Just got back from a road trip and my Garmin Zumo 550 started to act up on me. I call my GPS "Jill" because that is the name of the voice prompt.

Any way, I think Jill had a stroke. Her voice commands were stuttering. She started pressing buttons on her own and canceling the route I had planned.

I have to call Garmin tomorrow. Don't think the prognosis will be good.

If I have to get a new GPS unit and JILL can not be saved, what do you all recommend.

I really like the Garmin product and would like to stick with them.

The unit I want should be motorcycle friendly as far as weatherproof and glove friendly.

I like to play music through it so it should have MPE3 and xm functions.

Lane suggestion would be a nice new feature.

Any suggestions on what model I should get?

What do you have? Pro's and Con's?

As far as the Zumo 500. I really do love it. I just feel it is an older model that is a little outdated and has limited memory.

Thanks

 

My 450's been acting up as well. My digitizer is on the fritz. I'm going to buy a replacement on eBay prior to spending the coin to get a refurb from Garmin.

 

I run the Zumo 550 (HD version) and it does everything I want it to do. My buddy has the new Zumo 665 (dash mount) and it has a lot more features than mine. It also shows which lane to get in for upcoming exits, etc. It plays through his speakers as well, but I think he had to purchase some type of special $30 Garmin jack from HD to have it connected to his radio system for the voice prompts.

 

I have the zumo 665 and subscribe to Navweather with radar.... saved me from many a storm.

 

I have a zumo 660 and has weathered many a storm without a hiccup. The couple times it did act up, doing a software update fixed it so you might try that before buying a new unit. Their latest bike GPS is a 350LM and will do anything you want. Have not seen it at a dealership yet under the Roadtech brand but if you end up with another unit you can go to zumoforums.com and download the software that will put all the North America HD dealerships in it. This can be done for a nuvi as well. BTW, I called Jill the bitch in a box. I changed mine to a guy as I didn't need a woman telling me what to do. Lol.... Anyway I would go to the Garmin website, decide what unit I wanted and try to find the best deal online. Amazon, ebay or whatever. Just Google purchase XXX.

 

Go to the Garmin forums, ask around. Also do a reset and update your software. Garmin replaced mine when the screen went on the friz, cost like $69 for the replacement.

Or, it's time to buy its newer version and upgrade!

 

Don't know that the 350 offers anymore than the 665 or 660 but if u don't need the xm or weather 660 will save you some money, also the nuvi 500/550 is water proof and can be found for under 200 bucks...


JJ

 

If you are smart enough to work on it your self like replacing a screen the parts are cheap on ebay..However you get a refurb from Garmin for $150.00..Mine has been back 2-3 times out of warranty to them.Also have gone through 2 motorcycle mounts as the pins have broke.At this point I probably have close to a grand in this thing.

 

JMO
Xmas is coming..Garmin is bound to come out with something to go up against the smartphone and my guess would be around then. If you need something till then look for something cheap and deal with it till the new models come out.

 

If you've been happy with your 550, one option is to let Garmin replace it with a "refurb" for $150 plus your shipping of your old unit to them.

I bought my original 550 in 2007 and the touch screen finally gave up earlier this summer. I bought a Zumo 220 to replace it .. while I like a couple of features of the 220, I missed the 550, so called Garmin and set up the replacement. Once week later refurb 550 in hand .. like brand new!