
There are times where it takes our Garmin forever to find a Satellite. The NAV has always been ready to go.

 

Before y'all go GPS shopping for the holidays or whatever, if
you're thinking about the Nuvi line you should read this.
.
_H*

 

I posted some pros and cons of my 06 Prius' nav system vs my Garmin Nuvi 350 for my other (nav-less) car at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...dvd-nav-vs-other-nav-system-2.html#post675023.

I haven't had a chance to thoroughly read Hobbit's criticisms of his Nuvi 500 but I find my Nuvi 350 more than adequate for my needs: to guide me to my destination. Sure, some POIs are missing but my unit is a few years old now and hasn't been updated. I agree that features like an MP3 player and picture viewer are superfluous. I don't use them on my Nuvi 350 and mine doesn't have Bluetooth (had to go for the 360 or 370 to get it).

FWIW, I'll be receiving a free Nuvi 1200 from my bank soon. I anticipate it'll happily (to me) replace my Nuvi 350.

My previous GPS unit: a Magellan Map 330 had no turn by turn directions (I could see my heading/bearing and distance from my destination and I could upload street level maps into its 8 megs of user addressable flash). PNDs back then were huge, expensive and didn't even include maps for entire US.

 

Problem with the nuvi is Garmin dumbed them down compared to their Street Pilot series, which Garmin just about abandoned. After years of being a Garmin owner, went to a TomTom 740 Live. It's not perfect, as screen tends to wash out in direct sunlight, but it is easily customizable, gives alternate routes, superior detour function, and Google Live.

 

I had gotten a 2004 Prius with navigation. Due to data issues there was a free update to the 2005 DVD. A quick check of the DVD indicated that the navigation data was already 2 years old!

After encountering more and more problems with 6 year old data, I finally updated with a TomTom Go 630, for a bit less than the price of the Toyota DVD on sale. Now 4 quarterly updates will cost less than $50 a year.

One big issue I had with the Toyota (and have not yet checked out on the TomTom) is using the US highway than runs next to the Interstate. For example from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS, we would like to use US-51 instead of I-55. It has less traffic and the 10 MPH speed limit difference bumps the mileage nearly 10 MPG! The Toyota system would either keep trying to put us on I-55, or use US-61, miles away, as an alternate.

Also the Go 630 has many features (some optional) that do not exist on the Toyota navigation system.

 

I use TomTom 7 on my HTC Touch. At the very lesat, IT can find my @#$#@!$ house. The NAVI get's lost as soon as I turn off the interstate. It can see the road, but cannot offer turn by turn instructions. Like others, I find it odd that a TomTom 2 gig map set can figure this out, where the NAVI with a 9.4 gig DVD cannot. The only thing I miss on the TomTom software is that nifty split screen lane deal... where the map is still displayed on the left, but the upcoming turn is shown on the right (including the amount of lanes in the road). That would be really bloody useful tooling through the DC area on our way to PA. The TomTom dedicated hardware can do it, but the PPC version never will. I wonder if the iPhone got this ability though?

 

I wound up taking the Nuvi 500 POS back. Have a TomTom ONE 140s
now, actually I have the second one of them as the first one
had a thermal-related video problem that faded the screen pretty
severely when the unit was mildly cold. It doesn't do breadcrumb
or topo or elevation, but the UI makes a bit more sense overall
and makes no particular pretenses at being the pinnacle state of
the art. It isn't, and TomTom knows that. The one almost-
showstopping bug is the auto-zoom, where the normal running
map-view gets zoomed to what TomTom arrogantly thinks the level
you want is and although it allows zooming in or out from there,
reverts to its own idea after a short timeout.
.
TomTom support offers the dubious argument that such behavior
is MANDATED in some obscure country they happen to sell their
product into, as a safety feature. While this tickles my BS
meter pretty severely I could almost see some misguided government
bureaucrat thinking he knows more about technology than everybody
else and pushing something that ridiculous into law or standards
or whatever. The support rep had no idea where to point me to
substantiate this, and I did a bunch of fruitless searching.
.
If anything it's less safe, forcing the user to continually poke
the (-) button to see a larger radius at highway speeds where
the auto-zoom is *much* too tight to see what's coming up. A
workaround is to go to map-browse mode around the current location,
zoom where you want, and occasionally just slide the map to keep
up with where you are. Still extra screen-touches but at least
it doesn't run away from you by itself.
.
Nobody makes the perfect GPS, far from it. The perfect GPS would
be my old Quest with the addition of modern amounts of memory,
topo database, and one-way street indication. Everything else
should be left strictly alone, and I'll take a batch of real
physical buttons to control the thing, please. And I'd rather not
have to depend on a live internet connection to have my database
at hand in the first place.
.
Clearly, another industry in decline from its former glory.
.
_H*

 

We have the NAV system in our Prius as well as the Garmin Nuvi 660 and until I read this thread I had no idea the Garmin had Bluetooth capability. Since it doesn't sound like it works very well I probably won't bother with it now though. (As an aside, the Bluetooth in my Prius is awesome!)

Anyway, I agree with just about everything I've read here, except I'm not sure I understand Tim's post.

Both systems have their pros and cons but the Garmin more user-friendly, more accurate and a much bigger bang for your buck. I'm not too concerned about it being a projectile in a crash because, I'm sorry to say, at any given time there's usually at least one other thing in my car that would qualify. Gads, my purse could probably kill someone if airborne. I also set my Garmin down on the floor below the console when it’s not in use to keep it from being a target for thieves. Even if I had purchased the car first, I'd still want the portability of my Garmin.

Finally, it may not be the most important feature of my Garmin but I just love the Aussie guy's voice.

 

This is only based on the 24hr Prius T Spirit demo car I had.

Toyota:

Pros

• Turn by turn directions in the HUD (by FAR the best feature)
• Large screen
• Dual format
• Voice control
• TMC

Cons

• Information such as ETA, distance to next junction etc far to small to read and have to look down to do so
• Confusing and difficult to use UI
• 3D view zoomed out way to far at junctions, when other systems have autozoom.

My regular SatNav is a TomTom 720

Pros

• Intuitive UI
• Easy to read
• Screen in drivers direct view
• Both TMC (free) and LiveUpdate (with subscription) available
• Manufacturer supported Safety Camera warnings
• TomTom Home, which makes it extremely easy to connect to a PC and download the very latest updates.
• Voice address input
• Portable, can use it on foot etc as well
• maps available all over the world when on holiday

Cons

• Using suction cup, often falls off screen!
• Software can occasionally be a little flaky (requiring a hardware reset)
• Theft magnet

 

Have you (or anyone) tried using a friction mount and putting it on the flat part of the dash by the A-pillar? It looks like a pretty nice place, not sure how well the GPS can acquire satellites there though.