Third time lucky?

londonlivvy

My first Garmin Edge 705 (a b'day present) lasted about 9 months before going wonky (turning itself off randomly, not turning itself on, being unable to read maps etc). After 3 months of unreliable behaviour, it died.

I sent it back and got a new (to me) one. That lasted all of two months before going wonky (having to be asked six times to turn on and turning itself off) and then after a month of unreliable behaviour, it, too, died.

I've just received the third Garmin.

Whilst I am impressed by their customer service(the one year guarantee ran out in June) and turnaround time for replacement items (about 10 days) and very impressed that they remembered to swop over the map SD card (which I forgot to do), I am less impressed by all this faffage. I have also somewhat lost faith in it as a means of navigation.

My fingers are firmly crossed that this Garmin has a longer life span.

Rich158

londonlivvy wrote:

My first Garmin Edge 705 (a b'day present) lasted about 9 months before going wonky (turning itself off randomly, not turning itself on, being unable to read maps etc). After 3 months of unreliable behaviour, it died.

I sent it back and got a new (to me) one. That lasted all of two months before going wonky (having to be asked six times to turn on and turning itself off) and then after a month of unreliable behaviour, it, too, died.

I've just received the third Garmin.

Whilst I am impressed by their customer service(the one year guarantee ran out in June) and turnaround time for replacement items (about 10 days) and very impressed that they remembered to swop over the map SD card (which I forgot to do), I am less impressed by all this faffage. I have also somewhat lost faith in it as a means of navigation.

My fingers are firmly crossed that this Garmin has a longer life span.

Good luck Livvy, the 705 does seem to have issues. Personally I'm not convinced they're a fantastic navigation aid, I never fail to get lost when there's a 705 in the group and there seems to be a unwritten rule that says the more navigation aids a group has the more lost they'll get. Personally I swear by an OS Landranger map of the UK on my I-phone, you can't go wrong with good old fashioned maps

EKE_38BPM

Rich158 wrote:

...Personally I swear by an OS Landranger map of the UK on my I-phone, you can't go wrong with good old fashioned maps

I wouldn't describe a map on a phone as old fashioned.

londonlivvy

Good point EKE. :-)

The navigation isn't without its flaws, I agree. It's certainly better to follow a planned route than asking Garmin to find you one (where you have the choice between motorway or tiny endless back roads of doom via thousands of traffic lights). The navigation is particularly handy when you're cycling through a foreign town and don't want to stop at every set of lights to check the map.

Whilst my phone GPS ain't bad from a navigation point of view, it has two major flaws. 1) it's not waterproof or drop proof (I get clumsy when cold and wet) and 2) the battery seems to die pretty sharpish as soon as you ask it to do complex stuff. So I'd rather rely on a separate device for navigation and leave my phone battery in case of disaster (GPS on a phone seems to knacker the battery pretty sharpish).

Anyway, I think the best thing about a garmin isn't the navigation, it's the stats. ooh the graphs.*

*geek alert

rjsterry

EKE_38BPM wrote:

Rich158 wrote:

...Personally I swear by an OS Landranger map of the UK on my I-phone, you can't go wrong with good old fashioned maps

I wouldn't describe a map on a phone as old fashioned.

It is if it's a paper map taped to the back of the phone á la Greg66 and his post it note.

notsoblue

Is it possible to get a part exchange for one of the newer models instead of a like for like replacement? I've been pretty impressed by the navigation on my 800, works a treat.

SimonAH

As much as I generally hate the 'phone the built in sat-nav on my HTC Desire HD works really well. I tend to keep it in an inside pocket, run an ear-bud out and work from the spoken directions (now and then whip it out for a gander if I'm not convinced it's sending me the right way).

Plus the heat it generates when tracking satellites keeps my left moob warm when it's in my shirt pocket