After years of using fold-up maps in general and print-out google maps for specific addresses, I finally broke down and purchased a GPS unit, primarily for business travel. I did my research and decided on a Magellan model, namely the RoadMate 1430, which I purchased at BestBuy for $199.
I've noticed two things in the short time I've had it. First, it sometimes picks the route that's neither "most direct" nor "fastest". Second, if you miss a turn, my Magellan instructs you to make the "first available legal u-turn" rather than immediately recalculate a new route. It eventually recalculates the new route, but doesn't give any verbal indication that it's done so! I understand the Garmin's announce "recalculating" or something of the sort.
Anybody have any GPS tips, preferences or words of advice?
I have a Magellan too. Mine is a Maestro, which cost about $30 more than yours. The very first time I used it, it was on a trip I've made dozens of times before and it took me a long way away from where I wanted to go. It took me on an Interstate headed west when I wanted to go north. This interstate would eventually take me to a northbound Interstate, but not before I went about 130 miles out of my way on a trip that is normally about 350 miles.
I kept thinking it was going to tell me to exit the interstate and take me the way I am accustomed to going, but it bypassed the first exit that would have done that. On a whim, I decided to follow it, but it bypassed the next exit too. At that point, I decided not to follow it and took the exit. By that time, I had already gone about 10 miles in the wrong direction.
I kept going the way I knew how and at every exit, it told me to take it and head back the opposite way. Once I finally got to a northbound road (about 20 miles after I started ignoring the Magellan) it finally caught up to me and started giving me the correct instructions.
So after that inauspicious start, I was having doubts about this GPS thing. However, I grew to love this Magellan on a vacation trip. It was a looooong road trip in excess of 3,000 miles. The best thing about the Magellan was the stress-free driving on interstates through big cities.
In the past, I was always sitting on the edge of my seat, paying attention to every road sign, stressing if I didn't get to read one. Not with this thing. I knew exactly where my exit was going to be, knew exactly what side of the road to be on and didn't have to watch every sign carefully.
I breezed through Kansas City, something that usually stresses me out to no end, with no problems. It told me in miles how far my exit was, so I didn't even have to LOOK at a road sign until I got within a mile or two of my exit. And I always knew what lane to be in.
The thing I found out about the Magellan, is that it sometimes gets lost when you first start out. That happened to me about three times on this long road trip.
Once it led me to a dead-end in a little Iowa town then couldn't find it's way out of that town (it kept taking me north when I needed to go south), once it told me to take exits where no exits existed in a heavily congested urban area (I just kept going straight because I had no other option and it eventually straightened out) and another time, it told me to exit onto an access road that dead-ended in the parking lot of a motel. This last time, was not during the first part of the trip, but was in the middle of a leg of the trip, which I found to be a tad disconcerting.
I found it works best if you have the exact address of your final destination. You can't just tell it to "take me to Ames," for example. If you make up some address, using the Magellan prompts, you're liable to wind up lost in that town.
Luckily, I had thought to write down that information for the hotels we were staying at and it took me right to the door of our hotel in an urban area that was more congested with more traffic than any urban area I've ever visited in the past.
Also, if you don't have the exact address, sometimes Magellan has it for you. You can look under hotels, for example and it will have a list of hotels near your destination, where you might be able to find yours.
If you just use your Magellan with the idea that it's going to sometimes misdirect you when you first start out in the morning, you should be all right. When that happened, I just stopped and reprogrammed it or just drove through it if I knew the right way to go initially and it eventually started going the right way. Once you're on the road, though and headed in the right direction, it seems to do a good job.
The one thing I wish it had was a map of the area you are in that you could access with a push of a button, so you could track your progress. The map it shows on the screen while you are driving is limited to about 1 or 2 miles.
For instance, if I was driving on Interstate 80 through Illinois at night, it would be nice if I could see how close I come to Chicago and where it might be in relation to where I am.
