Customer Reviews

Garmin City Navigator North America for Detailed Maps of the United State, Canada and Mexico (DVD)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

The software is OK, but not great. Other reviews mention its limitations and shortcomings. The main problem is that the unlock process is complex and has draconian restrictions. You don't get an unlock code with the product. Instead you get a certificate with an 8 digit code. Then submit this 8 digit code, in combination with a serial number for a GPS unit, to Garmin in order to obtain a 25 digit unlock key. Finally you enter the 25 digit unlock key. (Got all that?) Since you can't use the maps on a PC unless you also enter the serial number for a portable device, you can't buy this software just for PC use.

Garmin makes good products and I've been a longtime customer. Between work and home I own 7 of their units. But I'm losing my loyalty to them because they're constantly nickel-and-diming us for updates and making us jump through crazy hoops. Avoid this product unless you REALLY need the updated maps (which are not truly up-to-date, as others have mentioned). Instead try finding the old MetroGuide, which was much more user friendly.

Being a software developer myself I can sympathize with Garmin's concern for piracy. But they need to weigh that against the burden they are putting on honest users. I regret buying this product and will start looking at other vendors for my home and business GPS applications.

I don't normally write product reviews, but I feel like this product has been over harshly criticized. While the price is high, I think it is reasonable for what you get. I can't get an ADC map of my county for less than $20, so a complete, routable map of the entire US (and Canada) for this price is a good deal. You'll also get discounts on future upgrades which I don't get with paper maps.

The installation process was fairly easy. It forced me to install an update immediately after installing, before allowing me to unlock. I had to manually find and download the update rather than the software doing that for me, but it wasn't too bad.

The unlocking process was flawless. I had to create a myGarmin account, then plug my GPS in using the USB connection. I entered my code that came in the package when prompted and the maps were unlocked for the device. If you have the USB connection you don't need to enter the UID of the device or anything as others have suggested.

Once the maps were unlocked for the GPSr, I selected all the regions and transfered them to a 2GB microSD card I put into my 60Csx. The transfer took about 2 hours but I was transferring about 1.1GB of maps over USB2 so it sounds about right. So in about 3 hours (15 minutes of actual work) I had the product installed, updated, unlocked, and transferred to the device.

I haven't had much time to use the maps on the road, but the product delivers what is promised. If you aren't comfortable with the price, you might want to avoid a GPSr all together and go for paper maps. For me, not having to buy a $20 map for every city I travel to makes it more than worth it.

Several fundamental problems have brought me to giving this program one star.

First off, the install went smoothly but Garmin's piracy prevention strategy really sucks *AND* blows. The worst I have ever seen in any major software product in many years. A big headache and very intrusive about demanding lots of personal information before it will let you complete the install and unlock the program. An active Internet connection is mandatory during the install process. This point alone may lead me to never buy another Garmin mapping software product. You can feed it some bogus information but do so at your own risk, since your access to customer service will be based on that personal data, which immediately gets saved on Garmin's corporate servers. And if you don't give them a valid email address, you can't complete the install. Delorme is a MUCH friendlier company in all of these regards.

Anyway, I purchased this product based on the belief that it would export map files to my Obscenely expensive Garmin Rino 530 GPS+GMRS radio. I read everything I could find on the Garmin web site about which mapping programs were "compatible" with the Rino 530. I now know that there are degrees of "compatibility" that would have been nice to know about in advance! I can import/export waypoints and tracks but not maps! ARGH!!! Money wasted!!! And you don't find this out until you have registered and unlocked the product and locked it to the electronic serial number of your GPS!!! A warning about limited compatibility would have been very nice.

Thirdly, now that I have City Navigator NT installed on my PC, I see that it is a rather pathetic, limited, error-riddled mapping program with old mapping data that is a complete joke when compared to Delorme Street Atlas USA. The difference in quality is so striking that the comparison that comes to mind is the sibling contrast in the movie "Twins." Delorme lets you use all kinds of GPS's with their programs without any absurd ESN locking although map export files are limited to Delorme GPS's and PDA GPS programs. I do wish Delorme had a lot more waypoint/track/route import/export file format support.

In conclusion I wish that I had not wasted money on this program and further, I am beginning to feel the same way about my Rino 530.

Buyer beware

This is the correct, and most recent, version. I have a eTrex Legend HCx and with these maps, the GPSr is now infinetly more useful.

Installation was a snap, once I found the 8-digit coupon code (it is between the cardboard in the plastic clamshell). Just followed direction and it went right in. At the end of the installation a dialog did come up saying that there was an update, but there didn't actually seem to be an update.

Downloading the maps to my GPSr was a breeze, once I figured out how to select the maps I wanted to install (I only wanted the West US right now).

I would give this a 5, but the price it real high. Amazon has this a lot cheaper that Garmin, but still this software is expensive.

I ordered this product from Amazon last week and received it today. While trying to install this on my PC, I found out from the message on the screen that this product is in fact City Navigator 2008 (why is Garmin hiding this fact in the product description) and after installation I was told to upgrade this product since this product is out-of-date (was released in May of 2007). (City Navigator NT 2009 Upgrade has been available for quite some time now.) Clicking the link led me to 'enter the product s/n' and after entering my Etrex Vista Hcx's serial number I got the message 'No updates available for this.' Now I am banging my head against the CD case. This version should be missing quite a lot on newer construction in my area leading me astray. Literally!

Is this because Garmin is shipping its old inventory to dealers hoping that some customers won't mind using the older version or will naively pay another 60 dollars for the upgrade or is Amazon selling some old inventory - I don't know at this point.

Product is described as 010-10816-00 but I could not find that on the CD cover. Instead I found 007-00156-04 Rev. A and 171-00074-04 on the cover.

I have sent out an email to Garmin but am fully braced for unpleasant customer experience, even in the potential best case scenario of Garmin sending me the 2009 version. Why it couldn't do it to start with and why is it hiding the version name (2008) from its product description?

Moreover, there was an 8-digit coupon code which I had to enter to unlock the map on my PC. Luckily there was no 25-digit code some other customers had to get. One interesting part was that I was told to select maps before unlocking. I was thinking of selecting only the states where i plan to travel to save space on my 2GB microSD, but luckily I happened to read the small print which said that this unlock feature will work once only. As I understand, say I selected California only and unlocked it, next time I will be able to access California only, being blocked from all other states even though I have paid for the entire map. Why would they do so? I am puzzled. Greed and/or incompetency? I selected all maps. Shouldn't that be the only choice?

Do not buy this item if you want current maps. I just purchased this item from Amazon.com (at a higher price of course). This is a 2008 version of the City Navigator maps. The Amazon listing does not mention this fact. There is a 2009 version of the maps. Amazon should not even be selling this version. Garmin wants to charge me for an updated cd and of course wants to charge shipping and tax as well. Can you spell rip off.

I bought this updated version of the Mapsource software to use with my GPS (because that's all it supports). Still retails for quite a bit more than it's competitors so what can you do? The Graphics are the same as v.7 with no additional/different icons and the geocaching features that worked before I installed it, no longer work. (with the logging the find and putting it into the calendar) same as before. So over all it's the same old same old. I would be using something else if it worked with my GPS.

I bought a Garmin GPSmap 76CSx for bicycle touring, along with the MetroGuide USA map navigation software for building routes -- but the GPSmap wouldn't follow the routes I created using the MetroGuide software (among other things, it wanted me to bicycle across the Hudson River on water). When I spoke with Garmin, they told me that I needed City Navigator and not MetroGuide, so I bought City Navigator.

It doesn't work any better than the MetroGuide did. On a recent trip, after carefully laying out a route on local roads in City Navigator and downloading it to the GPS, the GPS ignored the route I had downloaded and tried to get me ride a bike on Interstate 95.

The product seems to work OK, e.g. , the same as the previous non-NT version but I have been unable to see any difference in the actual mapping or POI entries. It does allow for loading larger and fewer map segments onto my memory limited 276C resulting in using less of the memory for a given area, which, under the right circumstances can be a plus.

Since it is undated I remain confused as to whether or not I have even reasonably current maps, i.e., the 2009 versions. The actual map data designated by Garmin as 2009 was finalized in late 2007 and the original product came out in mid 2008 and was denominated as CN NA 2009 NT. Is this the same product? Who knows? Garmin is very fond of changing product nomenclature with seemingly little regard for the consumer.

There is a CN NT 2009 update out on DVD for more than the price of this disc. I checked my "My Garmin" account for the unit but no update appears. I have also heard of the availability of a 2009.1 update and the 2010 update. The Garmin website as usual provides no useful guidance when it comes to mapping products.

CN NA NT still uses the NAVTEQ data. My preference would be for them to go back to using Tele Atlas as their data supplier. Tele Atlas has much more complete mapping data and shines in the minor-road and off-road stuff.

Sorry, my love-hate relationship with Garmin is showing through. I am a hardcore longtime GPS user and Garmin is abandoning us for the "mainstream never read the manual and lets watch the cartoon users" so I am not very happy with them.

If you want the latest version (2009 available since May elsewhere) buyer beware on this product. Amazon doesn't state the version so I contacted them today to ask. A simple question, right? Wrong. Happily I got through to somebody quickly at Amazon (India, of course) and the unhelpful lady said I would have to contact the manufacturer for that information. I pointed out that since Amazon was the seller, Amazon should know and so inform the customer. Besides, I had already tried to contact Garmin to ask if they knew what Amazon was selling (and what the upgrade policy was) and gave up after being on hold for 30 minutes. Pathetic, isn't it. Worse than Dell. Both companies in error here, and obviously not customer centric.