Bert Vorgon tests the Garmin Nuvi 40 GPS with speedometer

[bertvorgon]

As I am technologically challenged, only having upgraded from my DOS based computer and 5" floppies, relegated my 8 Track to the museum, and know how a carburetor works, I thought I would throw my test up here, of the Garmin Nuvi 40 GPS.
After Chad had bought one, and I saw that the thing had a speedometer built in, that I could read, I picked one up for the 510. As with all modern electronics, I was worried it might be too confusing to set up, etc.. Well, let me say this thing is very simple. For all of you that are up to date on the latest gadget, you can just continue to read about the latest SR20 swap, or how to shoe horn a V-8 onto your rusty shell.
With our crazy speeding laws here, which I have ranted about, I really wanted something that was a quick look, for my speed. My speedo is out about 10MPH, but, in so many situations, it is nice to know right now, what my speed is. I did not want to buy some sort of gauge, which adds another situation of trying to adapt something.
What's in the Box? Not much, a nice windshield mount, a good quality cable, with a cigarette lighter plug, and the 4.3 " GPS unit. I took it out, turned it on, and whammo, it was running. It took a few seconds to acquire the satellites, and I was ready to go. There was no real "setup" required, other than setting whether you wanted MPH, or KMH. It has a couple of other user friendly things you can set, you can even set our red light cameras to trigger a warning. I was tickled that it was so ready to go right out of the box. No problems for this ole' guy.
I tried it in the G35 for the week before the 510 drive, and in Matt's GM Tracker. The Tracker speedo was spot on, to the GPS, the G35 maybe reads just a tad fast, 1-2 KMH. My Honda Odyssey ( 2004) reads faster, which I did figure it would, as there was a class action lawsuite against Honda, for actually making their speedos read fast, for a variety of reasons. The windshield mount worked at all times, and is very solid. The power plug is positive, and never missed a beat in any of my vehicles.
Now, onto the 510. As this unit is not too big, it mounted perfectly at the top of my windshield, left side, right next to my Wink mirror...PERFECT. One glance and the speed is right there, and large enough that my eyes can see what it is close up. I can see for a hundred miles, but anything within 2 feet is not great.
I did notice, on a hard fast acceleration, there was a hair lag in the speed reading, no biggy. This unit also records, time in motion, time stopped, and total trip time. Another neat feature, is top speed recorded. As you can see in the picture, great for seeing what you really did at the race track! There is a quick reset button for dumping the trip memory and top speed, maybe critical in certain situations!
It also shows elevation, which I found neat for our off road trip, and it is accurate, depending on satellite reception, down to 7 meters I have seen. We did a wilderness trip a month ago, and recorded within 30 feet of the actual valley height where we were. I was even amazed that it showed the road where we were ( see picture) only ending when it got right into the 4x4 stuff.
One other cool feature, is that it has an internal battery, good for two hours. I threw it in my Camelbak for a mountain bike ride, and it recorded my ride just like in the car.

So, if you are looking for some sort of accurate speedo, easy to use, I would recommend this unit. I got it on sale for 99.00 here, at Future Shop, regular 129.00 I think.

It also had functions to program in an address, co-ordinate, etc., and it will TALK to you as to turns etc.. There is a MUTE function, volume control, and, something I thought was really cool, an automatic dimming function, for night driving, or, a manual override. The map automatically reverses, for night driving, black roads during the day, and they turn white for night, NICE!

[bertvorgon]

a few more, one showing top speed reached on the track ( closed course, professional driver)

[Byron510]

Nice logging road - maybe a bit of elevation change?

I've found the Garmin to be a very good reference tool. And the stats functions are a bonus for our drives. Mine however has been used extensively for my sales work. And I have some special oil field add ons like an LSD could coordinate adapter, as the Garmin will only work off of lat/long coordinates in "stock" form.

I just read recently had the power cord fail, on our last drive actually. Now Garmin like so many other companies doesn't want to miss out on sales opportunities - there is a tiny circuit board IN the cigarette plug that makes the unit work only with a Garmin power cord NICE!

Thankfully the aftermarket is onto this, I was able to buy a cord that appears to be working fine.as the Garmin cords are available only through their website site.

Byron

[StrutlessWonder]

My Garmin works with any usb to mini usb cord to recharge. I haven't had the need to try a different cigarette adapter.

But I will say that with an sd card of european maps loaded, this thing was a marriage saver when our family was in Europe for 4 months last year. From Italy to France, Belgium, Switzerland, it never missed a beat. No more arguing with my better half about which exit to take, or not having the correct map. It made a few mistakes (road had been turned into a pedestrian only walking route), and sometimes the routes were interesting (it had me driving in the non-car section of Siena, Italy), but was fantastic getting me in and out of Paris every weekend by car. Paris traffic is bad enough if you do know where you are going!
And you can set it to remember your car location, take the Garmin with you while you walk, and it's much easier to get back to the car after a day of sight-seeing.

I also liked seeing it display 320kph on the TGV bullet train.

So that makes me a happy Garmin owner as well, even if the battery life sucks (you can install a better battery-search you tube), and it sometimes takes forever to lock onto the satellites. Have yet to try it in my 510.

[proflex]

Hey Keith the road crew had the dike open by specialty last week, I was flying down it in the truck and looked over at the gps and it showed me driving in the ocean. No dike, no road! Must have been the high tide mark years ago. The red light camera safety thing is interesting, I brought the gps with me on my last trip into Van. and I couldn’t believe how many of these cameras you guys have, we only have one here in the Wack. I’m happy with the Nuvi 40 too, at only $100 you can’t go wrong.

[bertvorgon]

Just a quick update with my Garmin.

Like Kurt, I have now ridden with it in my bike pack, and carried it on my training walks. Works great...till the battery dies. It was advertised to last 2 hours, last's maybe 45 minutes now, and decreasing. As my local rides are under 2 hours, I was enjoying seeing my distance and speed, plus the elevation change.

You can get a replacement battery, rated for longer life, looks very easy to change. There is a local battery supplier I know of, so I am going to grab one and change it.

Will let you know.

[Byron510]

That's interesting Keith. I've had mine for three years, and it's battery life has always been around 1 hour.

But a better battery I'd be interested in, keep us posted.

Byron

[StrutlessWonder]

I've been meaning to replace my Garmin's battery as well, using a longer-life, higher capacity unit.
Lots of youtube videos on how to do this. Looks pretty easy and the batteries are $10-20.
But maybe Keith can be the test-subject and take lots of pictures...

[bertvorgon]

I can break plastic cases with the best of them!

I will take some pictures for sure.