Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 40 4.3-inch Portable GPS Navigator(US Only)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have had Garmin, Tom Tom, Sony and Magellan GPS's over the last ten years. I have come back to Garmin for my last two because they have by far the best interface. My other Garmin is a 1690.

The maps that came with this GPS are up to date. A restaurant that opened within the last six months is on the list.

I have found the 4.3 inch screen size to be the optimal size. It has a nice size keyboard and amazing graphics. It feels 'right' on a car dashboard.

The two features I absolutely require are the speed limit on the screen and the lane guidance. This GPS has both. This is my first Garmin out of three that goes into a split screen mode and shows the interstate signage as you come upon an exit you will be taking on your route. Great feature!

The audio is crisp and clear. It has plenty of volume capacity.

When needed, this unit will recalculate the directions quickly. I should also mention that it is very quick to acquire the satellites.

The one thing that this GPS does not have is traffic. My last four GPS's have had traffic and I have found it to be of limited usefulness. More than 50% of the time, the traffic has cleared out and you are still being alerted. The alternate routes around the traffic jams tend to be somewhat dubious.

Finally, what a great price!!! Just a year ago, you would have paid double the price for a GPS with all of the features you get with the Garmin 40. It is an excellent buy!

I've been using a NUVI 50LM for about a month now. It replaced a Garmin StreetPilot 7200. The 7200 was a top of the line unit at it's introduction. First the LM stands for Life Time Maps. This is a great feature. One of my frustrations with other GPS units has been the cost of updating the maps. With the LM I'll be able to do that any time there is an upgrade, prepaid!
I'm used to the larger screen of the 7200 and was worried that I'd not like the 5" screen of the 50. After a couple of days it works out fine.
The new unit is much lighter than the older one which even in the car mount turns out to be important as the new unit does not vibrate nearly as much on our dirt roads. Thus it's easier to use when the road conditions are not smooth.
The Lane and Junction assists Garmin has added are a great help once you locate them. Basically in the upper left corner there is a lane layout with the lanes you should be in highlighted. When approaching an exit a pseudo image of the exit is presented on the right side. This is nice for sorting out what you should be doing on a fast moving and changing Interstate system. I get a laugh out of the shadow mountains in the background while driving in Kansas.
Garmin has dropped the "Recalculating" statement that was made after a missed turn. This is both good and bad. There have been some times when I didn't know if the advice coming out of the unit was new or old. Overall it is less irritating.
This unit acquires a fix noticeably faster than other units I've used, including the 7200. That's especially nice when I forget to turn in on until after I'm rolling in a busy part of town.
Another new feature to me is the speed limit sign in the lower right corner. I've often wondered what the speed limit was on a stretch of road and missed the sign. This gives the limit. Now having said that it also dose NOT know about construction zones. Additionally, we just had a speed limit increase to 75 from 70 on many of our Interstates. Even though my last update was after the change the unit still shows the old speed. Overall this is a great feature. Oh, and it shows your speed in black if you are at or below the limit and in red if you go over.

For a basic, no frills GPS I think this is a great value, and the LM is worth the extra $$$$.

Over the years, I've used several GPS units which have included Garmin, Magellan, and Mio brands. Overall Garmin is typically the best and most accurate which is why I took advantage of the recent Black Friday sales to upgrade to this unit due to the map update feature included with it.

New Garmin units no longer say "recalculating route" when you deviate from the set course it lays out for you. They supposedly just begin to give you new directs based on the direction you're then heading in, to steer you back to your destination. In the case of this model however, I've found the "quiet recalculating" feature to be less accurate than Garmins I've used in the past. In my well-established Atlanta neighborhood when I deviated from the planned course, it said nothing. I could see the purple route to follow, went in the opposite direction, and the Garmin remained silent with no new route shown on the screen as well, until I was perhaps nearly half a mile off course. At that point, it finally kicked in and started to take me back on course. On the flip-side however, my Android phone using Google Maps, and my older Mio brand GPS immediately recalculated the route once I deviated, and steered me back. While in a different section of town, when I deviated from a main route, it tried to get me to drive through a subdivision of homes and do a U-turn to go back, instead of recalculating a new route forward (even though I had the U-turn option turned "off"). The Android and Mio units rerouted me forward without trying the U-turn. This I'll point out, is after a system reset and update via the computer (which was recommended by a Garmin employee via support email).

The point is this: You're most likely NOT going to get lost (well, badly) if you use this unit. It will eventually get you to your destination correctly, but it might make some quirky choices along the way compared to older/other models, especially if/when you deviate from it's planned routing. On the plus side, the screen is bright, the voice loud, it locks on to the GPS signal quickly, and the graphics are clear and easy to see when you're driving. Side-note: You can download a couple of other voice options via your computer into the unit if you like. I would give the unit 3 1/2 stars if that were an option, but will settle for 3, because in a city like Atlanta, the ability to keep driving straight-on and having a unit recalculate is very valuable as opposed to having to TRY to turn around in this city's traffic (this is why Magellans do poorly here - they're notorious for trying to force U-turns on you!). If you can get it for the Black Friday level of pricing ($79-$84) it would still not be the worst gift at all - but at the suggested normal retail price of $149.00, other units might be better at the recalculating bit than this one, so research before you buy.

ADDED: Someone on here sent me a note saying that if you download the other voices and change them, that this somehow alters the accuracy of the maps. Now, this sounds odd to me, as a simple voice chance shouldn't have any effect on map accuracy - but I tried it. Picked the male British voice and indeed, one of the glitches I mentioned above stopped happening (??), but when I chose the female British voice, suddenly the Garmin stopped recognizing a major 4 lane road in my area and started calling it by the name of a small arterial road two miles away! (repeat...???). Perhaps my unit is just defective, but if this is the latest map source they're using at Garmin - I might avoid any of the newest models. Yikes. I'm updating my star rating from 3 to 2 as a result. Sorry.

Garmin's new 2012 NÜVI Series is positioned as their basic line of navigators. My 7 year old NÜVI 660 finally died and I had a brief flirt with a NÜVI 1490T which boasted a transit feature. Even with a tech support call to Garmin I never could get the transit feature to work properly so the high-end 1490T was returned.

The NÜVI 40LM includes a lifetime maps subscription. I have no idea how many updates will be offered over a lifetime of a typical GPS navigator but my NÜVI 660 was seriously out of date and I refused to pay the fee for a "patch."

Features I've come to consider "must haves" on a GPS are:

1. Accurate maps with an easy to use interface
2. Lane assist
3. Speed limit display
4. Junction view

The NÜVI 40 incorporates all the above and I found the 4.3" screen a nice compromise between portability and readability.

Thumbs up to Garmin for giving us a useful entry-level automotive GPS navigator at a budget price.

I just got done using this for the first time on a trip. It's really awesome. I bought it on Black Friday for $90 including tax. I've been using the Garmin Nuvi 200 which I purchased a long time ago (I can't even remember.) Anyway, I was so pleased at the new interface. There are a lot of things they've done differently that makes it a lot more user friendly. Plus, since the screen is bigger (I got the 4.3" model) than the Nuvi 200, it is must easier to type. I got the LM version so I get lifetime maps. It was very easy to upload the maps. You just load the software and hook up the device to your computer. I honestly don't know how much easier they could have made it to download new maps except to have the device automatically download over-the-air. I don't even know if this is possible given the large size of the maps. It took me about 30 minutes to get the device loaded with the newest maps. My friend and I wanted to go to Hardee's in our own town. They just built the restaurant maybe 1 months ago and the Garmin already had it in the points of interest category; thought that was cool. In conclusion it is an awesome buy and simple to use. If you are upgrading from an older model as I was, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

This review is for an actual Garmin nuvi 50LM, not a smaller or older unit like some reviews here.

I have a much older Garmin "Street Pilot" 2720 that mounts on my BMW motorcycle. It also has a bean bag mount and I have used it in the car... but it has an old incomplete database. So I wanted a bigger (for my old eyes) screen and lifetime map updates.

This is a new 2011 model, looks good, comes with a solid suction cup mount, a 12v car recharge / power cord and a short (18") p.c. cable, it uses a standard mini usb plug so my Blackberry cords work just fine too.

The garmin web updater I already have on my computer added the unit to my account easily, it updated the firmware too. (I have 2 Garmin aviation units 195 / 196) the "garmin lifetime updater" installed onto my p.c. automatically. I did not have to enter a serial number. It found a newer map and loaded it in about 20 minutes. Seamless, kudos to Garmin.

Driving with this unit in default 3D settings is fantastic. The pictures it has loaded of actual freeway signs is amazing.. the "lane control" is great, at a glance I can see my speed, distance to the next turn / offramp and e.t.a. I did find if you "-" or pan out you lose street names / detail.

One tweak I made was at night I turned it down to 10% brightness, if you tap the power switch like you want to turn it off it has the brightness right there, adjust and tap the power switch again.

I needed to meet a friend at a Mexican place for lunch, I knew the name and about where it was. So while driving on the 405 I hit the "food" button, scrolled down to "mexican" scrolled down like 8 pages to find it and BAM I was on my way... exactly why I bought a new gps with current updates.

Garmin is the good stuff, I would buy it again or recommend it to anyone.

Love this unit!! Had an old Tom Tom, which they stopped supporting about 2 years after paying way too much for it. Always been a Garmin fan, and this only bolsters my feeling about Garmin. Love it so much, I'm ordering another one for my wife. Great screens, the split screen when approaching a turn is fantastic in helping you stay in the proper lanes. Road speed limits and your speed, another plus as I never look at signs, never know what the speed limit is.

This new Garmin is much better than my older one. I bought it because of the lifetime updates. I took it to the back woods of Tennessee and Kentucky and it performed flawlessly. I especially like the three dimensional view of upcoming lanes and the lane change arrows. It also doesn't drive you crazy by saying "recalculating" if you change course like the old one did. A great buy for the price.

The larger screen is well laid out and easy to read. The lane assist and junction review features work very well. (Although I wish the junction review had a night time mode. Seeing that blue sky is a bit disconcerting late at night.) Overall, it's a great set of basic features for the price and I'm very happy with it.

I've been a happy Garmin customer for years, so when I needed a new basic GPS I decided to try their new 2012 line.

The Nüvi 50 is a basic GPS, and worked fine. Easy to use, big and readable screen, I did almost 2000 miles with it and I didn't got lost once. The operation is straightforward and Points of Interest worked fine and are really comprehensive.

At first I wasn't very happy on how the lane assist feature works, but after some time with it I got the hold of it. In fact, I drive better with that disabled, while in some circumstances it can be really helpful in other it adds too much distraction.

IMHO, an ideal GPS for people looking for a simple GPS that does the job.