Saturday, April 21, 2012

Garmin Nuvi 2595LMT GPS

I bought my Garmin Nuvi 2595 LMT GPS at Best Buy for approximated $250.  I'm a sailor and have been depending on Garmin for decades without fault. I've also a backwoods garmin for wilderness camping and hunting.  I was glad they made these portable ones for the car which could be attached to the dashboard with a suction cup. I've a Mazda Miata and Ford F350 truck so liked that I'd be able to transfer my gps from one vehicle to another.
The car gps is way superior to the other gps for it's function.  The display is visible with very little distraction from driving.  In addition there is a voice feature. A comedian did a very humorous sketch of his love for his gps lady.  She sounds like a school teacher.  When I plot in my route by declaring my destination she tells me where to turn and prompts me about upcoming turns.  A little vehicle on the screen shows me driving along the grid with names of roads displayed.
Richmond BC is a blackhole bermuda triangle.  It's been one of the areas of largest growth in the Vancouver Canada region because the realtors have ensured there is no signage on the streets that can take you back to 99 south.  Once you leave the highway you enter a vortex Maze. Most people give up and just buy property and live there.  This has been especially true for Chinese people who come to Richmond to visit family and can never return.  I've made it in and out on several occasions with only hours of loss of life and heart felt prayer.  I can say today that the Garmin Nuvi guided me out of this place where dragons be on  the shortest but wholly counter intuitive route.  This was especially appreciated  as the Hitchcock  birds had eaten  the bread crumbs I'd strewn behind the car as I entered Richmond.
On the I5 the Garmin guided me across 4 lanes near Everett and took me off the freeway on the most convoluted exit to get me to the Best Western Navigator late at night.
There are accessories too. Blue tooth for adding your phone.  An interesting audio book feature which comes loaded with a Bill Bryson sample. Great choice.  There's several other apps including calculator and currency exchange which I don't need but are added features.  It came loaded with maps for US and Canada and more can be loaded.  Further I can get these updated as part of the Best Buy Garmin package for free. Warranty for a year.
In the convertible the volume for my older ears could be better but it's adequate. With the roof up it works just fine.  The limitation is the audio books with the roof down. So I'd like a little more audio boost if I could.  It finds a variety of commerical places so far the best being gas stations. Lost in Richmond needing gas I used this feature and it took me to the nearest gas station. Now that's a treat!. It's weakness was in just navigating to another city.  I kept entering Seatle and it wanted a specific location in Seatle.  So I'd personally like a less specific search criteria for plotting. Maybe it's in the garmin but so far it's been so idiot proof I haven't had to read the instructions.  I might read them to find out how I can do this without knowing a specific place in the town. That's just how I travel across country town to town.  However I have a list of restaurants in the Garmin.  We inputted Best Western Navigator in Everett and that got us here.  We'd been to Best Western Navigator and liked it. I'd have liked a hotel app feature rather than restaurants.  But I just have to input the hotel chain and town so it's pretty simple. In addition to finding gas stations it finds other things of every day living like laundry.
Having used a Garmin gps fish finder I know I can input into the memory favourite places myself. I just haven't figured how to do this and again may actually have to read the instructions. When I was trying to read the instructions and input the garmin on the dashboards with both hands while driving Laura grabbed hold of her door handle. I have noticed that that's her indication to me that she's panicked.  I later read in the instructions specific notice IMG 1028 to avoid just what I was trying to do.  It's recommended that one pull over to the side of road and put in the text instruction for the destination while the vehicle is stopped. This naturally takes all the risk and fun out of driving with a gps but likely contributes to getting one to ones destination too.IMG 1029

2 comments:

Retread said...

Enjoyed reading your report and story! Then I read your cv. Too bad we are not neighbours. Would love to hunt and sail and maybe just hang around with you. Have a good one mate. Oh, I had a Miata for a few years, an MG TD, Triumph TR2, Ducati 750 Sport, Ducati 450, etc.

Bob, Caledon, Ontario

haykind said...

Thanks Bob, sounds like you're living the life.