Buy a Garmin or Update my Navigation

[bdstutzman]

I've never updated my map and am going on a trip.  Lexus dealer in Tuscon wants $329 for a frozen in time update.   Highway robbery!!!! Wondering if it makes more sense to just buy a Garmin as it would constantly be updated.    Any suggestions on a Garmin model or is there someone cheaper to go for a software update?  

[bdstutzman]

Just now, bdstutzman said:

I've never updated my RX350 2016 car's map and am going on a trip.  Lexus dealer in Tuscon wants $329 for a frozen in time update.   Highway robbery!!!! Wondering if it makes more sense to just buy a Garmin as it would constantly be updated.    Any suggestions on a Garmin model or is there someone cheaper to go for a software update?  

 

[RX400h]

Is there a reason why you don't want to use your phone? I have a Garmin unit that I've taken with me when we traveled using a rental car, long before our phones had reliable Navigation maps built-in but I will probably use my phone the next time I travel. However if you have a smallish phone I can understand why you'd prefer a Garmin or Tom Tom Nav unit which are typically $100 or less.

[Les Lex 2018]

I remember driving thru STL with a two year old Garmin. I ended up on a new highway to a new bridge across the Mississippi.

My Garmin showed my simulated car driving thru an empty field even though I was on a nice new divided highway.

Then I got to thinking!  Better to be on a new highway looking at a Garmin-simulated car driving in the ruff then the other way around, haha...

But Dave is right.  An iPhone 10 XR even has the altimeter app that tells you what altitude you are at.

Why is that important? I do not know?  But I can always tell I'm getting close to the red-neck Riviera as the altimeter approaches ZERO altitude.  

Or driving to Denver through flat and boring Nebraska for 400 miles on I-80.  Keep looking at the altimeter and hope it reaches 5,280 feet quick.

[bdstutzman]

6 hours ago, RX400h said:

Is there a reason why you don't want to use your phone? I have a Garmin unit that I've taken with me when we traveled using a rental car, long before our phones had reliable Navigation maps built-in but I will probably use my phone the next time I travel. However if you have a smallish phone I can understand why you'd prefer a Garmin or Tom Tom Nav unit which are typically $100 or less.

I generally use Google maps on my iphone.  However if you do driving in areas without cell tower service, you don't have a map.  That's why I was thinking using the Garmin as I think it operates on satellite.

[Les Lex 2018]

In the RX 350 (2020)  the DCM communicator module handles some of the features like showing weather radar map. The DCM is a cell phone module and if you wonder into the back country like Darkest Alabama (north of Tuscaloosa), you are S O L.  When tracking sonny coming home thru there, his position freezes until he gets closer to a cell tower.  Nav screen still works like the Garmin. The only means of communication at that point is Sat. Emergency button.  So Garmin is good and I keep mine for emergency backup.  But my complaint is that if you look at the dash, there is no good place to put the GPS on a 2020 with Nav unless I use double back sticky tape.  That can leave marks or even be hard to get off when you sell.

Same for the GoPro.

[RX400h]

Many GPS units come with suction cups for mounting to the windshield.
Amazon.com: TomTom Go Comfort 6 Inch GPS Navigation Device with Updates Via Wi-Fi, Real Time Traffic, Free Maps of North America, Smart Routing, Destination Prediction and Road Trips

 

 

[Gamalot]

IMO Toyota Navigation systems are useless. The system in my 2016 4Runner Limited wants to send me around the block to get across the street. I instead use a Garmin Nuvi with lifetime map updates. We have not yet tried using the nav in our new RX350 but I will say the larger display screen is great.

One would think that with our smartphones having up to the minute updates and our stand alone GPS gadgets all having free updating the auto manufacturers would make the map updates cheap and easy. Something as simple as an inexpensive USB jump stick with the updates simple to upload. When searching for the new RX one option that was not on our Must Have list was navigation. The RX we settled on did have it so it is there but still the Garmin is easier to use and has never taken us off the beaten trail.

[Bykfixer]

I still use a map and a compass.

Last time I tried navigation the barbecue restaraunt where I was to turn at was a CVS under construction.