The only two things that I find to be inconvenient is the lack of compatibility on Mac OS X. It would be nice to be able to connect to my Mac since that is my primary computer; but this is not a major issue. Also, the other issue that is somewhat annoying is the timing of pop up windows on the GPS unit to alert you of your turns or exits. I am not sure if this is an issue with the GPS itself or with this software, but in any event, I have found that sometimes you don’t get much notice of upcoming turns and exits. It would be nice to be able to set this to trigger at about a 1/2 mile from the waypoint instead of 2/10 mile as it is currently set. Again, not a major issue as long as you’re paying close attention – otherwise you might just shoot past your turn or exit, especially if you’re traveling fast.

Overall, this software provides all the data and maps you need to navigate anywhere in the US, Alaska and Hawaii. It seems to be current and accurate and a necessary component to any GPS device used for traveling.

Well, the software is fine, and it turns out that the difference between the Navigator and Select is immediately apparent, unfortunately. The navigator has 10x fewer map segments, and each segment is takes much more memory. Many segments are larger that the Legend can handle (24MB) when full routing information is included.

It turns out that the City Select (v7) has exactly (as far as I can tell) the same map and route info, but it has more map segments (like the previous versions of Navigator) so that it will be useful for the smaller memory devices such as the Legend C. Even the middle-of-the-road units like the GPSMAP60C probably would be better with the City Select version.

Be careful when you are deciding which version to buy. I probably need to try to return this software, if I can. I am not sure Amazon will give me a refund because I had to “unlock” the software before I could find out that it was not actually fully compatible with the Legend C.

Garmin has about 8 different levels of street classifications, all the way from pedestrian and animal pathways to multilane controlled access highways. For each roadway, there can be up to 60 invisible attributes, indicating the number of lanes, number of stop signs or traffic lights per mile, speed limits, presence of medians, time of day restrictions, heavy vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle restrictions, and so forth. Whether these 60 pieces of data are included in the software or used by the GPS for its calculations is part of the feature set of the 3 map packages offered by Garmin.

The basic level (Metroguide) does not support automatic route generation. (Note: Metroguide 4.01 and below use data from TeleAtlas. So Metroguide 4.01 is the best version you can find that won’t need an unlock code to use the routing function on your Garmin)

The intermediate level (City Select) supports automatic route generation, but does not contain certain ‘high end’ road attributes such as truck restrictions, time of day restrictions, stop signs per mile, mid-road barrier awareness, and various other road attributes.

The highest level (City Navigator) contains all those things, and is targeted for Garmin’s higher end GPS’s. This can explain the why Navigator’s map data are much larger than Select. I bought the Navigator for my 60Cx and within the same order I also bought a 1GB microSD memory chip. The Navigator has about 1.6 GB map data. With 1GB microSD, I can hold the map about half of the US (from west of IL all the way to the east coast)

As far as the quality of map detail, I’d say it’s about the same as MS Streets & Trips 2006, which I use a lot on my PC. I haven’t found any errors yet. None of them has the railroads of Chicago CTA train, which, interestingly, are in Garmin’s US Topo map. All have Metra railroads though.

For the actually performance and accuracy of the map, you could refer to the reviews of other Garmin’s models that are dedicatedly made for in-car use and preloaded with City Navigator NT, such as StreetPilot i5, c340, and Nuvi 350, etc. Navigator NT uses the same data and only differs in compression techniques. From what I read, it seems about 80% of the people are happy with the routing result. To my experiences, by only giving start and end waypoints, I couldn’t get my preferable route for most of the time. I have to specify several additional waypoints to “manipulate” how the route is calculated. (All software and online maps are like this so I have no complaint here). I am not planning to heavily rely on the turn-by-turn routing feature.

This review is for version 7, BTW