Customer Ratings & Reviews

First, Best Buy was great in honoring their extended warranty when my Magellan started having issues. However, they no longer carry Magellan in the stores (don't know why but wish they did). As my job requires 95% traveling (interstate) I took the offer of the Garmin over waiting for one to "be shipped in". On the surface they are very similar. Surface is where that ends. If I had never used a Magellan, I would be a lot happier with Garmin. Garmin assumes everything is local. The ONLY way to get a distant address is to enter the ENTIRE address including city and state. Really? My Magellan entered zip code, partial street name (it would bring up a list to choose relevant to the zip code) and building number. Also, Magellan allows choice of shortest distance, fastest times and avoidances for each trip. Garmin has these under master settings and you are stuck with what you pick for each trip unless you go through several menus to change the option. Even with GPS, I still have to determine if my equipment can fit/is allowed down streets--choosing these items per trip is VERY beneficial. Magellan seems to adapt much quicker and reroutes if I make a change. On my last trip, Garmin spent 10 miles trying to have me turn around to get back on their determined route before re-routing.

This unit is a good GPS unit, providing a lot of real time data while driving. I bought this unit because I wanted to tie this in with a Garmin backup camera, plus needed bluetooth for my LG phone. The back up camera worked as well as bluetooth - all the pther features were a bonus. Just one issue, and it's a big one for me - to get traffic alerts, you must either have a smartphone paired with it, or buy a separate $100 power cable that has a compatible integrated traffic receiver for this unit. The backup camera has another power cable that must be used with the GPS unit to receive the camera image, and it is not compatible for traffic either with this GPS (all statements here have been verified with Garmin tech support). This is advertised as a 'complete solution', a unit with free lifetime traffic and map updates. Not for my situation. I will use the unit for a bit and then make a decision on whether to return it or not.

The initial unit I bought did not have the (working) bluetooth functionality that it was supposed to. After about of week of emails back and forth with Garmin support, trying everything they recommended and could think of, sending screen shots, and shaving a good eight to ten months off of my life expectancy, they recommended that I return to Best Buy and exchange it. Or, they would issue an RA and replace it directly. I was concerned about the exchange, because I was past the 15 day return/exchange window, but Best Buy exchanged the unit without any issues. Of course the box the NEW unit was in was damaged, so my angst grew, but it was the only one they had. Thank all that's good and Holy, the new unit worked as intended out of the box. While I appreciate the help from Garmin and Best Buy, the first unit I bought should not have passed initial QA before going out the door. I bought it for an eight day road trip, and it did not function correctly during that trip. Add another ten days post trip trying to resolve the issue(s), and ended up having to exchange. It was a disappointment and hassle. I spent well over 14 hours combined trying to resolve the issues (hard resets, complete software/map reloads, email correspondence, screen shots, photos, and phone calls) for which I will not be reimbursed. So, in that sense, it was totally NOT worth it. Would have returned unit if I could have, but Best Buy's return policies are the worst in the industry if you are not an Elite or better member. In summary, I like the working unit; but, will forever lament and pine over the time I spent messing with the first, defective one. Would I buy again, knowing what I know? Maybe not.

I really enjoy using the Garmin for the ease of use and they do have pretty good maps. But the speech recognition is absolutely terrible, I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get an address put in and there's absolutely no way it can understand. It's very frustrating. Also when you're typing in an address you can't start with the zip code you have to start with just the address and then it looks at everything that is around that area that you're in. So for instance if you want to try to put in the area ahead of time it's very difficult to get it to understand where you were looking at. For instance if I wanted to look up an address in Pennsylvania right now and it's like to 55 Main Street it would start looking around my home area and all of the main streets all the way up to where I can actually want to search. The other annoying thing is you can get some place one way and you just want to turn around and go back the way you came , well it will chart an entirely new route. That is so frustrating.

Accurate but disappointing. Shows eta but not current time when enroute. No visible compass. Voice commands auto on when unwanted. When paired w iphone it won’t let you disconnect during phone calls that u prefer to take over car audio. On even slightly curvy roads the lane drift alert wears u out. Head on collision alert does same in curves. Turn them OFF ! Half assed effort fromGarmin

Garmin makes great navigation products, don't get me wrong. Garmin chose not to put the power cord with traffic receiver built in with the DriveAssist 51LMT-S, which makes you have to use your phone for traffic features. If I wanted to use my phone in this way I would have used my smartphone for navigation instead of buying a GPS. If you want the cord with the traffic receiver you will have to pay an additional $60 for the pleasure. Garmin needs to think about these things, that is one of the reasons people buy stand-alone GPS's.

The camera feature is definitely clear. It has an easy access to a screen shot which would come in handy when needed. The only problem is the navigation feature which is the primary purpose for this GPS. There are times when this GPS can't find addresses... so I have to use the app on my phone. Another feature missing is using the "Intersection" instead of exact address. That feature is available on some models but not on this.

With Google maps these are really a thing of the past. Why spend 300$ on a tech item that needs updated continually? Also voice commands are weak. Many addresses are not found.

First of all, as a GPS unit, it works great. The maps are fine and getting it hooked into the network was pretty easy. The camera app seems fine.............when it works. I've had problems with both the card it cam with and a replacement 64GB card. It keeps showing up as not being recognized and thus isn't recording. This was a replacement for a Magellan dual purpose GPS unit that didn't respond correctly to touch.

Works ok for alerts. Gps with address very cumbersome. Takes too long. Procedure to link with phone has not worked as yet. Considering return

The product is OK and can get you to places. I had two before, it broke easily. Also, it is slow picking up signals.

Having a GPS is great but having a GPS that comes with an extremely short cable and an inadequate battery life is annoying. Had to buy a new cord that would reach the window. Some default settings are annoying but are easily changed. Overall this is a good GPS once settings and cable are changed.

GPS has voice recognition, although it doesn't understand what is said many times. Must be repeated.

Overall this is a great GPS with excellent features. However, since I bought it for the camera, I was disappointed when I went to mount it in my car. On my previous Garmin GPS with camera, the camera was offset to the driver side allowing the use of the dash mount. However, on this unit the camera has been moved to the centerline of the unit so that the dash mount coming up from the bottom blocks the camera. You can ONLY use the suction cup mount coming down from above. And my long term experience with the suction cup is that it loses suction no matter what I try to do allowing the GPS to fall to the dash or floor or dangle from the power cord if it is looped over the mirror as mine is. I love GARMIN but they blew it on the design of this unit.

Not what I expected for such an expensive GPS. To confusing to operate.

This newer model has nice added features but lacks the 3D landscape graphics my old Garmin NuviCam had. The power cord doesn't come with HD traffic receiver built in on this model, you MUST use traffic app in Garmin Smart Link whole connected by Bluetooth to your smartphone. The other new model with built in HD traffic receiver lacks the built in dash cam. WTF Garmin?

screen is very nice ,but the unit has degraded two memory card and it get very hot.. return the fist unit and hopefully this new works better.

I bought this unit specifically because of the built-in dash cam. Unfortunately, the unit freezes up after about 15 minutes and you have to reset it. It works well when you don't use the dash cam but that defeats the whole idea of the GPS/Dashcam combo.

Was hoping the driver assist features might be somewhat comparable to built-in features. Warning for approaching from behind too quickly does not alarm early enough for my taste. Lane drift triggers way too easily.

works great with the included features, but sometimes freezes up and the banner for deer crossing stays on the top even though driving through the city.