Garmin Nuvi

 I have a Garmin Nuvi sat nav thingy. I bought this a year ago and has proved to be a good adition to our motorhome adventures most of the time. This morning I powered it up and it told me the maps needed updating. I tried the web site as recomended. One of map updates was £70 plus. Another was a free update that I think I down loaded sucesfuly. My garmin apears to be no diffrent now so I am not shure what I did.  Can anyone more technicaly minded help or advise me. Surely the £70 cant be right, I could buy a new one nearly that much.

Hi there,

I wouldn't worry too much about the Garmin update after only a year.

It took Garmin four years to recognise the presence of a new estate up the road and the same time to put in the by-pass for Burgh Le Marsh!

The "free" update you bought probably brought your purchase up to date for the time you first registered the Nuvi.

On the plus side for Garmin, they sell various sections of Europe so that you don't have to update the whole thing.

I bought the update for "France and Benelux Countries" last year for the bike (Garmin Edge 800) and it will do nicely for the Nuvi as well.

Like any gizmo it is there for "advice" rather than cast in stone "instructions" so ALWAYS keep an eye on the traffic signs, especially if you are driving on what is obviously a new road.

For another example, down towards Peterborough, there is a brand new by-pass around Crowland.

The Nuvi recognises the presence of this road but, IN THEORY:

o  60mph for five miles on this road is not as quick as

o  50mph for three miles on a side road.

The side road is like the Big Dipper used to be at Blackpool and exceeding 20mph would probably wreck the suspension.  However, IN THEORY, it is the "fastest route" and the Nuvi will send you that way!!

Hope this helps. 

Best regards,

 Thanks mate, if in dout dont touch comes to mind. I always have a laugh at the sat nav on the A46 north of Liecester. Since the road has been updated you are either traveing on the old road paralel to the A46 or apear to be in a field. When we got data terminals in our AA vans it took  a couple of weeks for  our data terminals to recognise the river Humber.It kept giving us a travel time of 15 mins from Cleethorpes Sea Front to Hull. It could not get the Humber estuary into its head. That was a Blaupunk system.
As I said the Garmin still apears to work so if I did update it I won, if not go back to management reading a paper map.

The last time I looked at updating my Nuvi, the cost was £49. I certainly wouldn't bother either. If I buy another I'll make sure it's one with free updates for life.

Dave 418.
We have a Garmin 14** LMU (Lifetime Map Update).  If you're running a Windows machine it's best to download and install the Garmin Update Program.  This should identify your model when it's plugged in and offer the appropriate updates.  I get 4 updates per year and after each one the copyright date and language information changes so you can tell if it has worked.  We are on BT Infinity and the updates take minutes to download, but, it then takes hours for the program to send this to the satnav.
Apologies if you're aware of all this.
Rich..
The Mk 1 satnav sits in the passenger seat with a map on her lap!