Buying another Garmin GPS

[Gonzo 419]

Hi all,

 

My Garmin Nuvi 3790T with an ESRI Thai Street map has stopped working and is beyond repair. I bought it about three years ago at a Garmin shop on the 4^th Floor in Bangkok at the MBK shopping mall.

 

I would like to go back there next week and buy another Garmin. I know there are a lot of different models for sale I don’t have a clue which one to buy.

 

I want another Garmin with a suction cup, so I can attach it to the windscreen of my car. The Garmin Nuvi 3790T was less than perfect, but always got me to the desired destination, even when it had to often recalculate as it was only about 80-85& accurate

.

I still want to by another Garmin from the same shop. It has to be another Thai/English dual language model with the best and latest Thai ESRI (?) street map.

 

I am not interesting in using a smart phone with a GPS capability.

 

Any good advice would be appreciated.

[BigDUSA 71]

Like you, I've used a Garmin for years. I'd buy the cheapest with a 5 " screen. I keep up with the updates and have been very happy with Garmin.

[bigmick 840]

Gonzo, they sell them in Tuk Com in Pattaya, I bought a Chinese version for 4000 baht and it works perfectly well. I take it back every 6 months and the guy updates the maps for me free of charge. He has the originals if you want them also. 4th floor

[Gonzo 419]

Gonzo, they sell them in Tuk Com in Pattaya, I bought a Chinese version for 4000 baht and it works perfectly well. I take it back every 6 months and the guy updates the maps for me free of charge. He has the originals if you want them also. 4th floor

Hi Mick,

 

I go to Tukcom often, to drink coffee and to eat a cheap meal in the basement, after I visit my Kasikorn Bank branch next door or the nearby Friendship supermarket. I only bought a Samsung Laser printer at Tukcom on the third Floor two weeks ago and asked in a couple of shops, if there was a shop in the building, where they sold Garmin GPS products, but only got negative replies. I also had a look on the fourth floor and must have walked past your Garmin dealer a couple of times. I will go there on Sunday after the Expat meeting. Jacko will tell me to get my eyes checked and stay off the grog, despite not having had a drink since a bit of a binge during the New Year celebrations. If I can buy a Garmin GPS at Tukcom next Sunday, it will save me an unnecessary trip to Bangkok next week. Thanks a lot.

[jacko 8,822]

Hi Mick,

 

I go to Tukcom often, to drink coffee and to eat a cheap meal in the basement, after I visit my Kasikorn Bank branch next door or the nearby Friendship supermarket. I only bought a Samsung Laser printer at Tukcom on the third Floor two weeks ago and asked in a couple of shops, if there was a shop in the building, where they sold Garmin GPS products, but only got negative replies. I also had a look on the fourth floor and must have walked past your Garmin dealer a couple of times. I will go there on Sunday after the Expat meeting. Jacko will tell me to get my eyes checked and stay off the grog, despite not having had a drink since a bit of a binge during the New Year celebrations. If I can buy a Garmin GPS at Tukcom next Sunday, it will save me an unnecessary trip to Bangkok next week. Thanks a lot.

Jacko says wait for Gary to respond as he seems knowledgeable about GPS systems.

Glad BM posted they could be had for 4000 baht, they are only about £100 in the UK now..(5000 baht).

 

I would like one too, let me know how you get on. One day I may have to drive out to my lady's village alone and to be honest, even after dozens of trips, wouldn't feel sure about the way. One wrong turn and I could be running low on fuel near the Cambodian border.

[Gonzo 419]

Jacko says wait for Gary to respond as he seems knowledgeable about GPS systems.

Glad BM posted they could be had for 4000 baht, they are only about £100 in the UK now..(5000 baht).

 

I would like one too, let me know how you get on. One day I may have to drive out to my lady's village alone and to be honest, even after dozens of trips, wouldn't feel sure about the way. One wrong turn and I could be running low on fuel near the Cambodian border.

Hi Jacko, I was hoping Gary would come up with some advice. He must be busy at the moment. I was glad when Mick told me about the Garmin shop at Tukcom. I will go there tomorrow afternoon and most likely will buy any Garmin available, if they can be bought for as little as 4000 or 5000 baht, as long as it has a recent Thai street map and gives directions in English. I can always buy a better model later if I am not satisfied with the one I get. I paid 15 000 baht for the Garmin Nüvi 3770 three years ago, which was a new model then. Gary did not think it was one of the better Garmins and always said it was much better to get a Garmin GPS with an ESRI Thai street map and not a Garmin map.

 

I want to get another GPS as soon as possible, as the Khao Kitchakut event has already started on 31 January and continues until 31 March 7/24.

 

Last year we started from our rented room near the mountain at 4PM and arrived back in the room after midnight. This year I want to get up the mountain sooner, as it can take quite a long time for the missus and her sister and niece to go through their rituals at the base, then going by baht bus to the first station with more rituals and then on to the second base with more rituals again. Last year I got a little impatient, as I wanted to take a few pictures on the top of the mountain. When we got there it was already getting dark.

 

From the second station to the top one has to walk and climb and be reasonably fit. It is worth the effort in my opinion, even for an atheist or agnostic like me. It shows you a totally different Thailand from what we get used to here in Pattaya. After climbing down from the top again to the baht buses, it is quite an experience to drive on the baht buses on unlit dirt near roads going around sharp corners. The Thai drivers are especially trained and in my opinion are nearly as good as many Dakar rally drivers. They don’t handle any money either and are not after tips. You pay 50 baht at each station to get a ticket, 200 baht for each person altogether.

 

When I bought my first car in Thailand I thought we could drive to Bangkok without a GPS. I got hopelessly lost and finished up on the other side of Bangkok on the road going north. I had no desire to drive to Chiang Mai. The missus comes from Bangkok, but Bangkok is huge and we had no idea which way to drive to get back to Highway 7 to find our way back to Jomtien.

 

The missus then rang a Bangkok police station and they gave us the 1586 helpline, where a nice and patient Thai lady asked her for landmarks and street names and then gave the missus directions in Thai for nearly two hours in the heavy Bangkok traffic, until the battery in the mobile phone was nearly empty. It was a huge relief when I saw a street sign pointing to Suvarnabhumi airport.

 

I want to get another Garmin GPS as soon as possible, because I want to go up the mounter during the day this year and I want to go there before it gets too hot.

 

At the end of the You Tube clip you can see what happens when one thinks using an ordinary paper street map in Thailand is sufficient, even when one visits familiar places away from the main highways.

 

[MM 6,562]

I went to tuk.com today, and while I was having my omelette across the soi at La Petite Planète, I noticed a sign outside the tuk.com building (by the west side entrance).

 

 

Remembering our esteemed BM, Gonzo, I went inside and inquired at the first shop on the right if they had Garmins. The sales clerk told me it was in the next shop (2nd on the right from the west side entrance).

 

They have 5 models available..the basic is under 4000 baht. The other 4 have life time ESRI updates free, while the basic one does not.

 

 

I'm sorry the focus was off so you cannot see the prices, but the one on the left is the basic model approx 4k baht, I think the next one is about 6k baht, the second 2 are about 8.5k baht, and the last one is 12k+ baht (lcd screen)..

 

 

 

 

[Odense 498]

Just slightly beside the point but does Google Maps navigation not work in Thailand (Asia) ?

 

Sent from my TAC-70061 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Gary 4,119]

I actually have four Garmins. All four were purchased in the US. They all work with the ESRI Thailand maps. The US Garmin SE Asia maps suck. If one of my dash mounted units die, I would be comfortable buying a cheap Thai unit. The function junction view will work on the Thai units. That function will not work on any of my US units..The Thai units start at about 4,000 baht. I would be quite willing to buy one of the cheap units. The Thai made maps will do anything that you need. English will work fine. The more expensive Thai units will work with Thai or English. I only want English so no problem with any of them. You do have to specify that you want the English.language. If the store says that only Thai is available, go to a different store.

[Gary 4,119]

Just slightly beside the point but does Google Maps navigation not work in Thailand (Asia) ?

 

Sent from my TAC-70061 using Tapatalk 2

 

Google maps will work in Thailand but you have to be online and Google maps also leave a lot to be desired. Buy a dedicated Garmin unit and forget about the Internet and your phone battery going dead. I'm not a Garmin fan boy but they have the best GPS navigation using local Thai maps available.

[InternationalTraveler 282]

I looked at Tuk com but decided to buy my Garmin from Central Festival 3rd floor for around 7500 baht around 15 months ago...you can now get them with the camera attachment which records your travel movements ...also can be good for accidents....proving liability when it's not your fault.

[Gonzo 419]

Thanks for all the informative and positive replies from the above board members. I will go to Tukom first tomorrow afternoon and I am pretty certain I will buy a Garmin GPS there, probably one of the more expensive models, where I can get a free six-monthly update. The nÜvi Garmin 40 and the Garmin 3790 have been around for a while , but I have heard good reports about them. The picture MM posted shows they all come with an Esri Thailand map and Gary has always recommended Esri maps .Cheers guys.

[Gonzo 419]

Yesterday afternoon I bought a Garmin nüvi 3560LM at Tukcom. I parked in the multi storey car park behind Tukcom, a couple of hundred metres away. From Pattaya Thai I drive on the left of Tukcom to the next small Soi on the left and then turn right in the next small Soi to the car park, where one can park four hours for free. The car park it is normally quite full, but I always find a place to park there with a bit of patience, yesterday at Level A3, which is the second last level near the top of the seven-level car park.

 

It is only a 5-10 minute walk back to the Tukcom building, where one can enter the rear of the building. I quickly found the shop MM showed in his picture, the second shop on the left, SMART ICON CO. LTD., Tel. 038 724017-19. I looked at the five different Garmin GPS models on display. The cheap copy on left was of no interest, neither was the Garmin nüvi 40 for less than 4000 baht. I compared their next two Garmins, priced at about 6500 baht and 8500 baht with their top of the range Garmin nüvi 3560LM, which seems to be a fairly recent model available in Thailand and was manufactured in Taiwan in 2013.

 

After the knowledgeable staff inside the shop, two young Thai girls and a young Thai man explained to me the difference it took me less than 10 minutes to make up my mind to buy the 3560LM model. They told me about the free upgrades every six months and told me to come back as soon as four month to check for the next available upgrade. I paid 12 790 baht for the Garmin 3560LM including 7% VAT.

 

We walked back to the car park and I installed the GPs inside the building. When I drove outside the building, the satellites kicked in almost instantly, unlike the old 3770 where I often waited for several minutes. I tried to find my condominium in Jomtien. The GPS did not like Jomtien, but accepted Chomtien. I could not find the condo in our condominium complex, so I typed in the Villa Navin hotel opposite our place on Jomtien Second Road. When we got to the Hanuman Square, the GPS wanted me to drive along Jomtien Beach Road, as the main entrance of the Villa Navin is on Jomtien Beach Road. I ignored the GPS commands to do a U-turn to drive back to Jomtien Beach Road and drove up Second Road, past the now busy with Farangs Rhompo market and its many bars to our under cover car park next to the Villa Navin estate.

 

From there we witnessed an accident just before we crossed Second Jomtien Road on foot to get to our condo, when a mini bus clipped a young Russian on his rented scooter. The mini bus took off in a hurry, in typical Thai driving style, as he was in the wrong when he overtook the Russian riding his scooter on the far left. Actually I only saw the aftermath of the accident, as I was still busy with the GPS having a look at the many new functions of my new toy. My missus saw the accident happen as she was waiting for me by the roadside.

 

There were a few Farangs from the JBC buildings giving First aid waiting for the ambulance to arrive. There was a Thai police man taking pictures only of the possibly quite badly injured man and his rented bike. The Russian was bleeding from his head and had most of the skin from both knees was missing. I told his uninjured Russian girl friend to keep him lying flat on his back, when he started to move. We went back to back to our condo as there were quite a few Farangs already there trying to assist.

 

Sorry for thread fucking my own GPS thread. Back in the condo we had a meal and I then went back to work out the many new functions of the Garmin 3560LM. The booklet that came with it was written in Thai only and I did not feel like downloading the instructions on the laptop. Anyway, most things I had a few problems with can be looked up on the help files on the GPS. I thought I would have to use the GPS simulator inside the room, but the new Garmin still works inside the room, sitting close to the doors of the two small balconies. Living in a corner room on the 14^th floor probably helps, but the old 3770 would always cut out with any roof above it or a tall building close to it. Finding a new location is a breeze. I typed in Khao and then Kit and there were about 20 Khao Kithchakut destinations, including a hospital, a police station, the National Park and many others. I had to go through them one by one to find the mountain, I96.8 kilometres away from our place. Last year on the old map, I could only find Chantaburi City about 20 kilometres away from the mountain.

 

Even when I got to the Chantaburi province I couldn’t find any reference to Khao Kitchakut and nearly missed the left turn to 3249 driving along A3. It was not hard to identify the mountain, but it was a bit more difficult to find a room nearby, as everything was written in Thai. When the missus asked a few of the friendly locals, most of them didn’t know either. We eventually found a room near the mountain, owned by a 76 year old Thai lady. She spoke fluent English as her French father took her to England to go to school.

 

Thanks again to the board members for helping me to find the right GPS. It is fast and precise with its 5 inch LED screen. When it says turn left in 60 metres it is 60 metres. The 3770 would tell me to turn in 200 metres and I often missed the turn to the left or right after driving only 40 or 60 metres. The You Tube clip does not give it much justice. There is a lot more to the 3560 LM Garmin than what is shown on the You Tube video clip.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/7voxeZemhRY

Edited February 11, 2014 by MM
removed multiple copies of text

[yorta2 694]

You can say that again, Gonzo....

[jacko 8,822]

Jeez Gonzo, more of a trip report than a thread on GPSs.

You appear to have the same text 4 times in the above post....are you going to correct it?

[Gary 4,119]

In the electronic world, my two dash mount units are ancient. One is a 750 and the other is an 855. The 855 has voice recognition which is interesting but I very seldom use that feature. Both of these units can play audible books. I am disappointed that the new Garmins no longer have that feature. It's great to plug the Garmin into the auxiliary plug and listen to a good book when on a long trip. I'll have to use a different device when I have to replace one of those Garmins. Both those Garmins have their own speakers but they sound like crap compared to my car's stereo system. Why Garmin no longer supports Audible books is beyond me.

[MM 6,562]

I probably bought the nuvi 2567LM on the same day as Gonzo got his top of the line model.

 

I've been working with it for a couple of days, learning how to use it in simulation mode rather than while driving.

 

One thing I have to say is that Garmin has absolutely awful support for their product on the internet or in the box. The manual is all in Thai...great. The English manual from Garmin is for another model (close, but not the same).

 

I'm guessing the ESRI modifications have changed some things so they don't match any online documentation, and all ESRI documents appear to be in Thai.

 

I chose the 2567 because the sales girl (the heavy one...she's good, but not expert) told me that it was the only one of the five models shown that had Smartphone Link...that rules out the one Gonzo bought, though it had features I would have liked.

 

She showed me the smartphone link on her Iphone (I didn't notice it was an Iphone at the time). It was awesome. It can get the map from the device, show it on the phone, and you can program your routes/waypoints using your phone interface rather than the touchscreen. Unfortunately, that map doesn't show up on my Android phone...I took the phone and the 2567 into the shop the next day and they couldn't make it work either.

 

Still, with the smartphone interface, you can go to Google maps, search for something, and then send that location to the 2567. It is then available for you to add as a destination That is pretty awesome, since many locations/businesses are not in the ESRI maps yet, but google maps has them. I'm sure there's other stuff you can do with the interface that will give me hours of joy tinkering with it.

 

I might even use it to drive somewhere

 

Over in the Darkside Bar topic, forcebewithyou has put together a map of all the darkside bars. He converted it to .gpx format, and using POILoader (free from GARMIN), I managed to send all those locations over to the Garmin. Now they show up in the device, and I can build a route or trail or whatever it's called to them. That's all pretty much terra incognita to me, so that's cool. You can also get trip planning stuff from the garmin site that shows interesting routes you could follow for signtseeing.

 

As I said, I might even use this to drive somewhere....

 

 

[BigDUSA 71]

I use Garmin support to d/l firmware and map updates. I've never had a problem with their support.

[MM 6,562]

I use Garmin support to d/l firmware and map updates. I've never had a problem with their support.

 

None of the issues I mentioned had to do with firmware or map updates, did they?

 

That's pretty basic stuff. The issues were with new features and software that goes beyond that basic functionality.

[jacko 8,822]

Watching the video spiel one feature 'Find Parking' jumped at me.... worth it in Pattaya.

I am tempted to get one for the bike!

[MM 6,562]

Watching the video spiel one feature 'Find Parking' jumped at me.... worth it in Pattaya.

I am tempted to get one for the bike!

 

I'm guessing you know all the parking sites in Pattaya, but it would be useful in a strange town or someplace huge like BKK.

[jacko 8,822]

I'm guessing you know all the parking sites in Pattaya, but it would be useful in a strange town or someplace huge like BKK.

Well actually I don't, I posted asking about a spot and later got ridiculed a bit by know alls who don't even live here.

But seriously I thought it useful... in Pattaya there are hidden spots and those that pop up on recently cleared areas.

(Example hidden. You can park by the side of the Lenkee restaurant on Klang and now at the back of New Plaza, head up Soi 21 from 3rd).

[MM 6,562]

If I ever take the GPS out for a drive, I'll check if there's any new parking places other than the well-known ones.

[Gary 4,119]

Sometime back I saw an item on Baht Sold that I was interested in. I emailed the guy and asked him if he had a GPS. He replied that he did not but that he was familiar with Google Earth. He was able to give me the coordinates for his house and he apparently did it perfectly. I put the coordinates into my Garmin and they took me directly to his driveway. It would be great for guys to put together a directory of coordinates for out of the way bars and other places of interest for mongers. As for myself, I find the decimal format easiest to use.

 

The guys on Udon Map Forum put together a directory for Udon Thani and it helped me a lot. Punching coordinates in a GPS is a lot simpler and accurate than someone trying to give directions or draw a map.

[BigDUSA 71]

When I enter the coordinates for my home. My Garmin brings me back to the same spot. When I use the latest and greatest map. I'm down the street by 100 meters.