Nuvi 2548 can't cope - time for new satnav?

BigJohnD

I dove home yesterday from Dover to Chester, some 300 miles. Traffic was awful.

The Garmin was forever flashing messages about road works (some over 100 miles away) and congestion. But on the M20 it kept jumping between travelling anti-clockwise and clockwise around the M25.

It eventually settled on anti-clockwise and offered an alternative route to save 30 mins which I accepted. However as soon as I exited the motorway and while on the slip road, it decided to re-calculate - and directed us back onto the motorway.

Further along the motorway system, it offered a 20 min saving because of congestion but this time, at the end of the motorway slip road, it crashed with a blank screen, requiring me to pull over to restart it.

In the end we just stayed on the M25/M1/M6 and accepted the congestion.

Maybe it's time for a new SatNav... Will it be a Garmin? Or should I buy a big 4G data package and go Google?

Allan_whoops · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 18, 2006 Posts: 369

Buy a small data package and go Co-Pilot???

AliOnHols · Pocket GPS Verifier Joined: Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 1941

As a Die Hard user of the Old TT's I really dislike Garmin. I find that it has Inferior routing, Inferior traffic and an Inferior Interface.
I have become a devotee of the Waze app on my mobile phone. I think that it is brilliant.

Waze copes with my regular London to Barcelona trips and doesn't miss a beat. Quite often it presents me with a slightly different route (so I know that it has actually thought about my route and current conditions) and I never encounter traffic.

It uses minimal data as it's maps are very basic.

I once had to travel in South London from Brixton to Dartford on a Friday afternoon. I used Waze. It took me almost, but not quite, on the route which I would have taken but a few extra rat runs that I was unaware of and got me there in record time.

I suggest that you get a small data package on your phone and give Waze a try.
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Android with CamerAlert, OsmAnd+, Waze & TT Europe.
TomTom GO 730, GO 930, GO 940 & Rider2.
SatMap Active 10 & 20.

sussamb · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:46 pm Post subject:

Trouble with most (all?) these apps is that you're effectively driving blind, in that you're presented with a route. I prefer to plan mine, which I do using BaseCamp, and then transfer them to my device. I accept that doesn't suit everyone but it works for me.

Incidentally I find Garmin's digital traffic excellent, even in France, far better than its previous traffic app.
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Where there's a will ... there's a way.

BigJohnD · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 4:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your comments.

The idea is live traffic info which suggests alternative routes to minimise delays and journey times. Most of the time the Garmin is fine - there's been no problems in France, Portugal and Spain (though Ibiza was problematic for routing, not traffic.)

Yesterday (Fir 20 Apr 18) traffic on the primary routes was bad - big volumes of vehicles, congestion, road works, lane closures, speed reductions, random obstructions on the carriageway, breakdowns and shunts. It was as if the Garmin could not cope with the sheer number of incidents over (initially) a 300 mile journey.

Maybe I should reduce the event horizon by splitting the journey into shorter sections, with maybe service areas as intermediary waypoints.

I find WAZE tricky to use as driver - much easier as a passenger.

I'll have a look at Co-Pilot.

M8TJT · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:04 pm Post subject:

And people were complaining that the TomTom 'horizon' was not far enough. Shocked

sussamb · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:15 pm Post subject:

Must say I like the fact you get traffic info over the whole route. I have mine though set to not automatically reroute so I can choose when/if I want to reroute.
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Where there's a will ... there's a way.

Kremmen · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:53 pm Post subject:

That's the big bonus with Garmin, it shows you any problems for the whole route. That can make a big difference to planning a long journey where you have 2 sensible alternatives.

I'm not a fan of trying to use a phone as I think they aren't designed for continual GPS use. Mine gets very hot when I tried it.
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sussamb · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 6:50 pm Post subject:

M8TJT · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:00 pm Post subject:

And my wireless fast charge can only just keep up with the GPS etc.

Kremmen · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:49 am Post subject:

As time moves on so does memory and processors.

Going back to the OP, I'd say give one of the latest DriveSmart units a whirl LMT-D obviously.
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DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3

BigJohnD · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:55 pm Post subject:

I've been looking at the latest Garmin models but I fear that despite more powerful hardware, the routing options still do not include "easy" to avoid minor roads, no auto zoom to view say the next 30 miles of motorway, no facility to see the next 3 manoeuvres and the risk of seemingly arbitrary recalculations or re-boots.

OTOH, these issues probably apply to Tomtoms, MIOs, etc.

sussamb · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:17 pm Post subject:

Autozoom is either on or off, I have mine turned off, but if you want a single button press so you can see 30 miles out then you're right, there isn't one. Why you would want that I can't work out.

My Drive has never rebooted or arbitrarily recalculated while navigating.

You can see the next manoeuvres by tapping the icon top left, to see them one at a time by scrolling, or tap the top bar to see the next 4 ... it should be the same on your 2548, it is on my 2508.
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Where there's a will ... there's a way.

BigJohnD · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:01 pm Post subject:

I guess I was spoilt by IGO8.

M8TJT · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:37 am Post subject:

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