A "better route is available......" for c340

That has happened to me only once or twice and I can't remember what I did, I think all you have to do is touch the "better route" and it recalculates the route.

That's my problem, I don't see any "better route" anywhere on the map, or anywhere else, that I can touch!

hopefully someone who has had more experience can comment on this, like I said, I only seen it myself once or twice and i can't remember.

I got the same thing coming south on 95 into NY, I heard it and saw something on the gps, but I had only had it for a day and couldn't react to it in time, if your familiar with the area, I was coming up to 15 (merrit pky) while traveling on south 95, I guess if traffic had been real bad I could have jumped on that on gotten to the Bridge either way. It is the only time that I got that message. I never saw a way to tell the unit to take me that way though.

Is it possible that it would do that if there was a tie up in traffic ahead and you have a fm tmc traffic receiver..seeing as how it is suppose to route you the best way in the first place? just thinking here...

Whenever I hear "A better route is available," I see a yellow diamond "traffic sign" with a black road at the upper right hand corner of the screen. Tapping it will recalculate the better route.

This happens when I ignore the direction to exit the freeway and stay on I-84 long enough. Eventually, staying the course becomes the "better route" than doubling back to the earlier exit.

I found the explanation on Page 5 of the 350 owner's (PDF) manual.

I also have the 340 and I have never seen any message box or icon of any type appear when I get this message. My guess is that the person at Garmin got it confused with another model.

The only thing that I have found to get the new route is to go in and reselect my destination from Recent Selections, then let it recalculate a new route.

I was trying to remember what happen to me when I got the better route alert.Based my account was that the new route appeared on the screen and was told to turn at new exit on I75 .So I sent email to Garmin to see if I was correct and this is the answer in next paragraph they sent back .In my case I continue on with the orginial route and when I passed the new exit it re calculated back to the orginial route

Thank you for contacting Garmin International. You will not be given any
prompts (screen touches) and you simply continue your route based on the
highlighted road.

My C340 is on occasion very determined; if she wants to go around town and I go through town, she insists I go back and go around, even when I'm on the other side of town and heading away towards my destination. I usually have to reselect the destination to get her on board. But if I miss an exit or something she recalculates just fine.

When I got my c340 back in Sept I read all the information on the owners manual I downloaded from the Garmin site.The first thing after that I went to the settings(wrench) and went through all the settings and found some things that were not on like the waas/egnos and proximity alarms were off.I also check all the avoidances I wanted on under navigation.I found the unit was more in line after that in what I wanted it to do but like any piece of electronic gear it will only do so much and some problems will occur.

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for answering my question with your own relevant experience. Perhaps the tech I exchange email with was thinking of another Garmin product: there are a lot of them.

This is what the tech said:

"Yes, when the unit does tell you there is a better route available, the unit should pop up on the screen saying would you like to take the better route. This is the only time/place the option would pop up, and is built into the units memory itself, so there isn't an option to turn it on/off. "

And that is why I was confused: I never saw anything. Presuming your information is more accurate, I'm happy!

I've received the same voice prompt from my c340 a few times. I called and asked Garmin about it a while back (about a year ago). I was dealing with a tech that seemed to be experienced and helping me with another issue I had with upgrading the firmware/software. After we fixed that, I asked about this "better route available" voice prompt. He did some research and called me back. He told me that the programmers intended to include that functionality in the c340 but didn't complete it. Said that it would be fixed on a future software release, but for now just ignore it. However, on occasion when hearing this prompt, I have pressed STOP and re-entered my destination and did get a different route (maybe that's a workaround?). I did notice that the c340 is listed as discontinued now, so I wonder if they will continue to update features like this? By the way, what's the email address you can email issues to???

To email issues to Garmin go to http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/support/supportcont... and click on support and then go to contact support and follow steps from there.

I got email back last week from Garmin about updating features and maps for c340 with it being discontinued and was told even though it was being discontinued it would still being getting all updates.

The latest update is 4.40.

Ahhh! With the responses so far, and my own experience, it seems as though there are three possible answers (given by tech support to me and others) to my original question.

Only one thing is certain: at least two of them are not correct.

But this is not a big issue to be upset about: I'm just curious, and my curiosity is now satisfied!

Selecting Detour often sends you on your prefered route when GPSr is insistent on you taking the original route.

Twice my C340 has told me there was a better route. However, I was within a mile of my house after a 25 mile trip. Both times was at the exact spot.

I did not notice anything different on the display. In addition, I have all the "latest and greatest" maps and software upates. My unit is only about a month old. Futhermore, I have done all the updates.

I thought I was going bonkers the first time I hear it announce that a better route was available. The second time was funny. Would like to know how to determine this "better route".

I have on several occasions, seen that message pop-up, usually in the strangest places. E.G., on freeway between two points. The route I'm following is definitely the best route. I have not selected the "a better route is available" suggestion. I wonder if it may have to due with the routing preference setting: fastest time vs shortest route.

I don't have the traffic function enabled so I've never seen or notices a traiffic icon.

Reran the same route again today and got the same "voice" that a better route was available. No traffic around so I stopped my car and really looked close at the GPS and nothing different on the screen. Changed to every screen I could, and never found anything different than normal.

I guess the better route is a Garmin secret. Oh well, it keeps you on your toes once in a while. Wonder what other suprises will pop up?

My thoughts are sometimes we need to use plain ole common sense instead of the thoughts or intentions of a program writer.
(nothing personal against a programmer)

I got the "Better Route Available" statement the other day too. Nothing onscreen to touch or accept, and when I checked the route, it was the same so far as I could see. Maybe something just sets it off every now and then.

Returning back to VA I got the better route found option.When coming to Florida I ignored the message because I had not seen anything in my manual about it so Jill just re-calculated.This time when it went off I was ready.I had stopped at the the last rest stop on I75 before heading over to hwy 301 then to I10.At the rest stop I reviewed the next steps on the map for the directions not knowing I would get a alert.Sure enough I got the better route found option on my c340 and noticed I was taking a left turn that I had not seen when I looked at the map on the GPS at rest stop.I had emailed Garmin after the first time it happen to get some information on what to do when getting the alert and was told to continue on the new route and no action was required as far as selection.So that is what I done this time.