Garmin i5 GPS help
 

I bought a Garmin i5 a couple weeks ago. I took the advice of some on this forum and stuck with the Garmin brand, and the i5 was in my price range.

Well now I'm having doubts about it, but I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong. The routes it calculates are terrible. Playing around with it and having it take me places I'm familiar with, it NEVER takes the best route. Not once. Also, it avoids interstates like the plague. I live about 1.5 miles from a major interstate, and driving home the other day, it tried to tell me to get off the highway 4 exits before the best one. And as I passed each exit, it would tell me to take that one, and then say "recalculating" after each one. It's become a joke in between my girlfriend and me to see how many times *****ing Betty will recalculate for a simple jaunt down I-66.

On one hand, I really only need this when I'm going to places I've never been before, or between two places where I usually dpn't travel. So maybe I shouldn't care if it takes the absolute best route in those cases.

On the other hand, I expected more from Garmin, even in one of their entry-level GPS.

What does your setup say? What are the preferences?

Have you read the book? You might need to tell it what you want, ie no toll roads, use highways whenever possible and so on.

See what the peferences are set to then get back to us.

Joe

Preferences set for "Fastest Route" and the "Avoids" list is all unchecked. That is, it's set NOT to avoid highways, toll roads, carpool lanes, U-turns, or unpaved roads.

I also tried setting it to Shortest Route mode but it didn't seem to have any affect.

I do not know that model very well. Have you tried a Garmin forum? There are several on Yahoo.

Might look and post a question here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Garmin_GPS/?yguid=8713648

Call Garmin directly(go to their website to get contact number), they are very responsive. I have used them for my aircraft GPS equipment and have been very satisfied.

You may also want to check the settings for what type of vehicle you're driving. That has some bearing on the type/size of the roads it chooses. I've had my i5 for about 8 months. By and large it's been a very solid tool. I've used it on several lengthy roadtrips and have never had to pull out a map or been lost.

widgeon, that's not a bad idea. I'll call them tonight.

TWork, mine is set up for car/motorcycle. What is yours set for?

Mine is also set for car I believe.