I have a bluetooth Garmin GPS 10 (precurser to the Mobile 10) and use it with Garmin XT software on my i760. The software and City Navigator 7 maps are all loaded on my own SD card since long before Garmin started pushing everything on their own card and it works well.

I would like to upgrade to the NT maps (2010), in particular to use the traffic feature, but I do not want to lock myself into one of Garmin's proprietary SD cards. Does anyone here know if this is possible and what the specific part number would be for the maps, which I presume would be on a DVD that I could then load on to my SD card. I have recieved conflicting information from Garmins' technical support.

Thanks,
Steve.

City Navigator® North America NT
Part Number: 010-10816-00
Suggested Retail Price: $ 99.99 USD

You will need to unlock it to the serial number of your GPS. If you upgrade to a phone with built in GPS, the only way to use it is to buy Garmin Mobile XT where the maps are unlocked to the SD card instead of to a particular GPS (although there is a way to move them to your own larger card if you look hard enough).

Alan

Wow, That was fast, Thank You! Wonder why I can't get an answer like that from Garmin. They keep telling me I can only use the NON NT maps. Not sure why?

PS, Also I tried to buy the NT maps online last August from a place called "Silicon Assets" who took my money and never shipped the item. Kept saying it was backordered and when I finally tried to report it to Paypal they said it was too late to do anything. Further searches showed the place was a scam. First time in all my years of internet purchases that I forgot to do my homework and got burned. This time I'll make sure to use a reputable vendor and my credit card!

Thanks again,
Steve.

I think they may have thought you were trying to get the upgrade cost if they said you can't use the NT maps. I bought a Garmin 10 from Frys and it came with the 2007 City Navigator (or maybe City Select) and when I called to see if they would upgrade for free since the device was new, they said yes, but only the non-NT version. I have since bought 2009NT on the MicrosSD card because I am using a phone with built in GPS (XV6900 with custom ROM) and because I wanted to be able to use the same maps in my Garmin 60sx without paying for a second license (just swap the card in).

Garmin's customer service is usually pretty good, but their map licensing is a nighmare (restrictions imposed by Navteq) so I am not surprised you couldn't get a straight answer.


Alan

Thanks, yeah that is probably the case, thinking I want to just upgrade instead of buying new. So I will buy the newest NT maps on DVD and go from there. In the past Garmin would issue two licenses for each map product (or allow one time porting to a new device) so I could load it both on my phone and on my Garmin 60CS (not CSX unfortunately). I hope they still do this.
Thanks again,
Steve

Only one unlock key now unfortunately.

Alan