 
Jason
Mississauga, ON
Mar 10, 2011
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NOT WHAT I EXPECTED FROM GARMIN
Pros: easy to read screen,thin, good mount
Cons: traffic routing, voice command options, eco-route
I've read some pretty positive reviews about Garmin navigation products but after having used this device for a few weeks now, I am disappointed with my purchase.
Installation was quite easy and the quick release mount system works well and holds well - I travel on some bumpy roads and the mount has held strong. The power cable has an integrated FM traffic antenna and about 6 inches from where the GPS attaches to the power cable is a small inline box where you can attach an external FM traffic antenna, should you need one (There was not one provided with my purchase). Additionally, from the inline box down to the cig lighter plug, the cable is pretty chunky (it's actually two cables bonded together) so if you were planning on hiding the cable by wedging it in your trim or however, you might have some issues and may require a permanent install kit.
This brings me to my next point, FM traffic. During route calculation, even after defining the "avoid traffic" option to yes, the unit will put me onto a route that a) either has traffic on it or b) thinks that there is no traffic on it (Green traffic Icon, Traffic information up to date and in range), yet the route is backed up and had been slow for some time. Case in point, the traffic is unreliable.
Traffic warnings are also latent. For example, If I am approaching a highway on-ramp, the unit will not warn me about the traffic on the highway. It is only after I get maybe 200-300 feet onto the ramp (and no way to get back off) that it pops up and warns me (sometimes....)
Route calculation is very slow compared to other GPS devices I have used. Was is more disturbing is that even if the place you want to go to is close, it will still, in most cases, take some time. Route recalculation speed is not bad but I have seen better.
The route calculation is odd and I am not sure if there is a software defect or map problem (my device is up to date) I have my profile set to take me the "fastest" way home and yet it has me driving in the opposite direction to an intersection where I am supposed to turn and backtrack on a side street. Very confusing.
There are pauses every so often, the screen just stops scrolling, then it "jumps" to the current location. This becomes most notable during multi-tasking, such as search for a location, then going back to the map view. Zooming in/out sometimes causes a pause as well.
The Eco-Route feature is neat in concept but delivers unreliable results and mis-reports your driving habits (Eco- Level). An example would be take the fastest route home, which usually means taking the highway. As soon as I get to highway speed, I go right down to and Eco-rating of 8 or 9. As I slow down, the eco-rating increases (meaning better) Now, eco-rating is basically a determination of your route & speed to provide the best fuel economy and environmental impact reduction (pollution). Trouble is, I burn less fuel travelling on the highway than I do in the city, and get to my location faster, which means that the car is not running as long, but the system seems to tell me that I am not getting a high eco-rating.
What is more confusing is if you set your preference to "fuel efficiency" rather "fastest route".
The GPS will having you driving on backroads and through the city, adding time to your trip, and of course using more gas, but it gets a high eco-rating?
Operating the device is pretty easy through a simple menu structure. The text to speech is nothing special and it does mispronounce some names. Some pronounciation seems "jagged" and raspy, but otherwise ok. The bluetooth system linked to my phone with no problems but you may find the volume a little weak, as I did, with the cabin of my vehicle being average for road noise. Voice recognition and operation is so-so. I would say it is about 80% accurate. There is a noticeable pause between commands (indicated by a red icon in the top right corner) which basically means don't speak yet.
There are some commands that should have been added to the voice recognition menu but are missing. Commands like "Power Off", "Traffic Map". In addition, if you do a find, let's say by name, it does not give you the option to ask "where".
For example, If I'm in Toronto and I want to go to a store in Oakville, I have to keep saying "Down...Down..Down... as it scrolls through the stores available further and further away from where I am currently located. Frustrating. If it would just ask you "In what city" or "Closest to you" would save a lot of aggravation. For these sort of trips, your better off manually entering the details using the keypad.
Battery life is about 2 hours, but when you run on battery, you cannot use the traffic feature.
In summary, Not what I expected from Garmin.
Recommend? NO
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