I agree with Wapping (there's a first for everything) Waypoints CAREFULLY placed are very useful. I have just made a route for our trip to Wales at the end of the month. The end point, placed exactly where we are staying and the breakfast stop where we are meeting friends are both Waypoints. Everything else is a via point. The random use of waypoints, sometimes only roughly near the correct spot leads to problems. I want to get to our holiday house and I certainly don't want to miss a good breakfast so marking these as waypoints makes sense.
I also agree with the OP, this choose destination thing is crap! Most of the time I just want the thing to follow the entire route I planned. Why does it not do that and offer a "modify route" option for those few occasions when that is what is required.
John
John, the waypoints are fine if you know in advance that you will definitely be stopping at points B and C on your journey between A and D. Very often I don't know where on a pre-planned route I'll be stopping for tea, coffee or lunch, so having intermediate waypoints set into my routes serves no useful function most of the time, though I won't call the ability to include them - should I chose to - crap.
You planned your route to Wales with an end point EXACTLY on your destination. That's great. But sometimes bods do not know where they intend to end their day. These are the famous "I wing it" merchants who just want the device to take them to say 'Somehere near Le Mans' and they'll start looking for a hotel. They have no specific holiday house to get to, nor did they have a specific great breakfast stop pre-planned, as they didn't know it was there - by chance - on their route. Should they chance on it during the day, they could always mark it for future reference as a favourite, building it in as a waypoint for the future, just as you have done with your breakfast cafe.
The chose destinations function is useful and far from crap, if used properly. Take for instance the bod who has planned his route for day one with an end point at the south edge of Le Mans, with a start point for day two from the same spot. But, then, at the end of day one he turns off at the north of Le Mans as he sees signs for a nice hotel. In other words, he turns off and cuts short his first day's route.
The next morning our intrepid 'wing it' fellow needs to ride his second day's route. But he's a bit stuck as it starts away on the other side of Le Mans. An ability to ask the device to take him to is is far from crap. In fact, to our 'wing it' hero, it's a godsend. It mirrors Leedude's 'Please drive to highlighted route' or 'plot route to start point' that happens on older devices. You can still 'Drive to highlighted route' and / or 'plot route navigate to start point' on the new devices, too.
Let's now stay with our bikermate 'wing it' character who, after last night's 15 pints of Old Head Banger he enjoyed with the likeminded souls he met is not firing on both of his two cylinders, so he gets up late. He now realises that he needs to get on if he is to meet you at the fine lunching establishment you sent him. The ability to chose that point from the second day's route will now be incredibly useful. He can ask his device to take him straight to it from his hotel; a hotel that he didn't know he'd be starting from, let's not forget. The only challenge our hungover hero will then face is to remember that the device will plot his route to the fine dining lunch rendezvous point (where you'll soon be sat twiddling your thumbs, waiting for him) according to his preferences. He's a 'wing it' man, so he's turned off motorways - you maybe told him to as that's your preference - and he's ticked windy roads, two facts he's forgotten which, given his pained state, he's unlikely to remember. He'll now fume that the device is shite, as it refuses to take home to point X other than via every goat track and mini-roundabout, when all he wants to do is wobble to the nearest motorway, ride down it and get to lunch. This of course will be Garmin's fault, its crap systems and the stupidity of giving bikers more than one choice.
John, it strikes me that you use your older devices in a set way, plotting routes from A to B very accurately, often using some maps over others to find exact spots or roads as Garmin's are inaccurate or lacking in enough fine detail; pinpointing your wife's car park from another post, for instance. That's great, I try to take care when plotting my routes, too. Similarly, you add in exact 'we will stop at point X en-route from A to B for a great breakfast'. That's great, you have it nailed down into a pre-planned - extremely accurate - route, which you'll want to travel down. I do sometimes but more often I just wing it en-route, stopping wherever and whenever I fancy. Should you for some unknown reason deviate, you have auto-recalculate turned on, so the device will always bring you back onto your route, picking up the waypoint X and any other shaping points you added in when creating your very accurate and precise route. I have my device set to altert me if I go off route (I do not have sound turned on) with an option of yes or no as to whether I want the route to recalculate. Most often I chose no, preferring to zoom the screen in and out and using the device as a conventional map to chose how to get back to my carefully planned route.
Based on this assumption, you start your day at exactly point A and end it at exactly point B, having ridden via exactly point X, all down your carefully planned route. Logically, you will then start your second day at exactly point B, so you'll never need to navigate to it. You therefore view the ability to chose it or any other intermediate points as crap; crap with an exclamation mark to emphasise how cheap it is, too. Many other users don't, indeed quite the reverse, they find it very useful.... Assuming that is they know how to use them properly.
It seems the newer model zumo's handle the routing a bit differently than the earlier models, or should i say you have a few more options. I only have the older 660 and 550 motorcycle navs, but if i am not mistaken from what i have read here on this thread they would still be able to do all the above but in a different way, correct me if i am wrong, if i plan a route using waypoints a,b,c, and d and i start close to (a) but not directly at the spot it will ask do you want to navigate to the start of the route and then pick the route up from there, if i want to miss (a) and go directly to (b) i would choose the (b) waypoint in my favourites these would have been saved automaticaly at route transfer, and navigate to that point using the preferences that would be pre set in my nav, once arrived at waypoint (b) after a quick coffee or a chat with aunty Betty i would then select my route again, and again it would ask me do you want to navigate to the start or whatever it asks i would tap no, and i would be back on my pre planned route, this seems to be the same as the newer models but a different way of going about it or is there some difference apart from the menu that i am missing, just asking as i am bound to have to help someone use one in the near future.
Leedude03, you are spot on, they have given more options. The options were there before, you just had to go at it a different way. Nothing much has changed really.
I don't have any sound running on my Nav V, so I have no idea what voice instructions or questions the device gives. But, other than that you are quite right in your assessment as to how the latest devices work.