GARMIN 010-00522-00 Streetpilot C550 GPS Receiver Review
September 25th, 2009
GARMIN 010-00522-00 Streetpilot C550 GPS Receiver Review from David McCune selfdeprecating and proud of it. 5 stars for GPS, but 1 point off for support, We really needed a GPS in our family. My lovely wife, whom I cherish and who gets far too little thanks for driving our children to their many activities (and who might read this), would often call me at work to use Mapquest to help figure out where she was and where she was going. Much as I enjoyed these calls, I thought it would be best if she had an onboard co-pilot. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I thought the Garmin sounded like the best choice.
First, the unit certainly does what my wife asks it to do: chart paths between points A and B. At that, it has been essentially flawless over the several weeks since we purchased it. In addition, it is tremendously easy to install (taking just a couple of minutes) and use. In the first two weeks, my wife went from a techno-phobe doubter to a true believer. Asked about the purchase in that first 2 weeks, I’d have given it 5 stars.
Then it died, for no good reason. The company (Garmin) was a bit hard to reach, with limited tech support hours (including no weekends). We had to send the unit back, and we did promptly receive a second unit. That unit has worked great for going on a month now. Given that there are a couple of other users with similar complaints, I’d have to say that these units may not be quite as reliable as a typical electrical device. Also, we have not had any trouble with the mount, unlike several of the reviewers.
In summary, for its core function, I think the unit is awesome. There are some issues with customer support that Garmin should work on, but these are not enough to seriously tarnish our experience.
ADDENDUM (10/16/06) – after some use, I have concluded that the function which estimates arrival time does so by using a best-case assumption about your speed. It seems to predict that you will always be traveling at the speed limit on a given stretch of road. This means is does not anticipate the inevitable red lights. It consistently underestimates travel time for in-city driving. If I could deduct a 1/2 star from my original review, I would.
To check price or purchase GARMIN 010-00522-00 Streetpilot C550 GPS Receiver.
Related posts with GARMIN 010-00522-00 Streetpilot C550 GPS Receiver Review
Posted in Leave a Reply
