October 13, 2007

Sam G. (Tennessee)

I don't know how I made it without the Garmin c340! This is awesome! I travel frequently throughout the country on business trips. I would usually print out the map from a well-known website. It worked but not like this. I took the Garmin with me on a recent trip to Los Angeles, CA. If you have ever driven in LA you know there is no way you could read a printout of the map and drive at the same time.

On my visit to LA, I also had to go to several other cities and locations in CA. Driving in 4 to 6 lanes of traffic is not my ideal situation. Not once did I get lost. The Garmin got me to every city, every hotel, all the business locations, to the car rental site and back to the airport. It even gave me the names and phone numbers of restaurants within the area. It was unbelievable! I love it!!!

I was actually riding with another individual when we got lost. I pulled the Garmin from my computer bag, loaded in the address and wham...we were at our destination in no time.

It was mentioned in a previous review that it kept falling off the dash. I have a both a portable and a permanent holder for the Garmin. It has never fallen off the dashboard of either car I've used it in.

I would HIGHLY recommend the Garmin to anyone. As a matter of fact, after seeing what it is capable of doing, I bought one for each of my children as they travel as much as I do. Both have told me it was the best gift they could have received!

May 24, 2007

J. T. Carlile (Hurlock, MD)

First of all, I'm an electronics junkie. My house looks like the Star Ship Enterprise, and I'm extremely picky concerning the function of everything that I purchase. Probably too picky. So, after being more than impressed with the Garmin StreetPilot c340, I decided to write this review. I purchased this unit due to an upcoming road trip to Florida, and I'm HORRIBLE with directions. It seemed like the logical thing to do. After much research on the latest GPS units, the c340 seemed to be best suited for my needs, financially and functionally.

PROS:

As stated time and time again, the c340 is extremely user-friendly straight from the box. No bulky manual is included (although one can be downloaded on-line), most likely due to the fact that it is not needed. There's a brief start-up guide which is more than sufficient to get this thing up and running. Simply let the satellite locate your home location, which takes a few minutes and only has to be done once, and you're ready to input your next destination. Hit "Where to?" on the touchscreen and everything is made perfectly clear. It could not be any simpler. You'll then have options to enter addresses, food locations, lodging, your saved favorite locations and recent browsed selections, fuel, intersections, attractions, shopping, parking, entertainment, recreation, community, near-by cities, hospitals, transit, and auto service locations. There's no guess-work involved: just touch the type of place you wish to find and go; you'll get plenty of options. You can also touch the "Near..." option, type in a city of destination, and it'll pull up businesses in that city for your convenience. Again, this unit is extremely easy to navigate. Pick your destination, hit "Go", and you're all set. Just follow the highlighted path and you're sure to get there with ease. I've had no problems or long-term satellite loss in my area so far. Phone numbers are also shown which would be especially convenient when making hotel reservations on the road.

The suction mount is also very nice. I was skeptical about it at first: What if it falls off? Will I be able to see the road? No worries; it's great. Like the unit itself, the mount is high-quality and very sturdy. Just attach the c340, place the mount into position (I have it right under my rear view mirror), and pull the lever down. I don't see any way that this mount could fall off, and it's not a distraction while driving. I hear that it's illegal in California, but I really don't see why. It provides the perfect location for the unit and is no more distracting than the rear view mirror. A dash-mount disc is included also for CA residents or in case you'd prefer a lower location, but it's a permanent mount, so I'd advise caution if going with this option. I won't use it myself.

As far as power goes, a 12V adapter is included for the car, but don't worry about buying the AC adapter. The c340 includes a USB cable that allows it to be powered and charged via any computer with a USB port. Very convenient when planning out trips at home to save battery life. The USB cable also allows you to download male voices from the Garmin site such as American English Jack, Australian English Lee, and British English Daniel which is very cool.

CONS:

Not much to say here. The only 'major' thing I've noticed so far is that some local businesses are not in the database, and a few businesses are present which no longer exist. It's kind of strange: local mom and pop stores can be pulled up, but NO Walmarts in my area. I have three Walmarts within 25 miles of my home, and none are in the database. I didn't subtract any points since all Garmin GPS units seem to utilize the same database (nearly 6 million points of interest) and it does have the potential to be updated. Also, keep your eye on the road during exits as it may not detect recent route changes. It will recalculate a new route if you simply go past the road that has changed; you won't get lost, but it can be an inconvenience. It's happened only once to me so far and I've been doing a lot of traveling. It was a familiar area and I didn't even realize that the road had changed. Again, this is a Garmin database problem which hopefully will be addressed in a future update.

The voices for the most part are spot on. They can pronounce streets that I've been mispronouncing for years. However, every now and then it's hard to decipher what they're saying as they can sound overly-digitized. This is just a minor inconvenience since most of the time they're flawless, but keep your eye on the screen just in case you don't understand the street name. No big deal really. I use American English Jill, and she is usually very accurate with pronunciations. British English Daniel is also easy to understand, although he must be downloaded.

CONCLUSION:

All-in-all, I'm very, VERY impressed with the performance of the Garmin c340. This is my first GPS, and I can't imagine needing anything more. I'm not sure what these $1000+ units do, but unless they drive me to my destination and pump my gas, I don't need them. I've heard people complain that the touch screen collects finger prints. Hmmm...unless you have jelly, paint, or motor oil on your fingers, it does not detract from the display. Hello, it's a TOUCHscreen. Of course it's going to get finger prints on it. Wipe it off now and then and you're good to go. I've also heard complaints that sometimes the unit doesn't give you ample time to turn via text-to-speech. Well, I've been driving everywhere with this thing for the past three days, and it verbally tells you TWICE when to turn, by street name and in which direction to turn. It tells you once within a 1/4 mile or so and once again right before the turn. If you miss your turn after two verbal prompts, a big white arrow on the GPS screen, and the name of the street at the top of the screen, you may want to reconsider this whole driving thing. The turn alert is almost overkill; if you're awake and free from severe brain damage, you can't possibly miss it. Maybe this was a problem with some of the older units, but mine is perfect. Perhaps these people didn't hear the first prompt and of course the voice prompt times will be shorter with city driving, but that's to be expected. As far as satellite loss, I've only experienced a couple seconds of it while driving so far which is no inconvenience at all. There is an optional generic antenna that can be purchased for around $20 if this is a problem in some areas. The actual Garmin antenna costs more, but I've had no need for it so far.

After three days of taking the c340 everywhere, I absolutely love it; I have no regrets whatsoever. It's one of the top 3 electronic purchases I've ever made in my life. I can't wait to take it to Florida and find all the local attractions that I would never have been able to locate otherwise. This thing is great. I've already had two friends order the c340 after seeing how well mine works. I guarantee you won't be disappointed!