Garmin Zumo 350LM

I have had a 550 for a long time and it has never failed me. Hopefully it will continue for many years to come.

There is an emerging trend among GPS manufacturers to stream pop-up ads to the cheaper GPS devices. The revenue generated by the pop-up ads would in effect subsidize the cost of the GPS unit, making them cheaper for the consumer to buy.

The new Zumos are expensive especially when compared to in-car units or free services that are available on the iPhone and other smartphones. I for one would rather pay up for a GPS device that will NEVER display any pop-up ads than have to look at ads for McDonald's restaurants or Mobil stations every time I am within a few miles of one.

If that ever happens with my Zumo, I'll go back to paper maps.

I can imagine few things worse than being subjected to advertising on a navigation device.

I have only heard of ads on units that offer lifetime free traffic updates. Garmin has to pay a license fee for that data, so they are going to recover that one way or another. People want cheap hardware, then Ads are the price they pay for the ongoing data fee.

The alternative is that you buy a unit like the Zumo 550 and get bent over every month by XM for their Traffic/Weather data.

I had a Zumo 450 years ago and sold it a couple months later. As others have complained, not enough detail when you zoom in. My other niggles were that I always seemed to ride faster than the unit would update, often missing roads and exits.

I will not buy another GPS until they make them update faster than even the 660/665 and start making screens larger. I don't think having to first find the unit, then spend time focusing on it to interpret it is safe while riding. Make a 6" screen at least so it's easier to glance at it and immediately understand whats on the screen. 7" would be even better.

Paper maps from AAA and detailed printouts from Google maps rule! Besides, I decided I really don't need to know where I am every 20 ft for hours on end. Just needed to know where to turn when I arrived at point B. Paper works just fine.

Plus you can wipe your ass with them at the road side rest stops that are out of TP. You only get one wipe with a $700 GPS.

Uhhh same here, that's why they have turn by turn voice prompts. I never even have to look at the GPS. Even on my Busa I've never outrun the prompts on my 550.

I've had my Garmin 660 for a little over a year now. For the most part it does ok. The MP3 player and SD card have not been friends on occasion and the unit has been returned once (although it didn't fix the problem). Routing instruction are okay as long as there are decent stretched between instructions; but sometime it has no idea where it is taking you. I too rarely ever look at the screen (only when its gotten me lost). Screen updates are too slow. For large custom routes, the number of waypoints and routes is far too limited. For adventure riders who want to plan detailed routes this is not the unit. Even routes planned on the awful Basecamp software have a habit of recalculating whe uploaded to the unit. Aaarrrgggghhhh! I have used it in non stop rain for days on end and no signs of leaks (so at least one positive).

If you want to use it as an everyday GPS for getting from A-B, it'll do. For anything else, make sure you have a Montana, Oregon, Colorado or 60CSx. It does not even have sunrise/sunset times. As for the price - its stupidly expensive. $300 more than their top of the range nuvi 3590 which has a better feature set, not to mention hardware specs.

I am confused. You said you have a 660, but this thread is about Garmin Zumo 350LM?

DUDE YOU ARE WAY OLD!!! Or possibly a time traveler?!?!

LOL
Couldn't resist

Is anyone using a Garmin 3597 or 3790 and just plan on keeping it dry when needed?

Picked up a 350LM last week. Major Kudos to G- at GPSCity. He helped hook me up, and he saved me some significant money.

I'd buy from him again, and I will recommend him to friends looking for a m/c specific GPS.

Last week? Sounds like you are eligible for the $100 rebate: http://garmin.blogs.com/files/zumo-350lm-100-rebate.pdf

Thanks, Emoto.. You're right. The rebate (and G's discount on top of that) made the difference in my decision to pull the trigger on the 350LM.

Oh good. Just wanted to make sure you were aware.

It was a rainy day in Georgia and a good day to install the Garmin. Hooked it directly to the battery. I have use it in my auto for a couple of weeks and it works fine to get you from point a to b but I am not sure about finding the dirt and forest service roads.

Just ordered a 350LM from Best Buy, on sale for $541

Just ordered mine from gpscity 499

Love the unit so far. Traced tracks in google earth transferred them to basecamp then into zumo. Simple as pie. Added tons of custom poi's that I found and others like "BMW dealers in USA" , created routes in basecamp- love it. Yeah basecamp is wonky, but once you figure out "the garmin way", it's easy.

Not sure when the most recent updates just hit the 3x0 series (didn't think it had been that long since updated it), but Garmin finally added the ability to save and read track files (.gpx) for the 350LM! HOLY CRAP they must have actually listened to all the user bitching, including mine, I busted their chops about it. Pretty much had lost all faith in Garmin, but this has gone a LONG way at redemption. This thing is now fully usefull for planning and executing detailed trips, especially backroad and forest road where the databases are suspect and incomplete a lot of times. I sent them a thank you email.

Looking up this GPS it say's it comes with the suction mount for the car. Does it come with a bracket on the back like the Nuvi and if so is the ball the same diameter? The reason I ask is because I have a ball that I mounted to the windshield on the bike to attached the Nuvi and would like to do the same with this unit. Also, are the turn by turn directions spoken like the Nuvi?

Yes