Do You Always Have Faith That The Location You Selected Is Accurate?

@Jim1348

This has happened to me a few times also, and every time it has been incorrect L/L coordinates entered into the map or to the POI file

Granted, sometimes my Garmins have routed me weirdly, but if the L/L is correct - then the Garmin knows where the location is and displays it correctly.

in Arizona we stopped off at a restaurant and I turned the gps off when we finished got back in the car and turned the gps back on and started out again it sent us on a private road out into the desert I turned the gps off again and restarted it and it turned us around back on the correct route . my garmin wanted to go to places other then where we wanted to go ! but it was our vacation so we won out lol

It is because the coordinates are off. I have found that to be true in almost every occasion where I haven't found what I was looking for. I remember a few years ago the coordinates for the Cracker Barrel in Charleston, WV was off by about a half mile. There happened to be a Cracker Barrel billboard along I-64 and that is where the coordinates sent you. I sent the correct coordinates to mahoney and within a few hours the correct location was on the map. Every now and then a location will be closed or will have moved but a lot of the times it is because the company website has the coordinates wrong from the start or they were inputted incorrectly.

If I am setting up my Garmin to take me somewhere new I look on Google Earth or Google Maps View to see if the coordinates take me to the correct place. Sometimes the street numbers are off and there are changes needed changes to get to the correct building.
So far it takes me to the correct street but just needs a little tweaking as the mapping system is sometimes off on the addresses.

Mary has the right idea. If you want to be sure your POI's are located correctly, take a few minutes before your trip to check and correct them using google earth and / or Google Maps.

I find a great number of locations posted on the internet for restaurants, hotels etc. are inaccurate. I've found some hotel locations to be on the other side of a divided highway, a mile further down the road or not there at all.

I have much better luck with the files available here at the factory. I credit the file creators for taking the time to verify their POI locations.
Unfortunately, there are some files with thousands of locations that are just too large to verify each location. That is where the rest of us can help by notifying the file owner of errors, omissions and corrections.

When planning a trip or going to a unfamiliar destination from home I always check on Google.

When I'm on the road and decide to find a place I'm at the mercy of my 3597 my flip phone is not much help.

So far I have always manage to find the location but several times the GPS got me there by a round about route and certainly not the best way in fact a few times it made no sense but I did finally get there and with out the GPS I doubt I could have found the location without stopping to ask directions.

I will add 99% of the time "no problem" and I never leave home without the GPS.

Sometimes, the owners put in their personal, or business addresses instead of the storefront addresses.

That's been the case a couple of times for me.

All my GPS devices have brought me to my destination correctly. Except for Apple Maps.

It just life. You had errors on printed maps. You will have errors on GPS maps not only with POIs but with addresses and missing roads. Especially if you are going in places away form big cities. I had roads that weren't there in reality, missing roads, missing addresses etc.

If you are going somewhere and want to minimize problems with maps check your destination on internet, satellite maps, street view etc. And sometimes may be better to use coordinates from satellite map instead of address. Especially if it shows two different places.

I've been using my Garmin for about eight years now and I drive all over Central Florida as a photojournalist. My Garmin has only been wrong maybe three times out of a thousand times.

I usually check any new never visited location in Google maps as well.

They all do take me to the correct coordinates

I used to, but I've had some location failures and do not trust the accuracy of the maps or POI files. I now double check with another source before I head out.

Agree with other comments that it's usually the co-ordinates that are a little bit off. The one that I run into the most frequently is that the GPS tells me the location is ahead on the right, and it's actually on the left, or vice versa.

I recently had a weird experience with my 3790. I was trying to get to a major highway, and my Garmin told me to make a left hand turn at a lighted intersection, drive 100 meters east, make a U turn (when it was safe to do so) and then drive 2 kilometers west to the highway.

Funny thing was, I just had to make a right hand turn at the intersection. I don't know why this happened as the left hand turn would have taken me into a park.

Connection problems on the map itself. For whatever reason, the two roads are not connected properly in the map data.

This has happened to me before. It's like the GPS doesn't know you can take a right? We can check the intersection on the map data if you remember it.

Sometimes my Garmin will try to route around a block to get to a store, when it is just across the parking lot. The programming is probably written to use public roads, or the store address may actually be on a different street.

I tend to double check using my smart phone using google maps

I think you are on track about connections. I've seen the same thing happen with both Google Maps and on my Garmin. Using a different map may catch some errors, but not all of them.

When I encounter Wrong POI info, I contact folks here and get it fixed for all of us...
Recently GPS has been more accurate than a few years back... Which I believe is greater accuracy in the map data... the less apt 'strange-ness' will occur! !

no, and again, I have the latest map within 2 mos. I would always find it surprising that say a mall that was new in 2003 cannot be found, or that there is great difficulty entering addresses in the format xxxx State Highway 1 and 9.

There is no issue with google maps, of course. Because one doesn't even have to enter the address, one can search for "Nestle," and then click on directions and launch maps.

Why Garmin sends a person one way, and returns another. I relied upon it in Québec (Montréal) and it really f'd me up. I couldn't use my phone because I had roaming set to off, and my hotspot was having trouble.

Here are the exact circumstances:

This happened in Calgary, Alberta. I was going north on 14th Street, intending to head east to Deerfoot Trail (Highway 2). The Garmin advised me to turn left (west) at 64th Avenue into Nose Hill Park, and then make a U turn to head east on 64th (crossing 14th Street) to get to Deerfoot Trail.

About ten years ago, I remember hearing about a family that got lost over Thanksgiving and stuck in a logging road in the snow. The results were tragic.

I don't think a GPS was involved, but after that story I always double-check routes when taking long trips through secluded areas. I also keep a paper atlas and a magnetic compass.

It said turn here, so I did!

I agree that the GPS can only send you to where it knows your destination is. I have found that some locations are Off and others are just not there because they were not updated with correct information.

An entire street in the metropolitan area was missing in the previous map, so it sent me around the city on the freeway which was quite dangerous. I still couldn't find the place! Just wasted a lot of gasoline!

When you are using GPS just remember, that accuracy depends on many factors. In some weather or terrain conditions it can be even few hundred yards. Just switch to screen that shows reception diagnostic and you will see, that sometimes accuracy is not that good. Best place to see it is when you have sky scrapers around or driving in canyons. Mapping problems can add to it as well as glitches in unit software.

If you often have problem with accuracy it may help to reset unit to manufacturer defaults (just backup your data first!)

I don't overthink it to this extent.

But if it's a place I haven't been before and particularly if it is some distance away, I most likely would verify that the location is still in business by using Google Map on my iPhone (if I'm in my car) or on a computer before I go.

I never "call places by telephone" to see if they are still there.

Go north on 14th until you hit 16th Ave, or McKnight and turn right (east). In a few minutes you'll hit the Deerfoot.

Depending on the distance, I always call. Business hours, and locations can change. 2 minutes can save a lot of grief.

I actually know the area quite well and realized it was a mistake. I was just surprised when the Garmin said "turn left". That was the first "error" I 've noticed.

The OP asked about trusting the GPS unit. I certainly do... for most travels. But I would never blindly follow it onto logging roads in the Rockies or dirt roads in the High Desert of the southwest.

I saw a sign on a side road on Stratton Mountain, VT that said something to the effect "No matter what your GPS is telling you this is a dead end road." So apparently there are glitches in the base maps. However, my experience has been that when I don't trust what my GPS is telling me, I'm the one that's wrong.
I still carry paper maps and have my cell phone as backup but I would say the GPS does 99% of it's navigation correctly. -JEP-

Garmin gets it right.

A POI wasn't where the GPS said it was. I normally cross check with Google maps. Last December I was looking for a church in Palmdale CA. It wasn't anywhere near where TomTom said it should be.

I usually look at a route to a new destination using google maps to see traffic conditions and a "big picture". I then trust the gps to get me there hoping that the route will make sense with what I saw earlier.

It doesn't hurt to verify local weirdness. This Saturday, wife left before me to go to school contest and called back to tell me that it was routing the wrong way down a one-way exit street.

Stuff that needs to be considered. NOTHING is 100 percent.