7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Decent small GPS, good support
Date of Review: Mar 14, 2004
The Bottom Line: If you want a small and affordable, yet full functioned GPS, this is probably the best compromise available
This is a good little GPS, and anyone looking for a full functioned mapping capable GPS will probably find this unit useful. I am reasonably computer literate and find it moderately intuitive to use. My dad (who has trouble with just about anything on a computer) really is unable to use this unit at all.
I'm sure there are many other good and bad reviews out there, so rather than dwell on the common points made by others, I want to mention two specific things that I found.
Software
The included Mapsource software is not very good. It (like the GPS itself) is slow to update as you pan around. And more annoyingly feels like a 10 year old DOS program made to work in windows. It is workable but is not very good for managing a large amount of way points, routes and other map data. Additionally, it is unable to do mapquest style route planning, which would be really useful! Maybe this is to help push buyers to the much more expensive units that advertise this capability. In comparison to Microsoft streets and trips (which is GREAT!) this software leaves a lot to be desired.
One positive is that Garmin is continuously offering updated drivers for both the GPS and the Mapsource software. Maybe one of these days they'll revamp it completely.
Warranty Support
When I bought the unit, I had trouble with the pointer stick sometimes malfunctioning. After a week or so it started working right, so I decided not to return it. After about a year or so of very hard use the pointer was giving me problems again and the screen started going out on me. Occasionally when I turned on the unit, the screen would only display a garbled mess at the bottom. I found that if I hit it really hard it would come back to life and function normally. Well, this lasted about a month or so until it finally crapped out for good and refused to power on.
I'm not really sure if this is indicative of poor quality or not. I have tried to be gentle with it, but never the less, I have dropped it many, many times... and worse, I often leave it on my dash. There are times when it's gotten cooked by the sun so badly that it felt like I could leave permanent finger dents in it when I went to pick it up! Also, with it on the dash I don't know how many times I've gone around a corner fast to have it fly across my truck and smack into the door or window (or even fly OUT the window!). While this abuse is my fault, an external antennae would have allowed me to keep it someplace much safer.
Given that it only comes with a 90 day warranty (or maybe it's a year) I figured I was out of luck--so I put it back in its box and shoved it in my closet for 6 months. A few weeks ago I decided to see what Garmin could do for me. I was hoping that for $50 they could help me out.
I stayed on the 1-800 number for about 25 minutes before speaking to someone, but once I did he immediately said they would warranty the unit, no questions asked. I sent it in on Friday and received a new (or reconditioned?) unit via priority mail the following Friday, at no cost to me. As a bonus, they even transferred the data from my old one to the new one for me. Can't get much better in my opinion!
