View this RESPONCE from Garmin

sonnysmith · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 20

"Im afraid that the i3 only comes with UK and Ireland coverage. The micro
flash card that came your i3 covers some areas in Europe but is not full
coverage. The i3 comes with City Select not City Navigator preinstalled as
stated on the box and does not come with any mapping CDs. I am sorry if you
have been mislead in some way but there is nowhere on the box that states
the i3 comes with the City Navigator software.

Customers who purchase the product in Europe will not get full European
coverage either, they will get coverage of the area they are in, i.e. France
or Spain.

Unfortunately due to the size of the Micro Trans Flash card in you i3 the
card simply does not have the memory to install the whole of Europe. To
combat this, Garmin are soon to release individual trans flash cards for
different areas of Europe which can be inserted into the i3 to cover
different areas. These will be available Jan/Feb 06

Apologies for any inconvenience."

What do you think of this people Good or Bad.
i think it would be better if they made individual countries available for download at a cheaper price than a pre installed card would be( i reckon theyd be asking like £70-£100 for pre installed card, i could be very wrong though).

Skippy

francisc · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:06 pm Post subject:

I think that is a marketing policy to sell cheap units with huge after costs.
If you look at Garmin's site you will see that Europe was divided into eight coverage regions. If one is preloaded, you can figure out how much will cost the full coverage.
Add the fact that in Europe, City Select/City Navigator Europe CD is not available on the shelf as a stand-alone product.

You have to choices:
1. If you have friends in the Sates, ask them to buy it for you (there you can find it as a stand alone product)
2. Buy a cheaper GPS unit (or a car accessory for a GPS unit) that comes with City Select/City Navigator Europe CD.

I have followed the first choice. It is cheaper than buying preloaded cards, anyway.

If you have City Select/City Navigator Europe CD unlocked for your unit, you can load/erase/modify the data on the MicroSD card.

Almahadeus · Frequent Visitor Joined: Aug 06, 2005 Posts: 346

sonnysmith · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 20

how much does city select europe cd cost on the shelves in US?

also i think more people should let garmin know what they think (via emails at garmin.com) cant do any harm.

francisc · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:14 pm Post subject:

sonnysmith · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 20

for that price($35) plus the £145 i paid for my i3 i could get a top end sat-nav with all maps installed.

sonnysmith · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 20

thats $350 + £145 about £350 total

Skippy

rossb · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:15 am Post subject:

One of the problems with buying GPS systems, is that it is always way more cost effective to buy a unit with European wide coverage out of the box, than it is to buy the maps later. The GPS makers must benefit from economies of scale, when selling maps with units, compared to individual maps sales.

It is best to anticipate whether you will ever need European maps when you buy a unit.

monsieurcanard · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 40

Hi all!

Wow! Think I'm on my 3rd posting!! If it was not for forums like this, we would all be running around with pieces of junk we did not really want or is useless for our particular needs. I really thought that the Garmin i3 was for me, but now I know it's not. Living in France, if I buy it here, I get france mapping only, if I buy in UK, UK only. I may want to drive down to italy, so I'd have to purchase from Garmin mapping for Italy?

Looks like having full European mapping included is a big factor in which nav to go for!?

Regards,

Bob

rossb · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:25 pm Post subject:

monsieurcanard

It sound like you want a Garmin C320, which comes with 1 country pre-loaded and europe on CD.

If you have more money to spend, you could get a C330 with Europe pre loaded or a Garmin Nuvi 350 with Europe pre loaded.

Skippy · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:20 pm Post subject:

monsieurcanard · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Posts: 40

thanks again guys, Skippy you are dead right. If you are a bit of a traveller, then it pays to see just what you are getting in terms of maps. I have found a french site that I can download speed camera locations. It even shows photo's of the camera in location! Do the UK sites do this? I must look.

Still loads more reading on this site to do!!

Regards,

Bob (Mister Duck)

cantgetlost · Frequent Visitor Joined: Nov 14, 2005 Posts: 291

Do you have address for French camera site?

	PocketGPS
	Web