Doug, thanks for the response. I actually have used some of the services, weather, gas prices, its kind of cool. I actually found a price of $297 for you at PCNation, if youre interested, in stock and free FedEx shipping, if that helps.

 

Yeah Amazon has it for the same price but they also have the 1390t for 150.00. So I will have to weigh the options before I order. Thanks

 

That is cheap for the 1390. I can only suggest that you go to garmin.com and compare them side by side and figure out if you really need the nulink services. If you are going to take a bunch of trips then I would say 1690. If you're just staying local than the 1390 would be the choice..I hate that they keep coming out with new stuff every couple of months on anything electronic.

 

I kind of expect that with electronics thats why I am more than ok upgrading my perfectly good 265t to a newer model to accept the ecoroute HD. As I was typing this out I was going to say I stay local but then I thought of all of the times work has me on the road in the states and international. So I am going to go with the 1690. I wonder if the google feature works in europe if you buy the maps or if you need a new power cable like 265t does..... I will have to look into that. Thanks again

 

 

I am having a ball with my new Garmin 1690 and Ecoroute HD unit. I can see four differnt speeds now, though not all at the same time. Car's reported speed, OBD II reported speed, GPS calculated speed, and speed limit data. very interesting. The current weather that the 1690 will download is also very useful. Push one button, and the unit gets the current weather for the nearest airport. Push it a second time and get the forecast for the next three days. You can type in a city if you want, but having weather connected to GPS without using your phone is useful.

I now use the MINI nav zoomed out to a large scale, say 25 miles to get the overall traffic conditions for the area with a North facing map. The Garmin can give me gauges, or if I need navigation, I get the British female voice that suits my car. I've even played with having both units navigating, and then choosing to follow whichever one looks like a more interesting route!

Yes, I really do concentrate on my driving! Most of the time my music is off or peaceful, my phone is turned to flight mode, and I only occasionally glance at the screens. I use the screens mainly when I'm sitting in parking lots or rest areas.

 

I just got my 1490T and Ecoroute HD unit too, it can be distracting tho!

What gauges did you decide to keep "on"?

I've had the temp gauge on since I installed it and I've never seen engine temps vary like these do! I'm told the new gen engines have a dual thermostat that drops the temp more when the car is being run hard, but I sure would like to know what determines that - is it throttle position, or manifold press or what?

I drive the same hiway route every day 20 miles each way. Last evening it was 95* on my drive home and the temp climbed to 220* when I hit the hiway, then settled back to 180* ( +/- 5*) the whole rest of the way home. This morning it was about 80* out and the temp read right around 220* all the way in!?!?!?!?

Wish it had an oil pressure gauge.

Were I to do it again, I think I'd have kept my old Garmin 660 and spent the $400 on the Craven Speed dual pods and have the temp and oil press gauges - that's really all I need. Although I do like the digital readout coupled with the analog pointer.......

BTW, I noticed the speedo gauge in the Garmin only goes to 100 mph?

 

I've not had the temp gauge long enough to draw many conclusions yet, but I'd say that it does seem to run up to 223 deg. F or so with the A/C on. Only seems to go down to 217 or 218 if I turn off the A/C. Seems to be fine at those temps, though. Hot and humid July here in St. Louis, Missouri.

Don't know that I'll settle on any group of five gauges. It's fun to change them. I like the battery voltage, 'cus I'm a little worried about my three year old battery.

I also downloaded a trial version of the speed camera database. It gives a distinct chime when near a reported speed camera.

 

i've had my nuvi 1690 and ecoroute hd for a month now ,ive noticed my coolant temp runs at 221-223 f with or without normal ac if i select max ac it drops to 186 f. Does your gps allow you to select {run on battery power} when you turn off the ignition? Mine does not as long as i have a connection with the ecoroute hd unit.

 

No, it says "touch here" to keep it on when the engine shuts off, but it still shuts off ......

I'm still playing with it, but I mostly like it.

One other new observation, no matter how hard I push on the go pedal, it never shows more than 75% throttle opening.....

I have one other complaint with this Garmin GPS unit ......I've been a fan of Garmin products for ever, they are a local company so I like supporting the local business too - but it really chaps my butt that I'm getting advertisments in the form of "coupons" that pop up as I drive around. Yes, you can turn them off, but when you do you lose other functionalities. It's not right that I'm paying for the product and it's like I'm paying for them to advertise to me - pisses me off.........it's just wrong.......

 

Does it have lifetime traffic? Usually "free" lifetime traffic means ad based traffic.

 

Update on Garmin units that are compatible with the Ecoroute HD:

nüLink!™ 1695, nüvi® 1260T, nüvi® 1370T, nüvi® 1390LMT, nüvi® 1390T, nüvi® 1490LMT, nüvi® 1490T, nüvi® 1690,
nüvi® 2360LMT, nüvi® 2360LT, nüvi® 2370LT, nüvi® 3760LMT, nüvi® 3760T, nüvi® 3790LMT & nüvi® 3790T.

This was taken from Garmin's ordering website Janurary 15, 2011.
Part Number: 010-11380-00
Sugested Retail Price: $ 99.99 USD
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?...354#productTab

Thanks for all the great info!!!
I just ordered a unit for my Countryman.

 

Just a couple of observations. I have the 1390T in my Mini with the ecoroute HD thing.

While it works well, it has a couple of little quirks that seem to detract:

1. The traffic alert function has some really irritating little brightly colred "ads" that pop up when you use it as already mentioned here. The only way to turn off the ads is to turn off the traffic alert function. The "ads" are large enough to block way too much of the screen. If you happen to have the gauges on the screen at the time that traffic information pops up, you don't find out about it till you go back to the map screen. Very irritating.

2. The unit won't stay turned on when you turn the car off. You get a screen that asked if you want it to stay on, and you can select "yes" every time, but everytime, its shuts off regardless of your selections.

3. To use the gauge function, you have to program the ecoroute module -- no big deal, but under certain conditions, when you turn the unit off, it loses the ecoroute data so you have to reprogram it again and again, including what gauges you want to come up when you go to the gauge function. If you had other than the default gauge selections, you lose your selections til its reprogrammed. Often hard to do or dangerous to do unless you happen to think of all of the reprogramming before putting the car in motion. It can drive you bonkers when you stop at a rest stop, then have to spend a few minutes resetting everything before you hit the road. One other minor issue here with the gauges. The unit design layout has one large central gauge with four smaller gauges at the corners. With the Mini, the screen is so far away from my line of vision, that the smaller gauges are small enough to be VERY difficult to read.

4. The interface to go from the map screen to the gauge screen is pretty awkward and requires you to hit a very small icon on the screen. For those of use with bifocals, the icon is almost invisible so moving between the map and gauge function is not smooth.

5. The unit measures miles driven using the satellite, but if for some reason, you turn the unit off then drive a few miles, then turn the unit back on, one of two things will happen: 1. You will have to reprogram the unit because it says it has never been programmed, or, it will simply add the miles not measured to your overall journey. I took the unit off and put it in my pocket, then drove a couple of hundred miles in another vehicle, then plugged it back in to use it again. The unit thought it had travelled an additional 200 miles and gave me some really phenomenal gas mileage readouts.

6. On the 1390T, the bluetooth telephone function is simply useless. It clips the conversation to the point that the whole call is meaningless and frustrating. You wind up yelling at the unit to get through. Don't think that with this unit you can forget ordering the built-in bluetooth interface for you Mini. The Mini interface works well for phone use, the Garmin doesn't.

7. Finally, for those of us who have the little Mini accessory mount for the unit, pleae be aware that the ball on the Mini unit is just a bit smaller than the Garmin 1300 series mount so, although it snaps on, it doesn't hold the unit very tightly and every bump resulted in the GPS flipping face downward on the mount. I finally cured it bu "painting" the Mini ball with a couple of coats of 2 part epoxy to increase its size. It works not, but it was a pain at first.

But when you get used to all of the quirks, the unit works well, the gauges are quick to update and very accurate. The mapping feature has never failed to take me to the address I wanted. And its been thoroughly reliable in its operation, so far.

Hopefully, future software updates will smooth some of the rough edges on the ecoroute HD/GPS interface.

I would encourage anyone who might be interested in the ecoHD/GPS combo to not be afraid to move ahead with the purchase. It has some minor irritations, but overall, I've found it to be a good addition to the Mini.

 

@Herleman....

I've encountered each of the annoyances you have. My only solution for the coupons was to turn them off, which as we noted you lose the traffic warnings too. I've written to Garmin how I feel about it, but didn't get a reply. I told them that if this was how they were going to subsidize the cost of their units that I'd be buying something else in the future, after owning 4 of their units and recommending them to countless others. Their lack of even an acknowledgement of my email really bothered me. Like I said, they're a local company and I like to patronize local companys. For now I'm just trying not to let it bother me, and I don't really miss the traffic notices, since most of the time I was already stuck in it by the time I got the warning. I sure don't miss the damn coupons!

I only had to reprogram the Ecoroute a couple of times, most of the time it stays locked in regardless of how many times I shut the unit on and off - mine is hardwired to the car so when I turn off the engine it always turns off the Garmin too. That said, it is a bit of a PITA to start it up again.

It does bother me how many screens you have to back thru to change something. I don't understand why they don't have a "home page" button or something. If you enter an address into favorites, you may back thru 8 or 10 screens before you get back to the map, if it's not your next destination.

All those gripes aside, I like the interface, I get a lot of info from it and use it all the time - for no more than I spent I'm happy with it, and the Nav features of the Garmin are the best part of it - which makes sense since that's what they do!

I'm with you in that I hope they address some of these niggles in subsequent software updates.

BTW, the "T" in 1390T means lifetime traffic, if it was a 1390LT, that would mean lifetime maps and traffic both.

BTW2, even tho the speedo in the ecoroute only reads too 100 mph, it does record your top speed higher than that, as it showed 115 on a recent track day, and the analog readout in the speedo gauge on the ecoroute continues to read correctly above 100 mph too - the pointer to only goes to an indicated 100.

 

Are you referring to having to hit the "back" button numerous times to get your back out to the main screen?

Just hold it down. After a few seconds it takes you back to the main screen. I don't think it will take you back to the map screen though.

 

MINIdave, the "T" in any of the Garmin units simply means Traffic, and from what I understand in order to get Traffic Updates on those particular models you have to subscribe to a Traffic Service. The "LT" in any Garmin unit is "Lifetime Traffic" simply means that you do not have to subscribe to a Traffic Service, the Traffic Receiver is built into the Vechicle Power Cable. "LMT" on any Garmin unit is "Lifetime Maps & Traffic" that means that you do not have to pay for additonal Map upgrades and are allowed up to 4 Map Downloads per year, the Lifetime Traffic is just as I described above.

I'm hoping to install Molly's ecoRoute HD Connector today!!

 

According to the Garmin site today, in the models currently sold, T means Lifetime traffic, LMT means lifetime maps and traffic, just FYI....

 

Interesting...duelly noted!!

 

Wow, that is really cool...

 

I did and it is very C@@L, my only complaint is that I did have to Reinitialize it when I got in Molly today to run to the Bank, it did not connect on the way their, so I just 'cancelled' it. I was able to get it to initialize once I got back home and could play with it...wondering why it didn't do it automatically?? I did learn, like what others have said that you can change the gauge info. by just tapping on one of the gauges.

I also ordered Hubby one, hopefully I can get him to use it, his Fuel Mileage is not what it should be, but I can tell you it is difinetly the Driver in his case!!

We are planning a trip down to AZ in March, taking Hubby's car, we'll definitely be using it then, it will be interesting to see what his little 4-Banger will do with a 4-speed Auto on the Siskyou Summit??!!