Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have had more GPS's than I can count....this is the best so far!!!!

Awesome product. Accurately described and performs extremely well.

I previously owned an older Garmin - unfortunately the internal storage was too small to keep up with current updates. This is a huge upgrade over that - the touch screen is much more responsive, the lane guidance is excellent, and it gives you sufficient warning in advance for most situations (including quick-following turns).

Had a Garmin, went to Tom-Tom for several years, back to Garmin. Like the Garmin for it's instant on, had to turn on Tom-Tom every time. Slightly better navigation and driving experience. HIGHLY disappointed with traffic. Tom-Tom had built in receiver and used the over the air system and I had instant traffic about everywhere. Bought the Garmin which said free live traffic with built in receiver. Well I travel 3 states and parts of two other and only in two cities does it receive live traffic. I have to use the Smartphone app and Bluetooth it to the Garmin. This traffic is good, but sometimes it does not want to auto connect Bluetooth and I have start and stop Bluetooth to get it to sync. Also I have to check every time to make sure I am connected to make sure I am getting traffic. AND it used my phone data allowance to get traffic. The Smartlink app is pretty worthless for anything else but I have to have it on the mobile app screen when I am driving. So check beforehand on the Garmin website to see if you are actually going to get live traffic over the air or will have to use your phone to get it and link it to the GPS.

This GPS is very user friendly. I like the Bluetooth for getting calls. I especially like the lane information in big cities.

The map is lifetime and updated four time in a year. Garmin is good for the map. However, some situation, the GPS just could not catch the speed with my car. Especially, you are in front of the corner which you should make your turn. But I will say, every other brand product will be the same.

This is a great GPS unit. The one disappointment is that the words seem to be of a smaller type than on earlier units. I have to "look harder" to read the information. This takes more time and is a driving distraction.

This Garmin is better than most I've used. Still gets lost in big cities (also couldn't keep up in downtown Chicago, couldn't give me directions soon enough to make turns).

I had just purchased a Garmin nuvi 2595 2 months before I bought this one. My 2595 broke, and I had to send it back to Garmin for replacement and couldn't wait till I got it back, I needed a GPS for traval. So I bought this 2597 and right off I saw new features. This new model has real spoken voices instead of computer models, and improved given directions. It's a great improvement. Now besides saying the street name to turn, it will also include a landmark such as a mall at the corner, a traffic light, a business, etc. It also prompts what lane to get in and if you can use more than one lane for turns (as in 2 lane turns} That alone has improved my grasp of the directions very much. The directions themselves are an improvemt over previous models. I've owned 4 Garmin GPS's over the years and The traffic information is also an improvemt over all previous Garmins I've owned. That along with free maps and traffic updates makes this GPS a heck of a bargain as a driving tool. It falls short on accessories the older models carry such as a audio book, MP3 player, etc. It doesn't have other dash boards one can pick from, nor many options for the car displayed and things like that. Seems Garmin made a trade off with acc, opting for improvement in directions and sound quality. I don't like the new windshield mount on this GPS....my other 2595 GPS and older models have a better mount design. You have to remove the suction cup mount every time you take this unit down. All my other Garmin GPS's would unlatch from the suction cup mount. You could leave the cup mount on the windshield and just remove the GPS unit. Customer service can be iffy, and hard to reach on the phone some days. The 1st 3 days I tried to recently to call support, a recorded message said the wait time would be over 1/2 hr. When I finally got through after the 3rd day, I was taken care of promptly and to my satisfaction. My broken 2595 GPS was replaced with a brand new GPS #not refurished) and seems to be working well. I have it put up as a backup now, because this new 2597 is the better of the 2. The time it took to arrive in the mail was satisfactory. I love my GPS and I am one who sorely needs one for traval and getting around town. This unit does not disappoint.

The Nuvi is a really good GPS. We like the split screen that shows upcoming interchanges in better detail. We haven't quite figured out how to use the detour feature or if it's working the way it was intended to work it's not very helpful. Every once in a while the unit will send us off into an obviously wrong turn or two but this happens very seldom. Also, from time to time, the traffic feature doesn't seem to warn us of an upcoming backup and we find ourselves in a traffic snarl. Otherwise we're happy with our Nuvi.

Purchased the 2597 recently and like it as a GPS for the car. However, I expected to be able to use with my motorcycle or Platronics blue tooth earbuds. The unit says it has blue tooth and I confirmed with the BB sales person that it had blue tooth but it is only for the phone so cannot connect to my motorcycle helmut or my earbuds that I wear in the car (prefer over car's speaker / mic). Somewhat misleading, not it looks like I need a second unit and Garmin is very expensive for a motorcycle specific unit, Tom Tom may be in my future. Next time I will do better research. I like the unit for the car, good value but not what I expected.

Great GPS unit. Was able to easily transfer my saved points over from my 7 year old Garmin unit. Loads very quickly plus I love the ablitlity to preset trips on the unit. Have a couple of shows I go to that I take an laternate route than the GPS would normally recommend, but now I can preprogram the trip route to my standards. Also have the ecoRoute add on, but have not hooked it up yet. Will review under that product at a later time. Only major con is you do need a faster internet connection. If you have dial up you will be in major trouble. When I first hooeked it up you have to download software from Garmin to perform updates and other items on the unit. The initial map upgrade for me was around 5 GB. Also you will have to download a manual if you want one as there is nothing included in the box, which was no big deal for me.

I was looking for an upgrade to my 1450LMT which I have loved for several years now, and also wanted a unit with Bluetooth for hands free calling. Since the 2597 has many more features and is now about the same price I paid for the 1450 a few years ago, it seemed like a good upgrade path. So far I'm not very impressed. Granted, I'm used to the 1450 (and the very similar 50) so those are the basis for my comparison The screen colors are dull and muted, and at times not easy to see even at max brightness. It would be nice if you could customize the colors a bit, to allow for better visibility of certain items. The layout on the screen is different, which is ok, but seems more cluttered, especially when traffic alerts come up. Connecting a phone via bluetooth is easy, AS LONG AS YOU KNOW THE PASSKEY IS 1234!!!!!! Why can't Garmin include this in the directions or on their support site? I hope you find it easier than I did! But anyway, the phone interface is good, and I like that you can search for points of interest and call them directly from the unit. That is pretty cool. It was great when I was inside my nice and quiet house, but when I was on the noisy expressway, I could barely hear the person speaking. I've set all of the volume levels to max, and it just isn't very loud with road noise in the background. It needs to be about 40-50% higher, especially if you mount the unit on the windshield and it's several inches away from you. I liked the selection of icons for favorites better on the 1450. The 2597 only uses green signs with a picture, and it's hard to tell some of them apart. I'm not sure why this changed when the old way was better. I do like the voice commands and activation, which allows me to use the navigation features hands free. I also like how you can create your own shortcuts, which is something I always wanted on my 1450.

Bought this as a Christmas present for my husband to replace an older GPS. Love this Garmin. He travels on the highway a lot & likes the exit ramp feature.

It's intersection view is excellent while driving. I liked it very much. I think this is a good device.

Well buyer beware - this is not what I expected it to be. The smartphone link is only a bluetooth phone system. Transferring planned trips to the device is a trying experience using a choice of downloaded programs to your PC - not your smartphone. There is no compatibility with Google Maps at all - seems it went away a few years ago. So what's good? It's faster than the old Garmin I had that died., it has some extras that are free, and some that cost extra, Voice command is limited, etc. I uploaded a trip, but the voice command does not link to My Trips, and My Trips is at the end of the apps screen with no way to make a shortcut or move it. Garmin just uses some key buzz words and does the least to use them for any functionality, Forget about any support online - no one must bother trying to use the limited features to begin with, let alone post their reviews. Garmin still can't compete for the young market that just uses their cell phones and hope to get where they expected -Garmin still has a long way to go to be modern. I've got to use a real gps for my travel with work, so I guess this will do for now.

Great system but sometimes has glitches. Easy to use.

The only thing that I would change is viewing your stops to modify them when you have more than one desitnation on your map. Currently this isn't an option and you cant view the map unless you add another address to it. Then you cant remove any of the address's until you start a new route. Other than that.. I Love this machine!!!!!!

The screen is quite dim and there isn't much contrast, so unless your car is dark, it's a bit hard to see the screen. If you have a sunroof that is uncovered, that will make it hard, as will using it on a motorcycle. It has nice features, talking turns and what not. Would look for other choices if I had to replace.

this is my 2nd gps of the same type, and the same things has happened, when it gets warm, it shuts off, and then I can't get it back on.. I bring it home, keep it cool, and I can't restart it. I will be forced to get a more expensive or cheaper brand because of this. I have one years ago which was the best. but the battery died on that. and it was hard to replace it..