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Tomorrow I’m off for 10 days of travel and will be in and out of rental cars. I much prefer plotting routes on my iPad to the tiny-screen rental car gps units. An apple style pinch screen with google maps is about a hundred times more functional than even the most expensive integrated units in high end cars.
Damn the Can/USA border! I have a spare sim card and I have to buy a short term U S data package to load on it, or the roaming costs would bankrupt me.
Trav, you are right about cell service. A phone needs a cell connection to create the map and a satellite connection for the GPS. So that’s two chances for a screw-up. The best of the OEM integrated units can lose a satellite but can still carry on using the other car’s systems and the built in map to provide Dead Reckoning. I’ve experienced this in deep canyons and heavy forest cover in a Mercedes. Worked pretty well.
They have programs that will download maps just like a stand alone GPS. Makes having wifi or cell service a non issue. Only then would need GPS signal.