Garmin Streetpilot I 3

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Here, the Garmin StreetPilot i3 (with colour screen) was on offer for £199.99 - and a "B-grade" version would be £144.99. When I told my husband he thought that either would be a reasonable price - particularly the lower price (although he wasn't quite sure about "seconds") - in fact - WHY NOT BUY TWO? (one for Richard, AND one for US!) - on reflection, I agreed that it seemed a good idea, and if Nigel was prepared ...
.../> After all, the longest time spent sometimes in getting to his work (doing supply teaching) is finding the school where he is assigned. This could solve a lot of driving around in circles trying to find the correct address - to say nothing of all the other uses. . . .


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I bought my first StreetPilot unit in January 2006 and have been very impressed. My son (who gave us the idea in the first place) wasn't so impressed, but the voice is clear and distinct, it doesn't twitter on at you (one thing I was worried about) and the screen is large enough to see but not so big that it is a distraction. I recommend this to anyone who wants a basic, sound navigational aid without breaking the bank.

When we had used it for nearly a full year, I thought I'd add a bit more about the usage. The updates are below, with a few extra comments interspersed in the review as appropriate.

Besides using it for navigation, I also use it just to "View Map" and watch where we are. When we hit congestion, sometimes you can see roads to divert onto which lead back onto the main road (even without the navigation speech ~ and without having to await her "recalculating" a route).

When you are near a place where you are unsure (like wanting a local petrol station or train station ~ or even just a cash machine aka ATM) you are then ready to just ask for the appropriate destination without waiting to find the satelite lock and they will be listed with distances from where you are.

"Garmie" has become a good friend over these years, and I don't know what I'd have done without her!

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In the Beginning
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My husband does "supply" teaching, at various different schools - sometimes on very short notice - within 15 to 20 miles from home.

We also travel to various distances away for weddings, funerals, family special occasions (and these occasions seem to increase rather than decrease as the children grow up) and special Church Celebration Meetings all around the country.

I have downloaded maps from "Multimap" and similar websites to find my way to unfamiliar places, printing unfamiliar sections of maps as well as the basic directions (step by step) and only discovered when we turn the wrong way at a motorway exit roundabout and travel 5miles or more in the wrong direction that the directions were not quite as straightforward as they had initially appeared in the security of one's own livingroom looking at a computer screen. And, of course, when one is in the panic-inducing situation, internet access is always a LONG way away (at home, where you started from, of COURSE).

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So What is the Ultimate Solution?
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I've read reviews about some of these GPS products and thought about their worth - and wondered about their cost/effectiveness.

And I have also wondered how they work, whether they would work for me, and what features I would hope to have available.

Eventually, the bottom line turned out to be the cost - and the fact that I am not the main driver of any of the four cars in our household - and most of the devices considered over the years have been only portable between vehicles with difficulties. I was not prepared to shell-out several hundred pounds sterling for a device for someone else to have the benefit of (and possibly ruin for me) most of the time.

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What Changed My Mind?
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Several journeys in November and December of 2005 involved complicated route changes once we were on the road due to unexpected hazzards - well, let's spell it out more fully:

EPISODE 1:
Cornwall was "Closed" due to snow on the 25th November as family and friends travelled from all across the country to get to my son's wedding on the 26th November 2006 at the very tip of the A39 at Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, Cornwall.

To determine the best route(s), we were communicating between cars and mobile phones (passengers, of course, as drivers are banned from using mobile phones on the move). At certain stages we were unable to communicate due to bad signals and weather conditions. We were recommended to come down the A38 after the M5 Motorway around the outside of Cornwall, as the A30, A39, and A390 were all closed into Cornwall. We were five hours behind my youngest son, who also had the best man as a passenger in his car.

Then the A38 had queues building due to an accident on the northbound carriageway. My son got out an atlas and tried to figure out a way around the obstruction. His attempt led him on a route from which he was once again turned back, and he had to resign himself to a long wait. A GPS navigation system might have let him know that he would not have gotten through and saved him some frustration, time and petrol. It would have also have told him when he was on the right road when snow had all but obliterated the suggested landmarks.

We went the wrong way on the A30 when we finally reached it from the A38 as we were unsure of our direction - a direction finder would have told us to follow the fork to the left instead of carrying on ahead to the next roundabout. When the correct exit was passed it would have ("recalculating") told us an alternative route to get us back on the correct track again ~ in this case, probably to go to roundabout and then turn right (telling us the feet and miles until the "exit" or next turn). It is both a visual and aural aid as a quick glance at the screen tells you slightly more than the actual voice prompt.

EPISODE 2:
On our way to the second wedding reception at a social club just on the outskirts of Hull on the 17th December (after the honeymoon). This had been set up to allow friends, relatives and former workmates from Donna's hometown to celebrate; this time I was my younger son's passenger, and the Best Man was once again a passenger. Our instructions were duly downloaded from Multimap by Sam's fiance, and we were on our way north.

We came unstuck at a road exit which pointed us to a hospital and local traffic only (but didn't say the name of the "locality" the local traffic was to). We blythely carried on into the centre of Hull, getting further away from our destination rather than closer.

With Satelite Navigation, we would have been alerted
1) that that was our exit
2) when passed, that we had gone too far
3) of immediate steps to take to get back on the track or to take an alternative route (sometimes quicker than backtracking where one-way systems are in place) to arrive at destination.

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The Incentive and Impetus
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Richard asked his father and myself to purchase (or contribute toward) a TomTom GPS navigation unit as a combination Christmas and early birthday (7th March) present - which he (mistakenly) believed to cost about £150.

I looked up reviews on Ciao! and other websites to compare other consumers' experiences. I also went to themutual.net to compare suppliers, prices and units; and to obtain loyalty points, of course, for the actual money spent when the item was purchased. An e-mail from themutual.com before Christmas directed me to Maplin Electronics (a partner - where "Mutual Points" loyalty points can be gained by purchasing through the link).

Here, the Garmin StreetPilot i3 (with colour screen) was on offer for £199.99 - and a "B-grade" version would be £144.99. When I told my husband he thought that either would be a reasonable price - particularly the lower price (although he wasn't quite sure about "seconds") - in fact - WHY NOT BUY TWO? (one for Richard, AND one for US!) - on reflection, I agreed that it seemed a good idea, and if Nigel was prepared to PAY for them, probably well worth it.

After all, the longest time spent sometimes in getting to his work (doing supply teaching) is finding the school where he is assigned. This could solve a lot of driving around in circles trying to find the correct address - to say nothing of all the other uses. . . .

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Investigations and Decisions
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We looked at the information available at a Woolworths shop, where we saw it reduced from £199.99 to £144.99 but didn't purchase as we were still gathering information and trying to decide if it had everything we needed.

On 26th December 2006 Carphone Warehouse offered the basic i3 unit at £99.99, so the price is still coming down. Comparing it to much more expensive units (like the TomTom), it seemed to have sufficient details for our usage:

• - It has a fixed colour screen of about 2inches
• - it finds destinations by postcode or street address
• - you can save addresses to "Favourites" and name them
• - it is powered either by 2 AA batteries or connection to the cigarette lighter socket (or both)
• - it is compact and can be attached to the windscreen
• - it can be transferred easily to mount in another car
• - upgrades and more information are available on the website: http://www.garmin.com/products/spi3/

Importantly, it lets you know if you have missed a turning and re-directs you. New batteries are projected to last up to 6 hours without car battery support, and battery power is useful to assist in moving from satelite to satelite while travelling.PLEASE NOTE: It is NOT waterproof, so is not appropriate for use on bicycle or Motorcycle; nor is it really for pedestrian navigation.

[UPDATE on 10th April 2006:]
Funnily enough, we were driving home last night, using Cofton Hall as a "via" point, and it tried to send us on a direct route across Cofton Common (pedestrian/cycle/bridal-path route) on the hypotenuse of a triangle ~ I knew the route, as I have walked it ~ and it would have then continued on a narrow bridalway across a reservoir to come out directly opposite the driveway of Cofton Hall (which was our destination!).

I laughed to my husband, who was totally mystified at the instruction to turn left, that we couldn't cross the reservoir in a car, and we carried on, straight ahead, as we would normally ("recalculating"). At the roundabout, we were directed the normal way to Cofton Church Lane and so to the Main Gates and driveway ("arriving at via point on right, then turn left" ~ in order to continue home).

I suppose it WOULD have been the fastest route (and the most direct) on a motorcycle, walking, or on horseback !?!
[. . . . . . . .end of FIRST update]

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Purchase and Delivery
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In the end, I went to www.theMutual.net, and we purchased two units from the loyalty point partner Woolworths for £144.99 each. A single postage/packing charge of £4.95 per order was applied. As we had not used the webstore before, and the amount of sale was so high, the security team required e-mail confirmation of address and name of cardholder, and name of issuing bank. They also telephoned to confirm the delivery address. A week after the order was originally processed the order was despatched, and two days later a small parcel arrived containing two 5" x 5" x 5" cube cartons.

Each carton contained a StreetPilot i3 display unit - a fist-sized monitor that connects to a swivel knob and windscreen suction-cup mount. This is programmed with City Navigator Europe NT (UK only). Also included are the USB connector, and the USB drivers CD; the 12-24 volt adapter cable; the product information/guarantee booklet and the quick-reference users guide (both in 11 languages, and with numbered drawings for example). The two AA batteries are NOT INCLUDED. The quick-start guide recommends using high-capacity NiMH batteries (2300+ mAh) for prolonged audio performance on battery power.

You are warned to install in such a way that it does not interfere with the operating controls and safety devices (like airbags); and without obstructing the driver's view of driving conditions. This does sound like common sense, but is a good warning for the unthinking driver who might not have considered safety in his eagerness to try it out.

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Nigel had the first play with the unit, and then brought it to me to figure out how to turn the device off. (I pressed the on-off button, holding it in a few seconds, and it turned off). The quick start booklet is VERY basic, and contains, with illustrations, a mere 6 pages (in each of 11 languages, of course!).

Fortunately, the Maplin Website had a downloadable (English) PDF file Owners Manual, which I downloaded, along with an updated 2.6 version software exe file, which I did not require as the model we received was already version 2.6 - it was good to know it was available though if required. I have Adobe Reader version 6 installed on my computer, so I read the manual thoroughly before trying to customise the unit. More on the manual later.

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The Proof of the Pudding
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My son came over to try out the unit with me. His first complaint was that the screen was too small and it was not a touch-screen unit. He saw that I was disappointed with his reaction, and tried to reassure me. We decided to test the unit anyway.

Initially, the unit seemed to think it was in London.

We had set home, and several regular addresses, but it insisted that these were MILES away, and the test map was of London - with the Thames clearly shown in blue, and as you expanded the area you could see the M25 and other routes local to London.

We positioned the unit correctly on the windscreen as per instructions, connected the Car Adapter to the USB connection port and plugged it into the Cigarette Lighter socket. Now, I turned it on and selected a local address to try. I selected "Start Navigating" and the unit searched for satelite support. Then the unit started "calculating route information" 20%, 47%, 94%, 100% and an alert sounded. At last, the unit recognised where it was, and local streets appeared on the map! What a relief! I had wondered if I was going to have to return the unit due to a malfunction of the GPS system.

We were facing the correct direction, however, we were in the carpark, parallel to the main road. Initially, the unit did not realise this "Drive straight ahead for xx metres" -[ah, no, I don't think so - there is a car parked right in front of us. Best get out to the road first.]

Next minor error: the main road is split into an up and down section, as the odd numbers are higher up the hill than the even numbers. As the sections converged, the unit did not realise that we had to re-join the road (by easing right then left) and so following the instruction to "Turn right then left" would either have taken us onto the road in the wrong direction, or, as we interpreted them, up into a cul-de-sac, rather than correctly down a side street and up another towards the main road.

The Navigation sounded the alert, the arrows disappeared off the screen (as we were "off track") and the screen showed "recalculating route" before telling us to turn around and turn left. We ignored the instructions and returned to our starting point. Again it tried to revise our itinerary: this time it thought we were on the lower of the two halves of the road, although it DID show both halves of the road. As we turned into the drive, it corrected, and we stopped. We changed the destination to "home" and it let us know that we were at our destination (and cutely showed a "chequered flag").

We tried different destinations, and tested the "review turns" feature which lets us see the route in advance page by page (turn to a page) similarly to Multimap's step by step approach. We agreed that, had we had the unit on our trip to Hull, we would have gotten safely to the social club much easier, as we would have seen each step when it was required. The voice alerts you to the main direction of both the current and next turn so you can position yourself in the correct lane in plenty of time, but does not talk incessantly when it is in "safe" driving mode.

He was disappointed it was not the TomTom 300 he had wanted, but admitted grudgingly, that for half the price, it WAS adequate for journeys into the unknown. When he had gone, without taking the unit we had bought for him (yet) as it is a present (and therefore needs wrapping), I checked out the TomTom Go 300 on the internet to compare prices. The cheapest non-eBay price was £259.99 from SatNav2u.com post free; with Amazon.co.uk at £299.99 plus postage (unless you choose SuperSaver Delivery) and Halfords at £329.99 plus free delivery (online price - or, £40 more instore).

I tried to see if I could locate a cheaper TomTom Go 300 on eBay for him, but in the end found nothing. He had his StreetPilot i3 for his birthday.

So far, his dad has been satisfied with what he's got (although he has complained that sometimes the roads he's sent on are not very good for the suspension of the car!).

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The PDF Manual
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The manual consists of 30 information pages, and gives very helpful instructions on lots of eventualities. It was useful to know you can add "via" points to your eventual route (one at a time - you add the next one when you have passed the previous point) - it means that you can pre-schedule your rest points - in turn - while not losing sight of the main picture. Your ETA (expected time of arrival) and Distance to Next Turn are shown on the bottom of the screen. The ETA alters as your "rest-time" continues, and also as your average speed increases or decreases.

Other Useful Features Highlighted in the Manual:
You can turn off the GPS to have a trial "run-through" of your journey, or to practice understanding how to read the unit's screen. I tried this feature out using both the "fastest route" and the "shortest route" -
I also tried using daytime and nighttime backgrounds (you can set day, night or automatic) and the different orientations. I found the daytime background to be most dyslexic-friendly as it is brighter (like the picture above), so I set "day" as my default view ~ at night, it starts out with the night-time view, but changes to my default as soon as it has finished calculating.
There are instructions as to how to find hotels, restaurants and points of interest (POI). It also locates nearest petrol stations, by brand name - including Supermarket petrol (like Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's). I tested this feature out, and it worked.

The Manual also contains useful telephone numbers, addresses and website addresses, an index, contents page and preface, with a place to record your unique unit number (essential for uploading further maps when purchased, and for signing up for special services).

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Conclusions (also updated) and Hints for Usage
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It was slightly more fiddly to set up than I expected, and did not distinguish fully between roads and parking lots. It sometimes seeks the most direct route available, even when not the best for the vehicle concerned. It DOES have a feature to tell it whether you are driving a car or a lorry (or other large vehicle ~ so you wouldn't be directed somewhere you would get stuck ~ although I DID wonder what would have happened if we HAD tried the route it suggested last night across the common).

The AA batteries had to be purchased separately, as would be an "External" aerial to improve satelite reception (generally only required if you have a heated windscreen or poor reception); this adds to the basic cost, but not excessively. I decided to buy one as we were sometimes driving a Zaphira (which seems to have a coated windscreen), and it also helps keep my satelite reception if I am walking (and on battery power alone).

We have occasionally had to wait a minute or more for "awaiting better accuracy" ~ the time is improved when both the batteries and cigarette-lighter adapter are in use ~ meanwhile it tells you your speed and compass direction ~ when it is ready, it calculates the route and shows what percentage has been calculated before indicating where you are and which way you are heading at the top, with the ETA and distance to next turn at the bottom.

If I am just watching the map, it is quite useful to identify roads you are passing, as it highlights roads you are aproaching and tells you your speed and direction (my husband is ambivalent about this particular feature, as I sometimes say the speed he is going if he is speeding ~ to remind him ~ as it is quite accurate ~ but he also hasn't had a speeding ticket in an area with quite a few speed cameras!).

For similar destinations, the "Show Map" feature lets you choose which of several possible destinations is the correct one (for instance, "Vicarage Road" exists in at least three different postcodes in Wolverhampton). If you know a little about where you are going, looking at a map will help you distinguish between them.

If your StreetPilot i3 tells you that it needs maps installed, the best thing to do is to turn it off, press the memory card so that it comes out, and then replace the memory card and turn the StreetPilot i3 back on. (Whew! Panic over!)

Currently, my unit is telling me that my maps need updating. I will let you know how I get on when I have done so. It has given me updated software for free, and alerts when new versions are available, so I will let you know if I have to pay for new maps and how much when I have done it.

The bottom line, here, is that it is a sound, basic, reliable navigational unit, and has taken us safely to many new destinations by day and night successfully.

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Postscript
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In July 1981, we went to a wedding in Bristol on the way to our Youth Hostel at Poppit Sands in Wales. We had never been to the church before, and were unaware of the exact direction in Bristol we were heading for. After spending an hour travelling a few miles down the motorway, we decided to come off the M5 "carpark" an exit early, and attempt to find the church by back routes. Every time we asked directions of a passerby, we were given inane (or even "insane") directions, such as, "turn right at the lights, proceed about a mile, and ask someone else" - and this was even at service stations . . .

Eventually, we found the church, about an hour late - just in time for the reception.

The StreetPilot i3 would have gotten us to the church on time!

== © 2006 jesi ……………………… ≈≈≈≈{; -)-{{::::: |||||< ♥♥ ==

 

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