Quest 2

[needlongerlegs]

HI I purchased a Garmin Vista a couple of years ago and I’m looking to up grade,

I use my sat nav in the car – postcode would be nice, also on my bike (in tank bag rather than on a mount and walking, Really like the simplicity of the Tom Tom in my sisters car, I would like to be able to use it with out visiting to pc that often but saying that also would like to be able to record a route I have taken and print it out like the garmin offers and like to add waypoints using the unit or pc.

I’d like the whole of UK on it Europe would be fun..

What would you suggest?

Garmin Quest or Quest 2 GPS bundle looks appealing but does it do all I need ?

I'd like to be able to add my own waypoints plan a route from home and upload it and also download a route when i get home to give to others.

So A quest 2 seems to fit the william hill? Any advice pees

Graham

 

[John Armstrong]

Does the Quest have enough memory for the trips you have in mind?

Quest 1 has 243mb (IIRC) which is enough for all the UK, or a lot of Europe for you as long as you don't go north initially.

Quest 2's seem to have flakier operating system, but have post code search and the greater memory.

If I was you, I'd try an ex ebay Quest 1 and then see if it's enough / you can survive without the full post code search.

 

[Twotter]

Don't do it.

I've had a Quest 1, 2x Quest 2's and now I use a 2610.

Try doing a search, but the bottom line is that the Quest 2's lose satellite lock at the drop of a hat and have redraw / re-calc rates that take minutes rather than seconds.

It says it all when Garmin offered a change of GPS without argument.

Good idea on paper but in practice....

 

[Bumpkin]

If you only want the odd occasional foray into Europe and don't want postcode searching the Quest 1 is the way to go. I had a Garmin i3 (budget but recent OS) and got a Quest 1 for the bike, thought I'd miss the postcode search more than I actually do as I do most of my route planning in MS AutoRoute then transfer to Mapsource and upload to the Quest.

The memory size problem isn't an issue for UK use as all of the UK will fit on. However, longer European trips (like Spain and back via different routes) might see you running out of memory. If this is an issue you can get around this by using the MetroGuide Europe mapping that uses the smaller map tiles that City Select (the mapping that the Quest originally came with) as opposed to the current City Navigator. To use MetroGuide on the Quest you'll need to use the MetroWizzz utility to generate the index required for routing. MetroGuide v8 can be purchased from eBay for around £50.

 

[needlongerlegs]

I'll have a smurf for a quest 1

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

Don't understand all the above - I have a Quest 2 and I've been very happy with it. Used in in car and on bike, in UK and a couple of trips to Europe.

I relly appreciat eits intenral battery - not only can you use it on foot, but you can also plan your day's route with friends over breakfast. It wouldn't be the same doing it with the unit on the bike or in the car.

I've never owned a different GPS, so have nothing with which to compare it. Maybe I've just been lucky?

Bumpkin, is there a quick way to transfer a route from MS Autoroute to Mapsource? I use Autoroute because I'm used to it and friends also have Autoroute (but not Mapsource, so it makes for easier sharing, then have to replicate the route manually on Mapsource. Have I been wasting valuable time?

Robin.

 

[fcasado]

Don't understand all the above - I have a Quest 2 and I've been very happy with it. Used in in car and on bike, in UK and a couple of trips to Europe.

I relly appreciat eits intenral battery - not only can you use it on foot, but you can also plan your day's route with friends over breakfast. It wouldn't be the same doing it with the unit on the bike or in the car.

I've never owned a different GPS, so have nothing with which to compare it. Maybe I've just been lucky?

Robin.

I´m with Robin on that!

Used my quest 2 in more than 20 countries in Europe and it did Ok.

And now I´m using the thing here in Brasil and it´s been perfect so far. I use the maps from tracksource (they´re FOC) and did a trip of 600 miles last week, no problems at all.

 

[Bumpkin]

Bumpkin, is there a quick way to transfer a route from MS Autoroute to Mapsource? I use Autoroute because I'm used to it and friends also have Autoroute (but not Mapsource, so it makes for easier sharing, then have to replicate the route manually on Mapsource. Have I been wasting valuable time?

The best method I've found is GPS Babel, which is an on-line service only. Select 'Route' as the data type, 'Microsoft AutoRoute 2002 (pin/route reader)' as input format and 'Garmin Mapsource - gdb' as the output format. Upload your AR .axe and click the button. Once you've opened the file in Mapsource you'll need to right click the route in the left pane and select 'Recalculate Route'. If you had a reasonable number of via-points in your AR route it should be pretty accurate but give it a quick once over to check.

I agree that AutoRoute is easier for route creation than Mapsource.

 

[Twotter]

Glad to hear that at least two Quest 2's work as they should then

I may have had a dodgy early one but the problems I experienced are not uncommon. If you don't have another GPS to compare to it may well be that they are as slow as mine were, though I hope not. I would regularly watch myself literally drive off the edge of the viewable map and then it would take a couple of minutes to redraw. That's simply not good enough. They also lost satellite lock at the first sign of a tree. I could literally ride past a single tree and that would be it.

The first Quest 2 I had went in to Garmin (I was nearby) and they reinstalled its software and replaced the aerial while I waited. That didn't help. Then they replaced the unit and that didn't help. That's when they offered an exchange so I opted for a 2610. Fair enough the 2610 doesn't have an internal battery but that hasn't been an issue for me.

The best thing about the 2610 over the Quest 2 is that I can trust my 2610 not to let me down.

It's as simple as that.

Quest 1

Quest 2

2610