Subscription free traffic GPS units
 

Any recommendations on a unit for the car that won't break the bank, but has text to speech and subscription free traffic updates? My current unit (Garmin 255) does well on highways but struggles in bigger cities like NYC, Chicago, and DC with reception and timeliness.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Not a direct response - but wouldn't any GPS have problems in places with lots of tall buildings inhibiting a good view of the sky? I'm wondering if you upgraded your GPS it might not help.

The iPhone has traffic info for free, and Google maps on the Treo does as well. Doesn't talk to you as far as I know. Not handy while driving.

i drive dc. xm, gps, and phone traffic are a joke(the word sucks comes to mind). they either do not have any information, or are just downright phony.(backs up 4 out of 5 days, so lets announce a backup).

outstand up to the minute traffic is available on 103.5(traffic on the eights). travelers call in. it is the most listened to station during drive time.

They will probably all be drawing from the same data, or close to the same data. Traffic, be it GPS or radio shows, especially in New York, has a huge lag time from incident to being reported. The only thing I've seen that has improved that has been the State of Connecticut sending out broadcasts when major incidents are reported by the state police, those happen within minutes. Radio or over the air services can take 20 minutes to an hour to cover it after the mail comes.

There aren't many choices for free, I think it's Garmin or not much else. Coverage in NYC is good for me on my Garmin, it just doesn't usually have anything for NYC, usually upper Westchester and Long Island. I don't believe that's a function of the unit but instead it's just not being reported.

Indeed, listening to the traffic reports, you usually hear them with a new report crediting it to somebody who called it in, never to the official sources for New York City.

I have a Nuvi 680 with MSN direct. I agree, the traffic data lags. (we're in NYC). Not sure I should have paid the lifetime service fee!

In NYC, though, I just go with 1010 WINS with their traffic on the 1's... They seem the most up to date.

Sounds to me like we need a sticky somewhere that posts the metropolitan area stations with 10 min traffic updates with data supported by call in.

well over half the traffic problems in the DC area are outside camera coverage. once there are 20 or so cars in the backup, someone calls WTOP on 103.5 and reports the delay. WTOP has at least 6 traffic announcers who i think do map study in their off time.

Great idea - when traveling I would love to be able to know in advance what radio station would help out during rush hours. ^

We need a second unit as I spend most of the time in Chicago and live in Virginia and I constantly either forget to bring the Garmin home for those weekends when we need a GPS or we split up after a trip and both need it the following week. I was hoping that other folks might have had better results than mine...

I've owned a Magellan Roadmate 1470 (stolen) the Garmin 755T (gave to my dad to go back to Magellan) tested a friends new Tom Tom and now own the Magellan Maestro 4700 along with an iPhone.

The subscription free GPS systems use an FM receiver to get traffic incidents (same type service that feeds normal radio station updates) - my experience is they are almost always delayed and they can't report the impact an incident is actually having on traffic (i.e. they know an accident was reported but don't know if it's blocking traffic or not).

Google maps (free on most PDA's including iPhone) does a better job by indicating traffic speeds via color coding the road (green, yellow, red) but it's not always the best GPS - interrupted for phone calls, no text to speech and dependent upon cell signal. It is far superior to GPS systems in the "points of interest" category because you get a full Google search instead of limited and out of date information that the GPS systems have pre-programmed.

Magellan has added a predictive traffic routing feature to their new Maestro lines. It take historically bad rush hour traffic areas into consideration when determining your route (based on the time of day that you are traveling). The newer Magellan's have surpassed Garmin in the area of how quickly you can get the GPS to detour your route or avoid a maneuver all together. It's not bug free yet but the Maestro 4700 is my current favorite - MSRP $299 (currently $249 on Buy.com).

I like GPSmagazine.com for reviews - the user forums are connected directly to the review. Great for getting the latest info on impacts software updates have had on units and other real world reports.

I use Garmin Mobile for Blackberry when traveling. Because it pulls everything through your data connection you get up to date maps, up to date POI, and a constant data connection for the traffic (which will eliminate the broadcast lag, but not the lag in their system recording the data). Unlike Google Maps it does have voice directions. The traffic data comes from Total Traffic Network, which I believe is ClearChannel's service.

I was given a Navigon that has free traffic updates, but the mount for it is really large to pack. (Think of an oversized telephone handset)

I have a Navigon 2100 and have been pretty happy with it. It was one of the 2007 Black Friday deals. I think I paid $99 including a free upgrade for lifetime traffic service.

Navigon is no longer selling their products in the US, but I believe that they will continue to support the units that have been sold. The remaining new and refurbished units are being closed out and seem to be pretty good bargains. I saw a higher-end 5100 posted by a major online retailer (can't recall which one) for something like $69 including lifetime traffic service. That's less than the cost of one year of traffic service on my old Magellan 3050T.

For an entry-level unit, the 2100 has nice features including text-to-speech, lane assist, traffic antenna integrated into the power cord, mini-USB data/charging port, and maps on an SD card. The GPS unit is compact and thin.

The disadvantages that I've found with the 2100 are fewer POIs than other GPS units that I've owned, and no maps for Hawaii (and Alaska). I believe that the 5100 and 7100 include HI, AK and Canada. It seems a bit sluggish on data entry, though tracking performance seems fine.

The standard suction cup mount is reasonable in size for me. I don't find it any larger than other units that I own. In fact, it folds into a pretty compact shape and is smaller than the mounts for my Magellan 3050T and Mio C320.

As mentioned by others, the traffic information is delayed often to the point of not being helpful. I assume that is a fault with the broadcast service rather than the GPS unit, but I haven't checked if the GPS perhaps has an internal setting that retains the traffic data too long. With the 2100, I find myself usually ignoring the traffic warnings, or I'll call someone to check on sigalert.com for confirmation of traffic problems.

There is a review of the 2100 here: http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/014825.php.

I recently replaced my Nuvi 680 with a Nuvi 765T. The free lifetime subscription to Navteq traffic data (included with the 765T) has horrible coverage. Far worse then the Clearchannel and MSN services. Also, when using the free Navteq service, I would get a best western ad on my GPS every day. I took the charger / receiver from my 680 and used it on my 765T so I could get MSN back.

I was going to try the traffic service but haven't due to all those issues mentioned above.

In poor reception area, you need a unit with dead reckoning function. I have a Garmin Streetpilot 2650 along with two factory installed GPS that have this function.

Basically the GPS has a gyroscope to detect direction change and get vehicle speed and forward/backward signals from the car. It then plots the estimated course until the GPS receiver gets good satellite signals again.

http://www.roadmapgps.com/glossary/dead-reckoning.shtml

I have a Garmin 275t with the free lifetime traffic. Hopefully its useful but to date I see little correlation between what it indicates and the traffic speeds but I have not been in locations with any big traffic problems.

MisterNice