Metroguide Vesion 3 Worth Buying?

[Pinster56]

I recently purchased an Etrex Legend and have discovered the limitations of its internal maps. I have the chance to buy Version 3 of the Mapsource Metroguide at a very resanoable price. Is there much difference between v3 and v5 or should I just suck it up and buy a new Version 5?

[+SeventhSon]

My brother bought an old version of mapsource and was able to go to the site and upgrade for free.

 

7

[+Stem]

You can upgrade, but maybe not what you think. There are two components to a mapsource product. Mapsource itself, and the maps. Mapsource is the program that provides the interface, calculations, basicaly everything that isn't a map or affects how a map is viewed. The map is well, the map. The mapsource part is the same no matter which type of product you have (topo, MG, R&R, blue chart).

 

It is the mapsource part that you can upgrade for free. When you do this, you do not upgrade the map also. Their maps can be pretty outdated at times. In my area, I have the newest version, and there is a road that was completed 4-5 years ago, that isn't in there.

 

Beware that the map isn't going to be perfect with either version. However the older version has a chance to be really off. You should weigh the cost vs. your desire for accuracy.

 

my .02

[+rick417]

The big difference between v3 and v5 is ability to autoroute on the PC using v5. With v3 you do not need to use your PC's hard drive to store the maps. You build your map sets in Mapsource and insert the appropriate CD to transfer them to the GPS. I upgraded to v4.02 for the autorouting, and the maps were updated for a new road in my home town. So if you don't have many new roads around you and you don't need autorouting, plus you'd rather not fill up your hard drive with map regions in order to get the maps to your Legend...v3 would be a good choice.

 

Almost forgot...the Map Sets are larger in the v3. I think about 2 - 4 MB per set since they include a larger area. The v4.02 & I assume v5 have smaller map set sections under 1MB a piece. I had an 8MB expansion chip for my eMap and I think I could generally only get 2 map sets loaded to it before I filled up the memory.

 

Once you have Mapsource installed off any Mapsource CDs, updates to the Mapsource program are free from Garmin. The latest release of Mapsource is v5.4. Note that this does not update your maps, just the program that lets you see the maps on your PC and interfaces map, waypoint, route, & track data with your GPS.