Garmin vs. Magellan GPS

[WunderCade]

I borrowed a friend's Garmin Nuvi for a trip earlier this year. It was the first and only GPS unit I tried out. So I put it on my Christmas list, but the wife got confused and went to Costco and bought me a Magellan RoadMate 1412.

I have no clue about Magellan's. Any GPSphile's here that can chime in on their preference or recommendations of one over the other? I am thinking about returning this unit and just going to exchange it for a Garmin, that is unless Magellan is better?

[protokatie]

Back in the day (c. 2000) I have played with both brands. Im no expert, but both seemed (at the time) to do more than the job. Bear in mind I have only dealt with hand held GPS's, not the "Illegal*" dash mount ones. From what I understand and have seen, Magellan was the premier name of GPS units at the time. BTW, if it works and has the features you want, I would just stick with what wifey got you.

*The "Illegal" claim is from Maine state law that makes it illegal to add anything to a car that blocks the view out of the windscreen. Even a car freshener hanging from the rearview mirror can get you a citation here.

[TOK]

I can't comment too much on the Magellan, but I've had a widescreen Garmin Nuvi 250 for about a year and a half and I love it. Its like the most basic widescreen Garmin, and I've used it on a couple couple of game hauls and use it nearly daily for work. I've had one instance where a road had been redone (near Dorney Park in PA) and the Garmin got confused and thought I was on the wrong road. This was when I first got the unit and tested it in comparison to locations I knew... Even though it had the road info wrong in that one instance, it still focused on the destination and still would have helped someone that was lost.

As someone that has navigated using paper maps for 20 years, this thing is so nice. Like having someone with you to read off directions and turns. My wife is bad with directions and it gets her where she's going too.

[polaris]

no direct experience of the models but when i used to work in an outdoor store they were both heading the way with the technology, imagine one would be as good as the other. i reckon features will come down to price now, if theyre comparable price they likely have the same features

[Cakemeister]

I got a Nuvi 205 for Christmas. It seems okay. What I really think would be cool would be to have a way to download locations from your computer via USB straight from google maps or whatever, because the touch screens are slower IMO than just putting in the address from the computer. My Garmin hooks up to the USB (it charges itself that way or with a car lighter attachment) and it appears as a device, but there's no software to add locations. There's also some kind of memory card interface, but I don't see how that would do me any good.

[koolmoecraig]

Return it and get a Garmin 260w.  I believe Best Buy has them for $189.  I paid $260 like 5 months ago.  Simple to use and works great.  Widescreen as well.

[shmokes]

Get the cheapest one you can get that has text-to-speech.  That is the important threshold feature that distinguishes the good ones from the not-so-good ones.  It's really a must have.

[Level42]

Both suck. Get a TomTom.



 

[koolmoecraig]

The Garmin 260w has text-to-speech. 

Also, it will tell you which side of the street your final destination is on.  This is an important feature that surprisingly not all GPS units have.

[mccoy178]

I could do without the text to speech.  I just turn it off due to the annoyance of it.  I used maps for around six years in my business, so by seeing where I am at on the unit, I can figure out my turns in real time without much confusion or frustration.  What I like most about these is that it freed my brain up to think about other things like taking phone calls.  Having whatever percentage of my brain power back I was using to figure out where the turns were is invaluable.

[patrickl]

Both suck. Get a TomTom.



 

Indeed. Not sure how important this is in the US, but Map Share is pretty handy (gives you very recent map updates). GPS reception is also something where the Garmins usually lose in tests. Again, this might not be much of an issue in the US (unless you want to drive through a city). TomTom can be configured to your wishes better, but some see this as a problem and claim that they rather not have the option of tweaking the device. Never understood that one. Maybe because it keeps the menu cleaner or something. I have seen a Garmin (forgot which model) and I noticed how sparce the display was filled. It didn't even show all the streets until you were really close. Like it was missing the processing power to handle the graphics.

TomTom also has lane guidance, IQ routes (map has a record of the average road speed per time of day for accurate arrival time prediction) and HD traffic info (speeds calculated from cell phone locations used to measure delays in traffic jams). But yet again, I would guess that these more advanced features only work well in Europe.

I have never seen a Magellan navigation device.

It depends on what you want. I have my GPS on at all times (even if I know the way). It warns me of traffic jams, I know what time I will arrive, it warns me of speed camera's and mobile speed traps. So I want it to do a lot. If you just want to use it occasionally then probably just about any device will work.

[Level42]

TomTom can be configured to your wishes better, but some see this as a problem and claim that they rather not have the option of tweaking the device. Never understood that one.

Pat, as long as I keep seeing countless people driving at night with their TomTom set on daylight colors and brightness (i.e. they are too STUPID to actually find the nightview option, which doesn't blind you when driving in the dark) I can understand that.

The TomTom is like the iPod under the MP3 players. It works straight away, and if you have more than one braincell you're able to operate it without any manual reading within seconds....

I've read that they didn't use the best maps for the US and that might be hindering them, but I used my TomTom when I was in the US and it worked absolutely fine.

O, and don't forget that it's not a US product. That's pretty important

But I did see them on display at some locations when I was overthere and they're not doing bad. Guess the weak dollar is not helping TomTom now.......

[shmokes]

I'm under the impression that Garmin units are generally reviewed better than Tomtom units in the U.S.  That could be nonsense, but it's the general impression I've got in my head.

[patrickl]

I'm under the impression that Garmin units are generally reviewed better than Tomtom units in the U.S.  That could be nonsense, but it's the general impression I've got in my head.

It's probably mostly what you are used too. TomTom has been market leader here since they started and Garmin has been so in the US. Garmin always has been quick to follow all of TomTom's innovations so there isn't much between these units either. I'd also guess the exchange rate is working against TomTom, but that would be the same in europe and here Garmin devices still get rated significantly lower than TomTom.

[DaOld Man]

My son got me a TomTom and I like it.
Only tested it out on a known route but it is pretty neat. Cant wait to take it on vacation.

[protokatie]

Do any of these units say "Swim across the Atlantic ocean" when you try to plot a course from Boston to Paris, like google maps used to? If not, I wouldnt buy one that didn't, just for how funny it would be.

[shardian]

Wife got a Garmin Nuvi 200 for Christmas. We used it the last few days on a trip. It works pretty darn well I think - pretty dummy proof.

[Level42]

Do any of these units say "Swim across the Atlantic ocean" when you try to plot a course from Boston to Paris, like google maps used to? If not, I wouldnt buy one that didn't, just for how funny it would be.

The maps on these are usually limited to one or more countries (like the BeNeLux area) or f.i. entire Europe or regions of the US. Depends on memory cards used and what you want to pay for the maps.

[Franco B]

Both suck. Get a TomTom.



 

QFT!!

Me and my GF bought a Nuvi 200 for our trip to Crete as we were hiring a car. We thought we would test it on the way to the airport as it is a route we know. It spent 80% of its time recalculating the route (even though we were going in the right direction all of the time) and it kept trying to send us the wrong way around roundabouts and sending us onto the wrong side of the motorway. We ended up stopping off in Birmingham and getting a Tomtom One, its been awesome and hasn't let us down once on the many journeys we have used it on since. You can change the voices too and there are a few good ones (as well as 10x awful ones), my favourite one is the official John Cleese one.

I have since spoken to other people who have bought Nuvi 200's and have had no problem but it has put me off Garmin completely.

Tomtom FTW!!

[shmokes]

I'm not sure off the top of my head which Nuvi I have, but whichever it is, I love it.  But I also got it at the absolute best possible time.  I bought it as a gift for my wife a few days before we moved from Utah to Miami, FL.  It's a life saver.  From day one we could get anywhere in the city better than people who've lived here all their lives.  Now we've been here a year and a half and while we still use it very frequently, it now stays in the center console most of the time.  But if you're ever moving to a new town, do yourself a favor.  Best couple hundred bucks you'll ever spend. 

[shardian]

Anyone have any luck finding free voices for their GPS? Garmin has 2 on their website, but there are places all over the web 'selling' voices. I am a cheap bastard though. 

This website even has the computer from Portal. Pretty cool huh?
http://www.pigtones.com/

[shmokes]

At first I was like, "The thing comes with loads of voices . . . what do you need more for."  Then I clicked the link to check out GladOS.  OMG . . . that's awesome.  The George Bush one was pretty good too.  OMG, Homer is ---smurfing--- awful.  It doesn't even sound close.

[Franco B]

Yeah the Homer one is awfull, some of there are shocking but there are some pretty good ones too.

Shardian, I grabbed a load of free ones recently. Bush, Homer, Darth Vader, Yoda, C3PO, Ozzy Osbourne, John Cleese, Arnie, Stephen Hawkins and a load more I can't remember.

I can't seem to find the site but I'll get them off my Tom Tom and upload them.

[patrickl]

Don't these "funny" voices get annoying really quickly? As in after one drive you're fed up with them? It's the same joke over and over. I liked the idea of a John Cleese voice, but I never felt like installing it.

I still use the original computer generated TomTom voice (Laura which is the voice of Dutch news reader Elleke van Doorn). I used the generator to create extra voice clips for speed trap warnings with the appropriate speeds.

These voices are pretty amazing. It's really uncanny how they can read a plain piece of text and sound pretty human. Here are some samples. They have an online demo, but now you have to register for it.

[shardian]

Shardian, I grabbed a load of free ones recently. Bush, Homer, Darth Vader, Yoda, C3PO, Ozzy Osbourne, John Cleese, Arnie, Stephen Hawkins and a load more I can't remember.

I can't seem to find the site but I'll get them off my Tom Tom and upload them.

I've yet to figure out if the voices are intercompatible between Tomtom and Garmin.

[Franco B]

Yeah they can get annoying pretty fast. I stuck with the John Cleese one as its nice and clear. Its also the only official one of the bunch, the rest are from voice 'actors' if you could call them that.

[DrewKaree]

I only had mine for a few months before it was stolen, but I'll get another.  I'll willingly purchase a Garmin.  I had the Nuvi 200. 

I got a Nuvi 205 for Christmas. It seems okay. What I really think would be cool would be to have a way to download locations from your computer via USB straight from google maps or whatever

You can already do this.  Read your manual.  Look for POI (Points Of Interest), and then add whatever you'd like.  If you need more involved POI's than that, google POI and Garmin.  They make POI loaders, and you in fact CAN download something from Google Maps to your GPS.  I can't remember if it's Google or Mapquest, but there's even an option to download your directions or POI or whatever it was right to your GPS.  It may be that your model can't do that, but my model was the step below yours and it could when I had it, so I'm guessing yours can too. 

Both suck. Get a TomTom.

 

Take note of everyone who is in favor of TomTom's.  Everyone who has chimed in with "any other maker sucks" isn't from the U.S.

The reason I went with the Garmin is because I live in Wisconsin.  There is one other city, and I believe it's in Minnesota, in the U.S. that uses the screwy addresses that we have here, and nobody can seem to handle these except for Garmin, even those that use the very same NavTech maps that Garmin uses.  For example, an address I might be trying to find:  N55W16436 Richards Drive.  The best (apparently) that any other manufacturer can do is give an approximation of the nearest cross street, if it gives anything at all.

TomTom's are useless to me in my state if I have to deal with those types of addresses at all, and unfortunately, I have to deal with them on a sometimes-daily basis.  I specifically tested this with several addresses in a store, just to see if they'd come up with the address, and the Garmin gave me directions about twice as often as any other manufacturer, and gave me options that were close/same block as what I was looking for far more often than any other manufacturer as well.

Given that a Garmin is all I have used, and all that I will use in the future unless this specific problem is addressed and solved by others, all I can obviously recommend would be a Garmin, but even if others can deal with the issue, I'd still be skewed towards Garmin.  Nice little units, reasonable cost (I actually got mine at a Target B&M store because it was on sale for $15 less than the best price at Amazon at the time), and easy to find accessories for in my area. 

The little card slot is to carry more maps, POI's, pictures (why, I have no idea, but whatever), music (some play mp3's, although the sound is obviously not going to blow your socks off), etc.

When I got my Garmin, I instantly updated the maps to the latest version possible, and I found that while on a construction site, it had the road I was on and the actual name of the road, even though there was no street sign.  I asked one of the guys if that was going to be the name of the road, and he seemed a bit surprised that I knew this, given that it was being paved that day, and again, was ON a construction site that no one other than them and myself were allowed access to, and no signs.

I dunno what maps Magellan uses, but IIRC, the better maps for the U.S. are from NavTech (I think that's the name, not positive on that though), while the other main map "people" are better for Canada and Europe.  The TomTom uses the other map "people", which in my mind gives one reason why they would be more popular to those people outside the U.S.

My wife was able to figure out how to use my Garmin without a manual, so I highly doubt there's some brain teaser that's inherent to ANY GPS, really. 

If I did a bit of hacking, I could have added other voice packs to my Garmin (need that memory card, though), and without hacking, was able to add several custom markers for the maps and vehicle icons as well.


As for which to choose, look around and read some reviews.  I had a few places bookmarked, and can't find 'em anymore, but I did come across this interesting nugget from a review site about Magellan.  MIO seemed to make decent cheap units lacking a bit of the functionality of more expensive units, but I dunno what their rep is recently  http://www.gpsreview.net/magellan-sold-to-mitac-mio/

I sifted through their forums for a bit, as well as this site too:  http://www.gpspassion.com/fr/Default.asp  I liked this site better, simply because they had a few more things already sussed out for me at the time, such as POI's and a list of reviews of Garmin units I was looking at at the time.  IIRC, they've got some info on loading different voices there, but there were many sites I was looking at in researching, so....

[patrickl]

For example, an address I might be trying to find:  N55W16436 Richards Drive.  The best (apparently) that any other manufacturer can do is give an approximation of the nearest cross street, if it gives anything at all.

Is that an actual address? Mapquest (TeleAtlas) and maps live.com can't find it.

[shmokes]

The flagship Garmin (880?) that recently came out is getting rave reviews for its voice recognition.  Apparently it's simply flawless.  It just works all the time, and I've read more than one reviewer say that while it's not the first GPS unit to have voice recognition, it is the first from any manufacturer that makes it so good that you will just use it all the time instead of entering addresses and such manually.

But whatever.  I'm super incredibly happy with my Garmin, but I'm not married to the brand.  If I were buying one a year ago I'd have got a Dash Express (---smurfing--- awesome device from a new upstart -- didn't catch on and is now discontinued).  If I were getting a new device today I'd read reviews from all the brands and get which ever one seemed like the best value.  Garmin might have a slight edge because I've had such a great experience with the one I own . . . but it wouldn't be hard to convince me to switch brands.

[DrewKaree]

For example, an address I might be trying to find:  N55W16436 Richards Drive.  The best (apparently) that any other manufacturer can do is give an approximation of the nearest cross street, if it gives anything at all.

Is that an actual address? Mapquest (TeleAtlas) and maps live.com can't find it.

No, just the format for addresses that are common to surrounding suburbs in my state.  I have no idea why we are only one of two states (possibly only another CITY in another state, to make the problem even worse) to consider such a naming/numbering convention, but whatever

[shardian]

No, just the format for addresses that are common to surrounding suburbs in my state.  I have no idea why we are only one of two states (possibly only another CITY in another state, to make the problem even worse) to consider such a naming/numbering convention, but whatever

You think that's bad? When you get out of the city in WV, most people don't have street addresses. There are mailing addresses, but not physical addresses. 911 is supposed to be requiring physical addresses for everyone, but that will take a few years.