Customer Reviews

Garmin City Select v7 North America Street Map CD-ROM (Windows)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was disappointed in this software particularly when comparing it to Microsoft's Streets and Trips which had far better mapping details and features at a considerable savings. To give this program its due however I must admit that there are significantly more points of interest (restaurants, hospitals, hotels, etc.) available in this program than its Microsoft counterpart.

Garmin requires you to purchase THEIR maps for all their GPS units. And those maps are expensive and this product is no exception. I bought v 6 which is an updated version of v 5. I understand that you can upgrade for free.

Streets and Trips by Microsoft is an elegant and intuitive program providing you with powerful mapping tools that are, IMO, far better than those provided by Garmin.

Garmin does have an edge on the number of points of interest but in all other facets of the mapping program Streets and Trips excels IMO.

I disliked the Garmin solution and their forcing me to buy their expensive maps so much that I bought Microsoft's Streets and Trips with GPS Locator for under $100 and found a solution that, for me, works much better particularly in an automobile.

Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent program when used in conjunction with the Garmin hardware. My major complaints are the pricing of the software, the mapping details aren't as good as Streets and Trips, and other mapping functions including but not limited to panning and zooming work better in Streets and Trips. Again, the number of points of interest and the ability to plot a course to any of them with a touch of a button are superb features of City Select.

If you are buying this program exclusively because you own a Garmin GPS then, rest assured, this product will fulfill your needs admirably. If however you are looking just for a mapping program then Microsoft's Streets and Trips would serve you better at 1/3 the price. And if your GPS needs are limited to the automobile and you don't need a handheld solution then Microsoft's Streets and Trips with GPS Locator at less than $100 offers an incredible value!

Several reviewers are confusing Garmin Mapsource which has free updates (it is the program that runs on your computer) and Garmin City Select (the mapping data program) that has NO FREE UPDATES! Updating from version 5 to version 6 costs $75.

I ordered v6 after the cutoff date for a free upgrade. Nice. :-)

The upgrade came in the mail in a reasonable amount of time and installed over v6 with no problems. Also nice.

I used it on a first-time ever trip to New York and it kept me from getting lost (and confused) more than once. Definitely worth it.

BUT (and there's always a but), there's so much detail in the maps that I couldn't download as much as I wanted to my eTrex VistaC (24 Meg of RAM). Granted, New York has a lot of stuff to download, so the maps take a lot of memory. But I have the same problem with San Francisco Bay Area maps.

The other gotcha' (and a more serious one) is bad/outdated information. For example, in my home town City Select v7 still shows a Coco's restaurant that's been CLOSED for nearly five years. But it DOESN'T show a Taco Bell that's been in business right across the street for at least 10-15 years, and is still open. Go figure . . .

I don't want to sound too negative. Overall, a fantastic product. But the first thing I learned about maps in Boy Scouts was that all maps have mistakes, somewhere. And this map is no exception. So don't always expect to find that gas station or restaurant where your GPS says it is. But I'd buy it again, in a heartbeat.

The main complaint I have about City Select is that it costs way too much. Sadly, Garmin forces you to buy the MapSource series of maps if you want to load maps on to your GPS. This also poses another problem, Garmin only supports Windows. As a Mac user this is a pain for me, while there is some great Mac GPS software out there I am forced to use Windows (lucky I have a old Windows machine laying around) to transfer maps to my GPS because Garmin will not allow others to develop software to transfer maps directly to a Garmin GPS.

That being said, CitySelect works well. It is very handy to have detailed maps on your GPS. I took it on a road trip recently and it work great. Having points-of-interest also helped out when looking for food while on the road.

I did have some issues with auto routing. When I was getting close to home I decided to check it out to see if it would give me the route I was already heading but it insisted that I turn around and go back the other direction to pick up the route it had picked. It would have got me home, it just would have taken me forever.

Conclusion: City Select is over priced but necessary especially if you have a Garmin 60c/cs, 76 series or Rino. These have the most memory of Garmin's handhelds, if you have a GPS with 8 or 16MB of memory I wouldn't bother, you wouldn't be able to load very many detailed maps.

Don't forget if you order version 6 to go to Garmin's website and order your free update to version 7. My update came about a week after I ordered it from Garmin.

...great stuff - knows even the road in our apartment community - lots of points of interests, knows also your Vons store around the corner, wow! Routing to an adress works great! - I even used it in the mexican desert and I found my way out again to write this review - all in all, simply very satisfying!

This product works well with my Garmin 60CS GPS. All you need is the hardware to attach your GPS to the computer. The program is easy to operate. You can load sections of maps to your GPS where ever you want to go. you just click on sections you want to send to your GPS and they are put in. Easy to operate.

I bought a Garmin 76CSx and this mapping software just before leaving for a trip from Kansas City to New Orleans. Although I learned a lot along the way, the operation seemed to be pretty intuitive. It got me all around New Orleans, even with a lot of street signs missing from hurricane Katrina. I was very impressed with the "recalculation" feature. Several times I either missed a turn or was unable to turn due to debris, etc. Within a very few hundred feet, the GPS software had replotted and displayed an alternative route which invariably got me to my destination.

I gave this software four stars mainly because I haven't used it enough to give it five - yet. I was especially impressed with the "Find" feature. It located motels, restaurants, gas stations, and all sorts of other facilities and arranged them by proximity, closest ones first, and then provided me with names, addresses and phone numbers for each facility. Then it offered to show me a map or navigate to the facility. Pretty doggone slick.

A little pricey, but it sure did what it was supposed to do. I'm impressed.

I use this with my Garmin 76cs gps system. It basically works great. I was able to make a 1500 mile round trip & find restaurants, stores, etc. At home, it is not as comprehensive as on-line yellow pages and the like; it doesn't have everything there is in it. But it is a LOT better than pulling off the road in the middle of east LA and hoping to find a bathroom!! I never got lost, even with my 13-year-old operating the gps. (It did take a few hours of playing around to get familiar with, but after that it is pretty easy to use.)

I got the Garmic 60CS GPS and was thrilled with it, but I quickly realized the functionality was somewhat limited with just city and major highway data. The v6 CD-ROM really unlocks the power of this toy. The price seemed a little steep, but it seems to have a pretty complete database with few errors. I've encountered a few smaller roads it doesn't know about, but nothing is perfect.

I have been shopping properties and this has made my life so much easier. I just input the address and my gpsmap76cs takes me right to the front door. Well worth the price.