What has happened to Garmin?

[JASinIL2006]

I have a Garmin nuvi 2555 LMT GPS device for my car. This is my second Garmin GPS. When I first started using a GPS, I thought it did a pretty decent job of plotting routes, especially for long trips. Lately, however, the Garmin seems to be choosing some really odd routes... For example, if I'm on a trip that requires going around a large city, it sometimes will pick a route that involves getting off a major highway and taking surface streets through the city. Or, it may keep us on an interstate and take a bypass around the city. Sometimes it sends us on a route that uses two-lane county roads rather than nearby highways.

Google Maps does not send us on these bizarre routes. It seems to pick a fairly standard route, similar to what I would select if I were to sit down with a roadmap or atlas.

I like many of the convenience features of a dedicated GPS,such as saving destinations, accuracy even in the absence of a good cell signal, etc., so I'm not quite ready to ditch my Garmin (although I'm getting close). I've tried drilling down through all the settings to see if I've selected "take me on the most out of the way route" or "I'd like to see the really sketchy part of every city on my trip", but I haven't found anything. I've tried changing the normal stuff ("shortest route" vs. "fastest route") but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Has anyone else seen this sort of thing with their GPS? I'm wondering if there is something wonky in Garmin's trip-plotting algorithm or if there is some setting I haven't discovered.

 

[jbcurt00]

When was the last time you connected your Garmin to a computer and updated the mapping software?

My boss had 1 that he hardly ever updated, and it often didn't plot the fastest route when FAST was chosen or the shortest route when SHORT was chosen. Updated it, which took FOREVER because it had to go back so far that the update that worked w/ it's current setup was 4 or 5 major updates behind the current updated map/program logic.

I don't have a dash/handheld GPS unit, but my phone has 2 different mapping programs, 1 has an AVOID DELAYS route choice, or did. Haven't used it in a while. But it is updated

IIRC that delay choice was in settings w/ the avoid tolls choice. If I spent more then about 5min unsuccessfully trying to solve it, I'd be on the phone w/ their tech support dept.

 

[gm280]

Updates are probably the answer. But some times the updates cost as much as a new unit. I haven't updated any GPS for that reason. I can buy a new unit for not much more then one update cost. So why buy updates. I know some are offering free life time updates now, but older units still cost a lot of money and I can't bring myself to pay such costs... Kind of like here is your free cellphone (smart phone) and now we will charge you for everything else...monthly! JMHO!

 

[JASinIL2006]

I have the free lifetime updates, so I update it about as much as I'm allowed... I think four times a year?

The only reason I updated to my current model - the one that doesn't work well - was because the maps had become too big for the old GPS. Even with a memory card, I couldn't get a regional US map loaded. It's a shame, because that GPS worked very well.