Garmin City Navigator NA 2027.10 Vs Open Map Chest Maps (March D/L) And DriveLuxe 51 Vs. Nuvi 3597

Today I took a short drive around my city to compare the Garmin City Navigator NA maps to the Open Map Chest Maps Midwest. I used my Garmin DriveLuxe 51 with CN NA amd my Nuvi 3597 with Open Map Chest. As much as possible, I kept the settings the same.

One of my first impressions is the DriveLuxe 51 had satellite signals sooner than the Nuvi 3597 did. That, of course, had nothing to do with the mapping software, but rather a difference in the GPS receiver chipset. I recall some posts in the past may have had the specific GPS receivers for the various Garmins.

One of the next things that slightly surprised me is the temperature displayed did not match. Both were connected to my Apple iPhone 15 for date and getting the temperature from the reliever airport near me. After a few minutes the temperatures did match. Perhaps one device gets updated more frequently.

The elevation usually did not match each other and I expected that. I seem to recall that Garmin GPS elevations are usually not that good.

What impressed me about the Open Map Chest Maps was they are more detailed. For example, they usually show icons of buildings nearby and paved multi-use paths (MUPs) are shown. Granted, not everybody wants more details, but I like them.

There are several new housing developments near my farm, so driving through the new areas to see what new streets are shown was an interesting experiment. Open Map Chest (OMC) seemed to be the clear winner here over Garmin CN.

OMC also showed water in smaller holding ponds that Garmin did not show. Again, not everybody wants or needs that kind of detail, but it is an interesting difference to me.

Streets with center medians are shown on the OMC maps that often did not show on the CN maps. OMC often will show paved driveways that go right up to homes that CN doesn't show.

The POIs differ, too. Garmins pro-programmed POIs are typically cleaner. OMC will have instances in which the same gas station is listed two, three or even four times in a row. Other times OMC will list some as "Unnamed". OMC POIs will seem to show street addresses for POIs less frequently than CN.

I should also add that I did have Google Maps running on a Google Pixel 6 displaying on the dash of my Ram 1500. I paid less attention to that because my focus was on the Garmins with the differing maps.

Another one of my interesting observations was there were a few new streets that OMC showed that Garmin Maps did not show.

What I want to do in the future is compare the two maps on a longer trip to see how they perform against one another. I recall some years ago that people either on here or elsewhere compared two Garmins against one another using the same CN maps and settings. It seems like two Garmins of the same model can even vary a bit bit on how they will create a route.

My only conclusion from doing this is it is nice to have more than one means of navigation available, particularly on longer trips or in areas that you are unfamiliar with. I know that many Garmin owners have replaced their devices with mapping apps on smartphones. However, I still feel that there is value in having a dedicated navigator. Open Street Maps which are what Open Map Chest uses, are free to install and use and are a nice addition to your City Navigator maps.

Did you happen to notice if warnings (e.g. curve ahead, animal crossing) are presented the same? I like having the next street name presented on the top line and the warnings interfere. Where I live animal crossings come every two blocks.