USA use?

tirc83 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 17, 2005 Posts: 6

I'm off to the US in Feb and will be driving in and between Washington DC and NYC. Can someone tell me exactly what I need to use my i3 out there - without b*ggering up my UK software?

Step by step info would be appreciated. Thanks.

zogman · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:50 pm Post subject:

you need city select usa which is fairly expensive or metroguide v4.01 which is the only mg software that autoroutes with navigation.. mg 4.01 can sometimes be found on ebay.... the software is then loaded onto a blank transflash card ...
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RODTROTTER · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 30, 2005 Posts: 175

iam going back to the usa in may and i got a copy of city select usa v6 for £50 from ebay you may want to give it a go but make sure its got unlock code or you have to pay garmin for them too you will also need a blank trans flash card

zogman · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 6:19 pm Post subject:

make sure you get the v4.01 which is the only autoroutable one..mg software is not locked so it can be used over and over...the v4.01 is dated about 2001/2002 so will not have the latest roads, but i used this software in 2004 and 2005 and had no problems at all...
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windy1 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 20

You can see the i3 with full USA mapping on USA websites for $300. With sales tax at say 10% and converting at 1.7, that's abut £200. If you factor is a new card cost then if Garmin are going to charge UK customers around £150 just for USA mapping, its going to be cheaper to buy a new i3 package when you get to Florida or wherever.

Alternativley, you could go to

http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/MetroGuideNT.jsp

and buy the official Garmin sourced metroguide($116) plus card ($90) when you get to USA (Garmin won't sell it at that price outside USA). With sales tax 10% and $1.7=£1.00, that's about £127 so why bother with potentially dodgy ebay stuff? ... or did I miss something.

Seems to me Garmin's UK pricing for i3 mapping enhancements is a mess.

zogman · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject:

windy1..the mg you mention on the garmin site will not autoroute or give you navigation.it will only show where you are on a map....
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flyer0 · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:13 pm Post subject:

I agree with the idea of buying another unit to us in the USA and had been thinking about it myself but I was wondering how many units can I download the maps to? I think I have heard two is the limit but is this correct?Is it the miniSD card that is tied to the unit or is it the maps?

francisc · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:40 pm Post subject:

The maps can be unlocked for two units. The unlock code is generated using the internal ID of the unit.

The micro SD (TransFlash) card is only a regular memory.

Cholmeleian · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 26, 2005 Posts: 16

Sales tax is usually less than 10% in USA, it can even be zero (eg New Hampshire) and mail order from another state has no sales tax.

Plenty of people want driving directions on holiday in the USA (or Spain etc) and Garmin should really have a moderate cost web downloadable option for a limited area, eg $20 per US state.

This would be incredibly useful, especially in the USA where road signs are terrible.

alchemista · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 27, 2006 Posts: 6

RODTROTTER · Regular Visitor Joined: Oct 30, 2005 Posts: 175

i am a professional driver and i find driving in America much easier that here road markings and signs are a lot clearer to understand

zogman · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:02 pm Post subject:

city selects come with two unlock codes ,so in theory you should be able to load maps onto two seperate gps's..
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Scoobydooby · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 19, 2006 Posts: 104

Hi All

Thanks for the information that I have already picked up using this site.

I am a newbie to this site, and to the world of sat-nav, having bought my i3 a couple of days ago.

As per the thread subject, I too am looking to have a holiday in Florida next year & want to take my i3 with me if feasable.

What is the difference between city select & metroguide software, If I buy the metroguide what will I be missing compared to say my uk v8 software in terms of use etc?

Is metroguide v 4.02 suitable?

If I go for the metroguide, then there are no unlock codes needed from Garmin--is that right, I upload the maps to a spare transflash card, pop out my UK transflash, and fit the US one, and vice versa upon my return home--it cant be that easy surely Embarassed

Thanks for any help given

Scoobs

Scoobydooby · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 19, 2006 Posts: 104

zogman · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:52 am Post subject:

hi m8...city selects and navigators have extra bits in the software to allow navigation and auto-routing ....none of the uk or europe metroguides have these extra bits so they cant do that.....in the states garmin included the extra bits in mg version 4.01...they then realised that metroguides are not locked so they can be copied and sold on ..so newer versions of usa mg's didnt have the extra bits included so did not autoroute, and thats when city selects and navigators came out ,with autorouting and navigation but with two unlock codes that paired the software to your gps so no more piracy....although the usa mg has 2001 maps most of the roads in the states havent changed and i had no problems on two seperate 2500 miles tours of the west side of america using mg v4.01.....
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