Out of date maps on Garmin GPS unit

[V]

My wife gets lost often enough that I thought it would be nice for her to have a GPS unit in our vehicle, so I bought a Garmin unit, but it doesn't even have the portion of the ring road in it up here in Edmonton that was built a couple of years ago. I'm not entirely sure how long it takes for this stuff to be updated, but Google had their maps updated quickly enough.

Does anyone have experience with these units? Are other units like TomTom better for updating their maps?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by V

My wife gets lost often enough that I thought it would be nice for her to have a GPS unit in our vehicle, so I bought a Garmin unit, but it doesn't even have the portion of the ring road in it up here in Edmonton that was built a couple of years ago. I'm not entirely sure how long it takes for this stuff to be updated, but Google had their maps updated quickly enough.

Does anyone have experience with these units? Are other units like TomTom better for updating their maps?

I got a TomTom two years ago and it had all the new roads in Edmonton at that time. Are you talking about the Anthony Henday Dr.? It was on my Tom Tom. I downloaded the maps before I put the GPS to use though. The maps that came loaded on it were probably not up to date. I think I only get one free map update though. Don't remember the cost of new maps.

[photon]

I have a TomTom and if I remember it only came with 1 year of free map updates, after that I had to pay. I've hardly ever used it.

Garmin seems to have both one-time and lifetime update purchase plans, but I can't find if it comes with free updates for a year or at all.

http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/Updating_Maps.pdf

[Ashartus]

When I bought a Garmin GPS a couple of years ago, you got one free udpate within 60 days of purchase (the pre-loaded maps may not be current). After that you have to pay, but their lifetime update plan was pretty cheap - less than the price of 2 one-time updates.