Garmin StreetPilot c530 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

In selecting a GPS, I made a decision that I was not going to spend a penny over $400. With GPS really entering the main stream this Christmas season (Gamin, Tom Tom and Magellan commercials are everywhere) I felt it would be wise to stick to the budget. I think GPS units are going to follow the lead of digital cameras and have big price drops in the next few years.At the last minute, I did a 180. I was seriously looking at the new Magellan Roadmate 2200T. It had all the features I needed, was solid state and waterproof. However, I kept on reading less than glowing user reviews. It is not uncommon for the units to lock up or crash and the routing it chooses is not the best.Based on that,I ordered a Gamin c530. Of the 50 or so user reviews I read, only 1 was negative. The other 49 gave it their highest rating. They raved about the units accuracy in route selection. It also have a wonderful screen that is bright and does not wash out in direct sunlight and uses flash memory. As is the case in life, there were trade offs to consider.1. The c530 is not waterproof. However, I do not ride my morotcycle much when it rains. On the few occasions I do ride in the rain I will stick to major roads and a map should work just fine. I am not going to explore the back roads in bad weather. Plus, I will use it a lot more in the car than on the motorcycle.2. The c530 does not have text to speech. That would have been nice, but it does tell you when to turn and the street name is prominently displayed on the screen. I felt the superior accuracy of the Gamin was more important than the text to speech the Magellan offered.3. The Gamin will not save multiple destination trips. I rarely do long cross country motorcycle trips so this feature was more of a luxury than a necessity for me.In the three weeks I have had the c530 it has worked flawlessly. Although it does not have a couple features I was hoping for, that is more than offset by the 530's accuracy and ease of use. Another positive is that I was albe to make the purchase well under my budgeted amount. I figure in two years prices will be lower and I will buy a new unit for the motorcycle and give the c530 to my wife to keep in her car. The Magellan 2200T has wonderful features, but it does not seem to be accurate or reliable. If they ever get their act together, they should have a winner. I felt more comfortable buying a unit that is getting rave reviews from current users. I have no regrets. I defenitely feel I selected the right unit to meet my needs.

I have had the Garmin c530 since Dec. 2006. When I first got it I connected to the Garmin website and updated to the lasted street map software package they offered. I have found that this GPS unit is easy to use but is lacking in its software support. I have configured the unit to find the "fastest" not "shortest" way to a destination but it still wants to minimize travel on an expressway. It often avoids the fastest method and steers you to city streets long before it should. The map support is way behind on what I would have expected. On one trip I found that a large Phoenix area east valley interstate expressway which has been OPENed for 7 months doesn't appear on the c530 map. The Graphics on the unit are great and makes staying on course easy, but what good is staying on course if it is not the best course?I am a little leary now of depending on this device if I go to another city to give me the optimum travel route.I sincerely hope the map support gets better.

The Garmin SteetPilot c530 does not have all the detailed GPS information of my handheld Garmin eTrex latitude-longitude, bearing, altitude, etc. , but it does a good job of street navigation. The GPS receiver in the c530 is much more sensitive than my eTrex. The display is clear and bright.If you have the address, the c530 will get you there. If you miss a turn that it wants you to take, it will recalculate the route to the destination. It tends to be a little optimistic about arrival times because it does not seem to include traffic light delays, and it also does not seem to include traffic light delays in its calculation of fastest routes, so you might know a faster route. On the highway, the arrival times are more accurate. The c530 also gets confused about divided streets, not knowing some available left turns, so it sometimes routes you so you can make a right turn.It has a fairly comprehensive list of businesses for destinations, but there are some missing businesses that have been around a long time, still amazing when considering that it covers all the US and Canada.The Garmin c530 ships with map data that is about 2 years old. When I first registered my Garmin c530 online, I got a supposedly free DVD in the mail to update the map data to their 2008 version (really 2007 map data). I was pleased at that time, but then the map update DVD did not work since Garmin gave no unlock code. After long phone waiting times and talking to multiple Garmin tech support people, the final conclusion was that the c530 (even purchased as new) is not eligible for a free map update, and the map update costs $75 more. I turned down paying for the update since it seemed sneaky selling a brand new unit with old maps, not mentioning the map version in the product information, and then charging extra to make it up-to-date. The free DVD that Garmin sent to me was blamed on a glitch in the Garmin web site. Since buying the unit two months ago, I have encountered three major mistakes in the Garmin maps/directions on interstate highways (and several more errors on side streets) since the maps are out-of-date. If you travel on old roads that have not changed in the last few years, this c530 will probably work fine for you. Otherwise, beware that this c530 has an unmentioned extra cost to update it to current maps.