Navman - Expensive toy or useful aid
Submitted: Saturday, Mar 03, 2007 at 23:43
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howesy
got 620 navman a while back just to help navigate through towns as I travelled the country and found it often wrong and frequently asking me to turn where there was no turn. It finally died and to Navman's credit they replaced it with new 630i with latest software and new maps.
Well today I tried toprogram in Horsley dve and it told me no road or such named horsley existed no matter how i tried to enter it. My son witnessed the attempts through 2 menu areas and we laughed and took off. funny enough when we got to horsley dve someone woke the navman up and it knew the name of the road we were on and displayed it. we laughed again. programmed it to go to an address in Bradbury. As I was driving (no side streets) it said Turn right, do a U turn and turn left all within 5 seconds. I turned left and said to my son this thing is mad we have to head toward liverpool and it's taking us toward
sydney but then it said turn right then turn right and i thought its cooking now its turning me around. trouble was it took me in to a dead end with no 2nd right turn then all of a sudden said No navigatable route route cancelled.
Well I'm impessed this thing and it's previous model have told me to turn throughyears old buildings farmers paddocks the list goes on and on many occassions. Interesting enough once we had been to horsley dve and got
home we tried to program it again and now it lists about a dozen roads starting with horsley.
Would I buy one again? definately not maybe another brand.
Is this just bad luck, did I get duds or have others had the same experience with these units.
i have gone back to my Magellan with my book of towns and way points and I program that when travelling lets me know what direction my goal is.
Reply By: garrycol - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 00:05
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 00:05
I don't know about your Navman - but maybe it had a problem with Horsley Dve as there is no such road - it is actually called The Horsley Drive so maybe the system is sensitive to to how accurate the entry needs to be.
Garry
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Follow Up By: howesy - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 00:13
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 00:13
by the time we entered horsl or the horsl it was already out of options listing nothing and we completed the name both ways still to no avail. i think their software just isn't yet up to the task as demonstrated by all it's other misgivings. Of course its all a personal opinion but I definately don't believe it was worth anywhere near the money charged to purchase. They would be great for around $200 but they are 4 times that to buy. It does give me a good laugh though.
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Reply By: Member - Doug T (W.A) - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:25
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:25
howesy
Sorry to hear about people who spend a lot of money on a product that lets you down. I can never work out why people go past Garmin or Magellan , I have used Garmins, they excel
members.westnet.com.au/dtilley/maps.htm
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Reply By: Member - Doug T (W.A) - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:43
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 02:43
Check this out , though it is referring to USA the basics are the same for Australia
gpsinformation.info/nuvi/660/660.html
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Reply By: Member - Tour Boy- Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 07:44
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 07:44
Hi all,
When I have sold things on ebay, I have had 3 people try to find our house using the Navman. Our street doesn't exist on the latest software. It is the main road and has been there since about 1830. The newer side streets either side of us are there but you only realise that when you get here.
IMHO a waste of money. Use a map and or GPS
Regards
Tour Boy
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Reply By: Stu-k - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 08:50
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 08:50
I have a Navman and find it the same as you say.....a waste of money. But my jeep came with a Garmin and its great.
I would never buy another Navman
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Reply By: Members-Neil & Margie-Cairns - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 09:51
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 09:51
Morning all ,,we bought the latest Tom Tom before Christmas , 99.5 % spot on from
Cairns through T/ville down to Proserpine and back to Cannonvale right to the door of the van park ,, went for a drive out to
Collinsville with no problems ,, even out to Tyrconnell
mine , Mt Mulligan , not 100% out there but did get us around and try to show a way we might have to go to get back to a road ,, the main reason people buy these things is that we don't all have the $1250 for the Garmin i wanted ,, however , the Tom Tom has done
well for the past few months ..
Sometimes it is a bit behind if its cloudy ,, sometimes as you go over an overpass and need to turn to get back to that road that went under where you were it says turn where you just can't , but very quick to pick this up and give you the next instruction ..
Remembering these are really only a street directory ,, we have found Tom Tom pretty good so far , will get a proper GPS one day !!
All the best ,, Neil ..
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Reply By: kampen - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 10:52
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 10:52
hi all,
I only got the cheap voxen $300 and have found it 98% right but found you have to be dead right with names of suburbs and streets , as a street directory it's tops and I now have my old magellan 310 gps going again so have both . I don't think the average joe blow needs the top of the range unless you use them all the time. Just as much can go wrong wether it's $200 or $ 2000, and nine times out of ten say it's not worth fixing anyway. My thoughts for the day, till next time.
Peter.
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Reply By: navaraman - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 12:01
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 12:01
I use my navman PiN for work every day. It's not 100% but it's pretty close. I wouldn't be without
mine for travelling in the burbs.
Patrolman Pat
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Reply By: Member - Shane D (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 20:59
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 20:59
I have a navman which I bought about a year ago and have found it accurate most(99%) of the time .
One time it did let me down was from
Rainbow beach to Gympie (sealed road)It had the whole of
rainbow beach township but no known route back to Gympie!It had the cooloola way on there(track) and once you where past the intersection with this track and the road you where right.
As for roads that are shown crossing paddocks,once may have been gazetted roads or easements that are still current.
Yes my navman has directed on to the wrong off ramp or to turn right, across a concrete wall onto a blocked street but I'm still happy with it and would buy another one.
Plan B,I still always carry a street directory but It doesn't talk
Shane
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Follow Up By: Bware (Tweed Valley) - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 22:19
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 22:19
I don't have any navigational aid (including my lovely bride LOL), but I wonder about these 'concrete walls' in the hands of a 'little old lady' etc. Unless the technology is 100% accurate and user friendly it will eventually cause an accident?
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Follow Up By: howesy - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 08:23
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 08:23
What you mean like the little old lady in USA that sued the maker of a motor
home because it crashed after she put cruise control on and went in back to make a cuppa. True story she won and they have to have a warning now.
Anyway I still set the navman but once it stuffs me around I go straight to the street directory. Definately wouldn't buy another updated model of this brand unless they offered me a months trial.
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Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 21:16
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 21:16
I have Tom Tom on the PDA as
well as Destinator on the PDA and also a Garmin 60 CS. TomTom spot on Garmin spot on and havent had destinator running a lot so cant comment. Sounds like the NAVMAN is a little lacking
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Follow Up By: Shaker - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 08:53
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 08:53
If you have Destinator PN with the Navteq maps, you will it to more comprehensive than Tom Tom, particularly in the regional areas.
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Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 17:36
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 17:36
Whare do them Navteq maps reside? How DO I get me some?
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Reply By: Crackles - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 22:03
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 22:03
A useful aid that when you really have no idea where you are often neither does it. Have used several brands & all have failed to find address's, run out of roads in rural areas & told us to turn where there are no roads. If you have some idea where you are then with a little coaching they can be relied on somewhat to get you there but in the country we often stop to help people with Navigation units that are telling them to go the wrong way. Until they get alot more user
feedback to correct the mistakes they will all be a somewhat 'expensive toy'.
The main problem I have with them is when the unit does send you the wrong way you are distracted trying to fix the thing often while still driving. I'll stick to the road directory for a few more years ;-)
Cheers Craig..............
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Follow Up By: Off-track - Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 23:32
Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 at 23:32
Agreed. Mostly a gimmick.
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Reply By: Mike - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 00:12
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 00:12
My wife is the navigator when you go about towns, and she will read the map up side down, no wonder we get lost!!
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Reply By: Patrol22 - Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 12:55
Monday, Mar 05, 2007 at 12:55
I run CoPilot6 Live on my PDA and it is
spot on to within metres - event to the extent of telling me which side of the street to look for the address - handy in the dark.
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