Garmin City Navigator NT vs Magellan DirectRoute

[mabuhr]

I'm trying to decide between a Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx and a Magellan Triton 1500. I'd like to use the unit for both trail and street nav, and am wondering about how Magellan's and Garmin's respective street nav packages stack up.

 

NOTE: the Triton's don't currently support street nav, but this is coming in early 2008.

[+Miragee]

Up to now, from what people say here, Garmin's City Navigator street maps are better. I know I am amazed at the accuracy of City Navigator directions on my Vista HCx. I've never known anyone who has had street navigation software on their Magellan GPS unit . . .

[+embra]

I use City Navigator on my Quest, and DirectRoute on my Explorist 500. DirectRoute is very basic autorouting; you pretty much have to take the route it gives you. City Navigator allows for more modification through the insertion of via points, and generally offers more features. Also, it's much easier to find an address on the Garmin.

 

I think the Quest does more fancy things (e.g., the traveling salesman route) than most of the other Garmin handhelds, but City Navigator will outpace DirectRoute in most all regards.

 

Edit: I'm not certain how the Triton will stack up; for now I'm assuming it will use DR in the same manner as other Magellans.

Edited December 27, 2007 by embra

[+hogrod]

NOTE: the Triton's don't currently support street nav, but this is coming in early 2008.

 

If Magellan's coming soon claims are anything like in the past, it will probably be a much longer wait before they update the unit to do autorouting. It seems kinda strange that they would release a high end gps that didn't already have this ability.

[+Cacheoholic]

You will find Garmin MapSource CN much, much superior to Magellan MapSend’s DR. The DirectRoute cities are almost all incorrect in my area. They are using the township name for the city name. Trying to find an address is pretty much useless unless you know if they used the correct city name or the township as the city. In addition, Garmin CN maps are updated every year if you want to buy them or not. Magellan DR maps are only updated every few years. Both maps are about the same price. Magellan’s are a little cheaper. Both software’s are locked to only one unit.

[+JetSkier]

I have the first version of DirectRoute (2.1 i think) running on my Meridian. The maps are pretty accurate here in Orlando but you can only route on the DirectRoute detailed map and not on the basemap. I've heard from some 60C users that they can route on their detailed maps as well as their basemaps as well as a combination. If thats the case, I would rather have the 60C's routing capabilities. I don't know what the Triton will do because I only have Meridians and a CrossoverGPS.

 

JetSker

Edited December 28, 2007 by JetSkier

[+geognerd]

Link to a long-running topic with a thoughtful comparison of Garmin and Magellan's autorouting products.

 

I became fed up with the autorouting on my eXplorist 400 w/DR v2 maps and just got a Garmin nuvi 200 that says it uses City Navigator 2008. If the routing on the Garmin handhelds is anything like it is on the nuvi, Garmin wins by a longshot. My eXplorist took a long time to calculate simple routes. I could tolerate having to press the GOTO button twice to trigger a route recalculation, but often times I would have already passed the next turn on the new route by the time the route was calculated. Also, I could not find a way to tell the eXplorist to avoid toll roads or U-turns. The manual for the 76Cx says you can program it to avoid tolls and U-turns, so I suspect the other routing Garmin handhelds will be similar. I was hoping Magellan would catch up to Garmin's autorouting on the Tritons, but right now there is no telling how autorouting will be implemented on the Tritons. Routing on the eXplorist works, just not as well as it could. JetSkier also raises a good point about the Garmin basemap being routable, which means you can load detail maps for your origin and destination and just use the basemap for the route in between.

 

About the currency of the data, DirectRoute v3 came out I think over a year ago and still didn't have my 7-year-old subdivision in its road data. Garmin, which updates its road maps more often, showed my neighborhood on the version of CN loaded on the nuvi.

[cowboyshootist]

I don't use the PC based tools but I do have a Garmin 650 and a Magellan Crossover. For Vehicle Navigation I'd say that they are pretty much on par with one another. The Magellan has more options for routing and detours and it cost $70 less than the 650. If you're looking for a good Vehicle Nav unit the Crossover will get the job done and then some. (As will the Nuvi 650).

 

The Crossover has the advantage of having Marine and Outdoor navigation capability as well. I don't have a Garmin unit that can do "off-road" navigation so I can't compare but the Crossover seems to be OK, not great and not crappy, just OK. The form factor is really setup for automotive use but it's not horrible as a handheld unit.

 

If you're looking for a "one size fits all" then I think the Crossover deserves a look.