New Garmin nuvi 1490 LMT +

I’ve had my Garmin nuvi 250W since early 2008 and it’s been a real workhorse for me (as GPS units go anyway).  It’s directed me and from Florida once and all across Ontario and Quebec in the time I’ve had it.  If you don’t yet own a portable GPS unit and drive a reasonable amount, I highly recommend picking up an entry level unit (say the 255W) and trying it out.  You can even rent them if you are really unsure as to their usefulness.

Well, today I decided to pull the trigger and pick up a newer unit to replace the 250W, and after much deliberation I chose the Garmin nuvi 1490LMT (more on the + in a bit).

The 1490 is a 5” widescreen unit that has all of the “nice to have” GPS features such as spoken street names and multi-routing.  A full features list can be found here.  LMT indicates that this unit also includes “lifetime maps & traffic”.  The traffic updates are made through an FM receiver built into the cable but are restricted to only the larger urban and suburban areas. A list of the areas covered at the time of this writing can be found here.

The lifetime maps subscription is typically about $100CDN and the traffic subscription about $60CDN on top of the current list price for a nuvi 1490 of about $329CDN.  If purchased separately this would total $489CDN… Ouch!  Luckily I’m a Costco member and they have the 1490LMT on sale for $270CDN, the best price I can find in Canada and I got to pick it up and bring it home with me, no waiting on a delivery truck.

So, what’s the “+” all about?

Along with the nuvi 1490 I decided to order a Garmin “ecoRoute HD”.  This device plugs into the OBDII port of a car and uses a Bluetooth wireless signal to send signals from your cars on-board computer to the GPS unit.  Not only does this allow you to accurately track your vehicles fuel consumption, it also allows you to display digital “gauges” of various vehicle parameters on the GPS screen.  For example, my MINI Cooper S does not come with a water temperature gauge or turbocharger boost gauge, these will now be available for me to display on my GPS screen.

All in (GPS unit & ecoRoute HD) I’ve spent about $400CDN on the setup.  I could have ordered a kit of 2 mechanical gauges for about the same price, but with what I have ordered I’ve got an updated GPS unit and a way to display a multitude of different pieces of information about my car.