garmin drivesmart 76, four months later
I talked about the vintage Garmin 200 series earlier this week, so I figured I might as well give a report on what I'm using currently.
I bought my Garmin DriveSmart 76 in December 2024, which at the time I write this is about four months ago.
Before I get into how it's been working, I'll note up front that I do not connect my phone to this thing, but do receive traffic reports via the built-in traffic receiver. This is possible only using the "full" 76 and NOT the "EX" model. If it's a DriveSmart 76EX, that does NOT have the built-in traffic receiver while the non-EX model does. And, of course, I do live in an area where there is FM traffic coverage.
In addition, I do use what my 76 came with to power it. The charge block goes into the 12V port, and I use the provided USB-C cable. This means I do not use a separate USB port in the car (which is impossible anyway since my car doesn't even have any).
So far, the 76 has been a solid performer. Only once was there a slight route miscalculation, I think. I do have the unit set to automatically reroute me around major traffic events. On one (and only one) particular drive, it seemed to route me around highway traffic that didn't exist, but I think that was because the traffic event had cleared and the unit hadn't updated that information yet. Either that, or whoever was doing the traffic reporting did not send out an all-clear. I can't confirm whether it was the 76's fault or not on that one. Ultimately, all this did was add in a few minutes to my trip, so it wasn't a big deal.
One map update has happened since I've owned the 76. The map information is good, but obviously not as up-to-date as OpenStreetMap would be. Then again, to keep receiving the traffic reports, the Garmin-issued maps have to be used, so that's what I stick with.
Position accuracy is very good because the 76 gets it from three satellite networks. GPS, Galileo and BeiDou. It's the only model I have with all three of those. On other models I have, it's either GPS+Galileo or just GPS alone.
Legibility is decent, although I wish Garmin would go back to the old font they used to use, which I think was called Prima Sans. The Arial/Helvetica/whatever sans font they're using now is skinnier and not as good. It would be good if every use of the font was semi-bold to bold, but that's not what happens. It's normal, bold and nothing else. Normal is the font style that's too skinny, causing the appearance of vibration/blur. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if they just went back to Prima Sans like on the DriveSmart 65. Or what would be really good is a CHOICE of whether to use the Arial/Helvetica or Prima Sans. That would be nice.
Speaker volume is good. No complaints there.
The dual MEMS microphones are definitely better than the single microphone used before, so voice commands go through easier. HOWEVER... the fact I cannot issue a detour command is stupid. On older models it was, "Voice Command [say a command], Detour", done. On the 76, there is no way to do that. Issuing a detour command requires a bare minimum of 4 screen taps (menu > Edit Route > Detour by Distance / Detour by Road > choose detour). That's dumb.
No heat issues with the screen, although summer is right around the corner, so... will have to wait to see how it handles hotter weather.
Overall, the 76 has been reliable and good. Nothing extraordinarily bad has happened with it aside from what I said above.
Lastly, I did not need to add a memory card to fit the map update. It had plenty of room for that data and for the next update for whenever that comes along.
people are still using 2008 gps navigation?
Take a Garmin nuvi 205 GPS navigator, a model released in early 2008. And yes, it's my 205 because I have a collection of Garmin navigators just because I like them. After all, I do use a modern Garmin DriveSmart 76.
What's truly amazing however is how many people are still using the '08 stuff. Why? The answer is interesting.
One of the more important things to know about GPS navigation is that it came into existence well before decent smartphone navigation. And by decent I mean there really wasn't anything good for phone navigation until 2012. Prior to that, when you wanted GPS navigation, you got a personal navigation device or PND for short. And that's where little Garmin screens fit in.
The Garmin nuvi first came on the market in 2007, so there was this period from '07 to '12 where people who wanted GPS bought Garmin. Yes, there were other brands, but Garmin obviously had the lion's share of the market. The PND that sold the best was the 200 series. Specifically, models 200, 205, 255 and 260. Why those? Price. Buyers naturally gravitated towards the lower end models solely for that reason.
A 200 series Garmin nuvi is the Ford Mustang of the GPS world. I call it that because in the late '60s, Ford cranked out as many Mustangs as they could build as fast as they could make them, which is why to this day you can still pick up a late '60s Mustang for cheap. Similarly, in the late 2000s, Garmin cranked out as many 200 series nuvi GPSes as they could get made, which is why you can get one of those for next to nothing. You can even find some still sealed/new in the blister pack on eBay.
Where PND history is concerned, this is where the interesting part happens.
Okay. Smartphone navigation gets good, everybody likes it and totally forgets about the Garmin PNDs...
...until the early 2020s. After about 8 years, this is when navigation on the phone started to show some cracks in the armor. It didn't matter what nav app was used, but what did matter is that the near-perfect navigation experience just wasn't there anymore.
What made phone navigation suffer was a combination of newer phones constantly turning off the GPS antenna ("GPS Signal Lost" is very common), app bloat, never-ending "updates", questionable UI changes, and of course bad directions that angered users left and right.
This anger heated up to the point where people just stopped using nav apps. However, they still needed navigation, so then came up the question of, "Hey, what about that old Garmin?"
And out comes that dusty nuvi 200 series that's been sitting in the closet for years. Yes, it's old. Yes, it's slow. But with a cheap USB power lead, 32GB memory card and free alternative maps, now that nuvi not only lives again, but it works.
True, it's slightly challenging to get favorites saved in an old nuvi because it has to be done using GPS coordinates. But if it's the choice between doing that or using a smartphone nav app that can break at any time, putting in extra effort to save locations doesn't seem like much of a big deal at that point.
Using a 200 series nuvi is truly a back-to-basics navigation experience. No internet, no traffic reporting, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi. It's just a GPS receiver that routes. That's it.
In the end, a bunch of people went back to their old nuvi 200's just out of frustration. It was used years ago, then replaced by nav apps, then brought back after more than a decade because modern nav apps keep breaking.
I'm not saying going back to an '08 GPS navigator is the answer to bad phone nav apps, but for some it is.
the new retro is 2012
Retro needs an update, and it's 2012.
It's safe to say at this point that "retro" as a whole is very played out. For electronics, games and computers, every single thing from the 1960s to the 2000s has been covered. All it takes is a search of YouTube for anything computer/game/whatever from the 40-year span of 1969 to 2009, and yeah, there's a video on it.
Every electronic, every game, all of it. Think there's something that hasn't been covered? You're wrong. Somebody has made a video. There's nothing left, nothing to be discovered, and it's all been done.
Things are played out to the point where the majority of well-established YouTube channels revolving around retro have resorted to covering industrial equipment. I'm talking about the stuff nobody ever had in their homes, such as highly specific scientific testing equipment, refrigerator-sized computers, and so on. The well has completely dried up for all the consumer grade stuff, so the industrial crap is all the retro content creators have left to cover. They purposely buy broken old industrial gear, make as many videos as they can about repairing it, then the very last video of the series shows the thing turning on, "How cool is this?" (it's not), and... that's it. Not exactly riveting content.
But then there's 2012. More specifically, 2012 to 2018. This is the new retro, but in a different flavor in that the tech is actually usable now.
For example, I have a whole pile of Garmin GPSes from that era, and they all still work just fine - and I'm able to load up modern maps using OpenStreetMap data, making them actually usable as daily drivers.
Then there's the giant swath of Linux users (and I'm one of them) who use laptops made in that 2012-2018 era. The old spinning hard drive was junked for a new SSD, the RAM maxed out with a couple of new sticks, a new/current Linux distro is installed, and guess what? Usable and quick since the bottleneck was the RAM and hard drive in the first place. Have refurbished Dell Latitude, will travel - for cheap.
Old retro is all about getting a nostalgia fix. This is why I'm very happy letting arcade machines be somebody else's problem. To use another example, sure, you could buy a big tube-type refurbished television (not cheap) for that "proper" retro gaming experience. Should you? No. Not worth it. It's a big heavy box in your living space that solely exists for a nostalgia fix that wears off real fast.
New retro is about actually using older stuff to get things done today. Not just with computers and gaming consoles but also with cars, tools, appliances, whatever. Take the old-but-not-too-old stuff, refurb/upgrade as best you can, use it.
It's not about getting a nostalgia fix anymore, because we've already done all that. It's about using older stuff to improve your life without going to the poorhouse in the process.
New retro is your thing if you consider modern stuff to be overpriced crap.
People are totally willing to pay for cheap crap, just by virtue that it's cheap. So if you buy a box of cheap pens at a dollar store and a few of them don't work, you're not too angry about that, if at all.
It's when you put real money into something modern and it either doesn't work and/or breaks quickly that gets you angry. If that sounds like you, start looking at the 2012-2018 stuff. What stuff, specifically? Start with the electronics. I mentioned laptops, but refurb mini PCs are worth a look. Also look into appliance repair. There are many big books on that. More often than not, most broken appliances can be fixed with under $100 worth of parts once you know how to install them.
The happy happens any time you can use an older thing to make your life better. Money is saved and you get your stuff done. I'd argue that's better than any nostalgia fix.
windows 10 panic setting in?
I talked about this at the beginning of the year but want to revisit it. At the time I write this, Microsoft Windows 10 is almost 10 years old, and the time is drawing closer to where 10 will become officially unsupported.
And oh yeah, I'm seeing some panic.
In mid-2023, I had the thought of, I'd better switch to Linux now, and did. Been using it ever since as my daily driver. But I still read forums where people talk about Windows 10. Why? I was waiting to see when The Panic would set in.
It's been well known for a long while that official Windows 10 support ends on 14-Oct-2025. When this was first announced, of course there were people all over saying they would "stay on 10 forever". Yeah. Well... back when 10 was first released, people said they would stay on Windows 7 forever. And before that when 7 was first released, people said they would stay on XP forever. We all know how that turned out.
At the beginning of '25, people thought.. for some reason.. that 10 could somehow be "saved". I don't know why anybody thought this, but they did. Now it's to the point where the boom is going to be dropped in 6 months for 10, and oh yes, The Panic is now setting in. Talk is going on of, "Uh-oh.. what happens in 6 months?" Truly not that far away from now.
When Windows 10 was first released, forum nerds hated it. And I mean really hated it, swearing up and down they'd never use it as their daily driver. Fast-forward to now, and those same nerds did a complete 180, use it all the time, and say they not only like 10 but want to stay with it.
So... did 10 just magically get better? Not really. Yes, many bugfixes and patches have been released in the decade 10 has existed. But if you install a bone stock 10 even now, it's basically still the same experience as it was in 2015.
Since history has a tendency to repeat itself, here's what I'm pretty sure is going to happen:
It's going to be just like what happened with 7. The no-more-support date will hit, forum nerds will be loud and proud about staying with 10 forever, and say, "Ha! See? My PC still works fine!"
I give that about 6 months. Maybe a year. Then they'll switch to Windows 11. It will most likely be because some new PC game "requires" 11. Or maybe their old clunker PC will finally give up the ghost, they'll buy a new one, 11 will be on it and they'll just begrudgingly keep it just because 10 won't work on that computer properly since it wasn't designed for it.
It's real easy to be on the "stay on X version of OS forever" wagon when everything is working. But once stuff stops working, be it hardware or software or both, that's when your tune changes.
If you're using 10 now, you'll soon either go with Win11 or Linux, your choice. And I suppose Mac is also an option if you like spending money.
plain vs. tpms vs. metal valve stem caps
I just talked about getting new tires, and it's worth talking about these little things, valve stem caps (a.k.a. valve stem covers).
There are several different types of caps out there, and they all fall into one of three categories: Plain, TPMS or metal. Which is the best?
I'll answer that question, but before I do, "plain" usually refers to short, stubby plastic caps, "TPMS" usually means plastic caps that are supposedly better for cars with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (which is pretty much all cars since 2000, and yes, sometimes those sensors need to be replaced), and "metal" means the cap is literally made of metal (usually aluminum) instead of plastic.
Metal is the worst type of cap to use for one simple reason. It's the most difficult to grip. It doesn't matter if the cap has knurling on it or not. Over time, that cap is going to accumulate dirt and road grime. When the time comes (and it will) that you have to take off the cap to add air or even just check the tire pressure with a gauge, you'll fingers will slip on the stupid cap when trying to grip it. This means you'll have to grip the cap harder both for taking it off and putting it back on.
You will immediately notice that plastic caps have much deeper grooves on the outside. And guess what? Your fingers will find that much easier to grip and turn.
Does a plastic cap labeled as TPMS actually affect the performance of the TPMS at all? No, because the TPMS is inside the wheel. However, caps labeled as TPMS are physically longer.
Whether to use plain short stubby caps or the longer TPMS caps depends on your personal preference.
I prefer the TPMS cap and think it's the best because it's longer and easiest for my fingers to grip.
If you like the longer caps with easier grip, get TPMS caps. However, if you think the longer caps look dumb (they do stick out more, after all), get the short stubby ones instead.
What about decorative caps?
An example of a decorative valve stem cover is the dice style cap. They literally look like dice and come in white, black, red, yellow, green and blue, your choice.
Another example is the 8 ball valve stem cap, which obviously looks like an 8 ball from a pool game.
Yes, these look cool, but I wouldn't keep them on my valve stems all the time due to the extra weight and nonstandard shape. If for example you have a classic car or truck and wanted to throw on a set of these for a car show, sure, go ahead. But after the show, put regular sized caps back on.
If you want a decorative cap you can keep on the stem all the time that acts normally, luminous caps are what you want. What are they? Glow-in-the-dark caps. Standard shape, gets its charge from sunlight, glows at night. How well do they work? I have no idea, but again, it's a standard shape, so you can leave them on the stems all the time. And yes, there are caps with LEDs in them also. I've no idea how well those work either.
Can you skip the caps entirely and just leave the end of the stem uncovered?
Yes, but it's not smart for regular passenger cars, trucks and SUVs. Road grime will collect in there over time, and that means two things. First, when you use a tire pressure gauge, that grime will be sprayed directly into it, and possibly wreck the thing. Second, when you add air to the tire, it can damage your air pump and the stem itself from grime being pushed through, and possibly cause the stem to fail outright.
The caps are there to keep road grime out of the stem. Use them.