blown 87

I took a trip this weekend of a little over 500 miles each way.

The Project 928 ran like a 928 should, not one issue of any kind.
There were a couple of tense moments due to law enforcement activity, but other than that it was a great drive.
Folks even seemed to stay out of the left lane for the most part.

I REALLY wish we could drive these cars here in the Southern US like they were made to be driven.

OK, the GPS question.
Does your Garmin unit give you a realistic time of arrival on a long trip?

I had to go through several small cities and a couple of larger ones, Birmingham AL and Memphis TN.
Plus there were miles of construction.

I have found that it is hard to "Beat" the time of arrival that the GPS says when you first leave unless you really go faster than the speed limit.

I plan my trips with the Garmin software "MapSouce" using the stand settings of 67 MPH for interstates, 58 MPH for major highways, 45 MPH for other highways, 35 MPH for collector roads. and 25 MPH for residential streets.

I think there needs to be a way to add time for fuel and food stops.

Fun game, to try to beat the GPS, but I think I need to tweak it a bit so I do not end up in jail someplace.

PS, on the way back I did actually beat it by 11 minutes with a moving average of 68.9 and a overall average of 67.2 over 511 miles.
I think that is the first time I have ever done that.

hacker-pschorr

Yes - so much that I too have fun trying to shave any time off.

I make sure the car is running, gassed up and pointing towards the street before I punch in the "go" button.

I can usually beat it's estimated time to Elkhart lake by 4-5 minutes.

Garmin Nuvi 750

Rod Underwood

I've used two different versions of GPS, self contained and on a laptop and both have always overestimated the time. When I went to sharks, it was a full two hours off. Granted I drive a little over the speed limit, 80ish, but not that much. I think maybe I don't have to go to the bathroom as much as it expects. ;-)

I travel by interstate as much as possible to avoid stops and starts, that can kill your time.

I think almost all systems allow you to put in fuel stops, try to get the manual off the internet if you've lost yours.

Going to take mine with me to pick up "Richmond" tomorrow. I really like the GPS, especially for night travel.

Rod

Joe '87 S4

You can beat it but that's the best case scenario. With so much traffic and other things going on, my GPS is continually adjusting my arrival time. I've beat the initial arrival time a few times but not often.

SharkSkin

Slightly OT(Magellan) -- It varies... I find it's very accurate if I make several stops along the way. Last night, on the way home from SFest(400mi.) I beat it by ~45 minutes thanks to the minimal LEO presence.

blown 87

Garmin 760 here

RevAgent

That's an interesting question...the factory GPS units in my Benz & Acura won't allow you to "beat" the trip time, because these units adjust the remaining time according to current vehicle speed. I suppose you could refer to it as "real-time" measuring...

I have a hand held NUVI that I use on my snowmobiles, along with the Mapsource TOPO software, and now am interested in seeing if a set-trip time can be beat by going faster...I'm going to try that out on my first trip, hopefully next month.

aj986s

I think whenever routes include traffic lights, the GPS will always underestimate. It seems to account for the speed limit, but never for the amount of time sitting at a light. One traffic light can easily add a minute to a journey.

Tweaking the background settings for realistic road speeds (at least with Garmin/Mapsource, which I use) can make for more accuracy. For highways, I think that higher than posted speeds is realistic, but local roads with traffic lights should probably be set for something lower than the posted speed limit.

Unfortunately, I don't think you can add stop times at a waypoint in Mapsource. You can do it in MS MapPoint, but off course MapPoint doesn't interface with a Garmin GPS. But MapPoint does a very nice job with printed maps/directions.

SharkSkin

I took this to mean that you look at the estimated arrival time when you start the trip and compare to the actual arrival time...

blown 87

Correct.

blown 87

I was surprised when I beat it yesterday, but I did use a bit of what the 928 is made for.

blown 87

What speeds do you put into MapSource?
I know that my speeds other than interstates are high.

S4ordie

Greg - I too have the Garmin Nuvi 760. I find the ETA fluctuates as I drive depending on my average speed compared to miles left to travel. I used it extensively the past ten days as I traveled through parts of New England and then SoCal for business and Sharktoberfest. The ETA is usually pretty accurate for me though when in stop and go traffic for an hour or more it takes a while for it accurately update the ETA.

I love the 760 and use it all the time. Very user friendly and 1000 times more intuitive than the system I had previously in a 2007 Mercedes E320 Bluetec.

VehiGAZ

Garmin Nuvi 250W or something like that. Same experience here - the initial ETA displayed is tough to beat, but it can be done.

I used to run Delorme StreetAtlas mapping/GPS software on my laptop, and I got the road-type estimated speeds dialed in so well that the ETA calculations were VERY reliable, not including stops. But a GPS receiver connected to a laptop sliding around in the front seat was a lousy way of going about things...

69gaugeman

All this means is that the ETA is very well programmed. I have two Garmins. They are the best for street second best for the water (Ratheon is best on the water but $$$$). Street one is a garmin 255w.

Download the DR. Frankenstein voice. Absolutely hilarious. It randomly just says **** while you are driving.