Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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148 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does everything more expensive systems can do (except live traffic routing), for so much less!, February 3, 2006
If you are a first time GPS buyer and want an easy to use unit with intuitive touch screen controls and the best unit you can get for under $300, I recommend the C320 (or C330 which comes with pre-loaded maps). I bought this unit for much more a little over a year ago and so far I am quite happy. It has saved me many miles of extra driving! It also makes me a braver night time driver as I have difficulty spotting a sudden turn in the road at night time. But with my GPS I know exactly when to turn and it even tells me 'stay right' etc. This was confusing at first but now that I know what it means I find it very helpful to not have to change lanes at the last minute. It makes me feel safer on the road at night in unknown places! I can easily type in addresses on the touch screen with it's large display or look for a place of interest (a restaurant, library etc.) if I change my mind while at an intersection and then continue on the specified route. I often type in store names like "Target" or "Borders" on a whim and it takes me to the nearest one in the area. It just made a couple of mistakes so far once for a Kroger and once for a Walmart as the store had moved to another location about half a year ago but even Google maps had shown me the wrong location for that Walmart. It is also convenient to be able to specify the cuisine and locate the nearest restaurant to your current location or near your destination. However the restaurant choices are by no means exhaustive, it may miss a couple of good ones here and there but may show you ones you never knew existed.
I chose the C320 as you can load whatever maps you need by just getting a larger SD card, especially as SD cards have come down in price.
Before using this unit, I had used the Magellan Roadmate 300 for a few days, and Garmin's routing is a definite improvement over Magellan in terms of speed of route calculation and accurate routing. The Magellan locked up a couple of times although it was a new unit and I had to pull off on an exit and power it down for several minutes before it started reading the correct route. The Garmin C320 has never frozen on me. If I do not take the prescribed route or miss a turn it takes just about 2-3 seconds to figure that out and recalculates my route, this is way faster than Magellan or any other GPS system I've encountered so far. This is great feature as the next turn might be just 5 seconds away and you may miss it again if the unit takes too much time to recalculate!
Some reviews complained about the maps saying the unit said that they had reached the destination even though they were 100-200 feet away and sometimes confused between left or right of the street. But if you have used other GPS systems you would know that no GPS navigation system is perfect and I generally prefer Garmin navigation over Magellan.
The C320 allows you to specify your preferences such as - Avoid highways, avoid U turns, avoid toll roads etc. And you can set it to "Shortest distance" or "Fastest time". I've found that the shortest distance can sometimes take you on backroads or unusual roads which you normally may not take. This option gave me a great new route between office and home which avoids traffic but when I used the same option on a longer drive it suddenly detoured off the highway ans took me through bumpy back roads, a most unpleasant experience! But with experience I have learned the best way to calculate my route using the options. There is a bit of a learning curve with all GPS systems and the more advanced GPS users have rated Garmin navigation very highly in the several comparisons I read on the web.
The C320 does get a bit confused in situations where -a) there is a small roundabout (like in apartment communities) and may keep missing the exit turn and b) when there are intersecting highways over and under the highway on which you are traveling, especially if it takes you more than 15-20 seconds to cross that area where the highways intersect c) In very long tunnels. But now that I know this I just stay on route and as soon as I've crossed that area it starts showing the earlier route.
Some reviewers complained that the unit does not show the complete route turn by turn text instructions - that is not correct- as it will show you the turn by turn text instructions if you touch the green text bar over the route map.
If you want to take a detour at any point in your route it will calculate an alternative route for you if you touch the detour button, but will try to get you back on the original route very quickly. You can create points of interest in the route through the software and you can also save your favorite locations or most used addresses on the unit.
I prefer having a portable GPS than an in-car GPS as the software update is cheaper than in car GPS and I can carry it with me to use in rental cars when I travel. I tried out the in car GPS system in my friend's Honda and Garmin had better routing and a better "voice". The Honda GPS's high-pitched "Chinese Schoolgirl" voice drove me to distraction....!
January 7, 2007 update: I've gotten so used to my GPS that I don't know how I lived without it. The only complaint I have about the unit is that it is very hard to read in bright sunlight and I have to depend on the voice instructions. Also, please don't leave it mounted in the car if it's above 90 degrees as my unit's battery died after it was out in the summer for a few days at 100 degree temperatures and now it takes time to read satellite signals when I start out as it starts from a "cold" state.
May 7, 2007 Update: I called Customer Service last week as my internal battery died and the unit started falling off my windshield as the heat exposure reduced its grip. Hold time was very short, 3-4 minutes each time I called. They offered to have the unit repaired for $150 which is more than half the cost of a new unit, so I refused as it wasn't a critical problem. However, they offered to send me a new mount (including the windshield mount piece and car adaptor) for free despite being out of warranty . It was FedExed and reached me in 3 business days. That's good customer service!
Overall I am satisfied with C320. Better GPS systems exist (some made by Garmin) but this one is the best bang for my buck by far!
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125 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best for now, May 23, 2005
I've been using it for about 1 week now. Great little unit, easy to use, superior to the Quest and 2610 that I've also owned because of its faster calculation times and ease of use. Does indeed update arrival time depending on speed (at least mine does). Seems to be accurate within a couple minutes on my daily 35 minute commute. Starts the estimate based on it's internal average speeds for highways, etc, then adjusts depending on how fast you are actually driving. I would not spend the extra money on the 330. Spend a few bucks on a 512md sd card, I've tried but can't possibly think of how to use more than that on a single trip. And I would assume the sd card is a little faster than the HDD. You get more batter life, like 2x. Also, I like being able to upload favorites from the pc using the software, so the sd version is actually preferable to me. And it looks like the price is still too high here so until it comes down check out pricegrabber or nextag.
Pros
-large touchscreen
-easy to use
-portable, 8 hour battery, pocket sized (in loose pants or jacket
-fast calculation times & map drawing.
-nice mounting
cons
-no route saving or transfering, hence no waypoints can be stored in route but this is remedied simply by saving favorites and touching your favorite in route, just a little more attention requred.
-weak software.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Five stars if the map data was more up to date., December 13, 2005
I bought the c320 the middle of October, 2005, and have updated the software to version 4.8 and the map data City Select North America NT version 7.0. This is the latest software and map data as of the date of this review. I really like this unit and would buy it again. I would have given it 5 stars except for the Map Data being just a bit too much out of date. Still, this is an amazing device. Here are some quick pros and cons for those who don't want to read the whole review:
Pros:
- It will get you to your destination.
- Easy to use; you can figure out how to do most things just by playing around with it.
- Calculates new routes very quickly.
- Lots of Points of Interest (POI).
- Map database shows even very remote roads, i.e. dirt paths out in the middle of nowhere.
- Long battery life: about 10 hours.
- Small enough and accurate enough to use while walking.
- North American NT V7 is compact enough to fit ALL on a 1G SD card.
- There is no itty-bitty hard drive to wear out.
- Pleasant British English voice.
- Knows when the sun sets to switch screen brightness.
- ETA is updated in this software version.
- Does not have any problem picking up satellites in any car (or train) I've used it in.
Cons:
- Map data is too far out of date; data must be at least 2 years old.
- Screen is hard to read in direct sunlight.
- Complex process to unlock new map data DVD.
- It's a little fussy about street names when looking up an address.
Nits:
- No altitude indication.
- Does not know when you cross time zone to change clock.
I've used this now for a couple of months, including a train and car trip from Iowa to Arizona. I've also updated the unit software and the map data so I have an idea how easy that is to do.
You can indicate your routing preference (shortest distance or fastest time, no toll roads, no unpaved roads, etc). This will at times produce some funky routes. For example, shortest distance and allowing unpaved roads can send you down some pretty rough roads. If you use it in a place you know well, you will probably disagree with some of its routes. That is to be expected because it does not know about busy roads or traffic lights or other things like that. On the other hand, since using this locally I have found some good routes I have not known about before.
I took this on a train ride across 6 Western states. It had no problem picking up satellites if I kept it up against the window. If you set the unit to show enough detail, it will show you traveling right down the middle of the railroad tracks. Since this is a car navigation device it has a preference for roads, so if there was a parallel road near enough to the tracks the cursor would jump over to the road. Crossing those remote areas showed how much detail is in the map database; some roads that were no more than two dirt ruts showed up on the screen.
We used it in the rental car when we got to Arizona. From the middle of nowhere to Phoenix it worked great. We were able to use it to avoid some heavy Phoenix traffic by just getting off the interstate and driving city streets. Even though Phoenix is pretty much laid out in a grid, I don't think I would have tried to navigate around the traffic jam without the c320. The out of date map data problem showed up in Phoenix in particular. The city is growing so fast that there was several times where the map data did not show a new street.
I've used this in 7 different cars (and 1 train) so far and never have had a problem picking up satellites. Just to try it out, I bought an external antenna that I have mounted on my truck roof. With an external antenna, the signal is a little stronger and maybe it might take a little less time for the unit to first acquire satellites, but the external antenna is not really necessary.
Sometimes looking up a specific address can be difficult. If you don't spell the street name exactly as it expects, it won't find the street. For example, if you are looking for "East Park Ct" and spell it "E Park Ct", the c320 won't find it. The solution is to be less specific; just search for "Park" and pick the correct street from the list it will give you.
I received a free map data update since the new map data was released before I bought my unit. Unlocking a new version of the map data is too complicated. After getting a new DVD, I had to visit Garmin's web site several times to finally figure out how to get my "unlock code" for the new data. Once you get the data unlocked, loading it into a SD card is easy. The "MapInstall" software Garmin gives you is simple to use.
The City Select North America NT version 7.0 map data is the same data as is in version 6.x, but V7.0 is more compressed. As a result, all of the V7 data will fit on a 1G SD card, including all 50 states, all of Canada, and Puerto Rico. Since you can now get all the map data on one SD card, why buy the c330? (The c330 is exactly the same as the c320, except the c330 has its map data preloaded on a little hard drive.) Here is how I see the c320 and c330 compare:
c330:
- Map data is preloaded.
- If the internal hard drive crashes you are screwed; it's not user replaceable.
- Some reports of the c330 not working above 10,000 ft, but will start working again when it's moved below 10,000 ft.
c320
- Map data must be loaded onto a SD card by the user.
- Even if you consider in paying for a 1G SD card, the c320 is still about $100 less than the c330.
- No moving parts.
- If the SD card fails (not likely) you can just replace it with a new one and reload the map data.
- About twice the battery life of the c330
- Works above 10,000 ft.
Overall, I think I would buy the c320 over the c330. I don't know why Garmin doesn't sell a c320 with map data preloaded 1 G SD card and discontinue the c330.
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