Comments on: Garmin nüvi 500 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

By: Ulema

Ulema — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:07:48 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Great All Around GPS
I bought this to replace an aging and Dying Quest 2 GPS. I was glad that Garmin came out with an all around GPS in the NUVI line.

By: Emiliana

Emiliana — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:01:12 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
cool machine
my first gps . easy to use – survived well my first heavy off-raod trip – lots of mud and water around and it run beautiful – after it, i cleaned it and looks as new – i live in…

By: Wozhupiwi

Wozhupiwi — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:35:30 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent unit.. but know something about map updates
The Nuvi 500 (vs. the 550) has TOPO maps of the US. Great, but this creates an issue when Garmin releases new maps for their GPSes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:24:45 +0000

3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, but not all good either.
This unit is fairly nice, but its more of an on-the-road GPS. It has a terrific 3D view and works well at guiding you down the road.

By: Augustine

Augustine — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:15:50 +0000

3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not what I expected
Good GPS but not what I expected. Screen is small and moving to different sections of the map is difficult. As I said good but I expected more.

By: Giolla

Giolla — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:13:48 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
ADDICTED!
I love my new Garmin. It is the first GPS I have ever purchased. I bought it mainly to geocache and it has been pretty good to me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:53:20 +0000

4.0 out of 5 stars
garmin GPS
Pretty good unit. A little hard to hang on to if used by hand. Added price of lake maps is out of line. Goecaching…

By: Meurig

Meurig — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:05:57 +0000

Alright, so it could’ve had save-able tracks and it is NOT an Oregon for off-road but it is an amazing crossover system. I have uploaded 500 geocaches using the premium member feature from Geocaching.com: Pocket Queries. I set a point in a field behind my house using Google earth and then sent the coordinates via USB cable to the Nuvi 500. It got me within 20 feet. Not too bad, I would say. Even tiny family owned local stores show up on the Nuvi 500 maps. Its super easy to switch between road maps and the topo map feature, just click off of the road map to switch to touch navigated topo maps. The more you zoom in, the more POI’s show up. As far as i can tell Garmin loaded every POI my hometown has to offer and if it isn’t on the map, chances are you can search for it on the Nuvi 500 and find it. It’s perfect for me, a young driver, going off to college with big interests in being out of doors and also wanting turn-by-turn directions to get where im going. I’m a new Geocahcer and the dedicated Geocaching feature seems flawless. At time the Nuvi 500 seems a little bogged down with processing information but settings of detail levels can help speed up the process. The compass feature seems to work decently, however i rarely us it, relying instead, on zooming in on the topo map as i get closer to a geocache to find my way. The Nuvi 500 hooks up to my Mac, is quickly recognized and then opens as a removable mass-storage device with just under 1GB of free space. (500 .GPX files takes up only 5-600Kb). There is a picture viewer, you can send addresses and coordinates from google maps straight to the device and the street level mapping even in large cities seems flawless. No new maps or major firmware updates are available yet. Overall, it is an amazing system and worth every 385$ i spent on it. (much cheaper than 500$ at best buy).

By: Nafisa

Nafisa — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:39:52 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Great GPS and Features
Works great right out of the box.
I use mine on a motorcycle, so the waterproof feature was what I needed but did want to spend the money for a Zumo.

By: Myeisha

Myeisha — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:41:38 +0000

5.0 out of 5 stars
Good buy for the $$
Replacing an earlier version of a Garmin that died after 5 or 6 years. This is easy to use, intuitive prompts and screens.