GPS Passion forum gone?

It's sad to lose information and the help of knowledgeable people.

Years ago, Google used to be able to display "archived" web pages, but no longer. There is just too much info out there.

Maybe some of the members from GPS Pasion will signup here.

Since I was last on GPSPassion. It's indeed sad to see it go by the wayside.

Automotive use is just one of many areas where GPS is a factor. Aviation, marine and handheld devices as well as GPS trackers continue to increase in popularity.

Whether it's a smartphone or a built in automotive device, users still rely on the GPS system to make them work. Yes, the sales of standalone automotive GPS receivers have declined but the number of consumer devices that use GPS technology continues to increase.

Hopefully, this will keep other GPS forums from going dark.

Yes, the loss of the GPS Passion forum would indeed be sad news. I use my hand held Garmin almost as much as my trusty vehicle Garmin and I always enjoyed the info available on all the forums.

Speaking of other forums does anyone have a few others out there that they can suggest?

http://www.gpsreview.net/

http://forums.gpsreview.net/

For Zumo users https://www.zumouserforums.co.uk/

I haven't been on www.gpspassion.com for a long time. In fact the last login record I have is from 2014.

I had been checking GPS Passion a couple times a week just to see if anything new had been posted. For the past 2 or 3 years it has been rare to find any new posts, but the site was up until about a week ago. I guess with the lack of activity, it isn't a surprise that it has gone dark, but it would have been nice if they had given some notice.

I was a regular there for longer than I have been here...sorry to see it go (if it has in fact gone)

I figured the Wayback Machine might be a useful reference to past content at GPSPassion, but every scan I've checked thus far just results in a loop that never gets far enough to put anything viewable on the page. Oddest thing I've ever seen on the archive.

https://web.archive.org/web/*/gpspassion.com

Sadly, GPS Passion has been down for about a month now. I have to think it is not coming back.

That's where I got my start in GPS discussions.

Sorry that it's gone.

Perhaps one or two here might remember how active I was across a number of GPS information sites, moderating at several of them.

Like most of us smartphones have replaced our dedicated navigation devices. I no longer use any of my Nuvi's and the Dakota I still have hasn't been used in at least 2 years. Despite all that I do miss the camaraderie I developed with a number of fellow navigators from GPSPassion to GPSReview, GPS News, TomTomForums, and PocketGPS.

Those were the good old days. Nice to know you're still around Gator

I still use my Garmins, both in my car and when hiking. Just don't find my phone good at what I want

Very sad if they are gone....

There are in fact gone...just like that. No email to its members warning them of their upcoming doom. The site owner/admins must have been [understandably] bitter.

Gpspassion was fairly organized and structure quite well due to the nature of the forum software. They had conversion tools which were handy. There were other forums that were excellent too but tended to be quite unprofessional and had pirated content available. The tools they had were excellent. They are gone as well.

And the reason I am here today is I'm looking for POIs and standalone .gpx to .kml converters. I know there are a few websites that do this but I want to do this on my PC.

I do feel though consumer grade GPS units are not that common these days. Garmin for example has never embraced Google but has a relationship with Foursquare (gag) and TripAdvisor. Their info is not updated in realtime. In some other countries, cabbies still use Garmin GPS units but for the most part, Uber, HereMaps, and obviously Google Maps are superior and people use these providers.

So, I personally feel GPS units other than for aviation and marine are a thing of the past. Garmin/Nokia have all but abandoned the automotive market with Apple Car Play and Android Auto being the navigation hardware of choice in a vehicle's infotainment systems. It's rare for people to optionally choose in-car navigation now which uses a SD card to store the mapset and only has a certain amount of (dated) updates before you have to purchase a new subscription after the free one expires.

I'll keep using my older Garmins until they die. I've grown an attachment to them and I still like the HD traffic it has whilst my in-car HD traffic map is so small I can barely see anything. RIP GPSPassion.

I'm a diehard gps user. The last car had indash gps but it was just about useless for actual guiding. Worked better as a dynamic map. I still had a garmin attached to the lower left windshield for actual guidance. Google maps/waze/whatever is good for point to point directions but just about useless for custom routes. Again, garmin works best here (with mapsource or basecamp).

My next car will have gps too, but again I expect to be using a garmin on the long trips.

Sad to hear.

Me too

gpspreview dot net not working also?

My next car materialized shortly after I posted that... 4 days later to be exact. As promised, it has gps, 10.25" display.

https://i.imgur.com/Nxm3fgQ.jpg

It's getting harder to find a vehicle in the mid to upper price range that doesn't come with a built in GPS.

Like A/C, I think the in dash GPS will become an industry standard before long.

I am also one who prefers my Garmin GPS for several reasons.

1.) In Canada it is very costly for a data plan on a smart phone.
2.) I drive my car in 3 different countries, a smart phone would involve roaming charges.
3.) I prefer the larger Garmin screen vs my smart phone.
4.) My Garmin is far easier to use than the dumb nav unit (Garmin based) in my car.
5.) No usage cost with my Garmin at any time no matter where I am.

As an aside, any of my Garmins shows me all side roads on the highway as does my nav in the car. But recently I had a long ride in my daughters 2 year old Nissan Altima and her nav unit did not show any side roads on the highway. Maybe it was a setting she uses?

GPSReview.net seems to have disappeared without notice. T923347 and I discussed this in a PM a couple of weeks ago but neither of us know what happened to the GPS Review forum. Does anyone else have any information about it?

I was never a member of GPS Passion but I often visited the site for one particular thread that kept track of Garmin update history dates over the years.

I bookmarked GPS Passion forum for that singular purpose.

The car above is a kia stinger (2022). Surprisingly the inbuilt nav is actually pretty good when used for point-point travel. I rarely need a gps locally. The real need is when I do road trips. My road trips are about as distant from point to point as it gets; secondary roads, some barely even pass for roads. Without tripplanner, the garmin would be useless. None of the built in units allow custom routes, even those garmin based (honda).

I also discussed this with member sussamb who also didn't know what had happened to GPSReview.net

I know the writing is on the wall, but still, it saddens me to see these resources that are a wealth of information die on the vine. I don't understand why they just disappear without at least sending a notice to their long time loyal members.

I know the writing is on the wall, but still, it saddens me to see these resources that are a wealth of information die on the vine. I don't understand why they just disappear without at least sending a notice to their long time loyal members.

... not back up so reckon it's gone for good