From the horse's mouth (on updating the map)

Thank you for contacting Garmin Cartography. I apologize for the mapping errors and we will do everything possible to correct the issues in a future update.

When Garmin publishes a product, it uses the latest detail available from vendors at the time it starts putting the product together. We don't digitize the detail, though...any imperfections or omissions in the source detail get included in the final product, along with the positives.

Our primary road detail vendor for North American roads and streets is NavTeq (the points of interest are primarily from Dun & Bradstreet licensed by NavTeq).

It is a running database that is kept, and not every piece of data will be the same "age" from it. In most large metro areas of North America, the NavTeq detail is premium and is usually quite good (though about any map of this kind of scale will have some errors). NavTeq drives those roads and field verifies them. NavTeq is commonly regarded as making the best routable North American detail in the business, which is why we use them.

In "other" areas outside these driven metropolitan areas, the detail from NavTeq is usually good, but it is not always quite as good. You may find that roads are more likely to be missing or are slightly off from their true position. You may also find that addresses are not available or the address ranges may be on the opposite side of the street from what they truly are. These roads have not been field verified by NavTeq but have been put together in other ways. But overall the quality of these areas is pretty comparable to the data from other vendors in this market...overall being the key word. NavTeq is the premium data vendor in this business by most regard.

Please keep in mind that in high growth areas, updates for new subdivisions and new construction may take time. We purchase one update a year from Navteq and if the timing isn't right, the changes may not be in their database yet when they send us our update. I know it can be frustrating but Garmin and our data vendors do everything possible to put out the most accurate, up to date maps possible. In addition to submitting the errors to us you may also want to consider contacting NavTeq directly by filling out their map feedback form. The link to the form is below. These reports are reviewed by NavTeq and they will contact you directly regarding the status of the error. Once they have corrected the issue the change will show up in a future Garmin map update. Their site also allows you to view their most current data so you can check to see if the change has already been made.

I will certainly pass along your feedback regarding our update policy.
It is my hope that we will be able to set something up in the future similar to what you suggest in your e-mail. It is a very good idea.

I hope this helps explain things a little and please don't hesitate to ask if you have other questions.

Regards,

Nathan

NavTeq - http://www.navteq.com/index.html

NavTeq Map Feedback form - http://mapreporter.navteq.com/dur-web-external/