I have a 2011 MINI with nav and have noticed that the directions it gives frequently suck. Is it just me, or my area (Central Oregon), or is this pretty common around the country? Is there any word on a navigation update?

 

Where is live in Central MA it does not matter what GPS you are using, Tom Tom, Magellen, Garmin, Google Nav for Android, any of them the directions SUCK. So i think it may just be a general problem.

I find that most of the time if set to shortest distance it takes me over roads that even 4 wheel drives have problems with and then if set to shortest time it takes me on highways that take you miles out of your way and really not the shortest time either.

 

The technology is so amazing that's it's tough to be critical. But... This sucks. Last week I drove from my home in Bend, Oregon to Portland. It's about a 160 mile trip. Takes 3 hours or so. The GPS was insisting that I drive 50+ miles further and another hour on a different route.

This is fine on a trip I'm familiar with. Just shut the GPS off. But, what about trips in new territory. It makes me think I have to double check every route on a paper map to be sure I'm not being led astray.

 

I have a Tom tom (mini is still in the pipeline). I also have TRAFFIC on my tom tom. I was using it this weekend to go from my house in Harpers Ferry WV to Atlantic City.

As we get to the top side of the Baltimore beltway it tells me to get off at the next exit, now I know that the beltway meets I-95 in like 9 miles... but I say HMMMMM...

the next mile the sign overhead reads "Road Work at 695 / 95 Junction. 8 Mile Backup... I get off at the exit, go 6 miles out of my way and 12 mins later I am on i-95 north, above the traffic hell... Tom Tom saved me 45+ mins.

So sometimes it is it using it's traffic algorithm to try to save you.

 

I don't think live traffic is even an option in my area, but your response made me realize that I need to double-check the Nav settings to be sure I'm not part of the problem.