20,000 miles RM vs Garmin side by side review.

Okay so a couple months back my trusted old Gamin freaked out. Started having Chinese characters all over the screen and the routes were complete nonsense. Well I had over 400 bucks in Loves points so I decided to buy the new 7 inch RM. I updated my Garmin when I got home and its fixed now. I figured I would just keep them both and see which one did better routes.

Since this comparison is between two different and year models this won't be a feature comparison. Everyone puts different values on different features anyway. We are going to focus on routes. But let me start by saying that I will never again purchase a 7 inch GPS, it just takes up to much real estate. I like to mount my GPS to the top of the overhead compartment, the big empty space that makes up the floor for the center compartment for those driving a Cascadia. I always buy those Bracketon mounts from Loves. However, I found the 7 inch bracket just simply would not stabilize the RM from this position, it vibrated like crazy. I ended up mounting it in the space where some Cascadias have their CB's.

Anyway on to the comparison. I found them both to be much the same for the majority of the time but with some huge exceptions. If you run out of the West the RM is way better. For instance, Denver to Dallas. Garmin wants you to run I-70 all the way to 35, which does work but is way longer. The RM routes what I consider the proper way, U.S 287. Cheyenne to Houston, Garmin wants you to run I-80 to 35. Basically, it will always pick the long way from anywhere out West, north of I-10. Anything from the Midwest or East the were both the same for the most part.

Another issue is the Hazmat routing, Garmin wants you to run I-35E through Dallas when that is clearly a non Haz route, RM routes you correctly. RM never let me down in this regard.

So, which one will get you to the front door the best? Well, they both will actually but the RM will take you on a really screwed up way. Say you could exit the freeway and make one tun and be there, call it a total of 2 miles from the exit. Garmin will do that route, the RM has a tendency to route you an exit or two before and then do a bunch more turns. So I found the Garmin to be better for city driving, or final destination driving.

There is one feature that cannot be overlooked. The RM needs wifi to do traffic and the Garmin does not. This is a huge difference and I simply cannot believe RM lets Garmin get away with such a critical advantage. The Garmin traffic, and Ive been running mine 3 years now, is usually accurate and is a great help in planning. I will not hotspot my phone and waste precious data so I never even used it on the RM. Again, its almost inexcusable that the RM doesn't do the same thing.

So whats my final verdict, which one do I pick? Well, I'm a Garmin fan boy but honestly the RM is just a lot better for routing. I mainly use my GPS to give me miles to go, how much longer I have to drive to be in range, should I stop here etc. Routes really aren't all that important in terms of turn by turn. I generally know where I'm going. The RM simply beats the Garmin in finding the shortest route my consistently. I would recommend the RM hands down but incredibly they can't even come close to competing on traffic. So when my Garmin finally dies and then the RM goes, hopefully a long time from now I will buy another RM and hopefully by then they will have a traffic feature that doesn't use wi-fi.

 

Also, let me put this disclaimer here. If your one of those old school "I don't use GPS and you're stupid for using one and by God all I need is a paper map" kind of guy. That's awesome and we should all be so lucky to be you. But I don't need to hear about it. So please, simply do not post. In fact why would you even click on this thread?

 

This is why you should wear helmets people!!

 

Yes although the RM post the truck speed. For example in Cali the Garmin will still say 65 even though we all know that is not the truck speed. This may have been fixed on later models I don't know, its why I didn't mention that. Pittsburgh was easy for the Garmin, the RM handles it worse but the route was still doable. Haven't tried NYC with the Rand yet.