GPS

(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

Comment:

I bought a refurb model for [$] total and it works perfectly. I am fairly new to GPS but in the short time I have used this one I have realized that I should have invested in one years ago. The screen size is great and it does not talk you to death either. I took it on a 4 hour road trip and it worked flawlessly. I work as something similar to a cable guy and it has not got me lost yet. I have not used the pedestrian feature much except once in Charlotte. It was a little difficult to understand but that is more my inexperience than the Garmin. I could go on and on about the pros of this device but I found a couple areas it could be improved. It does not show the speed limit/zone of the area you are in which I wish it did. The updating took a while but it is re-writing the system flash so that is understandable. One thing I have found difficult is when you zoom in/out it ocassionally seems to not want to show the upcoming (or any) street names if you have changed the setting and zoomed out too far. Again this is probably my inexperience. It is sometimes difficult to use the touchscreen especially around the edge of the screen. Finally I have noticed on some addresses you must type the address exactly as it has it stored for it to locate it. For instance many roads have a human name along with it's street name like Hwy 17 aka Kings Hwy in Myrtle Beach. I found that when I needed to go to a location on Hwy 17 business and not on the bypass it can be difficult to find how the Garmin has that address stored. All in all this is a great device. I know it is a cliche but this is one of the best things I have ever spent money on. I compared Garmin to TomTom and others and this one simply dominated the others in the price range I was in. I did get a refurb for [$]+ tax. [@]was selling the unit for [$] and similar models in the $80 price range were basically cheap looking with not many features. For a beginner to intermediate I would think this is a great choice.

How long have you owned it:

Three-to-six months

Bottom Line

Yes, I would recommend this to a friend.

(1 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

Comment:

I originally started to write of the many mis-adventures my Nuvi 1300LM had sent me on but figured that it was too much for those who are just looking for a reliable GPS without spending a fortune. The best that can be said is that it may have simple controls. It is difficult to prove as hey are difficult to operate because of the decades-old touch screen technology, but if you could select the control your finger or thumb was rested on, and not the adjacent controls, they are simple to comprehend. Seriously, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE ANY SETTINGS, SUCH AS BRIGHTNESS OR VOLUME, WHILE THE VEHICLE IS IN MOTION. The buttons are nowhere near as sensitive as those found on an iPod, iPhone or any late-model cell phone. Don't bother trying to make sense of the preloaded Points of Interest (POI). Even when updated regularly, it is an inaccurate and poorly-implemented feature. I noticed that it was quirky right away, when it failed to correctly place an established shopping center located in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida, among other things, such as continuing to spew driving directions when I was parked dead front center of my intended location and the recurring and admittedly humorous listings of businesses that had disappeared some thirty years ago!. The penultimate experience with the Nuvi occurred last year. I entered a hotel from the Nuvi's Points of Interest near Raleigh, North Carolina. I figured it was a nationally recognized hotel chain with a strong marketing presence, my Nuvi should be able to get me there. Wrong. I was told to turn left over a raised shoulder and into a forest. According to the Nuvi 1300LM I had arrived at my destination! I checked the unit's accuracy settings and was surprised when it read 10 feet. A stop at a convenient store for coffee and a map (printed in 2008) placed my hotel, along with its familiar logo, four miles north on a road that took me to the front lobby. I don't know why, or how in this day and age, a device designed solely to get you from Point A to Point B, messes up and takes you to Point C! I can load Google Earth and find not only my address, but the roof of my house, the cars in the driveway and a view of my front door! Consumers may not need that much information on the road, but at least would want to know that they, or especially their children will safely arrive at the destination intended. Lastly, the device was extremely finicky. It would start up half-way, then freeze; it wouldn't start, it would start in your car as if it were hooked into your computer. Every time you stopped the vehicle, the GPS would restart, fail to start, ask if you wanted to leave the power on, I would select Yes, and it would shut down. The last time I shut it down it left a logo GARMIN on the screen. Garmin is familiar with the problem, you can read all about it on their Web site - after you buy and register your Nuvi 1300LM. Don't bother.

How long have you owned it:

One-to-three months

Bottom Line

No, I would not recommend this to a friend.

(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

Comment:

Used it for an 800+ mile trip and back and had problems with it freezing up requiring it to be restarted on 3 different occasions. My previous Garmin only would freeze up maybe once every 6 months and this has done it twice in less than a month :(

How long have you owned it:

A month or less

Bottom Line

No, I would not recommend this to a friend.