msn direct

be prepared to call garmin and either take it back to the store, or ask garmin to switch it for a standard rds-tmc antenna.

i had msdn direct for 2 weeks and i had non stop reception problems. for the entire 40 mile trip from livermore to san jose, i had no traffic information. and the last mile or so it would miraculously come back to life and give me traffic info after i removed the antenna and reinserted it into the cigarette lighter.

at first garmin was giving me some attitude about replacing the defective traffic antenna and microsoft was no help, so i just took the whole thing back and ate the restocking fee, the msdn direct service for me was not worth it

also worth noting its going to take 3 days in a good reception area to get all the weather, gas prices, etc, and you might have a lot of gas prices but no actual addresses to any gas stations.

a cigarette lighter that is always on is sort of recommended, but after it charges up, its okay to turn the cigarette lighter off, because it downloads while the car and gps device is off, because it has a built in battery, which is kind of good

 

It's a Microsoft product, so you really shouldn't expect it to work well on the first two generations. By the third generation it will be usable, but not great. By the fourth generation they will own the market.

Tom

 

the microsoft people will tell you that the msn direct service is expanding, but the fine print says that msn direct service is not guaranteed past jan 1st 2012.

if you have any trouble with the unit, your going to eliminate 100 % of all the signal problems with msn direct by going with the regular rds-tmc traffic receiever, those are run by clear channel, which blanket the traffic signal via your local fm radio stations that they own and they own a lot , where as msn direct pretty much relies on thier own transmitters it seems

tomtom also has rds-tmc antennas, but they have gas prices also over your cellular phone, and traffic too, but they charge you for the gas prices, which msn direct gives you for free.

in the first couple weeks, or 30 day period of your return window, keep an eye on the msn direct signal indicator to make sure you are actually recieving data, and check the data it recieves regularly, like weather, movie tickets, traffic, gas prices, to make sure your getting the information. if i remember right the garmin i returned was saying traffic was all clear, but actually hitting the msn button was indicating i was getting no signal at all.

garmin will replace the traffic antenna with a regular rds-tmc but you might have to scream at them to do it

i have heard good things about the dash express, but they want a monthly fee to get thier data

• Purchase a two-year prepaid plan for the equivalent of $9.99 a month
• Purchase a 1-year prepaid plan for $10.99 a month
• Purchase a month-to-month plan for the rate of $12.99 a month.

tomtom has newer HD traffic recievers, but i do not think they are available in the states