Garmin Essential Series nüvi 57 LM First Use

Garmin keeps stepping up its game placing far more expensive and permanently embedded OEM units in the trash heap.

Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – May 25, 2015

Garmin nüvi 57 LM – Retails at $149.99 with online pricing right there.

The Garmin nüvi Essential Series promotional video is just that. It is real world use and action make it a stand out.

As some here know, in just a few short weeks from now, CleanMPG is going to attempt to set another 48-State Lowest Fuel Consumption Guinness World Record in a 2015 VW Golf TDI S with the 6-speed MT.

With just over 1,200 miles of steep mountain grade testing behind us – finished earlier today – and a quick 3,500+ mile break-in jaunt in the actual VW Golf TDI record car shod with new Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires scheduled from June 11th – 19th, going the distance takes a lot more than skill and some luck from mother nature to keep the rain, storms and colder temperatures in the upper elevations at bay. To stay on top of a Lowest Fuel Consumption Guinness World Records requires intense documentation. Think of collecting 60-hours’ worth of photographic, video and paperwork documentation in two weeks while also driving 8,000+ miles, presenting the evidenced in a manner that Guinness World Records requires and then waiting for the final verdict.

We have completed dozens of challenge drives proving and disproving the latest efficiency technology with a pretty tight control on the documentation needed so that is standard fare. A Guinness World Record takes that to a whole new level and there is one item that we simply cannot leave home without. That being an advanced personal GPS Navi unit that does not just provide point A to point B turn by turn accurate directions accurately but also records the exact track in a detail you cannot get from a smartphone or car system. This is also a mandatory requirement from Guinness World Records to earn said record achievement.

2015 VW Golf TDI at the CA Border Sign


On I8 WB early this morning.

Meet the 2015 Garmin nüvi 57 LM

The Garmin nüvi 57 LM is an advanced Personal Navigation unit priced so that every driver can afford one. From the Press Kit, it features a 5.0-inch dual-orientation diagonal display that is preloaded with the lower 49 U.S. states. The LM stands for free lifetime map updates.

If you have not used a Garmin in the past 5 years, you have probably missed out on the company’s trademarked Real Directions guide that can describe a turn with landmarks, traffic lights and signs. How would you like your GPS Navi unit to tell you to “Turn right after the Mall”?

New for 2015 is millions of additional POIs from Foursquare and a new quick suction cup mount that is designed to leave the mount on the windscreen and the GPS unit in your possession with the push of a plastic toggle. This is one of the least talked about and slickest features of the nüvi series. I have barely touched the surface of what the Foursquare POIs offer in the two weeks since it arrived.

Next up is the a feature Garmin calls “Direct Access” that is supposed to simplify navigating to a complex destination like a store within a shopping mall and where you should park to get to said store. Your car navi does not do that.

Getting back to the meat of a GPS Navi unit, Garmin’s lane assist with junction view displays upcoming junctions and uses brightly colored arrows to indicate your proper lane though a multiple turn junction. I have been using this all week while traversing the highways and byways of Los Angeles from the beaches to the suburbs and it works fantastic.

As the nüvi 57LM arrived, the current street, speed limit, current speed and arrival time are always up. I customized this a bit with the built in Trip A/B and elevation displays. Just the way I like it.

2015 VW Golf TDI at the Crestwood Summit on I8 Earlier Today


4,181' ASL while the nüvi 57LM onboard displaying 4,170’ ASL.

If you want to take the nüvi 57LM up a notch, you can purchase a wireless Backup Camera for $169.99. If you wire it to your reverse lights, your navigator can automatically display camera footage every time the vehicle is shifted into reverse – and go back into navigation mode when shifted into a forward gear. Pretty slick, hah? I have not seen it in action or seen it stranded with up to four came3ras for an Around View setup like Nissan provides OEM. Just telling you it is available.

While I have been using Garmin NAVI units for the past 10 years, all of the above are welcome additions making driving from point A to point B easier than ever.

All of which leads me to leads me to what I am using the latest mid-range Garmin unit for. That being the BaseCamp Trip Planner and the Guinness World Records required Garmin GPS Trip Logs.

The BaseCamp built 48-State Guinness World Record Route Plan

While I used to use Google maps for trip planning extensively, the limited waypoints and now severely restricted customization has sent me in an entirely new direction. That being Garmin’s BaseCamp.

Basecamp allows you to plan your next road trip on your laptop or PC and send them to your GPS device. Anyone that has programmed a sophisticated multi-faceted route into a portable or OEM NAVI unit knows what a chore that is. BaseCamp allows you to view maps, plan routes, and mark waypoints and tracks from your computer and then transfer them to your device. While hundreds of waypoints or route deviations will slow BaseCamp to a crawl, it does work and with a little practice, you will be whipping out routes faster than you have ever before.

One of the BaseCamp features is Track Draw which allows you to trace your planned route and view elevation changes. I have not used this feature yet so user it only for guidance.

BaseCamp displays your topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including contour lines and elevation profiles. Load map data from your handheld device, or import maps you've downloaded.

Another feature of Garmin BsaeCamp is Garmin Adventures that allows you to share your hikes, bike rides, road trips and more. While feature packed including the ability to integrate pics and videos, I have not used this feature yet either.

I have however played back routes I have created for states and even the entire country. It only speed up to maybe 100 mph so it will take a while depending on how long your route is.

And it number one use in terms of my world is actual distance traveled without having to breakout the Google map. Anyone that has seen me map routes to get the odometer offset knows it is not an easy thing to do. Exact start and end point, exact route, screen shot, resize and upload for later embedding. It is a PIA. Well, Garmin’s nüvi 57LM has a Trip A/B included. And this just so happens to be the one feature that Guinness World Records requires. Cool beans!

So how accurate is it and can it be better than Google Maps? Here is that test in pictures. As I left Phoenix last night, I rest the Golf TDIs Trip A just as I was traversing onto I-10 from the 101 on-ramp. I was headed due west and was going to take a measurement of the car’s Trip meter, the Garmin nüvi 57LMs Trip A and compare that to a Google Map of the same route to a Rest Area on the I-8 just before the large climb over Laguna Mountain Range.

All OEMs odometers/trip meters read short of actual by some amount as they do not want to get caught shorting customers on their warranties similar to what Honda went through a few years back. That said, we have to know the actual distance traveled or we cannot measure our actual fuel economy. As shown hundreds of times through the years, Google Maps was my friend.

Between the onramp and the Rest Area on I-8, I pulled into the first California rest area after Yuma. To do so meant about 1/3 of a mile in a large loop to get into the median located rest area and then back onto I-8 WB. Google has no roads into the rest area so 1/3 of a mile was given away. I moved my reset point about 1,500’ from the rest point to account for that. And as I did, the Google Map changed from 236 miles to 237 miles or just over 236.5 miles.

You are not going to get better road distance accuracy than this for the price anywhere!

The Garmin nüvi 57LMs Trip A read 236.8 miles for the total distance. Well is that the coolest thing? The Trip A/B is more accurate than Google because it can map a route that Google does not know exists let alone for off-road adventurers where the Google car or maps are not relevant.

I have zoomed out of the Garmin nüvi 57LMs display to show the 48-states. I can see the of my route from LAX to Needles, CA over the 4,200’ Cajon Pass, back to Huntington Beach, CA, out to Phoenix, AZ on the I-10 over the 2,750’ peak and again back to San Diego over the 4,180’ Crestwood Summit within the Laguna Mountain Range. I cannot wait to transfer those files back to BaseCamp and see it on my laptops larger screen. That part is coming soon.

And I am now asking myself why did I wait so long to use BaseCamp? The world may never know. ;)

Garmin supplied this nüvi 57LM for an upcoming Guinness World Records attempt in the 2015 VW Golf TDI.

Garmin Essential Series nüvi 57 LM First Use