Garmin nuvi 2797LMT (010-01061-25)

That good my no so IT savy wife wants one as well!!

Driving from inner city Adelaide to Sydney, I had my iPhone Google maps operating concurrently with a new Garmin nuvi 2797 LMT. Within city precincts, the Garmin was leading in the opposite diection to Google maps. I knew enough of Adelaide to follow Google's directions to exit the city. I keyed 'Gawler' in as the first location to pass for both systems. On 90% of intersections, the Gamrmin GPS gave opposite instructions to Google maps. Google maps found the correct route easily. Garmin is great at warning the driver about hidden "safety cameras". New to Adelaide several months ago, I got 'pinged' whilst searching for a particular street name - failing to notice a speed sign to reduce speed from 70 km/h to 60 km/h at a safety camera. The fines was $395, way more than the cost of the Gamin product. I purchased the Garmin to avoid a reoccurance. The Garmin image is large (7 inch) and easy to view without being a distraction. The voice is crystal clear with an Aussie accent. My old Tom Tom device had an option to plot a course avoiding toll ways. I haven't found that option on the Garmin GPS, yet.

nuvi 2797LMT Review for J Appleseed. I just bought this nuvi 2797LMT and went on a 3000 km trip from Victoria to South Australia and back to home in Victoria. This replaces my defunct Garmin 3790 which died due to battery problems, (amongst other things) and as a direct comparison to the older model this is easier to use in the way the controls are set out. The large screen is easy to see and I love the large keyboard when typing in co-ordinances etc. The street mapping is very good and it comes up with a “towns search” more easily, in the area and also that it shows fuel and food in the towns. This is a very handy, large screened GPS, easy to use and worked pretty well. It did want to send me through a circuitous route a couple of time though and the experienced user really expects this and takes note of which towns need to be arrived at and soon picks up a wrong heading. I never blindly trust any GPS and having even a general map in the vehicle is useful. But….. I constantly had errors in trying to get to inserted Coordinates to find camp spots as listed in Camps 7, a traveller’s bible in Australia, and an excellent aid to camping spots when travelling interstate. At first I thought it a mistake in the Camps7, but buy the 5th error in trying to find Dump points or road side camping Coordinates I can definitely say this particular GPS is out to a large degree. I am talking from 100 to 500 metres out and that is a lot, even in a built up area. I got used to going buy the description of the site and just driving around to find the spot. That’s how I can say that there is a very large discrepancy in this unit. I can only add that doing this driving around with a land cruiser and 20 foot caravan multiplies my discontent to a larger degree than just inconvenience, especially if you get into a dead end situation and have to back up 50 metres to do a turn.... I will be talking to J A, and hopefully get this attended too. If you are a Geocacher, I cannot recommend this GPS.

After having a Garmin navigator before I had high expectations for the 2797LMT and I was not disappointed. It knows your speed and the current limit. How often do you say "what's the limit here?" It keeps you on the ball at a glance and takes the stress out of driving in strange places. A wonderful use of technology. It's like having a personal assistant while you drive.