One of the most common mistakes with GPS units happens when the user starts changing the default settings, The one that can really mess you up is changing the route from "Quickest" to "Shortest"
Once you do that the GPS will take you down grid roads and logging roads etc as one girl found out travelling from somewhere in Quebec to her home in Ontario after the settings where altered. She found herself stuck on a logging/Grid road in winter, lucky she was found after two days or so if i remember the news story correctly.
Overall GPS is meant as a guide, don't ever just follow it blindly.

I completely agree with this. I try never to go somewhere blindly - I usually have a pretty decent idea where I'm meant to be ending up. I do find the GPS convenient when I'm driving in an area I've never been before, and knowing that the turn I'm looking for isn't for another 3km is convenient. I usually have a look at the map beforehand and know roughly where I'm meant to be going. The GPS just helps. I also sometimes use the GPS just to figure out the quickest way to get back to a highway or something if I've managed to get myself a bit turned around (actually did that yesterday - was not far from home, exited a Costco parking lot to find that I couldn't turn left towards the highway, so just popped on the GPS to work out the quickest way to get back to the highway instead of trying to find somewhere to turn around etc as it was quite heavy traffic!).

Blindly following GPS is a recipe for disaster.

I have a TomTom and I've also used Garmin and I find TomTom's interface easier to use. Mine was bought in the UK and I downloaded the Canada&USA map to it and have had no issues with it. The Garmin I used, which may have been a rubbish model for all I know, didn't give me the option to change a route that it had selected. Maybe there was one but I shouldn't have to go digging through an obscure menu trying to find it.

Also, be aware that if you're planning on going anywhere remote, different companies have different coverage. I sometimes have to go waaaay off main roads (I'm a geologist) and found that TomTom performs better than Garmin under those conditions in terms of satellite coverage. I don't know if they're using a different network or if TomTom is stronger somehow???

A colleague also recommend NavFree for phones that uses the GPS instead of data. I haven't tried that.

I bought a second hand garmin on Fleabay.co.uk and update the maps just before I head to the UK when i go back for a visit.

I've not had any problems with it.

I use a Magellan in canada as it came with lifetime maps.

So I arrived in the UK last weekend got my research in hand ready to buy a garmin GPS. Picked up the hire car and the lady at the desk said I have a very nice car ready for you with built in GPS. Thank you very much!

Its not smart to turn on the 'toll road avoidance' without thinking about it either. A few years ago OH took youngest son to Detroit for a Roller Hockey tournament. It usually takes me about 3.5 hours to do the drive. He had the GPS set to no toll, the bridges to the US are mostly toll. It took him via Cleveland, he drove for over 7 hours, got there at 2am - but he saved the $2.50 on the toll.

They all use the same satellites to pinpoint your location, the main differences are the maps. There are two main map providers. After that there is the operating system and/or user interface Of the unit youre using Then the processing power of the unit. They all have an impact on performance and usability.

TomTom launched some interesting updates for their current 'Go' series this week.

TomTom MyDrive new features

Installing the updates later today - looks interesting!


As for the mapping, TomTom owns TeleAtlas and also provide the mapping for iPhones. Garmin uses NavTeq. NavTeq belongs to Nokia company 'HERE', which it looks like they are about to put up for sale.

Between them, TomTom and Nokia provide mapping for every SatNav that's out there. Google is the only other mapping provider, but I don't think anyone else uses it.

All SatNavs use satellite signals from the USA NavStar GPS satellites or the Russian GLONASS satellites.

The US government or the Russians could turn off civilian access to their satellite signals at a time of war, making the entire world rely on maps!

At the same time, the world of land surveying would go back 25 years because just about every piece of survey equipment now uses GPS to obtain co-ordinates!

That is why the EU and various countries are launching satellites such as the European Galileo system.

One thing I had issue with my GPS was in Vegas, the thing seemed constantly confused, I gave up on using it it was so bad.

Only time where I have an issue with it, works fine in Seattle and Northern Washington and worked fine in San Diego and works fine at home here.

But boy did it hate Vegas. If I didn't have some basic knowledge of Vegas and took the GPS at word like some do, I don't know where I'd have ended up..

TomTom app for iPhone is the way to go. no additional hardware and same performance

Only if you have an iphone

I think it comes on android too

I have a variety of phones with various apps plus I have a Garmin. And I don't personally think any of them give particularly good directions.

I always have a laugh when I drive down Hwy 2 or 3 for example and I see people turn off who are clearly following their stupid GPS directions. Endlessly my Garmin tries to send me up or down Cowboy Trail, which makes no sense, or say, Hwy 519 to get to Lethbridge.

And then it gets really upset with me and keeps telling me to do U-turns - even when there is no left turn there.

Still think you can't beat looking at a map, maps.google.com

And imx GPS sets all crap out as soon as you get around high-rise buildings.

Really all I use my GPS for is to get a rough idea of ETA, and it measures speed more accurately than a speedometer.

iPhone/android & google maps. Works for me, in a pinch.

Not that any of you will ever need this, but GPS is mostly hopeless (& can be downright dangerous) in rural Qc/Maine/NB/ON.

Neither GPS nor phone mapping apps are any use whatsoever for getting into/out of Montreal Airport (variously known as YUL/PET/Dorval) during ongoing roadworks.

I tend to still rely on hard-copy map reading. /old codger.

LOL, this made me laugh, and reminded me of a recent experience.

My in-laws are big paper maps people. Love their paper maps and don't trust technology and maps. Which is fine, they know their way around really well and can give us great directions.

About a year and a half ago, my MIL was driving me to Heathrow. She'd been a zillion times, but never to T5. So she pulled out her paper map, which had to be at LEAST 30 years old... and was printed before T5 was built. She was trying to use that to navigate... and then as we got close to the airport, insisted on following the map instead of the signs pointing her to the airport. I kept suggesting I just put my GPS on to help get her into the terminal as she was panicking and swearing and trying to work out how to get into the terminal while trying to get me to read her decades-old map that was clearly out of date... eventually she just pulled over, and I said forget it, I'm putting my GPS on, having a look at the route it's taking us it looks to be about right, clearly it's bringing us into the departures section so between that and signposting we should be just fine, let's maybe not follow the map that doesn't even have where we are trying to go on it!!!

My in-laws are great, I love them to bits, but that experience completely cracked me up. I've also never heard my MIL drop so many f-bombs in such a short period of time. She was incredibly embarrassed afterwards, and my husband had a good laugh when I relayed the story.