Nuvi or Drive / Drivesmart -- What is your preference?

I have the Drivesmart 55 and it works great with my BC-40. No issues and don’t use it with my smartphone. Most of the stuff you mentioned can be turned off in settings.

My preference is with the nuvi series, in large part because I don't own a smartphone, nor do I want one. That limits my choices to some extent.

Nuvi here and don't want to use smartphone.

My thought is only to consider a used or refurbed nuvi 3597 or DriveLuxe 51, and use each with the Garmin Smartphone app.

I have the same concern with more recent Garmin GPS units having less actual capabity in handling complex cross country routing situations.

After experiencing some intolerable misrouting and slow responding prompts at complex intersections with my newest DriveAssist GPS, I did a side by side comparison of my aging Nuvi 3597 and my DriveAssist 51.

The 3597 is noticeabily faster in computing routes and choosing (at least the route I want it to). I use BaseCamp to plan long cross country routes using waypoints to guide the GPS on the route I want to take.

With a reasonable number of waypoints placed in the route I've never had the problem with of the Nuvi 3597 deciding on to stray off onto yet another route that is undesirable to me.

With the DriveAssist straying off routes from what was loaded is a significant issue. It is also much slower in calculating an "A" to "B" destination route entered directly on GPS unit compared to the 3597.

Another feature the 3597 had that to me is a requirement is the magnetic mount that feeds power to the GPS. I've looked at all the newer Garmin GPS units and that feature is not available except on the the truck and RV specific units.

Also the ability to program a complete route of starting at a location proceding to a number of waypoint locations and returning to the origination point works great on the 3597. That function is mostly broken in the DriveAssist. Some routes it will work, others will not even compute in the GPS after downloading from BaseCamp and if it does, straying off exspecially on the return route is a chronic problem.

Many reviews of the newer Garmin GPS mention similar routing issues.

I would really like to hear feedback in this thread on what are the most reliable newer Garmin GPS models. I would really like to replace the DriveAssist GPS but have become gun shy of Garmins newer models.

Nuvi 3597 followed closely by the Driveluxe 51.

Slim compact metal cases and powered mag mounts are the primary reasons.

I'll agree with CraigW and bdhsfz6. In spite of their age, these two models are hard to beat. I admittedly have not used any of the Drivesmart models and have no direct experience with them.

Thanks for the comments. My wife told me that the older nuvi unit I had recalculated routes quickly. By the time the newer Drivesmart recalculates the route, I am past the intersection where I am supposed to make the turn. Sometimes the older technology is better.

I found a great deal on a used drivesmart 60 LMT on ebay.

I was using a Drive 52 unit, worked good, but the screen is a bit small and harder to see.

One thing I like about the drivesmart is the voice control.

My eye site is not real good for small text. The voice control works great for me.

I have custom POI sounds and icons in the drivesmart.

Regards - joystick

I noticed the Nuvi has a smaller display. The text is smaller and everything is cramped on the display. It is harder to read than the DriveSmart models. The Nuvis are smaller and easier to carry. The DriveSmart is bigger, and much easier to read. It also shows the name of the current road, while I have to hit the car icon to see my current locaton on the Nuvi. Both models are a little different. I find the older models are a little less quirky. The DriveSmart will popup with a display once in a while telling me I am driving the wrong way. It is difficult to get rid of the popup while driving.

With Apple Carplay on a 10” display with voice control. Sweet combination.

On my Nuvi 50 the trip odo data fields were formatted with a font size sensible for the number of significant digits. It was usable.

My DS 51 always presents 74 digits and is readable with the better electron microscopes.

Since my needs are navigation (which lane...) and traffic the DS 51 is better for me. If the algorithm to present trip odo data were copied from the Nuvi 50 it would be much better.