Garmin 660 vs. 2 month old 2011 Ford Escape
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   15 years
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Just got back from a 2 week long drive....
with Garmin 660 with latest Maps and 2011 Ford Escape (with Latest Maps--Per Ford Executive Offices)
Trip:
Chicagoland to Maggie Valley N.C.
Side trips in N.C.
Maggie Valley N.C. to Gepp, AR
Many Side trips in AR
Gepp, AR to Chicagoland
During this time we had (When we could) program the same destinations into both GPS's...
Configurations were as close to same as possible. Fastest Time, No Toll Roads, No Gravel Roads (Garmin only)
Neiter unit was 100% perfect:
Escape Suffers greatly from NOT BEING ABLE TO BLOCK Gravel Roads!!! Really caused problems in AR. A couple times we intentionally followed Escape NAV, only to find us being told to turn on Gravel Road, halfway or so through route... Because we didn't turn
on road, things degraded after that....
Ford Escape could not find the first night's Motel, in Indianapolis.... I did find out once we got there that the Ford did SHOW the road, but didn't know what the name of the road was..... and that caused the issue with not being able to find the Motel...
Ford put's state Shape on State roads, which is nice, as is the intersections, which the 660 doesn't have, and it's a bigger display than the 660.
Both units "lost their minds" at least once...
Garmin 660 locked up when a Traffic report was received with a route and POI waypoint selected. Power Cycle fixed it.
Were told by Garmin that "Road Is Ending" in AR, followed quickly by a re-draw of the screen with route, and all was fine for the rest of the route.
Garmin also once (St Louis) told us to turn right in middle of expressway, with no exit in site, and proceeded to think we were on the parallel road for 1/2 mile of more, prior to giving the command to turn onto the bridge over Mississippi.
Ford was not without fault in this area: On a two lane road in MO, in a cowfield, we were told to 'Turn' and there was nothing but cows and barb wire fences for miles in either direction...
But Biggest flaw is the LACK of a Gravel Road avoidance in the Escape NAV system.... Got to the point where you couldn't trust the Escape because the routes calculated were not the same, and usually it meant that Escape was going to --Somwhere on the route, was going to route you down a gravel road...
It happened over and over... and Yes, I did check for a Gravel Road Avoidance setting... but never found one.
At the Mississippi bridge (Where 660 was trying to have me jump from one road to another....) The Escape actually had the Correct route.... but because I'd been burned 3-4 times with wrong routes on Escape, I ignored it..... and it was actually extremely accurate that time!!!!
I intentionally did not follow the route a few times, to see how this action would be reacted to....
After a while, the Garmin 660 would give up trying to have me turn around..... but the Ford Escape Repeatedly tried for 10 or more attempts to have be turn around.. before it gave up, and calculated the new route.... but that had some effect on destination time....
Whereas Garmin 660 tells you what time you'll arrive, it will not tell you if you cross time zones, which we did... Ford seemed to take time zones into consideration, but displays destination in Hours and minutes from NOW never told you "in time".
When I ignored a route and kept going until both 660 and Escape both created new routes..... The destination times on both didn't match... Escape was later to arrive... I never did follow the Escape route either time this happened to determine WHY it was going to take 1-2 hours longer to arrive....
The Ford Escape NAV found gas stations easier, and you can get Prices, but it's multi-button push to get there.. Wife did the button pushing for that...
Nuvi 660 has our favorite POI's..
But --- Neither was 100% perfect....
!
Great write up
That was interesting reading on the comparison. You had common sense for not following what the gps said at times. Not like others that put the vehicles in the river, on a train track, in to a church, or lost in the mountains. The gps's are a tool.
Nuvi 2460LMT.
Well done
Well done, the same thing happens here, our maps in one place takes us over 100 ft cliff, been asking Garmin to fix it every map update for a number of years now.
Today is a gift, that's why they call it the present...
Very, very good...
loved your experiences. Although, I have never been guided down a gravel road...must be a Missouri thing. Sounds as if you proved something that we all suspected: that these things, although very helpful, are sometimes very inaccurate, just as maps also can be. They however have pulled my chestnuts out of the fire many, many times!
Thanks for sharing this with us, I don't think I would have ever had the patience to do it.
"Backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight, make me a child again, just for tonight."
At first,wife thought
At first,wife thought "Dualing GPS's" was nuts....
After the 3rd time they dis-agreed, she started keeping score.... The "Gravel Roads" problem really bugged her....
If you have a Ford or Escape with Nav system, would you kindly check to see if you can find a Gravel Road avoidance setting.... I couldn't find it, and I checked twice.... Once before we left, to make certain both were set as identically as possible, and once in AR, where we came across most of the gravel roads 'detours'
!
A 2689LMT in both our cars that we love... and a Nuvi 660 with Lifetime Maps that we have had literally forever.... And a 2011 Ford Escape with Nav System that is totally ignored!
I have a 2009 Lexus RX350,
I have a 2009 Lexus RX350, with Satellite Navigation, and figured I could throw away my Garmin. WRONG. I Use my Garmin Every day. The onboard one is great for a backup, but that's it. Nothing beats the Garmin on the Windshield.