Overview

This page is dedicated to my Magellan Roadmate navigation system. I've had so many problems with it, and no one seems to care, not even Magellan. So I decided to write an honest review of it here on my site, and hopefully I will save some other people from going through the shit that I continuously go through.

The Magellan Roadmate is an aftermarket navigation system. You simply mount it in your car, plug in its power, and using GPS and the loaded maps, it always knows where you are, and how to get to any street address. It has touch screen typing, automatic re-routing when you get off track

Cons

Pros

Tech Support
Magellan tech support is the worst tech support I have ever experienced from any company before. They are impossible to contact. They have an email address, but send an email to them, and all you get is an unhelpful reply a month later. They have a phone number, but, they have no humans answering it. It goes to an answering machine where you have to leave them your name and number and hopefully they will call you back.

The Unit Crashes, A LOT
The unit crashes all the time. The most common kind of crash happens when the mapped route takes you through a rotary (aka traffic circle). What happens is, the unit will try to speak the command "Take the second street at the roundabout". But midway through that phrase, the machine will crash and reboot itself. This is a big problem because it has no startup chime, so if you happen to not notice it stop speaking mid-sentence, then you won't know it rebooted until you glance down. The problem with that is that you will keep going straight and you will miss your turns, so by the time you realize the unit crashed, you are MILES off course. Unfortunately, you can't get anywhere in Massachusetts without hitting a few rotaries.

The Screens Brightness is Very Poor
The unit has brightness controls you can bring up on screen. When you turn the brightness all the way up, it is OK for day driving. When you turn the brightness all the way down, it is OK for night driving. There are two problems. One is that it is quite a hassle to dig through the menus to get the brightness controls every time you get in the car, to adjust the brightness. The other problem is the auto-dimmer. That's right, the screen is allegedly able to adjust its brightness all on its own. The problem is that it never goes to full brightness during the day, and it never dims to full dimness at night. It just kinda stays in the middle. Plus some times the brightness control seems to malfunction all together, and it will go to full brightness at night, which causes so much glare you can barely see the road. Or it will go down to full dimness during the day, so you are unable to see the screen at all.

The Unit's Mount Sucks
The Roadmate comes with two mounts. A windshield mount that has a super suction cup that sticks to the glass, and a vent mount that hook into the air vents. Both mounts connect to a quick release mount that the GPS unit snaps in and out of. The windshield mount doesn't fit at all in my RX-8, so I had to use the air vent mount. It doesn't really work very well, the Unit doesn't stay straight, and it blocks the CD player and several buttons on the radio.

But the biggest problem with the mount happened recently. It is a quick release mount, which is good, because with the push of one button, you can easily take the GPS unit off the mount and stow it away in a compartment or even take it with you, so it is far less provoking for people who might want to steal it. But one day the latch just broke. This was a big problem at the time, because without the latch, the Unit won't stay in the mount, which means it won't run, as it gets its power through the mount. This was a big problem because I had to drive around the city of Cambridge MA, in a standard transmission car, holding the GPS to its mount so it would power up and tell me how to get to my appointment. When I got home I took the mount apart. The latch is spring loaded, and the spring is supported by one tiny piece of plastic that broke. I emailed Magellan to see if they would send me another one, and after a long wait, they said I needed to send them a receipt to prove the unit was still in warranty (its not, I've had it more than a year now) and then they wanted me to send them the piece so they could send me a new one. So I had to tape the latch permanently, so the GPS doesn't come out anymore, which isn't good when I'm parking in questionable neighborhoods.

PC Software is Really Bad
The software you use to load maps and firmware to the GPS unit is not good. The first problem with it, is that its Windows only. This creates significant hassles for me since all my computers are Macs. This would be an equally pain in the ass for Linux users. But once I jump through all the hoops to get Virtual PC working and install windows on that its time to install the maps on the memory card. Problem is the software locks up 9 out of 10 times you run it. I had to keep uninstalling it and then reinstalling it.

Unit's Memory Cards, Another Magellan Tax
The unit has a slot on the side for a CompactFlash memory card. The 700 series has an internal hard drive instead, but the 500s have the CF card slot. But wait, it doesn't take just any CompactFlash card. It has to be a magellan authorized card. So you have to buy new cards through them. Or you can buy aftermarket cards, but to use them, you still have to purchase an authorization code through Magellan. So either way, you need to pay Magellan to upgrade or replace your unit's memory. This is unfortunate since the cards have a tendency to die. I don't know if its poor magellan quality, or just the result of keeping the memory card in the car through ice cold winters and boiling hot summers. But the cards tend to suddenly stop working.

Works Well In Theory
I guess the only real plus to the Magellan, is that the way it is intended to work is nice. That is, when you aren't having any problems with it, it does a fairly good job of getting you where you are going. The directions are pretty clear, the reroutes are fast, the on-screen controls make using it easy. If it always worked the way it was supposed to work, it would be a great little device that I would be telling everyone to buy. Unfortunately, it NEVER works the way it is supposed to. It is always doing something wrong.

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My recommendation is that you avoid Magellan and try another brand. I've been using a Garmin GPS unit for a few years now and it blows the Magellan away. There are a few features that the Magellan has that Garmin does not, but the Garmins are rock solid. They never freeze, they never crash. Extremely reliable. And my model also has a built in bluetooth handsfree set that links to my cell phone. It's a very nice system.

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