Magellan RoadMate 5045-LM 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Maps and Traffic

by Magellan

Product Features

• System Requirements: only compatible with Windows
• GPS for larger vehicles including SUVs, RVs and trucks; features large five-inch touchscreen
• Features include lifetime map updates, lifetime traffic alerts, highway lane assist, OneTouch favorites, highway exit POI and AAA TourBook
• Pre-loaded maps of U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico with six million searchable points of interest
• OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places
• Highway lane assist points you to the right exit with realistic highway signs

› See more product details

Product Description

Edition: Lifetime Maps

Amazon.com

The RoadMate 5045-LM is a 5-inch GPS navigator perfect for any size vehicle. The huge 5-inch screen is 35% larger than a standard 4.3-inch screen. No need to worry about finding your way, since you get lifetime map updates included with the RoadMate 5045-LM.

Get free lifetime map updates! The RoadMate 5045-LM includes free map updates for the life of the navigator. Never again worry about finding the restaurant in a new part of town or locating the new parking garage. You will always have the latest available maps.

Premium features include lifetime traffic alerts, highway lane assist, OneTouch favorites, highway exit POI, Built-in AAA TourBook and maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Magellan has partnered with the most trusted name in travel--AAA. Only Magellan products include the exclusive, built-in AAA TourBook with Diamond ratings and descriptions on AAA-approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.

Personalize your travel experience with the OneTouch menu of your favorite places and searches. Bookmark your favorite coffee shop, restaurant, gas station, or bank to find the nearest location, anywhere you travel!

Perfect for any size vehicle, the Magellan RoadMate 5045-LM is a premium navigator packed with features!

RoadMate 5045-LM Features

	Exclusive OneTouch Favorites Menu Easily bookmark favorite destinations and searches with personalized bookmarks so you can find them anywhere you travel. Find your favorite café or restaurant in any city with a single touch.
	Free Lifetime Map Updates Receive up to four map updates per year, for the life of the GPS navigator. No extra cost!
	Lifetime Traffic Alerts Real-time, subscription-free traffic updates sent directly to your GPS unit. Get updates whenever you need them.
	Exclusive AAA TourBook Guide No membership required… The Magellan-exclusive built-in AAA TourBook guide provides ratings and descriptions on AAA approved places to stay, play, dine, and save.
	Highway Lane Assist Realistic highway signs point you in the right direction, when approaching interchanges and exits, to ensure that you’ll choose the correct lane.
	Huge 5.0" Touch Screen The huge 5.0-inch touch screen is ideal for any vehicle including SUVs and Trucks at 35% larger than a standard 4.3-inch product.
	6 Million Points of Interest (POI) Gas stations, restaurants, hotels, ATMs, and millions of other destinations are searchable from the huge POI database.
	Highway Exit POI Search Search for gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.
	QuickSpell with SmartCity Search Enter destinations with only a few touches. QuickSpell with SmartCity search helps you quickly enter addresses and narrow location searches, making destination entry easy.
	Multi-destination Routing Plan a trip with multiple stops in the order you want or have the device optimize it for the most efficient route.
	Spoken Street Name Guidance Hear street names and directions for a clear understanding of when to make the next turn while you keep your eyes on the road.
	Premium Maps Travel the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada with all the maps you need, pre-loaded on your device.

What's in the Box

Magellan RoadMate 5045 GPS Receiver; Pre-Loaded Maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico; Windshield Mount; Vehicle Power Adapter; USB Cable; User Manual

Product Description

Roadmate 5045-LM

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

448 of 464 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Before you get on the Garmin bandwagon...... April 7, 2011

By JG

Edition:Lifetime Maps|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you have been a longtime Magellan user you may want to consider a few things before getting on the Garmin bandwagon. I want to make it very clear that this isn't going to be a review to bash the Garmin 1450LMT, the particular unit I bought and returned, but more of comparison. Let's start off by getting what Magellan users have known from the very beginning about Magellan's issues out of the way. Magellan has always had poor customer service, terrible POI information, slow or old maps/updates, and subpar quality control issues both hardware and software, and not Mac compatible. Garmin is better in this respect, most of the time. If this is what you are concerned about, stop reading here and purchase a Garmin you will be very happy. The Garmin 1450LMT is solid and reliable, and Garmin customer service and tech support is top-notch. I'm saving the issue of routing errors or confusing routing until later because I have experienced routing errors on Garmin as well and they were just as frustrating as some people claim about Magellan.

With that said, being the owner of the Magellan 760, 2200T, and 3225. I have never had an issue with the hardware or software in any of the models I have owned. I have known a few people that have, but I personally have not. This may be due to the fact I never leave my GPS in the car, never throw it around, abuse it, or leave it exposed on the dash in a parked vehicle. I wouldn't say I "baby" the units, but I respect it as a complex electronic device and a potential item for thieves, so I never leave it in the car or glove box. Of course, this may just be coincidence, I'm sure there are just defective units out there whether you take care of them or not. I figure I will buy a Square Trade warranty to cover the unit in case it dies on me.

As I had fore mentioned, I purchased a Garmin 1450LMT due to so many negative reviews about the Magellan units, particularly the 5045LM. They ranged from bad maps, sticky glue residue, screen lock up, bad routing, you name it! I had the Garmin 1450LMT for 30 days, returning it the last day only after several frustrating routing failures in Las Vegas. Yes believe it or not, the Garmin had some routing issues, contrary to all the positive reviews. I actually switched back to the Magellan 2200T because of this mid vacation. In addition to the routing issue with the Garmin, I didn't like the overall Garmin user interface (UI), the routing logic, and the overall navigational style it uses. Not that they were bad, it just wasn't for me and my style of driving. There was also one occasion that the car icon, was in the middle of the map and not tracking properly. This never corrected itself until I reset the unit. It seemed like the Garmin was not able to track the satellites correctly. This is now the second time I had a Garmin and went back to a Magellan both times.

Here are the main differences of the Garmin operating system (OS) and what I prefer about the Magellan OS. You can see a clear evolution of the 2 operating systems from their earlier models such as the Garmin 350 and the Magellan 2200T. Both models retain nearly all of the traits of their respective predecessors and not really changing much to the core operations. Let's start!

THE "DING DING" - Magellan gives a "ding" or a "chime" when you need to make a turn. Garmin does not.

Garmin has no "bell" or "ding" when instructions are given. As Magellan users know, when instructions are given on the Magellan there is a "ding ding" when it is the final move of the instruction. So when you need to turn at a certain point, the instruction will be given, followed by a DING DING. Seems insignificant right? But you might miss this feature more than you think. I found myself looking at the Garmin after a turn because I was never sure if that was the "turn" I was supposed to make. Garmin only gives you a final verbal queue to turn by saying "TURN LEFT (street name)".

"ROUTE CHOICES" - Magellan gives 4 different route choices; "fastest time, shortest distance, most use and least use of freeways". Garmin has 2 choices (thanks roegs for the info) fastest time and shortest distance with no freeway exclusion offerings.

Garmin has 2 route choices of fastest time, and shortest distance but does not have "most use of freeways and least use of freeways". Magellan has had these from the beginning dating back to the Magellan 700. Garmin has a setting that avoids things like HIGHWAYS, TOLL ROADS and such; however, these are settings NOT pre-route choices. I don't always want to avoid highways, but there are times that I do. Why should I have this as a permanent setting? My parents or my wife who prefer to avoid highways if possible, always use the route choice of LEAST USE OF FREEWAYS. In this case you can have the Garmin setting to avoid highways permanently, but my parents won't be able to remember how to get to it on the settings menu or change it if they need to. Neither will my wife.

"WHEN POSSIBLE MAKE A (IL)LEGAL U TURN" - Magellan wants you to go back to the original route. Garmin recalculates the entire route after missed turns.

Garmin and Magellan approach to routing differs in respect to recalculating routes and U turns. I don't know if this is true 100% of the time, but this is what I have been able to observe in the 30days I had the Garmin. If I miss a maneuver on the Garmin, it will recalculate the entire route depending what direction you are heading AFTER your miss turn. If I get back on the route it initially wanted me to take, it may NOT recalculate to the originally planned route, even though I corrected myself. Magellan's tendency, on the other hand will, for a short time, want you to follow its initial route. This is why, I believe, some experience the incessant "when possible make a legal U-TURN" command. When I use my GPS, I never second guess the route. I always follow it no matter if it's out of the way or not. This is because I probably am in a city or a part of town I am unfamiliar with. If I miss a turn, exit, or what have you, I PREFER to go back to my original route. Garmin's tendency is to guide you on a different route without making you turn back. For example, Garmin calculated a perfect route for me back from Summerlin to the Aria hotel in Vegas. (I read the route before driving). I missed the entrance to CR-215 (no lane assist popped up). It recalculated quickly, BUT I turned around to get on CR-215 hoping it would take that same route back. Guess what. After it recalculated, it did NOT take me that same way back. Instead it took me down crowded Las Vegas Blvd (LVB). The other route DID NOT have me go down LVB, how do I get that route back? I asked. Why can't I exclude LVB from my route? Did the Garmin get me back accurately, sure it did. But why did it have to change my entire route because I missed one turn. Magellan would have either told you to make a legal U turn OR keep as much of the initial route unchanged as possible eventually guiding you back to the original intended route. This may have been an exception to Garmin's overall navigational logic, but, I didn't prefer it. This happened to me on more than a few instances where it would recalculate new routes for me over and over again, causing me to do U-turns anyways. Others may have different experiences with this, but again, this is what I noticed and I don't prefer it over Magellan's routing logic.

"ROUTE EXCLUSIONS" - Dont want to go a particular street or highway? Remove it from your route. Garmin? No such function.

Magellan always had the ability to give you a route and letting the user easily remove a certain street on the maneuvers list. If I didn't want to take a left on MAIN Street, for example, I can touch that maneuver, and it will ask me if I want to remove it. Afterwards it will recalculate a new route completely removing that particular street or use that street as little as possible. Again Magellan has always had this feature, and Garmin has never had it. To my knowledge it still doesn't. Is this useful? You bet. I would rather take the back way around Las Vegas than go down Las Vegas BLVD itself.

**UPDATE**: There is one software glitch I discovered. To enable route exclusions, U-Turns must be enabled, otherwise the software (version 3.11, basemap v41) can no longer calculate routes effectively. The unit will not lock up per se, but it will keep saying "ROUTE ERROR: Can not calculate route. destination is in a restricted area or select another another route method" or something to that effect. To get it back, enable U-turns, and turn your unit off and turn it back on. It will work normally again. The only reason I found out is I was experimenting with the options, otherwise I would have never known. Hopefully Magellan puts out a patch for this. And NO, I am not returning my 5045.
Incidently, I also have the Magellan 5120LMTX, sold exlusively at a local warehouse club. It is the exact same as the 5045 unit with BaseMap v41 (Tele-Atlas) and software version 4.53 works flawlessly with U-turns disabled. No weird routing issues either.

"REPETITIVE VOICE INSTRUCTIONS" - Instructions given at 2 mile, 1 mile, 1/2 mile, approaching, then ding ding.

Magellan reminds you of upcoming maneuvers over and over. It will usually remind you of upcoming maneuvers at 2miles, 1mile, 0.5miles, Approaching, and then DING DING. Garmin usually will tell you at 1mile or less, and then say in "500ft make a left", then turn left for example, with no ding as mentioned before. This is good for some, but for me, it made me check the screen too often for my liking. I like being constantly reminded of upcoming maneuvers verbally. Read more ›

482 of 504 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Swing and a miss October 27, 2010

By Greg Scott

Edition:Standard|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had really high hopes for this GPS. I shopped for quite awhile and owned a Garmin that was due to be updated but decided to replace the unit rather than pay to upgrade. After reading a lot of reviews of the Garmins with quality control issues I opted to give Magellan a try. I have owned the unit around 2 months. I took a trip from Indianapolis to Santa Fe, NM and used the unit the entire time. Last weekend I drove from Indy to Chicago and back again. I guess I have used it about 3000 miles and here is my impression.

First the bad points:
1. The unit will power down occasionally. It has happened to me 4 times so far.

2. The spoken directions ie.."Turn right" are crystal clear. The problem is when it says the street names. The street names are muffled. Usually I can understand what it says but other times I have to look at the screen to figure out what street it is talking about.

3. I put in a route to take me home from a casino near Chicago. It said there were roads that were closed in my route. A road closed icon even came up on the screen. I thought OK it will just route me around the closed road. Well I got up to where I could see the barricades and it told me to turn on the road it knew was closed. I went on past the closed road of course and it recalculated a different route it took a lot longer to go that way. It would have been quicker to go back the way I came in which would have been back tracking a little bit but the unit was not smart enough to realize this.

4. I was almost home the other night and knew what exit I needed to take on I-65. It was telling me to go 1.3 miles further then take that exit. I didn't even think there was an exit 1.3 miles further on the interstate so I took the exit that I knew was right and I checked when I got home and there wasn't another exit for around 10 miles. This makes me wonder how often it sends me on a wild goose chase in areas that I am not familiar with. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

5. Sometimes the auto zoom will zoom out so far it looks like a satellite view. And to top it off this happens when you are in a really congested areas where you really need a lot of detail. It happened to me once in Oklahoma City and Chicago.

6. When typing on the keyboard the unit pauses and hangs up causing you to have to press the same key a several times before it registers. This makes entering an address frustrating and time consuming.

7. Adds show up on the screen while you are driving. I understand that the Garmin adds only show up when you are stopped. I didn't find the traffic alerts helpful. It has an icon on the screen that turns red when there is trouble ahead. Instead of just automatically rerouting you it requires you to click on the icon and then it will give you alternate routes. You select the one you want and then it will take you on your new route. You have to do this while barreling down the interstate at 75mph. Kind of defeats the purpose if I kill myself in the process. I just wished it knew which route was the least congested and route you to that one automatically.

The only good point for me is the screen is big and easy to read.

I am going on another trip next week. I am going to take it to Las Vegas and drive to Tucson, AZ then to San Diego and then up to LA then back to Vegas. If it performs any better I will update my review.

All of the other reviews were so positive but I am really disappointed in it's performance. Perhaps the others just haven't used it as extensively as I have. I am probably going to replace it with a Garmin. Even my old Garmin is light years ahead of this unit.

Update 11-16-10
Just got back from another long trip. I had my mother along and she is around 70 years old and not very tech savvy. By the end of the trip she was making fun of the GPS unit wondering how bad it was going to screw up every time I turned it on. This unit is not able to do basic routing about half of the time. I don't understand all of the positive reviews. The phrase I hear in my sleep at night is "When possible make a legal U turn." because that is what it says more often than anything else. I wish I could return to Amazon but its been too long. Save your money and buy something else. You have been warned.

380 of 404 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magellan RoadMate 5045 is a winner July 13, 2010

By B. Cathcart

Edition:Standard|Amazon Verified Purchase

I previously had a Magellan Maestro from 2006 but it recently was stolen. I loved the unit and wanted to replace it. When I found this RoadMate for under $200, I thought I would give it a try. I have several observations:
1. 2010 maps provide a lot better navigation experience than the old ones from 2006.
2. RoadMate has a comparatively huge display that is very appealing
3. RoadMate does not support voice command, while Maestro did/does. However, I was never able to train the voice command system to consistently accept my voice commands. Not only do I not miss this feature, I somewhat prefer not having voice command, obviating any temptation to use it.
4. RoadMate traffic alerts work well, especially since unlimited usage is included at no charge, ever. A small triangle display shows a red border when an incident exists en route or near. There is no audible announcement. One must tap the icon to see a summary. Often but far from always, at least one alternative route will be offered. Simply tap the appropriate "detour" icon to change to that alternative route. One must tap the "Report" button from the summary screen to see a map indicating all incidents. That is slightly tedious, but I cannot think of a more efficient way to do it. The major downside is that sometimes I have run into traffic jams that were not reported. I don't think I can legitimately blame the unit for that. Overall I find the traffic feature useful and intuitive.
5. This unit gives audio directions along with the visual. The audio is much less verbose than the Maestro, and therefore I find it greatly improved. It also is a lot smarter about calculating routes. Older maps often routed me circuitously. This unit almost always chooses sensible routes.
6. Use the auto-expand feature to better select the proper lanes through an intersection, turn, or other situation, such as a freeway split. This is a big improvement over the older models.
7. Overall, navigation is greatly improved. The timing of audio cues is much more appropriate. For example, the chimes indicating a turn come only after passing the last possible wrong turn. Still, they keep up. For example, I have made three quick freeway ramp changes, one after another, and the lane directions were still in time to be followed.
8. Magellan and AAA data bases for "points of Interest" are separate and often must be queried separately to find all "hits". This is only a slight inconvenience, noticeable mostly when using "Search by Name". The "one touch" feature is nice, but actually I have little use of it. If you have many many addresses, it could be very useful. I also like the address book having a lot of new features where a lot of information can be entered. All good stuff.

Overall, I rate this an excellent unit at the price point of under $200. I would purchase it again preferentially over the $350 Maestro. Then again, I don't use voice command.