Post by Fred McKenzieI think the lifetime of most modern GPS units is limited by advances in
technology. You convince yourself that you must have the new features
your old one does not have, even though it still works.
Reliability of modern Garmin GPS units is pretty good. The one problem
I've had with two units was battery life. They still worked when
plugged into my car's 12 Volt outlet, but would not work for very long
when unplugged. I found replacement batteries at
<http://www.batteryship.com/>, which included most of the tools I needed.
My first GPS with a bad battery was a Garmin 350. Unfortunately I
damaged something when replacing the battery. The unit still sort-of
works, but the on/off button and touch screen do not. It is such an old
unit, that repair is not economical.
A Garmin 1490T replaced the old 350 several years ago. I recently had
to replace its battery, and there were no ill effects. That GPS is as
good as it ever was. I purchased the lifetime maps upgrade for it, so
it should be good for a few more years.
Fred
The core unit is likely to be robust but there are Achilles heels.
The obvious one is the screen -- crack it and you are probably done.
Another, which has done in twice in 5 years, is the stupid mini USB
socket on the back of my nuvi 65LMT. It was replaced twice by Garmin
within the warranty period even though there was nothing wrong with
it! This is another story -- one I should write about one of these
days.
But, the third unit had problems. It kept saying the wrong power
cable was being used. Turned out to be a socket problem and they
sent me a refurbished one. Two years on, I see the same thing
again.
I do not use the unit much. Maybe, about 5-10 times a year,
mostly when going to visit out of town people and need to
find my way around the modern developments with their
twisty-curvy roads. Given that a whole lot of plugging in
and plugging off is not going on, I am surprised at this.
But, the unit has performed in an exemplary fashion in Europe
(with the old map as there is no life time updating on the
map!) and I guess 5 years would be a good time to start
thinking about a new one.
I do wish they would make the connectors more robust.
My old GPS 76 map still works like a charm, but its battery
life is so good one does need the charger all that much.
OTOH, the 65LMT really does not have a battery worth
talking about and so the charging cord is a essential.
I would like to hear from others who keep taking their
units on and off all the time. Any problems with the
socket?