BMW Nav IV or Garmin Zumo 660/665

[FLGSARider]

Its time to upgrade my Garmin 2720 GPS on my GS to a newer set up. I like the Nav IV set up but wonder if its worth an additional $200 - $300 than the Zumo's. What extras am I getting with the Nav IV to justify extra $$. Not opposed to paying extra if its worth it. Thanks for the advice.

[FLGSARider]

Just realized I should have put this in the Equipment section. How do I move it? Sorry.

[mindfulness]

In a word, no. I have the 660 and a friend has the nav IV. The nav IV is a 660 with a few tactile buttons on the left as part of the cradle. If you want that, and feel it's worth the diff, go for it. Otherwise, functionality, processor, etc... are the same/identical.

[enkil]

Yup.. I have the 660 too.. Its a whopping rm1400more for the navIV

[Dorito]

Just an odd point. I recently had to send back my Zumo 450 to Garmin under their flat rate refub program. It appears that they maintain the program for Garmin branded stuff much longer than the same kit which was BMW or Harley branded.

PS Now that I have the Zumo 660, I secretly wonderlust for the buttons again (even though I have no issues with the touch screen...)

[BeachMoto]

Other than the extra buttons on the NAV IV, the only other hardware difference is the XM radio. 665 has XM radio, 660 and NAV don't have XM. That right there is a deal killer for me. I NEED the XM radio, traffic and weather.

All Garmin units come with a 1 year warranty, BMW units come with a 3 year warranty and if you have a warranty issue with a BMW unit and call Garmin, they will pass you to their "special" unit (I don't know what else to call it) which handles the issues related to branded GPS units (BMW. Honda, HD, etc.).

Assuming you don't care about the XM, the question you need to answer is, are you willing to pay an extra $2-300 for the buttons and 2 extra years of warranty?

[FatThumz]

Be sure you understand how you will get the Nav IV's voice prompts and any music you load to the Nav IV's music player into your helmet. From what I understand, you have to have a blue-toothed enabled headset (speakers & mic) to work with the Nav IV. I think the Nav IV is simply a re-branded (and dumbed-down in my estimation) Garmin 660.

If you have a wired comm system like Autocom (mine is an Active 7 Smart model), you cannot plug audio leads into the Nav IV because those sexy, nifty four buttons on the left side of the Nav IV mount cover the female audio outs. There may be ways to work around this with an Autocom, but it will cost you extra $$$ for a Bluetooth dongle doohicky... I think.

Not sure if & how the newer models of Autocom do bluetooth. I pretty much cried Uncle and gave up trying to figure it out. I'm obviously getting too old to keep up with all this new technology. Stay current or stay home I guess!

Full disclosure - I've had a Garmin 276c for about seven years - love the little sucker even though it's getting long in the tooth. When I bought my 2010 GS, the previous owner had installed the Nav IV on that exclusive, expensive mounting bar over the instrument panel. It's still mounted there but my 276c mounted on my left handlebar is what gets me there & back. On the rare occasion I interface with the Nav IV, I use the touch screen with gloves on - have had no problems - never use the four buttons. In fact, I prefer the touch screen to those four buttons.

One other thing - I find the screen on the Nav IV difficult to view in many daylight situations. That may be due to the mounting location of it compared to the 276c, but the screens are different. I think the Nav IV screen has an anti-glare surface which tends to fuzz out and obscure the underlying map you're trying to view. The 276c screen is like a piece of glass - if you encounter glare, just move your head a little bit and it's crystal clear.

Hope this helps and if I've got any of my facts wrong about the Nav IV, I apologize. If I'm wrong, somebody please set me straight.

[mervingry]

Originally Posted by FatThumz

Be sure you understand how you will get the Nav IV's voice prompts and any music you load to the Nav IV's music player into your helmet. From what I understand, you have to have a blue-toothed enabled headset (speakers & mic) to work with the Nav IV. I think the Nav IV is simply a re-branded (and dumbed-down in my estimation) Garmin 660.

If you have a wired comm system like Autocom (mine is an Active 7 Smart model), you cannot plug audio leads into the Nav IV because those sexy, nifty four buttons on the left side of the Nav IV mount cover the female audio outs. There may be ways to work around this with an Autocom, but it will cost you extra $$$ for a Bluetooth dongle doohicky... I think.

Not sure if & how the newer models of Autocom do bluetooth. I pretty much cried Uncle and gave up trying to figure it out. I'm obviously getting too old to keep up with all this new technology. Stay current or stay home I guess!

Full disclosure - I've had a Garmin 276c for about seven years - love the little sucker even though it's getting long in the tooth. When I bought my 2010 GS, the previous owner had installed the Nav IV on that exclusive, expensive mounting bar over the instrument panel. It's still mounted there but my 276c mounted on my left handlebar is what gets me there & back. On the rare occasion I interface with the Nav IV, I use the touch screen with gloves on - have had no problems - never use the four buttons. In fact, I prefer the touch screen to those four buttons.

One other thing - I find the screen on the Nav IV difficult to view in many daylight situations. That may be due to the mounting location of it compared to the 276c, but the screens are different. I think the Nav IV screen has an anti-glare surface which tends to fuzz out and obscure the underlying map you're trying to view. The 276c screen is like a piece of glass - if you encounter glare, just move your head a little bit and it's crystal clear.

Hope this helps and if I've got any of my facts wrong about the Nav IV, I apologize. If I'm wrong, somebody please set me straight.

Uber informative post. Thank you

[/dev/null]

Don't buy any if you intend to use Bluetooth Stereo to listen to music. It doesn't work. Have tried three units (two Nav4s and a 660) and none could pair with any of three Bluetooth headsets (a Sony, a Motorola, and a Scala Rider G4) with even acceptable audio quality. The 660/665 have a stereo line out, the Nav4 is mono only.

[FLGSARider]

Thanks for all the feedback. The XM is not that important to me. The buttons on the side would be nice. Not sure they are $300 nice though.

[OkieTom]

I have a 665 paired with a Cardo Scala G4 and the music quality is excellent, my 550 was mono and the quality was pretty much crap.
I too don't have much use for the XM radio but the live weather/radar is a really nice and useful feature.

Originally Posted by /dev/null

Don't buy any if you intend to use Bluetooth Stereo to listen to music. It doesn't work. Have tried three units (two Nav4s and a 660) and none could pair with any of three Bluetooth headsets (a Sony, a Motorola, and a Scala Rider G4) with even acceptable audio quality. The 660/665 have a stereo line out, the Nav4 is mono only.

[mindfulness]

Originally Posted by /dev/null

Don't buy any if you intend to use Bluetooth Stereo to listen to music. It doesn't work. Have tried three units (two Nav4s and a 660) and none could pair with any of three Bluetooth headsets (a Sony, a Motorola, and a Scala Rider G4) with even acceptable audio quality. The 660/665 have a stereo line out, the Nav4 is mono only.

I've had very good performance and reliability with a 660 and sena headset. sound quality and volume are pretty good!

[Hank.SD]

What Scala BT (or other) setup would I buy to use with a zumo 665 to add a good intercom for 2-up riding? I think the 665 is what I want.. gps, xm, BT and intercom is the goal.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[mindfulness]

Originally Posted by Hank.SD

What Scala BT (or other) setup would I buy to use with a zumo 665 to add a good intercom for 2-up riding? I think the 665 is what I want.. gps, xm, BT and intercom is the goal.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

http://www.senabluetooth.com/product..._menu=overview