Speed limit sign should be standard - not an option

On page 15 of the 1300T manual it says, "A speed limit icon may appear as you travel on major roadways." Sounds like it's only 'selected' highways for that function. The keywords to me are, MAY and MAJOR. Whomever makes those decisions.

Also the comparison chart on page iv shows the 1300 as showing speed limits for Europe Only.

Go figure !

The feature you are looking for is premium in nature and available only on select models. The 1300 is a very basic model and does not include the function in the US.

You should have opted for a slightly higher end unit - perhaps you wouldn't have been disappointed if you'd researched the models before handing your money over. Garmin does have a very comprehensive web site for comparing models. However speed limit display is not one of the built-in search criteria.

You would need to figure out which models do what you want and then check out the product page and possibly the model's manual as well.

Can you return it and buy a unit that does what you want?

Premium feature???

According to this page,

http://gpstracklog.com/compare/garmin-nuvi-comparison-chart

all of the models still in production with the exception of maybe two models, including some for $75, have the speed limit feature. Only a very, very select few do not have the feature in the US.

I opted for the slightly higher end model 1300T, not the very basic model 1300. Did you read my post?

I didn't have time to research. Did you read my post? I paid for a unit that has Lifetime Maps and Lifetime Traffic. Should be a no-brainer that an icon will show up on the GUI showing the speed limit.

Garmin has purposely disabled this feature. It is built into every other firmware/software. It should not take an hour to figure out which model would best suit my needs.

Thanks for your advice though. I may take it back and pay the restocking fee. Would consider this a lesson learned. This being my third Garmin I am now in the market for other manufacturers.

!!!!!

And you would need speed limits on a handheld for what? Thanks for your help.

The 1300T is in no way a 'slightly higher end model' in any way except that it includes the otherwise optional traffic receiver with a lifetime subscription.

Units with model numbers ending in '00' are usually the bottom of the pile for their series. In general, the higher the second-to-last digit is, the 'higher-end' it is. Suffixes in the model number tend to indicate included features or descrive variations to the product; T for lifetime traffic; M for lifetime map updates, 'L' to indicate 'Lifetime'. So a unit with the 'W' suffix implies it is the widescreen variant (if applicable - mopst models define the screen in the part number, but the old 260 did not. A 260WT is a widescreen unit with Traffic. A 1300LMT is a base model with mapping and traffic included and so on.

Note that the feature is not 'disabled'. It is simply 'not included' at that model. It isn;t as if you can go in a poke a value in memory and 'enable' it.

As to attempting to compare pricing . . . that's simply impossible. There are too many models at various levels of maturity (the longer it's been out, the larger the discount from MSRP) to make any sort of price-only comparison. You can find basic models that cost more than older models with lots of features.

Personally, if I was shopping I wouldn't be looking at anything newer than a 760/780 because Garmin has lobotomized the bluetooth, map display and GUI in anything newer - then there are all of the bugs . . . . unfortunately neither comes with lifetime traffic, so you'd be out therer looking for a compatible receiver (I found a couple for free for my units).

Thanks for the education, especially the suffixes. I haven't been in the market for a couple of years. After looking at some other brands this afternoon I am going to have to bite my tongue and take my medicine. Looks like Garmin is still my best choice overall. Now to do the search I hadn't anticipated.

Would you know of any pages similar to the one I linked above that shows the product lifecycle (when they were introduced)? I get the feeling Garmin is in cahoots with Nvidia and ATI on their numbering system.

Or better yet maybe someone could point me towards a unit that has: Lifetime Maps, Lifetime Traffic and a speed limit indicator (Lane Assist would be nice too). The lesser the price the better, but I don't expect miracles.

Also, what has changed for the map display in newer models? Thanks

If you go to the Garmin Product page https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134 on lower left you can put check mark in the features you want to just pull up those models.Ones with LMT are lifetime maps and traffic.You will have to click on the specs for each model to get the speed indicator. It will show yes or no.

How about the google driving assistant? Got to be standard!

Bill, the 1490t has all the features for which you are looking. The price keeps coming down. Costco, e.g., has it for $249 with lifetime maps.

Thanks go out to bramfrank and charlesd45. Looks like I'll be preordering this one after looking around for some deals:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=87151#specsT...

bramfrank, what bugs and map changes might I find? Any showstoppers?

I use the heck out of the mp3 player in my 660. For me, it's very disappointing to see so few new Garmin models with an mp3 player.

That does look like a nice unit.I have looked at it several times.

Looks like mp3 may be a thing of the past now.But who knows they may bring it back later.Looks like wav files are going to really get popular after Black Friday and Christmas.

I tend to agree with you that the speed limit data is available and know that it is included in the map data, whether it's visible on the map screen or not. If for some reason Garmin decided not to make that data available on the 1300, only they can tell you.

Not all highways on the Nuvi maps have speed limit data and a lot of city streets may not have data available but in my many thousands of miles of traveling in the US I would say that if it's going to appear it will on any interstate and on most all numbered highways you will travel on.

My 1300 shows the speed limit I am going here in Florida. Don't think it is a Country thing.
I love my 1300 Garmin GPS. cOULDN'T DO WITHOUT IT.

Bear in mind that they don't have speed limit data for every road and I, for one don't know that they use the information to calculate ETA as a result.

They don't NEED the specific speed limit data to calculate ETA (witness the fact that ETA data is available for Canadian users, but the maps contain no speed limit data because the information is unverified, according to Navteq). The unit knows the average speeds for each type of road (and updates that with real world experiential data, based on your driving habits) to calculate your arrival times.

The reason the feature isn't available on the 1300 (but is on the rest of the series) is that their market research told them that US buyers would be willing to pay extra for the feature - presumably European users are not - so it is included on Euro versions of the 1300.

I agree with the original post.. the data IS there on ALL roads in some form, default, 'verified', or otherwise.

In the words of Steve Martin from 'The Jerk', "I get it now.. it's a PROFIT thing!".

It can & should be on all the units, selectable as to on/off, and if the lawyers need it, displayed as 'unverified' in a box that doesn't look so 'official' like a road sign.

IMO.

I recently drove through the Ozarks in MO. On US 160 the speed limit was missing. I noticed it came back on when I entered another county. I will watch this from now on.

I'm pretty sure that the arrival time estimate is based on a default speed for a type of road for roads that are not verified. My 760 does a fair job of estimating arrival time. I've noticed on my 760 that it doesn't seem to allow for red lights.
The accuracy of delay allowance for traffic is also fair. The traffic is most useful to warn that there IS a delay. (I'm using the scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor. I don't want you to read "fair" as a strong endorsement.)

IMO, it's not that reliable especially around here. Don't trust it completely.

But now I find I use it more and more. Especially when I am on lonely back roads with no limit signs.

Every now and then the limit has been wrong, though. I was zipping through an area that the unit said was 55 MPH, and passed a sign that said the limit was actually 35 MPH.

It can take a year or two for a road change to show up on the actual GPS map. Speed limits can be changed at anytime, by a city council, or traffic department to address a safety issue or to simply increase revenue.

Do you really want to trust your driving record and your wallet, to a GPS that could be out of date, on something this important? You won't stand a chance to defend yourself, by telling the judge, that your GPS didn't tell you the speed limit had changed.

Don't let the GPS totally take over your driving.

Garmin probably makes a differentiation in unit capabilities to entice users to opt for higher end models. Otherwise those models probably wouldn't sell.

It's interesting what happens when new features are introduced and how we as consumers demand them. I seem to remember seeing the speed limit posted starting approximately a year and a half ago on my 760.

I hope that you all understand that this is NOT something that will save you from speeding ticket? As everything in your gps it is included under disclaimer that garmin (or anybody else) takes any responsibility for accuracy of this data? And you are the only one responsible for breaking road rules? That's what you are accepting every time you start your gps.

Why I am writing about it? Because if there will be speed icon on gps pretty soon there will be bunch of posts about "how my gps sucks because I have got speeding ticket, and I was driving within speed limit shown on my gps". If you don't believe than look for people blaming gps for drowning car in the lake. I think the line goes something like "gps made me do it".

Even if all roads will be mapped with speed limit it will be impossible to update data constantly. And this will change when ther is construction going on, school zones go active or inactive during day, speed limits are changing on some roads etc. Just look how many people is working here to keep cameras database up to date and we still can't say that we have our data complete. With roads it is even harder as speed data is not simple poi but is coded into map. Daily maps update, anyone?

Other problem is with people that will not look at signs anymore as they will be looking on gps only for speed. From my experience smaller roads are way less accurate than big ones. As on highways or state roads it's fairly good even there often lowered speed limits on short distances are not always included. And you can forget about areas with constructions. It always shows "normal" speed limit not reduced. So this way it is creating speed traps for a driver.

So in my opinion as it's nice future (I'm using it and I like it) it can create for many "challenged" users a lot of problems. That's why I think it is not that helpful future to be mandatory for all units. And as davidkbrown said: it is not defense before cop or judge. Confronted with speed sign your gps always looses in court

To quote (paraphrase) an old post by Motorcycle Mama - a GPS is a co-pilot, not an auto-pilot.

I agree with grzesja - keep your eyes on the road signs, not on your GPS.

I like the fact that my unit shows the speed limit - often after first turning onto a road, I am not sure what the limit is until I reach a speed limit sign. I like the fact that my unit - after the last update - now has a speed limit icon that turns red if I am going over the speed limit. But, prior to the update, I wasn't upset that it did not change color to warn me. I just got a new feature.

Prior to my purchase, I did some research and decided that my 765T gave me the best value for the price. By the mere purchase of a particular unit from Garmin, I did not get the right to dictate to Garmin what features every one of their units should have. I got what I got.

Can't agree more.

Driving under the right amount of "presure" is a good thing. Being too relaxed will only be more dangerous on the road. If you don't feel the urge to look at the road signs, you are impaired driving.

Maybe someone will cry for Google Street View on their GPS so that they don't need to look out side of their windshield.

As the original poster I stated that my 255W had very accurate speed limits in my area and maybe overstated my reliance on this. I work in sales and am constantly looking for convenience stores I have never been to. This can mean 5-6 turns onto roads where I only travel .6 miles (ex.) and there is no speed limit sign in that stretch. I have not found any largely incorrect limits on my GPS when there is a sign. Not anymore than 5MPH anyway. That's within the margin of error in my opinion and I try not exceed posted limits by 4-5 MPH. Therefore my max would be 10MPH over in a typical scenario where the GPS is wrong.

East Tennessee (USA) must be mapped pretty well. There aren't many roads that don't have a speed limit on the 255W.

Long story short, I agree that nobody should rely entirely on a GPS speed limit.

My 265wt worked fine as long as it had msn coverage,
here in Hilo we have no service. not expecting any upgrade soon even though Oahu has it.

seems they've eliminated the driver and kept the GPSr with their self-driving car test last week! Can the Terminator be far behind?

Huh?

As a long time GPS user, I notice that the Garmin US GPS Models lack a lot of what i would consider basic feature compare to the equivalent overseas models. For example, I own a US 255W and SG (singapore) 255W and notice that my SG255 has a few interested differences.
1. Next 3 Highway exits display
2. Compass display
3. More Lane assist display than even my US765T
4. JVC and 3D (Only while i was in SG none in US)
5. More street name display while navigating.
All these were done while doing a side by side comparison. Whys is there such differences ?.
Go figure !