In article .com,
wrote:
I have a Garmin 196 that I use primarily for flying, but also bought
the "automobile option" package that included the bean bag mount and
CDROM with road maps. When used in LAND mode, it works OK most of the
time, but sometimes gives crazy routing. Usually, it's right after I
deviate from the route it wants me to take (when I know a better route
than it does). It keeps trying to take me back to its original route,
long after that is less efficient than figuring a new route. The extra
time for its rerouting can get to 15 minutes before it realizes that
there's a better route (mine), when the ETA finally drops back to where
it should be.

This problem was introduced some firmware updates back. Before,
when off-route it just calculated the best route from the new
position. After the change it keeps trying to reroute you back onto
the old route. Indeed, this leads to crazy routing and a bogus ETA :-(

Has anyone else seen similar behavior and, even better, does anyone
have a fix?

No fix, the only workaround I found sofar is to stop the routing,
and let it calculatie a new route from the present position.

I strongly preferred the old way, but Garmin is non-responsive
to complaints about it.
It looks like Garmin lost interest in supporting the 196,
as we are stuck with beta-firmware since October 27, 2004 (and
the latest non-beta-firmare dates back to May 24, 2004).

Regards,
-- ted