Garmin text to speech

[sanqhar]

How good is text to speech when dealing with foreign road names, French German etc?

Seeing that the new Zumo 450 lacks the things I don't need -bluetooth etc BUT if I am travelling abroad do I need the text to speech?

 

[st13phil]

How good is text to speech when dealing with foreign road names, French German etc?

In general it works very well, especially because it tends to call out road numbers rather than names unless you're on minor roads, but it can depend upon which "voice" you choose to use.

If you use one of the English TTS voices then some of the pronunciations can be a great source of amusement. For example, as I travelled up the Route Napoleon in France last year, my SP2720 kept refering to waypoints I'd named Route Napoleon-3 (or whatever) as Route Nappo-Leeon Three. An alternative is to use a voice appropriate to the country you're travelling in. The disadvantage is that the instructions will be given in that language too.

Overall, I find it a worthwhile feature though.