GPS Maps

Am considering my first drive from Laredo to Chapala and am wondering the best way to get a gps map. Which devices work best? Which maps are best? Any advice is appreciated.

Most of us GPS converts would probably say that the brand we use to is the best - only natural since most only have experience with one brand. We have been using a Garmin with Mexico maps since 2008 and driven thousands of miles in Mexico since. I update our maps prior to every trip and they have definitely improved through the years. Here is a copy of a report I wrote in Sept. of 2009 - many of the comments are still valid but improvements have been made:

"We recently returned from a 3600-mile trip through Mexico and used the GARMIN 785T (https://buy.garmin.com/...ID=134&pID=14923). with the City Navigator Mexico NT card (https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=11427). This unit was a warranty replacement for a Nuvi 760 that I had received as a present. At the time of purchase, the 760 had been rated as a “Best Buy” by CONSUMER REPORTS but GARMIN has since discontinued the model. Since I had received the replacement shortly before our trip, I had familiarized my self with most of the new features but was somewhat short on time to completely understand everything. When in the NM area, I contract as a courier and use the unit virtually every day and am quite familiar with its performance in the U.S. Prior to the trip, I did program a “custom route” based upon our plans.

My observations and comments follow:
1) Entry of addresses: NOB, the complete address will pull up but when entering the actual numerical address in MX, you will experience a problem. In most cases, the numerical part of the address will not come up but rather you will receive simply a choice of the street name and what “colonia” it is located in. In other words, you are able to get close but not necessarily being directed to the exact address. It is somewhat better in the larger cities but you cannot count on it. I should also mention that on much of our trip, we were traveling in areas we were familiar with from prior trips.
2) The entry of street names was often a challenge due to abbreviations used either by the unit or when one looks up addresses on the net for example.
3) Having read the specs from GARMIN, I expected the unit would have shortcomings finding streets in small towns but that was not the case. I was really amazed by the detail of streets in small towns of less than 1000 population that we ventured through.
4) I found that the estimated travel time between towns/cities was extremely conservative. For example, when leaving Zacatecas on our way to Chihuahua – it gave me an estimated travel time of 10 hours and 2 minutes from hotel to hotel (a distance of 523 miles). Note: In their vernacular – travel time is your moving time as it separates out any stops when the vehicle is not moving. Our actual travel/moving time was 7 hours 32 minutes. We had an average moving time for the drive of 67.7 mph with a high speed of exactly 100 mph for the day. A good portion of the day was spent on cuotas in very good condition and quite light traffic.
5) MSN DIRECT, an option on the 785T did not function in MX but then again, I had no idea that it would.
6) Fuel Consumption calculations tended to be way off. You can program in your estimated mileage for both city and highway into this unit along with the price of the grade of gas you use. In the U.S., the city streets and highways are apparently coded differently and it will calculate based upon the type of road. From my experience, all MX calculations are based upon city streets and thus a lower mpg.
7) This unit has the large screen and I would hate to use anything with one of the smaller screens. When in strange (to us) new towns or cities, I used the zoom-in feature a good deal.
8) Turn-by-Turn Vocal Directions – tended to be somewhat confusing in MX! As most experienced travelers in MX would know, street names often change in midstream. The GPS tends to treat this as a turn when one is continuing on the same diagonal or highway. The box is constantly squawking and would become quite irritating. The American voice option totally slaughters the street names while “Javier”; one of the Americas Spanish options does a great job! Now there is a real surprise! Note: I finally quit using the turn-by-turn voice and drove from the display.
9) One-Way Streets are another problem for the unit as it was constantly trying to direct you the wrong way on a one-way. We ran into a situation in San Miguel de Allende where we had the address for our hotel but kept going in circles until we finally arrived. As it turned out, the hotel address was on a street that was two blocks long and you really had to “sneak” up on it and the one-way streets made that difficult.
10) Speed Limits – are not programmed into the unit for MX. Not really a problem as most ignore them anyway!
11) Cuotas vs. Libres – I had the unit set for fastest route and it was somewhat hard to tell if it was actually directing me to cuotas. Having driven most of the cuotas, I tended to ignore the box and use my own personal knowledge to get on the cuotas. We did run into one cuota heading north out of Moreila towards Salamanca where the highway was not even on the GPS map. The cuota crosses a lake and it showed us driving in the water.
12) With two satellite reliant gadgets (GPS and Sirius Radio) – I did notice problems with both especially in Michoacan. Whether it was a combination of the mountains and trees, I am not sure but our signals would often scramble. Heavy trees seemed to have the greatest effect. One can forget knowing where they are when driving through the tunnels under the city of Guanajuato!
13) As with most GPS units, the GARMIN has points of interest guides with hotels, restaurants, gas stations, etc., etc. While I only tried this feature on occasion, it appears that this option isn’t great for MX. Some of the really large cities have a certain but limited amount of info. The few times that I tried this option, I often pulled up info from cities hundreds of miles away.
14) One of the screen options is that you can set the altimeter to display on the lower portion of the map. We found this to be quite interesting when traveling some of the higher areas in Michoacan and parts of Guanajuato.
Conclusions/Recommendations:
Overall, I was quite happy with the unit! That said, I would still always travel with a GUIA-ROJI map book. Unlike traveling NOB with a GPS – travel in MX using a GPS still requires a decent sense of direction and past experience is also quite helpful. Streets in Mexico tend not to be laid out in a normal grid pattern and depending on town, ones sense of direction can be confused. Mountain towns/cities such as Patzcuaro, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende can be a real challenge since it is often difficult to spot a visible landmark!"

thanks, this gives me a good start....(buy the GUIA-ROJI map book also) :)

Even though we continue to carry the Guia Roji map book, I find myself using it a great deal less. I am fairly diligent about saving locations that we may wish to revisit to "favorites".

A word of warning, the State of Jalisco recently enacted new rules which make it illegal to be using a GPS unit that isn't original equipment. I do plan on using our portable unit in Feb. but will keep it off the dash and probably rely more on the voice directions and less with the visual maps. Who is to say if this is just another excuse to pull someone over along with using a cell phone or not wearing seatbelts?

any ideas on original equipment gps? I have a 2007 Lexus with Nav, but I can't find anywhere I can get a Mexico DVD Map for it

I did some looking around on various Lexus sites and just cannot find any map updates other than for the US and parts of Canada:
http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu/
These appear to be proprietary systems and I haven't been able to find aftermarket maps for the unit.

Maybe there is an in dash replacement unit from one of the majors?

I didn't mean to scare you off with my warning but felt you should know about the new Jalisco law. I can say that we will use ours up on the dash when not in Jalisco and play it by ear in Jalisco.

I didn't find any either, looks like none of the car manf. are doing Mexico yet. Thanks for your help

While I haven't read much about this outfit as of late, it was fairly highly touted as being an alternate source of Mexico Maps that could be compatible with some of the car manufacturer systems:
http://www.bicimapas.com.mx/English.htm

In this day in age, I cannot imagine that someone hasn't figured out a "hack" for the Lexus system that would allow more common maps to be recognized. I just checked YouTube and there seem to be plenty of alternatives explained but you hadn't stated your model.

2007 ES 350

texunsam:

Out of curiosity, I did a fair amount of research on the Toyota/Lexus Navigation System and right up front I have made up my mind that I would never want or pay for a proprietary NAV system from any manufacturer. Certainly the Lexus system appears to have many whistles and bells not offered by the traditional GPS manufacturers but it seems to be designed to keep you in their hip pocket with money in hand. Even those aftermarket units designed to replace the OEM units in case of failure take the same tact and are very expensive. Apparently, there are some highly specialized shops in larger markets capable of performing limited hacks to the system but their willingness to do so seems to be restricted due to liability issues. Not sure if your unit because of age has the current "safety factor" built in that prevents you from programming while driving or not but I would find that to be a royal PITA!

If I were to make a recommendation to you - I would suggest purchasing a mid to upper level portable unit with Lifetime Map Updates and figure on using it in a manner to not draw attention while driving in Jalisco. We have also found that carrying the unit with us when we are out walking around towns or cities allows us to save locations where we might one day want to return a real plus. For example, if one goes to Tonala with its hundreds/thousands of shops, I have many walking locations saved for future reference.

Thanks for your input. Yes our system does have the PITA factor which is very annoying, but mostly we have used it to calculate remaining time on a trip since most of our travel to date has been up and down I-35 and occasionally to an address we haven't been before. I will probably take your advice regarding a hand-held unit. Hadn't thought about walking around as we have gotten so used to I-phone maps, but probably won't pay for data in Mexico from ATT..Your input is greatly appreciated!

Best - Sam

I apparently misled you with my choice of words. Our unit is a Garmin 785T with the 4.3" screen. When I want to carry it around, I simply power down and unplug from the power cord. It goes it a case and then into my pocket. When I want to save a location, I simply power up and do a where am I and then give it a name prior to saving. Since I have never tested the unit to check the battery limits, I keep it turned off since I am not interested in tracking our walking route. The vehicle is the primary use and I would rather have the larger screen for that use.

I understand, and appreciate your research.!

Regards,

Sam
OKC, OK