Garmin's new Nuvi 500 and 550

[bramfrank]

I thought it important enough a development that I've copied and expanded my post from a Zumo thread into this topic. . . .

Garmin's new Nuvi is the first of the series to be waterproof and even classified as 'Motorcycle Friendly', even if they haven't stuck it in the 'Motorcycle section of the web site yet - heck the 276 series isn't there either, but THAT is one of the iconic motorcycle navigators out there.

Nuvi 500 Nuvi 550

Well, Nuvi 500/550 is 'different', to be certain.

No Text-To-Speech (spoken street names), Bluetooth, MP3 player and such. And, while they have said it is 'Motorcycle Friendly', I suspect it may not be as shock/vibration resistant as Zumo or the 276 . . . at least for the mount - can't tell quite yet because there's no photo, but they DO seem to offer a 'scooter mount'.

But it IS the first waterproof Nuvi out there.

Note that the 500 has no maps on board for Canada or Alaska (they have an SKU for Canada, which likely doesn't have the US roads - like they did with the 200 and 200C), but it does have Topographic maps for the lower 48, PuertoRico and Hawaii on board.

The 550 (same price) includes road maps of Canada and Alaska in exchange for deleting the 'MAD Maps' the 500 comes with. Not certain because it isn't clear from the text, but they may trade off the topo maps for raw elevation data in the 550 . . . They reference elevation data in the description, but the specs state the 550 comes only with road maps installed.

They say it also supports user supplied marine maps and can be operated 'off road', things that Zumo, i, C and the other Nuvis can't . . . . not that you can't tell where you are, but the automotive units will 'lock to road', where the 276 has specific marine support and both 276 and handhelds can be set not to make the roads correction.

You will need to purchase your bike mount and bike power cable separately.

One more observation . . . no apparent tracklog - if you've ever read ANY of my reviews on navigators, you'll know why I am so big on track logs - that alone is a dealbreaker for me.

So this is more 'Motorcycle capable', rather than 'Motorcycle ready'. And I'd have to see what the screen looks like in bright sunlight - Zumo's sucks relative to the 276 family's, which is excellent.

 

[SPORT]

Thanks for the quick insights.

I too am not sold on the 500 series; however, I'm now comparing the Nuvi 780 with the Tom Tom Rider 2. Water resistance is not an issue for me as I've always placed a tie wrapped sandwich bag around my Garmin C330 and have never had problems. I prefer the built-in Blue Tooth for more controllability over calls, and the MP3 is nice, though not a necessity. I also want multiple routing capabilities. Guess I'll keep lookin.

Thanks again

 

[bramfrank]

I have a 760 with an MSN Direct receiver in the cage, which makes it a 780. The speakerphone sucks big time, even with an external microphone.

Interesting enough, the Zumo speakerphone in the car mount is EXCELLENT, best of the breed, even without an external mic. That it can pair with a Bluetooth headset is another plus for the Zumo, which does have a few warts of it's own.

One thing that the 700 series does that bothers me is that you are stuck with Autozoom - at least the 276 allows manual control of the function and Zumo disables it once you change zoom levels - the Nuvis seem to be brain dead about all this.

I'm still a 276 series fan.

 

[SPORT]

Cool, thanks for the heads up...again.

So, if I wanted, in order of importance, the following abilities out of a GPS, which GPS would you suggest?

1) Onboard Battery

2) Blue Tooth

3) Audio out plug

4) Multiple POI routing

5) Tracking log

6) Map Sharing capability

7) MP3

I understand the Zumo 550 can do all of this, but the price is more than I care to pay. However, I may just suck up and get the Zumo if nothing else really compares.

 

[Bogey907]

I use a Nuvi 200 on my Feej. There are two things I don't like about it:

1) It's not waterproof.

2) It will not accept downloaded routes.

The 500 has both - looks like I'll be upgrading!

 

[pawtracks]

I use a Nuvi 200 on my Feej.

What are you using for a mount?

I gave a co-worker of mine the Best Buy coupon and he picked up a Nuvi 200 for $99 yesterday.

Today he told me he has it suction cup mounted to the windscreen of his goldwing

With the new motorcycle nuvi's coming out they should have a mount available if they don't already.

I assume the nuvi and zumo use different mounts??

I've never held a zumo before but own a few nuvi's and street pilot 2730.

 

[Jagermeister]

I have the Nuvi 200, also. For now.

The Nuvi comes with a suction cup disk (intended to mount on a dashboard) w/ adhesive backing. I stuck that on a Ram Std mount, and mounted it to the HeliClamp.

The Nuvi is better than nothing, but I still want a Zumo.

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

If you want a ZUMO, you'd better comb any and all Best Buys ASAP! Might already be too late! They've discontinued them and are selling out their stock for $449 minus the $50 coupon for $399. Best deal out theere!

 

[bramfrank]

If you want a ZUMO, you'd better comb any and all Best Buys ASAP! Might already be too late! They've discontinued them and are selling out their stock for $449 minus the $50 coupon for $399. Best deal out theere!

Zumo is NOT discontinued.

Perhaps Best Buy (who never had much stock of Zumo anyway) is deleting it from their catalog because it didn't meet minimum sales volumes for the chain.

 

[rfespinosa]

I give a lot more weight than conveyed in previous messages to the sturdiness of the mount. I had a Nuvi 200 and felt the mount was too flimsy for a motorcycle. The Zumo 550 mount is sturdy and I know it won't come off during a ride. I agree with the many comments above about water proof, it's very important.

Ron

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

If you want a ZUMO, you'd better comb any and all Best Buys ASAP! Might already be too late! They've discontinued them and are selling out their stock for $449 minus the $50 coupon for $399. Best deal out theere!

Zumo is NOT discontinued.

Perhaps Best Buy (who never had much stock of Zumo anyway) is deleting it from their catalog because it didn't meet minimum sales volumes for the chain.

Should have been more clear! BEST BUYS is discontinuing them, NOT GARMIN!

 

[ShawnKing]

However, I may just suck up and get the Zumo if nothing else really compares.

Yup - you're going to have to if you need/want *everything* on that list. But I've used a lot of GPS units and, for what it's designed to do, the 550 is the best unit out there. It's not perfect and could do some things better but no other unit can match it.

But yeah, they *are* expensive.

 

[Bogey907]

Pawtracks: I use the RAM mount for the Nuvi -

https://www.cyclegadgets.com/Products/RAM/r...p?prod=RAM-NUV2

with a steering stem nut ball.

 

[L2M]

I just wish they'd get a hold of whomever is doing their PC SW dev and get a decent piece of map software to accompany their motorcycle (ready or otherwise) units. If they offered a really good piece of SW I would upgrade for the SW alone. Heck, sell the SW separate.

As a manager of a dev team it really frustrates me to see how little effort they have put into making the map software actually match what motorcyclists are interested in. Good for getting from A to B, but not good for locating unnoticed roads. A couple of things I really want to see:

- Layers. If I want to turn off the highways when zoomed out let me do that. Let me then show all the secondary roads while zoomed out. Let me turn off all the cities but keep the attractions visible without having to mess with the level of detail setting all the time.

- Selective masking. Let me "show all" layers for a defined area of the map. When I'm looking for a way to get from point A on a major road to point B on another major road I want to see all the secondary roads in the area between those two points.

It wouldn't take a lot to make the Garmin software the standard, but right now I dread working with routes on my PC without doing an export from MS maps, conversion, and import into Garmin's SW.

 

[johndaub]

Regarding Zumo's, I combed the Best Buy's near Philadelphia and only found some in Atlantic City but they want $601 on clearance. I will pass and wait for its replacement (if there is one).

 

[Bogey907]

L2M: Try gmaptogpx with google maps:

https://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/

 

[ShawnKing]

It wouldn't take a lot to make the Garmin software the standard, but right now I dread working with routes on my PC without doing an export from MS maps, conversion, and import into Garmin's SW.

Yeah - *everyone's* software is crap. A company could grab a large chunk of marketshare if they would just put some effort into their software.

 

[jjsC6]

Does it allow "routes" to be downloaded to it? I understand that not all units have that functionality.

Thanks for the great information.