How were you able to get one of these if they're not going to be released until the 3rd Q of this year?

Screen looks small. I guess this is Garmin's view/crossover navi device.

Thanks for the detailed review. The nuvi 500 is tempting. I'll be looking forward to the release date.

I am completely shocked. You rated another Garmin with high marks...

How is this unit supposed to mount on a bicycle? The standard nuvi ball-and-socket mount does not seem appropriate for use on a bicycle.

At the moment, this unit has an average owner rating of 2.2 with 9 owner ratings. You clods. Why do people vote on things that aren't released yet which they haven't seen in person?

Thanks for the review, nice and through. I'll be keeping an eye on this unit.

Fltech
Great review as always and you should not allow forum member to vote on a device without owning one. Possibly you should request serial number or something to validate the person voting actually have used the new Nuvi 500 / 550.
I find this unit you reviewed to be exciting since we have beta tested the Magellan CrossOverGPS for sometime now, it would be nice to compare the two.
One thing I like to correct you with is that the latest mapping software from Magellan is offered in the Magellan RoadMate 1412-1430 etc and not the Maestro 4250 so you could have used the Maestro 1412 to compare the products with.
The lack of text to speech and BlueTooth Hands Free is a big disappointment here since in California, we need BT hands free since we can't use the cell phone while driving.
Although Garmin offers walking mode it does not have the TRUE Pedestrian mode route option that will allow a user to take a Pedestrian walkway or overpass which is necessary.
You did not mention these Nuvi 500 / 550 will not remember last position that the power or USB was disconnected like the Nuvi 7xx 8xx.
Being the PND market most popular demand is for 4.3' display and Text to Speech, I would guess possibly Garmin will have a later version of this to meet demand.
I agree regarding the case, I think Garmin should come out with something like the Magellan CrossOverGPS that have a rubberized cover to protect the unit from damage if it is dropped.
I think it is missing some of the features like MP3 and Audio book which would be nice to have if you are hiking or camping.
It also does not have audio out so you can use a headphone while ridding a bicycling or using it in a boat or car with a loud engine.
Garmin always produce excellent products but they also always deliberately leave out some key features so you either have to buy multiple units and or live without certain features that could have been easily incorporated in the unit for a few dollars more.
The Magellan CrossOverGPS do include MP3 Player, Picture viewer and Text to Speech and can be updated with the latest maps with full U.S Canada and Puerto Rico mapping coverage. It can be had for about 1/2 the price of the new Nuvi 500 / 550. Sad part about it Magellan is slowing ending the life of the CrossOverGPS and coming up with something that may not be as rouged.
Great review and enjoyed it as always.

if only the nuvi 500 included a heart rate monitor module...i can replace this for my Garmin Edge. the 500 would be easier for me to see, since i don't wear reading glasses when i bike and the large screen would help immensely.

Maybe some of the bad comments are by people trying to offset the glowing review. Maybe they, like me, were burned by the glowing Colorado review here that somehow missed the myriad problems that device had on launch (like a display that is almost unreadable in bright sunlight). The Colorado holds the grand honor as the most disappointing Garmin product I've ever bought (and I've bought a dozen or so), yet there were no hints of those disappointments in the review.

That review doesn't have stars, but ended with the sentence "Overall there's very little to complain about on the Colorado 400t." The review comments are now up to about 15 pages, many of which are complaints from owners like me. And the Colorado's user ranking stands at 2.9 out of 5. Hopefully that's not a pattern that will be repeated here...

Garmin do make new units with new function instead of upgrading current units and fixing porblems.

1 new Nüvi each month, no wonder why they have no time to fix problems.

Nüvi line 34 models.

available August 10th

It's now official Garmin have gone to the dogs, churning out one useless gadget after the other.

Can't we all just get along and play nice.
Garmin is trying to do what they can to not lose market share, and they still have some of the best products currently available.
So you may say there is trouble with their PLD or PND's, but tell me a company that have a product that is flawless and I can tell you the price of their product is much higher or they will not stay in business much longer.
You will see PND offered at $70 this Q4 and I can tell you it will not be pretty.
You guys want a cheap product and when you get one you complaint there is no quality. Can't have both folks.
Hate to be a GPS manufacturers these days working on single digit profit margin with no room for errors!

I see several references to the Magellan Crossover, but unless I saw the wrong Magellan unit, I find it quite unfair as a comparison.

I own a Garmin Quest. I like it a lot, but I missed the SirfIII sensitivity.
When the Crossover appeared, I thought it was the answer to that.

But, the Crossover version I saw, had to be "rebooted" to change between Road mode and Off-road. I could not get a coordinate in Road-mode, or an Adress in Off-Road mode. The Crossover is not IPX7.

There were several other issues, but these were enough.

The Quest was the best general-purpose unit I know off, doing well in Road and in Off-Road, in a very small package (almost half the volume of a 60CSx, or even the Colorado).

But it got dumped.

Finally, the Nuvi got an upgrade to become a replacement to it, or so it seems.

"or so it seems" - actually no based on this review there is no decent off-road capability even worse than the Magellan.

GPS4ME - "Can't we all just get along and play nice." - it's not the point, based on the ratings people are very disappointed by this new Garmin GPS, it seems their stuff gets worse with each new product these days. What's the point of playing nice, do you work for Garmin or something ?

That's what she said.

diener, have you considered that people who do not own this gps are ranking it? Not you of course. Unlikely they are Garmin fans since none have made it to retail buyers yet. Once this one hits the stores, I expect it will sell more units between now and the Holidays than Magellan has sold Crossovers since their release months ago. I think it fills a big niche market and is just the device that weekend hikers,geotaggers and boaters who need weekday highway navigators are looking for. I've seen dozens of posts from people looking for a device just like this.

This is only good for biking. No text to speech. No Bluetooth. No traffic. Boo!!!

Biking, boating, hiking, geo-tagging, walking and driving. I think many potential buyers can do without bluetooth (seldom used by most), traffic (not terribly reliable), tho TTS at least for highway use would have been a nice touch. But I can't think of another device on the market right now that is so suitable for that many activities.

Diener

" it's not the point, based on the ratings people are very disappointed by this new Garmin GPS, it seems their stuff gets worse with each new product these days. What's the point of playing nice, do you work for Garmin or something ? "

I don't work for Garmin but I helped them get into Cendant which owns Budget and Avis rental car, I was one of the main reason why Garmin GPS is rented in Avis Budget vehicles. Lets say my connection with Garmin is above average.

I also have monthly meetings with the CEO of Magellan and know the Sr staff very well.

I know TomTom CEO when he first came over to NA, and the current VP of sales for many years as a friend.

Mio director recognize us as an important vender for the PND industry and visited my facility in the past.

Besides that, I have great relationship with NavTeq and TeleAtlas for many years. I started in the GPS business since 1996 with Zexel, RockWell, Visteon, Magellan etc so am I more loyal to one brand than the other, not really.

Do I wish Magellan still manufacture a GPS system for $3,000 like the first generation vehicle nav aka PathMaster. YES, we were selling 10% of everything Magellan sold with vehicle navigation products at a much higher profit margin back than and we wish we don't have to sell these cheap PND's that is now being produced by everyone. But this is what the public demands lower prices and this is what they are giving you guys! CHEAP GPS units. You will see PND being offered at $70 this Q4. I ask you one thing, would you trust that cheap unit to function the same way as a unit that cost $500-$1000 with your life. Would you buy a cheap camera to take picture of a very important life event.

Fletch was one of my first customer who used to purchase navigation systems from us but now he receive evaluation units from factory free.

I beta test units for different factories so I have a heads up in some cases and I am probably one of the hardest critic this industry have.

Do I wish every unit comes with everything at a reasonable price,YES. But Garmin strategy is to only offer certain features on certain units so you will never get everything you want from one PND unit from Garmin.

Magellan is trying to offer feature rich products but have issues with routing and stability of their firmware.

TomTom like Apple is a great marketing company, is there product superior, not really, but they have enough people believing in it to be loyal fans of their products and they have achieved what they have strive for.

Mio buying NavMan and slipping away in market share is a shame, they are the company that started the PND price degradation and now they are ending up having to compete with bigger players like Garmin and unable to provide unique and superior products with features at a reasonable cost.

Garmin have to do what they do to keep competitive, if everyone is cheating in this game by launching junk before they are ready, if Garmin wish to stay in the game, they have to play by some of the same rules I hate to say. Garmin last NPD report is up to 58% of NA PND market share which is very respectable and Dan Bartel VP of sales have a lot to do with it.

Now, as far as no traffic goes with the Nuvi 500 / 550, I am not sure that would be correct since it "supports optional FM traffic alerts or optional MSN® Direct content"

Yeah, I wish it had text to speech since it is something I truly enjoy but there again, you can always buy the Magellan CrossOverGPS if you must have text to speech and traffic right?

By the way, want to know who I am, Look up Auto Nav 2000 and look up the history page, you will find that I test many systems and have an open mind to all the issues I report because I know I rather live with some of the issues than to not have a unit at all.

One of the uses that is very important to me is off road navagation. The review hardly mentioned this feature. Does this unit truly have that capability or should I go with a hand held instead? I really like all the other features.
Al

I'm sure you'd find it adequate, especially for occasional use. If most of your use would be off-road, a dedicated hand-held might work better since some of the functions will be more suited and specialized for hiking than those of the 500. For someone using this on vacation in the mountains one or two weeks a year, or geo-tagging a couple times a month, looks to me like it would work just fine.

Do not work at 2am!

Does this unit allow the laying of cookie trails and the retracing of those trails?

I am going to return my Nuvi 500, because it comes without a manual. Garmin doesn't intend to publish one. The help is inadequate. Guessing my way through the screens while driving is not acceptable. What do the symbols and icons mean? The only way to find out is to hit them all and see where they go. The Help menu is strictly Dick-and-Jane. What does the big arrow on the compass mean? What does the little tab on the compass mean? How do I review my trip log in text?

Did you check for a manual in PDF format at Garmin? That's the way they come nowadays. Very few PND's come with a paper owner's manual anymore, instead using PDF's.

Garmin needs to stop putting out new models everyweek and add these features to their existing models.

Is there a reason why the Geocaching features cannot be added to a 250 or 350 Nuvi?

Fletch,

I have purchased a Nuvi 500. Unfortunately, the Speed Limit graphic is NOT something a user can remove. Also, this unit is reported by Garmin to NOT include WAAS. Both of those points are show stoppers for me (having lived - virtually common-law now) with a GPS-V with accuracy up to 6' and a scintillating "beep."

Can you share how you turned off the Speed Limit graphic?

I'm now looking for something out there which will replace the tried and true GPS-V. Thanks!

Peter