Customer Ratings & Reviews

My dad have used this gps for a long time, so I asked him about it, he said it was the best he have ever used, I was not sure at the beginning, but one thing catched my eyes, magnetic powered unit, and it is amazing, easy to mount and dismount, voice control great, and so many other features, a little expensive compared to other ones but I love it

It works better that we expected Finds the satellites fast and everything else works great. Even tells us when there is a school zone

Set up was easy. Did find it hard to see while wearing progressive lenses, but may need to just find a good location on dashboard.

Sales associates having used this GPS and his favorable review solidified my choice. His assesment was on the money. Great buy.

Greetings. This is my review of the Garmin Nuvi 3597 while back on military vacation from serving overseas. The maps and a full system update 5 hours later; and the unit is ready to go. Off the bat I absolutely CAN NOT stand the constant 'accept' button once you turn it on. It's not a website and I'm not accessing other than maps but like some other GPS's they now do this which is unbearably irritating. I OWN this so therefore I shouldn't have to 'accept' anything beyond that in relation to the company who manufactures it. Grrr! Moving on; the maps and options are good but the overhyped '3-D' buildings, is well, just that. In traveling for a month across 7 states and the District of Columbia, it was strictly around D.C. that the Garmin 3597 identified and presented 3-D buildings which in fact was cool for a moment...then it faded from being interesting. Traffic updates were flaky as we met a 6 MILE backup in North Carolina on I-85 and for the 30+ minutes we were at a standstill, somehow, Garmin didn't get this major accident updated to my Garmin, but my $99 cheapy monthly Android phone from Virgin Mobile got it right... Other times it registered traffic delays in front of us, and fortunately, they never appeared; at all. Most of the 'options' are strictly useless to include the 'Eco' option which requires extra attachments. This equals useless unless it came with the unit IMO in which I already paid $400.00?! So now I've got to buy MORE to use an option already installed from the factory? You can change your 'traveling icon' and download even more; but who cares?? Just install them on the device people and be done with it. Onto more positive notes. The ability to split view and identify which of however many lanes there are to be in and guide you through traffic heavy cities was definitely nice. The screen splits vertically and talks to you profusely to ensure you aren't looking at it and being distracted; obviously for safety reasons. The volume adjustment is not a physical button but rather within its menus. Not a huge positive or negative, but not appreciative in that I have to concentrate on 'editing' my volume (via menus) by taking my attention away from the road when I shouldn't have to. This is NOT safety minded. But with that, you can with just a couple clicks choose a number of items to 'host' on your main screen. The traveling details are above reproach and nice to track at a moments notice. As well, it hosts a U.S. based road speed sign on the screen and changes to a blush red on the edges when you are above it. I found it quite nice that it was practically 99% accurate on major highways as soon as you past an increase or decrease, but found it more than lacking on secondary and rural roads. Overall, it's a unit that works well, but the voice recognition leaves a LOT to be desired in good base functionality. Again my cheapy monthly Android phone worked measurably better than my Garmin 3597 in this area too. At spending $400.00 on this 'technology' I am decisively disappointed with this and consider it strictly a failure that it doesn't work more smoothly as of 2013! Again, it's functional but you have to have a quiet environment and must speak phonetically clear which I find substandard - again for $400.00! I can't recommend this device for it's cost, but functionally and being able to extract it from the windshield base and walk around a town with it, IS nice. The search functions are good, but again, here it failed to identify a proper flower shop in Destion Florida. It did however take me to a residence and three store locations that have been shut down for years. Really, I'm so confused at where they get updated information from communities but being led to SIX locations that were NOT flower shops, you can conclude what you want concerning the 'search' local capabilities. Finding your more common Wal-Mart's and Targets is a no brainer. Overall, it's a solid unit and feels incredibly well manufactured. I propose you consider cheaper models however as I think I got duped buying into what I thought was a flawless device hoping for it to be the crem de-la crem of GPS's. You decide. happy trails! V/r Rob J

This GPS has great features including Bluetooth, voice recognition and recognizances if you are going to a saved place.

This the best GPS unit we've ever had the screen is amazing and the extras are really nice. I highly recommend this unit

I bought this for my wife who doesn't like to hookup technology. This was plug n play. I had her using it in less than ten minutes. She loves the large screen, ease of entering destination and the voice directions.

This is my fourth Garmin product. Touch interface is much better as compared to previous versions. Additional features were worth the extra money in my opinion (lifetime maps and traffic). The auto-recommend and re-route feature based on traffic saved my bacon 4 times in the month I've had the unit. I would buy this unit again. For Voice Command options, I'd rate it as 'ok' as sometimes the unit will get confused if there is any other background noise (A/C or low radio).

The 3597 is an outstanding product , continuous update of maps is a great features. never looses signal which makes it effective in city driving the recently traveled button is a great feature an the delisting of sites past visited is helpful;

Great resolution, easy to use (love the voice command feature), fast to acquire satellites. I really like the ability to expand or reduce the map resolution with the 2 finger slide (like on an iPad). Lifetime maps and traffic included makes it a better value.

I killed my other one(same model) and immediately replaced with the same. Clear, accurate, great smartphone app...

I travel a lot and the GPS has been awesome everywhere I've travelled.

Voice command function can return wrong results but most of the time it is spot on. The Bluetooth functionality is very easy to set up and the callers can't tell I am talking to them through my GPS. Battery lasts for over 2 hours without being plugged in. Screen is easy to see in any light. Touchscreen works perfectly. No delays or miss types like my older Garmin GPS.

The Garmin is very user friendly but some of the routes, compared to my phone's GPS, would actually take you on a route that would be out of the way

Our main goal with a new GPS was the traffic option, and we have already benefited from Garmin's system....

This was very helpful during my recent trip to the East Coast. I was able to locate my destinations easily.

Surprised at how well this NUVI functioned on a motorcycle - very impressed with the quality and accuracy.

I have had voice translation problems with this device, however if you type in manually your desired destination, the accuracy is exceptional.

Easy to use. I bought this for a family member who always getting lost. They had a easy time using it.