Just picked up a new 3500 Laramie. Love the truck and most of its features but so far I am not much impressed with the Garmin nav system, compared to a three year old Magellan portable I have. Maybe I am missing something but if so, the manual has been no help in clearing things up.

Among other things, these are my two biggest gripes with it so far.

1: It seems there is no way of adjusting the nav's voice instruction volume. It is too low to hear properly and all it does well is interrupt phone conversations on the UConnect, which incidentally works really well with my HTC Desire Z. As a result, I leave it turned off.

2: Won't display nearly as much info on the map as the Magellan, won't show any POI on the map unless it is selected as a destination. My Magellan allows you to select the kind of POI's you want it to show on the map (campsites, gas stations etc) and when you touch the symbol on the map, it gives you the info on that POI. It also allows you to type in a place and look for POI's around it. This particular Garmin system only lists POI's in descending order from your present location in any direction.

This is the first Garmin system I have had and if this is typical of them, it will be the last.

 

The "voice" has to be speaking to adjust the volume it's not in the manual and took me awhile to find it.
I too have a Magellan and it does show more POI but if you are not looking for a certain thing why display it. I like the "KISS" system.. Keep it simple ..... Forgot to add my son has had a couple of Garmins prior to his new truck and to be honest I liked them better then my Magellan.

 

The volume thing works but kind of a pain having to program a route into it, then wait till it speaks before you can adjust volume.

We disagree on the POI's. You can have as many types as you want displayed on the Magellan or none at all. It is up to you. You see a gas station or restaurant icon on the map, you touch it and it gives you the info. With this thing, I have to select POI's, then the type of POI, then the sub type and then it just lists a name, general direction and distance like 3 mi SW. It should display them on the map to help you decide which one you want to use.

I also don't like not being able to look at POI's near my destination or some location other than my present position.

Perhaps I will get to like it, but so far, not so much.

 

so how do you adjust volume exactly?

 

when the Nav is talking just turn it up like you would the radio and it will stay at the new setting.

 

I'm writing this from memory...so don't shoot me if the instructions are not exactly accruate....

In my 2010, when in the map view, there is an icon on the screen which says "rpt" or something like that. Just touch the screen on the icon and it will repeat the instructions. You can adjust your volume while it is repeating....and you can do that at any time or as frequently as you want.

One thing I don't like about it is if you don't subscribe to the satellight service, then you also stop receiving the traffic updates.