If anyone wonders as to direction Garmin are heading…..

Hahaha – no this has been for quite a while.

Best of luck to Garmin given the quality of their (consumer) software, for the future.
With larger players (Apple) diving into the fight to control head unit and car hardware I wouldn't place bets on Garmin.

I'm still surprised their aviation hardware business is going strong, but I hope and suspect those are strongly separate from the automotive/recreational branches :D

The Toyota head unit in the second picture is ancient.
 
er-minio said:
Hahaha – no this has been for quite a while.

Best of luck to Garmin given the quality of their (consumer) software, for the future.
With larger players (Apple) diving into the fight to control head unit and car hardware I wouldn't place bets on Garmin.

I'm still surprised their aviation hardware business is going strong, but I hope and suspect those are strongly separate from the automotive/recreational branches :D

The Toyota head unit in the second picture is ancient.
Click to expand...
I have Garmin Nav in my Honda, it is shite. I use Waze or MRA via Apple Car Play.
 
I have emailed Garmin’s automotive section:

A view from a long term Garmin user
Click to expand...

I have been a long term fan of Garmin’s automotive products, right back to the days of the Quest device and MapSource, always using them on my motorcycles, clocking up 100’s of thousands of miles in the relationship,

Of late, Garmin have started to lose the plot. Leaving aside the much heralded disaster of the BMW branded Navigator VI model (we can just accept that as one big screw-up) I am becoming very concerned that you are now focussing way too much on the ‘infotainment’ side and making it all to easy for the ‘Take me from A to B, down twisty roads, the fastest way’ gang, at the expense of more serious users.

Let’s look at the good things:

1. Garmin devices do work excellently for navigating purposes, running routes really well.

2. The XT allows wireless updating of maps and software. It works really well.

3. You make the very good Garmin Drive app available to transfer routes (for instance created by MyRoute on a smart phone or tablet) via Bluetooth.

Why then drop some of the really useful functions? For example:

1. You make wireless updating possible, but then insist on the device being connected to a home computer in order to permanently delete old (unwanted) routes. But then, in the same breath, allow an owner to delete favourites. That makes no sense. Why, if you are stepping away from home computers for updates, do you insist on an owner connecting their device to a computer to delete routes? Why, if we can be trusted to delete all or any of our favourites, without using a home computer, can’t we be trusted to delete routes, too?

2. On the XT you have retained the ability of the owner to set ‘stop over’ or ‘pause’ times at via points, which is good. But you have taken away the calendar function. Again that makes no sense at all. The calendar function was really useful when faced with say a two or three week tour. I understand that on the XT2 the ability to even add ‘stop over’ and ‘pause’ times is deleted, too.

3. You are stepping away from home computers, with BaseCamp becoming increasingly flakey. That is fine and, indeed, useful to most Garmin users. But, you are offering no good, Cloud based alternative instead. Companies like MyRoute are streets ahead on this, offering a very reliable, easy to use, route creation app, useable on any modern smart phone or tablet from anywhere in the world with a wi-fi connection. Why, if home computers are no longer core to the Garmin ‘experience’, don’t you offer ‘BaseCamp for iPad’ or something like that? It makes no sense not to. Or, are we all to be told to give up bespoke route creation of our own and rely instead on an algorithm to do it all for us, rather as something like Kurviger’s app does?

In short, stop pandering quite so often to the sometimes lazy motorcycle rider who just want to be told by their dumb device how to get from A to B down twisties and be ‘entertained’ along the way by their Garmin device, telling them how often they applied their brakes or being told where their friends are.

Suggestions:

1. Look at what made earlier, very simple but very effective devices good. The 550 / 660 series were excellent. The BMW branded Navigator V, likewise. Even the little Quest was very good, given the limitations of its time.

2. Support the doing away with home computers, not least as it saves us dragging a laptop around. But build on the Cloud based ability to create bespoke routes, just as MyRoute does.

3. Bring back the simple but useful functions as mentioned above and allow owners to delete routes as well as favourites.

4. At least offer a realistic alternative to the smart phone. BMW Motorrad have gone down this route and others, like Honda, have embraced CarPlay. The Chinese are latching onto it, too. We all know what happened to BlackBerry…..

I would be interested to hear you comments.

Kind regards,
Click to expand...
 
Doubt you will get a response.
I posted a polite rant a few years ago on the official forum and apart from the guy from the zumoforum (where I always found support) no one replied.

Basecamp Mac with maps loaded via USB from Zumo XT. Unusable. What is Garmin response? - Basecamp Mac - Mac/Windows Software - Garmin Forums

Hi all, I want to apologise first, because my first post is a complaint. I really wish it wasn't. I know, the sat navs Garmin produce and the related software
forums.garmin.com forums.garmin.com

The irony is that to login into the Garmin forum right now to dig up that post it took me quite a while as the SSO login system throws an error almost every time you try to login.
 
Navionics® (a Garmin brand) and Garmin now share the same account.

Just renewed chart subscription for my boat, and they don't automatically give you the same data on your mobile device. Looks like you have to pay twice :(
 
er-minio said:
Doubt you will get a response.
Click to expand...

If they don’t reply, I’ll ratchet it up the chain. The great thing about Google is you can find, the name, address and shoe size of the CEO.

Stamps for letters are still cheap. I’ll give it a month before getting out the Mont Blanc.


I’ll maybe couch my letter around their stated ‘mission’, ‘vision’ and ‘values’.
 
In my various fits of rage with the XT, at some point (serious) I considered filing a complaint with a consumer association. This was a couple of years ago. The XT is sold as an "adventure GPS" but Garmin no long provides the software or the device is not fully reliable. It could have been a case of misleading advertising, etc.
Essentially just to be a pain and, as you are trying to do, signal that something is very wrong with their products.

But I was too lazy to follow up. :)


PS.
I mean... all of this because I firmly believe that a dedicated GPS (hardware) is the best option to use on the bike. Otherwise I'd have moved to a mobile phone mounted on the bars, like a Uber driver, years ago... getting mad when it would overheat/not charge/loose the signal/not work with gloves/etc.
 
er-minio said:
In my various fits of rage with the XT, at some point (serious) I considered filing a complaint with a consumer association. This was a couple of years ago. The XT is sold as an "adventure GPS" but Garmin no long provides the software or the device is not fully reliable.

But I was too lazy to follow up. :)
Click to expand...
The "Adventure Routing" on the XT is fucking useless. It's in no way an "adventure gps" - that's the 700/750i (assuming they sort the rebooting issue since the last firmware /software update they aren't acknowledging).
They should look at how the Connected App does twisty. Actual twisty, unclassified, green lanes, etc depending on which of the 3 you choose. Their mapping is superior in that it recognises all legal byways. Been a few times where I've said "sod that" when it's gone to route me down stuff I know is too narrow for the GS yet legal!
 
I'm not talking about the Adventure Routing option specifically.
As noted in another thread I do not use it and did not plan to use it when I bought the device.

It's in no way an "adventure gps"
Click to expand...
It was advertised as such.

The crux for me is:

The device is sold with different maps: city and a Garmin (basic) topo. Garmin devices have capabilities to allow for different maps, the XT is sold as an "adventure" routing/gps device and it is expected that the users will use different type of cartography for different type of usage, see offroad.

Garmin discontinued Basecamp almost immediately. The only alternative was/is the pathetic Explore which can only use Here maps. No way to use third party or even other Garmin mapping data.
I am then (potentially) stuck into a situation where I want to use my higher definition OS/OSM based maps for planning my offroad routes (or even Garmin's own topo map), but there is no longer any software that allows me to do that that I can use with the XT.

This is issue number one for me.

The rest is the route calculation issues vastly discussed over here, or what Wapping rightly points out in his message above.



I use Garmin's Connected software for cycling (I use a Garmin Edge) and other stuff, and have to say it is vastly better than anything automotive related so far.
Hence, for consumer stuff, I assume Garmin put all their focus and money on the fitness shizzle and left automotive lagging behind without resources or development.
 
How about a single idea?
Have a File Manager in the nav.
I already use my F.Manager on my android so why do we need any if the Garmin app, which all need data?
And why can my 700 or 276cX or 66i not jump on my network thereby bypassing the need for garmin apps???

Heck just to get the weather forecast you need all garmin clucke-up stuff.
Of all the garmins I've ever owned, the 276cX is still the daddy followed by the 700 which since the last update a week ago has decided to turn off at random 😵‍💫😮‍💨

Dear me...:rolleyes:
.
Just my 2pence.
 
PitaNaanRoti said:
The "Adventure Routing" on the XT is fucking useless. It's in no way an "adventure gps" - that's the 700/750i (assuming they sort the rebooting issue since the last firmware /software update they aren't acknowledging).
They should look at how the Connected App does twisty. Actual twisty, unclassified, green lanes, etc depending on which of the 3 you choose. Their mapping is superior in that it recognises all legal byways. Been a few times where I've said "sod that" when it's gone to route me down stuff I know is too narrow for the GS yet legal!
Click to expand...
What's the Connected app?
 
I agree that Garmin should do better. Did all the motorcycle GPS designers retire in 2012-13 ish? I know a lot of folk don't like basecamp and it is no longer being developed (in fact some of its features have been removed over the years notably its connection to Google Earth) BUT, it is still by far the best motorcycle routing software that Garmin has produced and thankfully still works well on Windows PC's . Their current online options are an embarrasment. I have accumulate 5 garmin units over the years Streetpilot 2610, BMW Nav IV, a 340 and 390 and the Zumo XT. The previous 4 units to the XT just worked as I expected. The XT has forced me to invest more time in understanding how it functions than is healthy. The XT's A to B routing Logic (and therefore is routing logic between shaping points and waypoints) is bonkers (faster roads not faster time) and its handling of missed waypoints on "imported" rather than saved routes is broken. Having worked out how to work round this, I like the XT's screen clarity and the fact it is snappy and responsive compared to the older units.

Over the past year or so (largely due to ongoing frustrations with the XT) I've tried a few phone based navigation apps, that have an Android Auto functionality so that they can be projected onto the screen of my Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports. These by in large have been more frustrating than the XT largely due to the fact that you are introducing extra elements into setting up a navigation system phone-app-conecting cable to bike- which can jiggle loose and break connection, somewhere to put phone interface between phone and screen Android Auto. Dedicated sat nav.....attach to bike switch it on :D

Short summary so far.

MyRoute App power hungry have to select route before connecting to AA. Few routing issues but getting there. Good Integration with brilliant route planning app.

OSMand less power consumption, "nicer" maps with more "Route"features slowish recalculation. Difficult route planning less intuative than Basecamp.

Google Maps no GPX files best point to point navigation fast and not power resourse issues. Integrates with bluetooth headset to do voice navigation. Brilliant real time re-routing due to traffic if used in online mode.

I use the XT for routes, as in my opinion it still does this better than phone apps, and Google maps for point to point navigation.

Oddly the Honda Dash is built by Garmin (and has a built in GPS antenna so that ou are not reliant on the phone). There have been a few failures and Honda europe have extended the screen warranty to 10 years......presumably at Garmin's expense.
 
Firmware for the 700 goosed on me- last updated last w/end
Shuts down for no apparent reason.
Garmin says ' it's the isue with the pins from the rugged powered mount and wanted...a photo 😵‍💫. To 'escalate the problem'...

Nothing about missing quality controls from firmware update students then ...
Numpties seem to have forgotten that if power is lost, the unit asks if you want to run on battery...

Nothing wrong with my pins and as I have 2 identical mounts....what are the odds of both failing at the same time? Aka- none.
Garmin don't see it that way...
So, IMHO, don't update your firmware for a bit if you have a 700.
And if you already have you either:
Put up with it
Or
wait for a fixed version
Or downgrade the software to previous version.
 
SBD said:
Navionics® (a Garmin brand) and Garmin now share the same account.

Just renewed chart subscription for my boat, and they don't automatically give you the same data on your mobile device. Looks like you have to pay twice :(
Click to expand...
Asked the support. They are very helpful and responsive. But yes, you do have to pay twice, so fuck it.

Paid for the boat charts, won’t pay again just to be able to piss about on my phone. Sod’em.
 
Yarkto said:
Firmware for the 700 goosed on me- last updated last w/end
Shuts down for no apparent reason.
Garmin says ' it's the isue with the pins from the rugged powered mount and wanted...a photo ‍. To 'escalate the problem'...

Nothing about missing quality controls from firmware update students then ...
Numpties seem to have forgotten that if power is lost, the unit asks if you want to run on battery...

Nothing wrong with my pins and as I have 2 identical mounts....what are the odds of both failing at the same time? Aka- none.
Garmin don't see it that way...
So, IMHO, don't update your firmware for a bit if you have a 700.
And if you already have you either:
Put up with it
Or
wait for a fixed version
Or downgrade the software to previous version.
Click to expand...

Glad I spotted this! I’ll hold off the update.

Fwiw, Garmin sent me 2 new updated mounts for my 700’s a couple of weeks ago. I think this is because a couple of years ago I had problems with charging, which seems to go away when I cleaned the pins and put some dielectric grease on them


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