Garmin GPS Help

[US 41]

Does a Garmin GPS work in Canada and Mexico or does it just work in the US? I've never owned a GPS before and I am considering buying one. Most Garmin GPS's say that they have free map updates. Would that include Canada and Mexico? Thanks for any responses.

[renegade]

A Garmin GPS will work in Canada and Mexico, provided that it has maps installed for those two countries.  If it does, updates for those maps are provided.

For more information: http://poi-factory.com/

[realjd]

Yep, a standard Garmin GPS includes maps for North America, including Mexico, Canada, and parts of the Caribbean. Maps for additional regions can be purchased online, or acquired through less savory means.

[wanderer2575]

Check the box; don't assume what comes standard.  My Garmin model was pretty cheap but it came with only the lower 48 states.  As I've taken exactly one roadtrip out of the country since I purchased it (and that was all freeway to a fixed address for which Google Maps directions were plenty adequate), the extra expense for a model with a more encompassing mapbase wouldn't have been worthwhile.

[US 41]

Thanks for all the responses. I will definitely be checking the box before I buy one. I want to have one mainly for when I go to Mexico in the Spring because of their poor signage in certain areas. That way if I accidentally end up off the highway I am on I want to be able to find it again. I will also be able to look at interchanges before I get to them so I know exactly what to expect.  (I don't really want it for directions. Pulling over and looking at maps is more enjoyable.) I'll have to go look at some GPS's at Walmart or elsewhere sometime soon.

[renegade]

Do you have a Sam's Club or Costco membership?  If so, look there.  Sometimes they have good deals on newer model GPS receivers with lifetime map updates.

[US 41]

Do you have a Sam's Club or Costco membership?  If so, look there.  Sometimes they have good deals on newer model GPS receivers with lifetime map updates.

No and no. I know someone with Sams Club membership however. Thanks for the tip. There aren't any Costco's any where near where I live.

[Stratuscaster]

From what I can tell:
nuvi 2xxx series and 3xxx series contains North America maps
nuvi x2, x5, and x7 series contains only the lower 49 United States
nuvi x4, x6, and x8 series gets the US & Canada.

I've always bought Garmin refurb units without issue - currently have a nuvi 2598LMTHD. MSRP was $320; I paid $120.

[US 41]

To update everyone on my GPS situation, I just purchased a brand new GPS yesterday. It's a Nuvi 2639LMT. It's supposed to work in the US, Canada, and Mexico. It has no problems giving me directions to either country. The maps seem to be very accurate. It will definitely be nice having one in my future travels.

I'm still going to map out my own directions using my atlas, because I am very confident I can still do that better than the GPS.  But yes, it will be nice to see what's coming up 3 miles ahead or how to get through a town if I somehow miss a turn. It will be a huge help in Mexico where the Rand McNally map isn't exactly great. I think I'll probably just upgrade it once a year whenever the new atlas comes out. It said it takes 3 hours to upgrade to new maps, so I think I'll pass on that for now. I do have free lifetime upgrades though on all of North America (US, Canada, Mexico) which is pretty awesome.

For anyone that is curious it cost me just under $200 at Walmart.

[Stratuscaster]

My last Garmin map update took under an hour, for what that's worth. You can set the update to start, go to bed, and it should be all done when you awaken. You don't have to babysit it.

[US 41]

An hour isn't bad. I guess they do overestimate downloading times quite often.

I'm still going to try to learn a little more about it before I start messing with it too much. I'm pretty excited to have one finally though. I feel like updating it once a year or every 6 months should be fine. It's not like the roads change all that much within a years time.

I've been all over the place and I still haven't gotten lost using my RmcN. (I buy a new one every year.) This GPS for me is just an extra tool I plan on using on my trips.

[DaBigE]

An hour isn't bad. I guess they do overestimate downloading times quite often.

No, an hour isn't bad at all. I remember my old Garmin from years ago would often take 5-6 hours (part of that was a slower internet connection, but that time also included the install process too).

[Mr. Matté]

DAE's GPS record this badly? Taken from a recent bike ride of my on Strava using my new smartphone:


The road here is lined with trees but I've seen other riders' tracks on this road and they don't look this bad. At the time, my phone's location setting was set at "High accuracy - uses GPS, cell tower data, WiFi connections..." I recently set it to just GPS but even on two rides this past weekend, it's still wobbly like that. I've read about one guy who set his phone to "Airplane mode" which disables almost everything but leaves the GPS locator on and he said he got his tracks to improve.

[lordsutch]

Most phones have their GPS set to try to minimize power use, which means locating via wifi or cellular, or even guessing using dead reckoning, before using the GPS antenna which requires more processing power. Hence you get a jaggy path.

If your phone has the ability to disable assisted GPS (Qualcomm calls it "iZat" and a few other things), that will probably make your tracks more accurate at the expense of battery life.

Option (b) would be to get a dedicated GPS logger and use that instead.

[wanderer2575]

My last Garmin map update took under an hour, for what that's worth. You can set the update to start, go to bed, and it should be all done when you awaken. You don't have to babysit it.

My Garmin updates run very quickly; last one couldn't have taken more than 30 minutes.  My mapbase is only the lower 48, so I'm sure that's a factor.

I finally figured out through trial and error, after lots of frustration and throwing things and saying bad words, that you must click whatever option in Windows (or whatever your operating system) to eject the device after the update finishes or else the detailed mapbase won't be properly installed.  Often you can just unplug flash drives or other devices without any problems, but not here.  Properly ejecting writes the last of the data to the device and properly installs it.

[Rothman]

Boy, somebody was biking drunk.

[Mr. Matté]

Boy, somebody was biking drunk.

Drunk on heat exhaustion.