What Features Do You Miss That Were On Older Garmins?

…on the GPS. The Nuvi 3590 had this ability. It was nice to change the speed limit when the speed limit was out of date.

The "Most" detail setting..

Two things I miss on the map display are the compass arrow and the map scale.

For the longest time it was the Nuvi 350 MP3 player feature I missed the most when I updated to a newer Nuvi. That feature was a godsend on long drives for listing to audiobooks in the days before I had a smartphone capable of playing MP3 files.

I thought the same until I had one (nuvi 2460?) that had the feature. Two major downsides stopped me from correcting speed zones:

If a long stretch of a highway was incorrectly posted, I found that the corrected speed limit was only applied for some distance, and I'd need to perform the correction repeatedly as I traveled down the highway.

The other biggie was, I think, that all speed limit corrections were deleted when performing a map update. I understood the reasoning but hated having to correct a recalcitrant speed zone repeatedly.

Most Entertainment systems in the car have the ability to accept a USB thumb drive.

I loaded my preferred music on this and I don't have to listen to commercials, DJ chat etc.

Especially helpful when you're on a long haul trip and every hour, you run out of a station you finally found that you liked.

If you're loading from CDs use, MP3 Gain program to equalize the volume levels so all are at the save volume.

Of the fact that most automotive entertainment systems these days have a USB or Aux in. But back in 2005 they were not very common standard features and were often expensive headend unit retrofits on vehicles (or some kind of adapter hack). Along came FM transmitters which is what i used for ages (and still occasionally use) with a smartphone rather than trying to retrofit my vehicle at that time with a headend unit with USB/Aux in. Used audiobook CD's for years in my car's multi disc CD player until the player started having issues loading and playing discs. It was just nice to have the audiobook music pause while the Nuvi 350 spit out the voiced navigation.

I miss the dashboard that older units had where you had options on what to show. Older units also had the option to read car info from that OBD2 plug.

My Nuvi displayed fields such as odometer using a font size appropriate for the number of significant digits. My DriveSmart 51LMT-S (like it’s name) always uses seventeen significant digits force fit into a microscopic font size.

Also, asking if I want to recalculate. If I'm on a route and stop at a rest stop, I don't need my route to be recalculated.

BUT, it did disappear with a map update so it became worthless for me.

Not saying I can't live without it, but, it gave me good time. Now, I use FM modulator which takes one 12V.

I still use an old nuvi 760 for the combination of the ability to play mp3 books and audible books. It also plays through the car stereo. When a direction or alert pops up it pauses the book, gives the direction, the picks up the book about 1 second before the pause.

Auto-recalculate I actually don't mind. The DriveSmart series is fast enough that the amount of time spent recalculating is short.

I had Garmin Mobile XT some years back. It was installed on a Pharos GPS Phone 600. There were some nice online features in Mobile XT, like fuel prices and flight data.

The Garmin Nuvi 1690 and 1695 had nuLink_services, like movie times and local events. This can all be done on a smartphone, of course. I did use the White Pages several times and it was handy.

https://static.garmin.com/pumac/1419_GarminMobileXTOwnersMan...

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/64339

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/70853

https://www8.garmin.com/automotive/nuLink_services/

My new Acura Integra only has one USB slot. that is the one thing I dislike about the car. If I am charging my phone, I cannot use the slot for my Ipod for music. This will be my last Acura due to their shortsightedness in technology features.

My new Acura Integra only has one USB slot. that is the one thing I dislike about the car. If I am charging my phone, I cannot use the slot for my Ipod for music. This will be my last Acura due to their shortsightedness and cheapness in technology features.

TPMS monitoring on the Zumo series. I wish this was available for my Zumo XT.

For a number of years, have been using a bluetooth/FM modulator that has two USB power ports for powering/charging phones. Works well for the few times I use it these days.

Could drop some money on a new headend unit that has Bluetooth paring and USB/Aux input, but for the old car I drive it's not really worth spending $150 to $300 on a headend unit + additional installation kit from Crutchfield or eBay at this point.

x2 on the speed limit change.

I think the app was from Turbo CC, but it allowed you to change some of the notifications.
I changed "Recalculating" to "You know best, Sir".
At start up, I had it say something like "Up, Up & away"

Yeah.. there are more choices available on online shopping web sites now than before.. some are really affordable if you don't mind their cheap price.
{Bluetooth Car FM Transmitter MP3 Player USB Charger}

On both of my old Nuvi's, 760 and 765T, I used the MP3 player a lot for both music and audiobooks, using the available SD card port for extra storage - at several gigs each the cards could hold way more than I would need even for very long trips. Combined with the FM transmitter to play through the cars sound system while stilling getting the occasional "rest stop ahead" notification, that setup worked very nicely! Somtimes it was hard to find a clear FM freq, but even in metro areas I was usually able to find one.

This is a navigation device after all!

I still use an old Nuvi

The ability for the nuvi to display the type of waypoint/favorite icon along with it's actual name rather than the generic green bubble that tells you nothing.

I have the Nuvi 3597LMTHD for quite a few years now and love it. I jsut noticed that the glass screen is splitting from the body of the unit. It seems to be on its last legs. I would buy another one but it is no longer supported by Garmin. Is there anotehr model GPS that has tHe same or similar features? Thank you.

I agree with you.

The screen peeling up like what you've mentioned could be caused by a failure of the adhesive, in which case you could buy T-Rex adhesive from WalMart and attach the screen to the shell. I would however look and see if perhaps your battery is expanding due to age. The batteries are also replaceable.

Realistically however, a replacement might be best. Either the DriveSmart 66 or 76 should meet your needs. The two are identical except for the screen size (6" for 66, 7" for 76) and appear to have the same feature set as your unit.

I just had something similar with my cell phone. The battery was starting to bulge, possibly from overcharging. The back was coming right off.

My only nagging doubt regarding the battery being the culprit is that the Garmin battery is tiny compared to the amount of airspace inside the unit. If it was a unit like my nüvi 3550LM I could see it as that unit's case back has no airspace over the battery. but based upon the size of the battery and the amount of airspace between the screen and the battery I'm unsure the battery is the culprit. I believe it more likely the adhesive has failed for whatever reason.

I miss the ability to change the speed limit sign on the GPS.

Garmin offers few newer models that have many of the features of the 3597. Most notably, a powered magnetic mount and the green shaded map that shows topo features.

As partial compensation, many newer units offer other convenient features lacking on the 3597. Most notably are WiFi update, backup camera compatibility and vehicle stereo interface.

IMO, the only unit that comes close to the 3597 is the Drivelux 51. It has backup camera compatibility, WiFi update and the powered magnetic mount but lacks the green shaded display. Unfortunately, like the 3597, the Drivelux 51 has also been discontinued.

Both these units occasionally show up on eBay in good condition if you're serious about sticking with these old favorites.

I will look into it.

I will check them out

The older units (or at least older software) showed MUCH MUCH more detail on the Map display.

It showed the name of the little lakes and parks you drove by.

I suspect that showing more detail maybe have slowed the unit down, o rather than put batter/faster processors in the units, they just removed the feature

I believe that the details are still in the mapping software, just no option to display it on the Garmin units.

I liked having the detailed information.

The DriveSmart 76 and probably the 65 as well still do display park names as you drive by. Lake names however do seem to be gone. Both are still in the map data however, as Basecamp displays both.

My 2689LMT is my go to navigation device. One feature I wish it had is the ability to act on a voice response to a notification of a traffic situation. For instance, a week back I was travelling and I got a message about a traffic situation some distance ahead that would result in a x-minute delay. The notification takes up about 1/3 of the screen. To clear it I have to lean forward and hit the "x" to close the notification screen. What I would like is to be able to say some voice command that would clear the display.

The biggest feature advance of the DriveSmart units is voice command, at least compared to what I used to use, but even they can't close the traffic notification using voice command. This I believe is because the traffic notification updates in real time due to the units being paired with a smartphone equipped with Garmin Drive.