On Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:51:37 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:06:52 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

OK, I dont' know what the model is but the wife bought a Garmen. The
cheaper one that was on sale for $89.00, and it might be OK, but I'm
not really sure if I like it or not. We thought we'd test it out and
use it to find a good route to take us from our house to our daughters
college with is about 130 mi. away. I have the trusted and true route
that I always take and it's served me well for several years, but we
thought we'd let the Garmen plan it out this time. It took us down
about every county road that I didn't even know existed, with a lot of
stop and turn stuff. Granted, the 'robot lady' gave us ample signals
on which road to take and early enough warning so we wouldn't miss a
turn, but it took us "over the river and through the woods" including
gravel and potholed blacktops. The trip may have been shorter but I
can't say it saved us any time, nor wear and tear on the car. Coming
back we ignored the Garmen and took the proven route and it was a lot
smoother.

I can see how people can run off into lakes, canyons and other unknown
hazards that the Garmen doesn't recognize. She bought it to navigate
around in cities and find seemingly uncharted address's, and that's
fine. But I don't think I'll be using it to navigate trips for myself.
I suppose what I'm saying is that at this moment in time, I can't see
much of a reason for a Garmen in my future. Maybe I'm too much of a
Luddite.

They're good if you don't know the area.
When you know how to get somewhere the best way, they really look
stupid.
Take it with you if stray away from home.
You'll like it then.
On mine (Nuvi 200) changing the fastest/shortest setting never made a
difference when I tried it.

--Vic

Completely agree. My wife didn't understand why I'd possibly want to
rent a GPS with the car when we were in the NE for a wedding. Over
the next several days, that thing saved us countless hours of
potential hazard between NYC and the backroads of CT. She was
convinced it was a wise investment -- so she was excited when I bought
her a Garmin recently. It's not going to save us much time locally,
but finding that soccer field at 7 am somewhere in Bum****, WA, it'll
certainly be a godsend.

I was wondering if it'd really make a difference whether we set it to
faster/shorter. This one has traffic alerts so it may take those into
mind.