Garmin nuvi 200W not giving quickest route

abenn · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2008 Posts: 8

I took my recently acquired nuvi 200W on a trip from Hertfordshire to Cornwall the other day -- it's first long trip -- and it disappointed in some ways Sad

The nuvi took me onto the M25 using the route I normally take, via Watford, but once on the M25 it directed me onto the M40 instead of continuing to the M4 as I expected. I ignored it and continued to the M4, and it correctly told me to head west. But just west of Slough it told me to head north (I don't remember which road) to the M40 again. I ignored it again, and continued along the M4. Now here's the crunch; when it recalculated after I ignored it the second time, the calculated e.t.a. was 12 minutes earlier, so my M4/M5 route was faster than the one it was attempting to take me on.

My unit is on its default settings; i.e. faster time, and U-turns and Car Share Lanes ticked in the Avoidances menu.

Also, when in Cornwall I found it often wanted to take me on back-doubles in town, rather than sticking on the main road. I'm sure some of these roads were slower than the main-road alternative, as I used the main roads when returning, whenever I could.

Am I experiencing these issues because the 200W is a basic unit? Are they known quirks in its database and/or algorithms? Would I get better results from a more expensive unit?

abenn · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2008 Posts: 8

Never mind, I think I've found the answer in another thread http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=37375 Smile

And it seems that getting a more upmarket Garmin will not solve the problem Crying or Very sad

abenn · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 13, 2008 Posts: 8

Just done another journey yesterday -- about 40 miles each way. Before starting out I used Mapquest.com to check the route on my PC. It gave me what I consider to be a sensible, direct, fast routing with an estimated duration of 1hr 04min.

Once again my Nuvi 200W tried to give me some weird routings, with a duration of over 1hr 15min, despite it using the same mapping company (Navteq, same maps?) as Mapquest. I'll have to change my setting to "shortest" next time, to see what difference it makes.

Then today I see a review in a Sunday newspaper where the Nuvi gets excellent marks, without any mention of what now seems to be a well-documented tendency to take you on long back-road detours Mad

nheather · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 67

I think all Navs pretty much suffer from this - perhaps the new TomTom IQ Routes may do better.

My classic is that I frequently work in the south side of Farnborough (Hampshire) and for my journey home (to Horsham, West Sussex) my TomTom insists that I go west to M3, then north to M25, then east to M23 then south to Horsham.

According to TomTom, this journey is 60 miles taking exactly 60 minutes.

In reality, knowing the ares well I just travel directly east cross-country.

According to TomTom my route is 30 miles and takes 61 minutes.

So you can't argue with TomTom's logic, it has found what it thinks is the fastest route even though it only saves me 1 minute but takes an additional 30 miles.

In reality of course I know that the TomTom route will take a lot longer than 60 minutes because you will not be able to acheive a steady 70mph on the M3, M25 and M23 at 5pm.

I would like to see a 'use most sensible route' option which is what we humans do naturally. This might be what TomTom have acheived with the x30 series but it's a little too early to tell.

Cheers,

Nigel

mikealder · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 9:19 am Post subject:

Nigel, What Map are you using to produce the motorway route? - I have just tried this with my 930 (IQ Route enabled) and One XL (non IQ Routes) and they both go "cross country" rather than heading for the motorway - Mike

nheather · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 67

Not sure which map. It does it with my wife's 700 which is 3 years old and it was doing it my 720 which was about 6 month's old (but has been refunded because of fault - now looking for a replacement).

I dodn't think the TomTom was doing anything wrong. The routing method could be set to quickest ot shortest. I have it set on 'quickest'. The route it finds is technically the quickest (by one minute) even though it is 30 miles longer.

If I had set it to shortest it would have gone cross-country but then I find it takes you down some really narrow roads. What it lacks is that human ability to pick up a map and say "that looks like the best route" based on an intelligent trade off of speed and distance.

I'ts not a big problem for me as I don't use my Nav blindly. I tend to pick the bulk of the route myself, ignorring Nav's counter directions and let the Nav take over when I get towards the end or going through towns or cities.

Cheers,

Nigel

Anita · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject:

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