Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 5000 5.2-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First, I would like to say that I really like my Garmin nuvi 5000. It is the first GPS unit I have ever owned. It is very easy to use and the large screen is very visible in all light levels. However, there are three areas where I feel the unit falls short. First, it needs a rechargeable internal battery that would allow it to be used disconnected from the automobile, even if only for a short period of time. The battery life would be extendable by having a way to switch off the screen and allowing the unit continue to operate. Second, the unit needs a better manual that goes more detail about the working of the unit. For example, it tells you how to add favorites locations to your unit's memory, but it does not tell you how many locations you can have, nor does it tell you if an SD card will add space for more. The third and biggest problem with this unit is the lack of a good internal antenna. My experience has shown that the unit is not very good at acquiring satellites as it is designed. I have experienced the following problems using the unit mounted on the beanbag holder (Garmin's Portable Friction Dashboard Mount) on my car's dashboard: When parked in my driveway with a clear overhead view, it can take more then 2-3 minutes to acquire a good signal lock; Pulling out of my garage and driving down suburban roads at less then 40 miles per hour, it has taken more than 10 minutes to get a good lock on the satellites; Once when driving down an Interstate highway with a wide open sky view, the unit lost signal and took several minutes to re-acquire the satellites; and at other times it has showed it poor design of the internal antenna. To try to solve this problem, I purchased the external Garmin antenna. This antenna is designed with a magnet to attache to the car roof and plug into the back of the unit. This works very well and solves the problem of satellite acquisition, but makes for a messy dash. However, I found that if the antenna is just placed horizontally on the dash behind the unit it works just as well. This brought me to conclude that the unit should be designed with an attached flip up antenna, as come commercial unites have, to improve satellite acquisition. I gave it four stars, because with the added antenna, the unit works great and I would not want to give it up.

The main reason I purchased this unit was that I really liked our older Nuvi but I wanted a newer unit with a video input for a reverse backup camera.

The problem with this unit is that the very first time it goes to switch to the video input after the unit is powered on, even if you have auto switch on for the video input, the unit is going to stop you with a nagging disclaimer screen that you MUST agree to. You have to touch the screen. It won't go away after a short delay like the first nag screen does. Plus it takes quite some time before you even get there since you have to wait for the unit to "start up". Seems kind of funny that the disclaimer is that you shouldn't watch video while driving. Isn't the whole point of a backup camera to be able to look at it to make sure you don't run into something? There's no way around the nag screen without touching the unit except to just wire the unit to be always on.

Even more confusing is that the video input setting has a mode for reverse camera but if you set it to this mode (instead of dvd), then it will ask you if you want to change EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!

UPDATE 1) Called Garmin Support, after "researching" it, they told me that that was it, and that's how it worked, and there was no way to get rid of the video warning screen.

UPDATE 2) Checked the unit's firmware and was amazed to see a really old version on there. Downloaded the latest firmware and the problem is SOLVED!! Now the backup camera mode works properly and it NEVER prompts you. Not even a delayed warning after power-on. You still need to wait for the unit to boot and it does take a while but as soon as it does, it immediately switches over to the video input. I do wish it could switch over even faster at unit power on. I'd update my rating to 4 stars but this edit page won't let me.

We took a trip this past weekend and overall the unit is very nice. The auto-dimming screen feature works great. This unit also displays the current speed limit and it was amazing at how accurate it was. It would switch within a second or two of passing the speed limit signs.

Review updated from 1 to 4 stars.

I am a long time owner of the Garmin StreetPilot 2720 and bought the NUVI 5000 for the larger screen. The larger screen is great but, it's performance is poor. A lot of the time routing is just bad, routing me in circles. Sometimes it tries to route me via an old destination. The POI function, even with the "On current route" feature shows POIs behind me and far off route.

I am a Garmin fan but, I regret this purchase.

Update: After more problems, mostly lockups and failure to draw screen (map display), Garmin replaced the unit. Unfortunately, the problems with poor routing continued. I have had one lock up with the new unit. Also, false alerts about safety camers started to appear.

We are in the middle of a 5,000 mile trip out west and this unit is unreliable and disappointing.



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I regularly ride in a friend's shiny new 2009 Porsche and I have to say, their GPS sucks by comparison! You'd think a $100k+ sports car would have a killer GPS -- NOT! The maps were sparse, the colors muted, the speech barely audible and the user interface convoluted and unintuitive. Now I know Porsche's primary concern is the car, not the GPS, but for a top dollar luxury product, you'd think their GPS would be equally cutting edge. I honestly prefer my Garmin Nuvi 5000. The difference is stark! Its no wonder Garmin is widely considered to make the best GPS units on the market.

I zeroed in on the Nuvi 5000 primarily because of the larger screen and that it's one of the few GPS units to support a backup camera. For those of you who don't know, a backup camera is a tiny video camera (mine is the size of a dime) that mounts on the back of your car, often the license plate, with a video cable run to a monitor or GPS mounted on the dash. Then when you put your car in reverse, the cam turns on and you get a live video image of what's behind your car! Very helpful when parallel parking or backing up and you see so much more than with a rearview mirror alone! It's one of those things that once you have it, you wonder why it took so long or how you ever lived without it!

Backup cams aren't just for big SUVs or trucks. I have mine on a sedan and really love the extra perspective it gives. It's such a luxury to be able to SEE everything with no blind spots!!! LOVE it!!! As more cars come standard with GPS units, I could see backup cams becoming standard issue. It's so much safer to backup with the extra visibility and virtually no blind spots!

Setup was easy. I got a vent mount for the Nuvi itself since windshield mounts are illegal in California. But I actually prefer the vent mount anyway since it places the Nuvi at the perfect level without obstructing my view of the road. Then I mounted the tiny cam above my rear license plate. Hooked up the ground and power wires to the rear tail light - the one that lights up only in reverse -- then ran the cable through the trunk, behind the rear seat, along the floor panels and to the Nuvi. It's not as hard as it sounds and there are videos on YouTube that can help clarify. It took me about 90min to hook it all up. And I even hardwired the Nuvi to the car's fuse box so it automatically turns on and off with the car's ignition.

The GPS itself is stellar. The colors are vibrant and inviting. The satellite response time is lightening fast and the interface is easy, intuitive and very user friendly. I was able to use 90% of the functions without even reading the User Guide. It's that easy and straightforward. I even set up specific routes I like to take to work and other destinations so the Nuvi can take the roads I prefer and get me back on track if I take a detour to avoid traffic and such.

The "Points of Interest" feature is amazing!! Just type in what you're looking for - a specific grocery store, department store, drugstore, gas station, etc and the Nuvi finds all the nearby matches! I haven't searched anything yet that it can't find! Very thorough database and up to date too!

While navigating, the verbal cues are loud and clear. And the screen itself had loads of useful info. I like the estimated time of arrival feature. I like how it changes the color scheme automatically for night and day making it easier to read in both cases. I love being able to play solitaire while waiting for someone to come out of a store. I love feeling like I'll never get lost or have a problem finding anything in a big city like L.A.! But most of all, I love the backup cam!! And be sure to setup a security code so no one can mess with your settings; a thief, valet or anyone else.

It really is such a luxury to have a quality GPS!! Sometimes I just use it as a live map depicting where I am without inputting my destination. It's helpful to have a live visual confirmation of where you are and what streets are nearby.

For my first GPS, I have to say I'm quite impressed with the Nuvi 5000! Welcome to the 21st century!!! Definitely get one!! You'll be glad you did!

I have used a Garmin GPS 60c for years and decided it was time to get something easier to see and work with. This sounded ideal as I drive a Freightliner Truck towing my Travel Trailer. But the truck noise made using the FM connection mandatory. (There goes my books on tape). But the worst is the poor navigation. It could not find my mothers address (it did, but it showed her address as the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America and my Mom lives on Cape Cod) and other common places (such as Goodyear Tire Centers, Flying J's, Rest Areas other than ones on major interstates and Camping World) I called Garmin. I just bought this and they wanted me to BUY more maps. Navteq supplies their maps and the maps for MS Streets and Trips (which almost always finds addresses), so it is a Garmin problem. I just bought the Dash Express for about half the price. Lifetime free automatic updates, LIVE traffic and routing, LIVE internet search and user made favorites as well as many awesome features. I'll review it after I actually use it. Sorry, Garmin, get modern and more customer friendly....the world of technology is quickly out-distancing you!

This is one of the greatest tools I have bought for my truck since I purchased the 60 dollar rand mcnally truck map. While this does NOT include truck routing, every road that I need to take is listed for me so I can check my map book and see if any of the roads are restricted. I would pay twice as much for this Garmin. The big screen makes it easy for me to see both day and night.

I am an outside sales rep covering Calif, Nevada and Arizona. I have approx 2000 accounts I need to log. I use this product everyday and extensively.

The Nuvi 5000 looks great but does not contain a battery. This prevents a couple of extras I was use to with my Garmin Streetpilot. First, you cannot add Points of Interest when it's attached to the PC. The 5000 screen will not open but simply shows it's connected to the computer. Only when you have it plugged into your vehicle will the standard screen pop up. With the Streetpilot, I was able to charge it up with my PC, the standard screen would appear and it could be used without a power cable. The 5000 can only operate if it's plugged into the car.

When you add addresses with the POI program, it will not transfer the address itself. It will transfer the location but not the information. This is frustrating because you have to type in every address on the 5000. This means the POI program is useless since every address needs to be added directly onto the 5000. With the Streetpilot, I could put addresses and phone numbers into the POI program on my computer and it would transfer completely to the Garmin. I don't know why it won't work the same way. And lastly, about 20% of the time, it gives bizarre driving directions and misses the target address by several hundred feet.

It has music and game features which are completely ridiculous. These features should have been scrapped and the money put toward a battery and making the POI program work properly.

i pitched my magellen as fast as i could. the garmin
is mindless and really a pleasure to use. just what
a gps system should be. and the 5" screen is
great...

Original Review:
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My Jeep Grand Cherokee has two power sockets (cigarette lighter sockets): One is on CONSTANTLY, whereas the other is only on when the ignition is turned on. That means that, by plugging this GPS into the socket controlled by the ignition, the GPS automatically turns on when the car starts and automatically stops when the car stops. That is my normal "driving around town" mode. No switches, no reaching, no unnecessary "dialog" with the GPS unit. Just sit back and enjoy.

For long over-the-road trips, I plug this GPS into the other socket which is CONSTANTLY on: This preserves data during food and fuel stops and ensures continuous data on overall trip time, driving time, stopped time, average rolling speed, average overall speed, etc. At the destination, I transfer it to the ignition-controlled socket for local driving. Folks, this is a well thought out system: Give some credit to Garmin for focusing on what counts and avoiding Gizmo-itis and Bell-and-Whistle Disease.

The software on this GPS appears to be exactly like the wonderful, handy, easy-to-use, intuitive software on our two Garmin Nuvi 750's. We don't need bluetooth (we use BlueAnt Supertooth in all vehicles), so we don't interfere with CD's/Radio/etc. We also have no use for the back-up camera feature. Nice idea though, but not for us.

Bottom line: Big, CHEAP, beautiful, CHEAP, accurate, CHEAP, easy to use, CHEAP and more convenient than units with internal batteries (you don't have to interact with it to turn it on and off). It is perfect as a dedicated vehicle GPS. Did I mention that I think pricing it way below $300 is CHEAP for this big screen, especially when joined with the other Garmin Nuvi software virtues?

My only complaint about Garmin Nuvi units is that, on ALL of them, the English lady (who has a decent mellow voice) interprets "drive" denominated roads as "Doctor", as in "Turn left on Maple Doctor" instead of "Turn left on Maple Drive"! How silly is that, Garmin?

Revision:
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7-Month update - Suddenly fails to detect any satellites at all after 30 or 40 minutes of operation. Detects them again next day, but is dead for the rest of that day. This is a daily reliability and utility problem. Garmin is not helpful in assessing this failure. I found others having similar problems with various Nuvi models, and they most commonly purchase the Garmin or Gilsson external antenna. Don't know how widespread the problem is, but suspect that it is common with Garmin. Pity.

This being my first gps unit I cannot compare it to previous devices, but I can say that I love this unit and have been very pleased with the navigation and features. I have one big issue and one small issue to mention though:

BIG ISSUE: Although I'm told I can use my Macintosh computer to update the unit I am finding that software updates don't work and the computer has trouble properly reading the contents of the memory. Using the Web Update software I see that the unit's software is one or two versions behind and I can update to a newer version, but I can't get this update process to complete. Sometimes it stalls, telling me the unit is full and cannot accept an update, other times it appears to complete, but rebooting the device shows the same old software running. This old version works fine, I don't particularly need to have the latest update, I was just trying to be up to the minute. The unit is navigating very well for the most part and I'm satisfied, (but still wanting perfection)

One particular oddity: when I load music files into the unit they show up normal in my Mac's Finder window, but on the Nuvi screen in the car I see two copies of every song. One copy looks normal and plays, the other copy has the underscore ( _ ) character appended to the beginning of the file name and that copy does not play. The unit appears to be in play mode, but no sound comes out and the play progress bar is inactive. I have to skip these "null" copies in order to resume playing music. If I have hundreds of songs loaded in I have to scroll past one or two hundred "null" copies in order to get to the ones that will play! I'm currently working with product support to figure out how to get my Mac and the Nuvi to communicate but we haven't found the magic yet. The Macintosh interface needs some work!

Small issue: the voice prompt is often late with useful information, for example: approaching a freeway on-ramp that has separate lanes for east and west, the voice doesn't use the word west or east until it's too late to change my lane. Looking at the text on the screen I can get that information sooner, but if my eyes are busy watching traffic I can miss the exit because the voice failed to say west soon enough.