Advice on using the Garmin Streetpilot i3 on Irish roads?

eorpach

Hi all,

I've read several informative threads on this board about Sat Nav in Ireland and have decided to buy a Garmin Streetpilot i3 (I'm on a tight budget!:o ). My understanding is that this product currently comes with "City Navigator Europe version 8" with incomplete mapping of Ireland by NavTeq. I know NavTeq are currently finishing off proper Sat Nav mapping for Ireland and I hope it will filter through to the next version of City Navigator Europe (whenever that may be).

If this happens will I be able to easily update the map of Ireland used by the Garmin Streetpilot i3? Or would it be necessary to buy an entirely new SatNav unit at that stage?

Also and more importantly, would it be prohibitively expensive to update the Garmin i3's map of Ireland at that time?

I invariably drive in the greater Dublin/north Wickow area, so if any Irish Garmin Streetpilot i3 users can offer any constructive comments about the unit before I make this purchase, I would really appreciate it!!

Many thanks in advance,

eorpach

testicle

Click here - http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/citynavEuro.jsp - and click on the Map Viewer on the top right to see the map coverage. You can zoom...

Update from v7 to v8 DVD for City Navigator is currently $75 from Garmin.

Note: v8 of the DVD does not yet have the Southern Cross of the M50, it does have the Monasterevin bypass though.

eorpach

Thanks for that testicle, I guess that's a yes to my question about the future upgradability of the Garmin i3's Ireland map

Good to see the huge improvement in coverage for Ireland over the past couple of years - hopefully 100% coverage isn't too far away now!!

There are alot of very positive reviews for the Garmin i3 GPS unit on the internet (mostly from British users though) - can anybody vouch for its usefulness on Irish roads? Specifically is it difficult to input Irish destinations/routes into the Garmin i3? Obviously the lack of post codes here makes the "input destination by postcode" feature redundant!

eorpach

kazzer

I just got one a few weeks ago and I highly recommend it. I am useless at directions and it has brought me all over Dublin and all over the country (including NI). Its true that certain parts of the M50 have no mapping but thats no major gripe. Its a very neat unit and very powerful. One thing I have noticed is sometimes it tends to recalculate alot as you are driving to your destination, so you just have to be a little bit patient.

eorpach

Thanks to all for the above responses, and apologies to any interested parties for the delay in providing this update.

So I finally purchased the Garmin Streetpilot i3 from Halfords a few weeks ago. At the time they were selling it for just under €200 (and were accepting a further 15% off at the till if you happened to have your car insurance with AXA I don't know if that offer's still going but I originally found the info in relation to it on AXA's website for anyone interested).

As regards the Garmin i3, I'm delighted with it - and especially so for a product that cost me less than €170! For a budget Sat Nav system I can find very little wrong with it. I've used it fairly extensively in the greater Dublin area (and on a trip out of Dublin to Portarlington - it had no difficulties bringing me to the town). I think its really smart that it automatically recalculates the route if you take the wrong steet/road, but then I guess that's a feature of nearly all Sat Nav systems on the market!

The only mapping omission I have come across so far for the greater Dublin area is the M50 from Sandyford to Loughlinstown (it thinks you're driving through fields!). Of course it automatically corrects itself when you reach either end of that stretch of the motorway though. I understand from a couple of Google searches that the mapping software of Ireland which the Garmin i3 uses (compiled by Navteq) will be updated in September 2006 from Garmin (as Version 9 of the sofware on the i3 - it came with Version 8 when I bought it). So that from that time forth these units should have 100% coverage of all Irish roads. I realise that buying the Version 9 update for my Garmin i3 at that time will cost me, so anyone considering buying this unit and doing a significant amount of driving outside of the Greater Dublin Area may want to consider waiting until then before purchasing (or atleast realise that if they buy it know they may want to shell out for the 100% Irish mapping update from Garmin when it becomes available in a few months time). In my opinion though, I'm getting great use out of it with the current mapping software on it, and may decide not to even bother updating the unit with the new Version 9 maps when Garmin releases them.

There are plenty of British user reviews of the Garmin i3 unit itself available on the internet so I won't get into the specifics of how the unit works. The one thing that may frustrate Irish users of the unit though is that Dublin addresses are divided into postcodes, so if you want to find a particular house in a Dublin housing estate, then its alot faster to find it by first inputting the particular Dublin postcode the house is in. Not living in Dublin myself I find that abit tedious, though its only a small issue - and the fact that it can direct you to the nearest petrol station to any given location more than makes up for that inconvenience in my opinion!

Also it goes without saying that the Garmin i3 is for the casual driver rather than somebody who visits multiple unknown locations around Ireland everyday - in that situation I'd imagine that typing in address names (in not a dissimilar way to typing a text message on a phone) would get quite annoying - a Sat Nav system with a touch screen would be more user-friendly and faster to use for that type of driver.

Overall I'm very happy with the system, and given its price compared with many of the alternate Sat Nav options available on the market, I think its a great value, top quality product! Definitely recommended

Regards,

eorpach

Zascar

Thanks Eorpach - Do you think it would be worth paying extra fpr the C310 - it has touchscreen and a few extra features...