gps car navigation for hot weather driving
I live in a hot state, so I have to plan for this stuff early.
My current daily driver is the Garmin DriveSmart 76, and while that works very nicely, I purposely use a Garmin model made from over a decade ago because it's much better equipped to handle hot-hot weather.
Before I get into that, there are three realities when it comes to smartphone in cars used for navigation:
- Can and will overheat, then shutdown at the worst possible time.
- Can and will lose GPS signal where navigation will stop at the worst possible time.
- Pairing to a car's infotainment system is flaky at best, can and will fail at the worst possible time.
Using a phone for navigation is just asking for problems to happen, especially in hotter weather driving. No thanks.
A standalone navigator is the best option, however, during hot weather driving, heat is a problem. Just like with the phone, if it's blasted by too much heat, it will shut down.
The solution to this problem is to purposely use an older Garmin with a resistive matte screen. Capacitive touchscreens may be brighter, but run hotter. I'd rather run with a screen that's slightly dimmer and works instead of dealing with a capacitive that causes shutdowns from generating too much heat.
How old is too old?
The oldest model that still functions properly is the Garmin nuvi 52LM and nuvi 54LM. Outfitted with a 32GB microSD card, it gets the job done. Just connect the thing to the free Garmin Express software to update the maps.
After that is the nuvi 57 from 2015. More features and quicker to calculate routes. Needs the 32GB memory card like the 52/54.
After that is the Drive 52 from 2019, which can still be bought new (although renewed/refurb is just fine). Also needs the 32GB microSD like the 52/54 to fit all the latest map data. This one in particular has the brightest matte screen you can get that is on par with a capacitive screen. It was also the very last matte screen for the car Garmin ever released.
All of these are 5" screens. Yes, there were 6" matte screens (nuvi 66 and 67) and even a few 7" models (nuvi 2757 and 2797), but the 5" is the best of the lot.
Yes, they have to be used plugged in all the time because the battery life isn't that great. Yes, you need that 32GB memory card as mentioned above. But once you have those things in order, then you have GPS navigation that can handle the hotter weather.
Does this mean you can just leave it in the car all the time?
NO.
Or to be more specific, you can't leave it mounted on the glass 100% of the time.
For example, if you go to a grocery store and have to park in the sun, leaving the screen on the glass is a bad idea because it will get cooked. The sunlight comes through the windshield and will bake a Garmin screen. The solution to this is simple. Take the Garmin off its mount and out of the sun when parked. Just chuck the screen in a door pocket or glove box. Easy enough. When you get back to the car, put the screen back on the mount, turn it on and go.
Better to use an old matte screen Garmin instead of risking phone overheating
The real question here is this: Which would you rather destroy?
Every time a modern phone with a sealed battery overheats, you run the risk of battery bulging that can literally render a smartphone dead. And by that I mean "will not turn on AT ALL" dead. In the past, you could replace a phone battery or at least take the battery out and plug it in to get your important data off it. NOT ANYMORE. When a phone gets cooked, it's 100% dead.
Take the same situation with a Garmin Drive 52. Let's say you left it mounted to the glass on a hot sunny day like an idiot while going grocery shopping. You come back, try to turn on the 52 and nope, it won't power on. You destroyed it by letting the thing get cooked.
If you destroyed a Drive 52, that wouldn't feel so bad as destroying your phone. Think about that.
I'll end this one with a little story.
Years ago I had a Garmin nuvi 50 where, like an idiot, I left mounted in the car while I went shopping on a hot sunny summer day. I came back after my shopping, tried to turn it on, nope... not happening.
The car was started with the A/C on, so I held the screen unplugged in front of a vent blowing cold air on it to cool the thing off for about a minute. Then I tried to turn it back on, and... success! Incredibly, that 50 powered back up and still worked fine.
But make no mistake, I got lucky there. That 50 could have very easily gave up the ghost and never powered on again, but it soldiered on even after I left it in the sun like an idiot.
Had it been a capacitive screen model, nope, no way, never would have powered on after being cooked like that. The only thing that saved it was it being a matte screen...
...which I why I keep some matte screen Garmins kicking around. They can genuinely take more punishment from hot weather driving and it's worth it to keep one (or several) around.
gas station perezhivanie
Sometimes all it takes to feel your age - good or bad - is to take a trip to the gas station.
This mug sorta/kinda explains how I feel.
I have been a fan of gas stations for a long time and have been to many. Probably well over a thousand by now. Mom-and-pops in the middle of nowhere, sketchy places in dirty neighborhoods, highfalutin super-clean ones in wealthy cities, big trucker stops, and so on. I've experienced pretty much all types of them.
One thing I particularly appreciate about gas stations is it's a place where technology is paused. There is absolutely no time to work out system bugs for cutting edge technologies in an environment like that. As a result, older proven technologies are used instead. True, you can pay by phone these days, but that is the slowest way to complete a transaction at the pump or inside the store. At the gas station, how to pay for anything from best to worst is cash, debit, credit, phone. I doubt that will ever change.
If you think tech is moving along too fast, the gas station experience is like going back in time 30 years ago. At a freshly built brand new trucker stop, sure, you'll see some modern tech (usually at the pumps), but without looking too far in the same place you'll also see other stuff that looks and feels like the late '90s, even though new. Why? Because that's what works best in a place like that.
Gas stations are for adults, and rarely do you see children in one since other than the candy and sodas, there's nothing there for them. You also don't see pretty people at the gas station either.
Those you do find at gas stations are regular people. Thoroughly average Joes and Janes getting fuel, and maybe a drink, snack, lottery ticket, whatever.
The closest thing I've ever seen to hot women at the gas station are medical girls, and they usually only appear during morning hours before their shift starts. She drives in, fuels up, comes in the store. Her outfit is, of course, scrubs. Sometimes blue, sometimes purple, sometimes red. Scrubs are one of the least sexiest things a woman could wear, and that's fine because clothing like that is built for purpose and not style. I say this because a woman in scrubs, unsexy as that may be, is as close as you'll get to seeing a hot woman as the gas station. Also, the reason they show up at the gas station and other women don't is because they're braver, with the general attitude of, "I'm in scrubs, I don't care, and I just need to fuel up and grab a Bai before I go to work."
Generally speaking, the age range of people you see buying things at gas stations is 40 to 65. Yep, middle aged people. The people working there might be younger (and often are), but the patrons are middle aged by default.
In the past back in my 20s, I started going to gas stations a lot just because I like driving so much. Back then, I was the youngest guy in the store. Then I reached my 30s. Then my 40s...
...then I reached the fifth decade of life.
Am I the oldest guy in the store now?
Not quite yet, but getting there.
Does that bother me?
No.
Gas stations are regular-people places. At no point will I ever get side-eyed by anybody with the incredulous look of, "What's he doing here?", because nobody cares.
Sometimes when I see somebody else in the store that looks to be about my age, I think, "I'm the same age as that guy."
Does that bother me?
No.
But it is a small reality check every time that happens. It's a reminder that I'm not young. I'm not old (as in not elderly) either, but still, not young.
I'm okay with that, but it's weird because I really don't feel the age I am.
There are positives and negatives to being in the fifth decade of life.
An example of one of the more annoying negatives is getting "sir'd" in a condescending way, usually by a store employee, just for asking a simple question.
But I argue the positives outweigh the negatives. One of the biggest positives is that for any - and I mean any - store I go into, I don't get grief from anybody (save for the "sir'd" types). Those working there see my plainclothes look, then seen the gray on my head, and think, "Yep, that guy is safe."
Being middle aged with gray on top is like wearing a loud flashing neon sign that says "WILL NOT DESTROY YOUR STORE". That's a good thing.
At the gas station, who do you see most? Middle aged guys either with gray hair or bald heads. I'm one of them, and that's just fine.
my current safety razor shaving rig
Yes, I'm still DE shaving, but my rig has changed.
DE means shaving using a safety razor with a double-edged blade. At first, I was using a King C. Gillette safety razor and Astra blades ("Superior Stainless" variant and not Platinum, although those are fine too).
Then I went through a few different blade brands which included Derby (3 different types there) and Shark. I even tried a blade sampler at one point.
After all that, I bought a different safety razor, the Parker 78R. And just because I hadn't tried them before, Gillette Perma-Sharp blades (although I may try Gillette 7 O'clock blades next).
For my face, the combination of Parker 78R safety razor and Gillette Perma-Sharp works. And while this will make safety razor snobs go "Ew!", Gillette Foamy shaving cream works for me. Barbasol also works. I can use either.
I went from Gillette razor and non-Gillette blade to Gillette blade and non-Gillette razor. Funny how that worked out.
The Parker razor is lighter in weight than the King C, but slightly more aggressive when the correct blade is used, which as I said is a Perma-Sharp for my face. With the Parker, I can "let the blade do the work" more easily than with the Gillette razor. The King C isn't bad, but I have to press more when using it... which is not how you're supposed to be using a safety razor. The razor should glide with minimal effort required, and the 78R is decent for that...
...although I could understand if other men would find the 78R annoying since it is a 3-piece. For those that prefer TTO (twist-to-open) "butterfly" style, see the Parker 99R.
I prefer the 3-piece just because it feels more solid, but at some point I may buy a proper TTO. A lot of reviews state the razors from Viking's Blade are good, but I won't know if that's true or not until I actually buy one. VB does offer a few TTO types where you can adjust the blade angle. That's a reason to get one. I like that.
For now, a Parker razor, Perma-Sharp blade and a can of Foamy are getting the job done in fine style.
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.