why dont they have this feature?

I have a GPS 12, GPS III Pilot, and eTrex Legend in addition to my nuvi 200. My previous units have the features you mention. I think Garmin marketing has seen that the majority of the market doesn't need/want those features, so they've simplified the interface.

You are correct in that ALL of the data is still available, but making it infinitely user configurable just causes more support calls, which end up costing more money. I'm sure these features are still available, but probably only on high-end units that cost enough money to offset the support.

Just my .02's

One feature I wish they had was a record button.

If I was following someone to a destination, I wish I could save the route Info for later use.

I agree. I just cannot imagine that a new model on the street lacks features like customization, altitude etc. Looking at the year old models, they have more features then the new ones. what a shame.

That is why Garmin caters to different markets:
On the Road
On the Go
On the trail
Onto Fitness
On the water
On the air
Features you guys miss in the Car navigation unit are still available in some of the others units marketed specifically for the consumer needs.
The bread crumb feature is useful for someone hiking on trails, not so good for car navigation.
Altitude is needed in the units marketed for people flying or hiking mountains, not necessary for car navigation.
And lastly don’t forget that units with all the features you longing for did not include turn by turn instructions with TTS

I would at least expect to see a countdown to next waypoint. This would be nice to use for longer trips with multiple stops. Perhaps this has been added for the 7xx series.

My Nuvi 350 counts down before a turn. I see the distance going down and a voice comes up telling me when to expect the turn.

As for the breadcrumbs thing, try going on ebay and getting a GPS III Pilot. It's for aviation so you won't get the detailed road maps ( just airspace ) but if you use it in a car, it leaves behind the breadcrumbs and as an added bonus, if you upgrade to Google Earth Plus ( $20 per year ) you can connect the GPS III ( you'll need a USB to serial connector if your pc doesn't have a serial port ) and download the track and then view it on Google Earth. It's pretty exact too!

As a double added bonus, you can use the GPS III Pilot on a commercial flight and because it has aviation waypoints rather than roads, you can see the route, waypoints and intersections the plane is using as you fly along rather than just gazing in awe at the maximum speed on you car gps.

...has elevation on it. Tap the vehicle icon and it shows lon/lat and elevation... plus it asks if you want to save that location as a favorite. I'm sort of wondering how it gets the elevation info though, as going across the Atchafalaya basin in Louisiana on I-10 last week it said at one point that we were 27 feet below sea level...

I don't really see the need for a breadcrumb trail when driving, but it would be nice to be able to save the route for future reference, especially if it's one that I had to navigate from waypoint to waypoint to force it to pick the roads I wanted.

I have not made the transition to a full street GPS, other than the unit in my wifes honda civic. I can enjoy all the turn by turn directions with my above units, and have the ability to see the altitude, drop breadcrumbs (every second) create and record routes, and also mark waypoints, and see future turn countdown, .. I am able to upload POI files, and topo maps, and street maps with ease.. The only down side is the units do not speak to you they just have a series of beeps..

Just my $0.02.

cachejunkies

While RVing I use my Nuvi 370 and also a Vista "C" to display the info I want and can't readly have on the Nuvi

Another great unit would be the GPS V (5) off of eBay. It is very similar to the GPS III Pilot, but instead includes a routable US Basemap for use in the car. I noticed the same "lack of detailed information" when I moved from the GPS V to my nuvi 350, but the 350 is a superior tool for actual car-based navigation.

I simply miss a breadcrumb feature.

You can see elevation on the nuvi, but you have to go to the satellite screen and altitude is in the upper right corner if you need the info. Granted it is not convienent.

Where do you find the satellite screen?

It depends what model you buy, the 2820 will do all of the above.

There are lot's of things that are there they don't show. Time of day is another. The display says I will arrive at 6 PM. My car clock says it is 5:45. When will I get there? Not a biggie but a way to synchronize my car clock with the GPS would be real handy

Tap the satellite strength signal icon on the 'Where to' screen. It is on the top left on my nuvi 350. Elev. doesn't appear to be too accurate though.

Just set your car clock with the gps time. The gps is probably the more accurate of the two. But keep in mind the present time and the arrival time are two different things. With my 2610 or my 2820 if they tell me I'll be there at 6:00 I can pretty much count on being there give or take 3 or 4 minutes.

I would love to set my car clock but my GPs doesn't display the current time that I can find at least.

I returned the 680 to Costco and got the Magellan Maestro 4240. The bug with the severe weather alert was really irritating me and I wanted to see if Magellan had some of the features that I desired. BTW I also returned the Magellan but there were some pretty cool features that I would like to see incorporated into the Garmin user interface:
- ability to show the configured POI icons in 3d view
- I really liked the keyboard screens which dynamically showed the only possible next key based on the waypoints it had within the database. For example you would start typing N for a state and it would only allow the next possible letters like E,A and all the other keys were greyed out.
- the detour function is much more configurable in that you can tell it what distance to detour from your current route.
- When displaying a route you can click on any street in the turn by turn list and choose to exclude this street. It would then re-route without the excluded street

These were the only really nice features that stand out. I returned it because i didnt like the in route options. I could not search for more pois while in route unless i was on a highway and then it would enable a function called "exit POI" which would list the stuff by category that is at that exit. I really didnt care for this format. I liked the way that the Garmin dynamically shows the poi in text mode while in a route and I am waiting till the Nuvi 650 is available from Costco again.

If you bought a Garmin off road GPS meant for hiking trails, it would have the features you describe like bread crumbs. The found most automotive GPS units have no need for these features and they leave them off to keep the price down.

I would like to see added is a gas mileage program that not only calculates MPG but stores the data for historical reference. i.e. what has been your gas mileage for the pass month/year.

I like that idea alot. That would be a simple program to write. I wish that the they would write allow third party vendors to write applications that would run on the Garmin. There would be an explosion of useful applications and would probably boost GPS sales.

can't help but think that rather than a GPS, many people want a smaller version of their laptop hooked up to a satellite receiver. (a more compact version of Streets & Trips without the hassle of having to strap down the laptop)

The companies are obviously headed that way with MP3 plyrs, photo albums, etc.

Given the size of current Memory Cards (think I saw a 32 gig card recently) how long will it be before Garmin signs on with MS for an OS that "does it all."

Probably out there already but just not in my price range.

I don't want a GPS that "does it all". In fact I just want a GPS that navigates. I don't want pictures, music, traffic, Bluetooth.... I want a good GPS with TTS that will take me from here to there, and allow me to specify parts or all of the route.

Unfortunately, that GPSr seems to be nearly impossible to find these days. In order to get the routing feature you have to shell out for a lot of garbage that has little or nothing to do with navigation. And the thing is, I'm virtually certain that to incorporate routing into my 260 would be nothing more than a software fix. I'd even pay a modest fee for such an upgrade.

Give me routing and a qwerty keyboard and my Nuvi 260 GPS would be perfect.

I agree that the GPS should not become a small laptop but since most of these units sit in a auto or motorcycle that the functions should relate to travel. I also fore see being able to monitor the operation of the car/bike as most cars now days have a plug-in that you can tap into the status of the car's systems.

Im just saying that the technology is there to do so much more. I see this so many possibilies for this technology that I personally would like to see in the future and I like to explore new technology and think of new and interesting ways that it can be used for to solve issues nobody has ever thought of. But I do know that there are people out there that just want the basics and are happy with that. Just like there are people out there that think a computer is good for nothing other than being a glorified typewriter. I however see the technology and say thats cool but what if we also did this......

I still have the Garmin iQue M5 which has breadcrumb feature. I haven't used it much. Only turn that feature during vacation to see all the places I've been to.

... but I see my GPSr as a driving tool. The more extraneous add-ons there are the more likely I am to be distracted from the job at hand, which is getting from here to there, safely and efficiently.

My problem is not with all the stuff being available for those who want it (or think they do), it's more with not being able to get the uploadable routing (which I would consider an essential driving tool if I was designing a GPSr) without having to buy all the other extras that have little or nothing to do with driving.

Yes, I agree there are many shortcomings with the base functionality that Garmin has yet to address properly. They should definately fix that as well as building a my.garmin site that would allow you do build routes and waypoints and upload them directly to the gps. Thats why i think that third party application providers may be able to take up the slack and offer routing capability as an app or better driving tools and leave the base Operating system up to Garmin. I think the two working together can build a product that will benefit us all without being overly complicated.

On your Nuvi 250W, the time is displayed in the top right corner of the main menu.