I bought the Garmin because I had read here and elsewhere that Garmin had good products and good support. The device advertised all the features I wanted, so I went for it and have been extremely happy with it. I have encountered one bug, but it has an easy workaround, so no big deal. When you are in the find screen and type the same character twice too quickly, the system powers off. You just have to wait a second or so before entering the same letter. lad...der instead of ladder, just a small pause.
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br /It has plenty of storage space, and it holds all of the maps I need, mostly North East PA. You can't get the whole US on the device, so you use the MapSource software which is included with the device and put the data on the unit that you want. The quest 2 apparenly comes preloaded with the entire US, so you might consider that if you travel often or have an issue with hooking the Quest 1 to your computer and downloading different map sets as you traverse the country. You will pay about $100.00 more for the Quest 2.
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br /The unit comes with a car kit. The power adapter has a built in speaker so you can get your driving directions in both audible and visual form. Be aware that if you out walking around, you won't get the audio instructions because you have to plug the Quest into the car mount cradle which in turn is hardwired to the speaker built into the cigarette power adapter.
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br /When you are routing to a location, you may find that the unit takes a little longer to calculate the correct series of turns if you miss a turn. For example, I was riding my Harley Fatboy in downtown Wilkes-Barre, and missed a turn. By the time the unit recalculated the route, I has already passed the next turn that it had determined I needed to take to get back on track. If you miss a turn, slow down or pull over and give it the 20 seconds or so it needs to figure out how to get you back on track.
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br /Power consumption seems fine, no issues there at all. Batteries are built in, so no need to replace AA's all the time. The downside is if you are out in the woods or something and cant get to a power outlet or to your cigarette adapter, both of which can be used to power up. Apparently, you get about 20 hours of run time, I've never used it for 20 hours straight so I can't vouch for it, but the internal rechargable batteries are a nice option for me.
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br /Nice color display, good battery life, easy to use, easy to find places. I am geographically challenged, and this thing takes me everywhere I want to go, effortlessly.

My 1st GPS unit, so my rating of "5" is admittedly based on little experience - but MUCH satisfaction. I frequently travel for work and I am not one of those people who can just glance at a map and know their way around. I get lost, turned-around, and confused easily in unfamiliar surroundings - especially urban areas. (And I grew up in Chicago, go figger...) Recently I took a taxi which was outfitted with aGPS and I was impressed by the thing, so I decied to try one out for myself. This Garmin unit was on sale at Amazon and I ordered it. It was a snap to set-up, a little bit of trial & error to learn the interface, and experimenting to to learn its less-obvious features. My first test was on a trip to NJ - never been there before. I prepared ahead of time by downloading the maps for the NJ and surrounding area from the DVD, and by entering addresses for my hotel, the businesses I was visiting, the airports, etc. The unit worked flawlessly and guided me along the way. Not to say I didn't make any mistakes - I did. Learning what the voice prompt means by "Stay Right", for example, when facing FOUR exits and I'm in the left lane... But the thing immediately recognized when I went "off route" and steered me back on course. One thing I have come to understand is these things route you the quickest way (according to your preferences), which may mean going through some unsavory neighborhoods, for example. So you may want to learn how to use WAYPOINTS to help route you around & avoid such areas, if you have someone to let you know about 'em.

Positive points: Quick rerouting, easy to use interface, versatile mounting bracket included, USB, rechargeable batteries (includes both 115VAC and and 12VDC chargers, pretty darned accurate. Portable - handy for navigating new cities after business! Easy to remove and store out of sight. Price is very reasonable for the convenience and performance.

Negative points: With the GPS, now I am usually the "designated driver" for associates traveling with me. Seriously, I cannot think of anything bad to say about this thing. (No touch screen, which some may complain about - but I knew that before I purchased it. The jog wheel makes it pretty easy to enter data, though.)

This GPS is perfect for those who want a little more than just A-to-B navigation. I'm used to programming routes with multiple waypoints (not just individual segments), and the Quest is, as far as I can tell, the ONLY car GPS in this price range that will do that. It's quick on the recalculations and accurate on directions. Most people have complained about the database, but no database has all updates--try comparing w/Google Maps.
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br /PROS:
br /Programmable routes--not just single legs. (The main reason I bought this--this feature is only found elsewhere on MUCH more expensive models. I wonder why Garmin doesn't seem to push the Quest...?)
br /Quick Accurate Positioning
br /Route calculation very fast
br /Suction cup sticks like glue
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br /CONS:
br /Can't hold the entire US (although the Quest II can)--though carrying a laptop solves that.
br /Interface not entirely intuitive (but quickly fixed w/practice)
br /Suction cup sticks like glue ;-)
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br /If you want a practical all-purpose GPS that gives you flexibility to do more than get directions to the next point, this is the one for you. It doesn't have audible street names, a touch screen, or large size (but I think a lot of experienced GPS users--including me--consider those a low priority anyway). But it has everything anyone used to aviation GPS's could want for the road, and at an incomparable price. If it could hold the entire map database, I'd give it the full five stars without any reservation.

It just plain works. You turn it on, it finds your location. You drive with it on a route, and you make a wrong turn, it gets you back on track. It doesn't hang erratcially, the maps are simple to download from your PC and it is clear to read in sun or night driving. Yes, the display could be a little bigger. But it runs for 20 hours after you have popped it out of the car holder and put it in your pocket, on internal batteries. For the price it is a great product. For flexibility, road mobile and pocket hiker, it handles both quite well. It did get a little confused in directions while we were travelling through Phoenix one time, but common-sense has to be applied to the situation, and we made it to our destination. I did have to glue a flat plate onto my curved dashboard for the suction cup holder to grip to, and I did take out the center piece of the attachment arm so that the mount was more rigid (but less adjustable).
One thing to watch, it does NOT plug into a 12v automoble socket designed for a cigarette lighter, its four-pronged design will short out the contacts. You must use it with a 12v power adapter that doesn't have the lighter spring clip at the base of the receptacle.

I purchased this unit 8 months ago, and I think that I used the device long enough to be able to review it seriously. If I had made the review 2 weeks after purchase I would have given it 5 stars. It comes now with 2... The unit in itself is not to blame, this is a very good GPS: the screen, though small, is very bright and you can read the maps easily. The "voice" is fine, the instructions are clear and changes of directions are given in advance and repeated. More importantly, the recalculation of the itinerary when you take the wrong road is quick. The satellite reception is good. The only drawback is that it is not a sensitive screen, so keying in the addresses can sometimes take time, but that is a drawback you know when you purchase this GPS.
br /No, the problem comes from the company Garmin that issues maps that are not up-to-date. 2 months ago, I updated the maps from Garmin (you are entitled to one free upgrade after the purchase of the Quest). I was thinking that I had pretty recent maps of the US with this update. Absolutely not!! And I am not talking of very urban areas in construction (like Boston...), I am talking of Texas, cities and countryside! Construction works that were finished more than 3 years ago are not referenced on Garmin "new" maps. On 2 occasions, the GPS told me to turn right (or left) while I was on a bridge! Simply because now there was a bridge while 3 years ago there was an intersection. Not later than yesterday, the GPS told me to take the US 67 business because it "thought" that the US 67 was slower. Completely wrong since it has been upgraded and the US 67 is actually much quicker because you do not have to go through a city of 20,000 inhabitants with 7 or 8 traffic lights!!

I purchased the Garmin Quest to use in my truck, my boat and for long ATV rides in the back country mountains of Nothern California. Before purchasing it, I researched about every other GPS on the market. The Garmin Quest had all the features that I wanted, including: a compact size, water resistance and high-resolution screen with a bright display. The only missing feature that I desired was a removable memory module. This would have allowed me to pre-load different maps that could be quickly changed. However, with 115MB of available non-removable memory, the Garmin Quest has enough capacity to store all the map sets that I currently need. The only downer is that I cannot load more than one map type (e.g. street and topo) at a time.
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br /The universal mount included has a well-designed suction device that attaches to my truck and boat window as well as the glass speedometer gage of my ATV. The mount includes the cigarette lighter adapter. This adapter also contains a speaker and volume control required for voice navigation. The suction device works very well. I have driven over some very rough trails and roads and never had it pop loose. I am considering purchasing a special mount for the ATV, but the suction mount works well enough that I may not need it.
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br /I won't go into all of the GPS features, because there are too many to list. You can set way points, tracks and pre-plan trip routes. These can be entered on your computer and downloaded to the GPS or entered on the GPS and saved on the computer. The map software included is surprisingly accurate and detailed. I used it for a few days and never found a missing road... and I was driving on some pretty remote (albeit paved) roads. Afterwards I loaded MapSource US Tops maps since my intended use for the GPS was backcountry and off roads. The Topo maps were pretty amazing in that they included many of the unpaved USFS roads that I regularly travel in and around Mount Lassen Park and the lake Amlanor area.
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br /The display is small compared to what you might expect for an automobile GPS. However, it is larger and higher def than what you get in most hand-held units. In the truck and on the boat I mount it just left of center on my lower windshield and adjust the angles so it is resting on my dashboard as close to my face as possible. In this poistion I can see it well enough. On the ATV, it attached to my speedometer and is visible except when it is covered in dust.
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br /Even riding in a dense and tall forest, the GPS rarely lost its signal. I was always able to pick up the satellite signal when it was needed.
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br /The only downside with the Garmin GPS is that the menu seems to have been designed by a crazy person. I am a gadget guy and I design UIs and write software for a living. The menu system is attractive, uses icons, and at first appears easy to use. However, the control buttons and the menu system are not intuitive. For example, after setting the home location for a ride on Saturday, the next day while my ATV pals were waiting patiently, it took me a full 10 minutes to figure our how to reset the home location for the new trip. You can find a screen used to make certain settings and then seemingly never get back to the same screen. Other settings would inadvertently change while thumbing through the menu, thereby increasing my frustration when I could not quickly find a way to set it back.
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br /Before the next trip I decided to set down and study the guide. However, I found this little help because it is impossible to memorize so many button and command options. The next trip I was back to pressing buttons searching for the setting or feature I needed. My conclusion is that I will need to struggle with the menu system for many trips before I will get the menu system. As long as I can set the home position so I have my breadcrumb trail back, I will be happy for now.
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br /In conclusion, the Garmin Quest is a good compromise when you want one waterproof and durable GPS that will work in a vehicle and for backcountry and off roads. It is a small form factor, with a small but very clear and bright screen. It does a good job picking up the satellite signal even in a forest. The suction mount is well designed and works great.
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br /The only downsides that I can report is no removable memory module and a non-intuitive menu design that will require the purchaser to invest some practice time.
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I purchased the Garmin Quest in March 2006 after much hand-wringing and comparison shopping; the advent of the Quest 2 and the subsequent drop in price for the Quest, in the end, made the decision for me. After two months of use in multiple metropolitan (Charlotte, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Tampa, and New York City) and rural areas, I have the following thoughts regarding the Quest.
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br /1. The software built into the unit is not as intuitive as I would like but can be mastered after a few weeks of use. Be prepared for frustration the first few times you're on the road and you either search for or directly enter an address -- you've been warned.
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br /2. The accompanying PC software, MapSource, is behind a few versions out of the box. Take the time to update the version before use with the unit.
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br /3. If I were to turn back the clock and purchase another item, I'd choose one that can hold the entire US detail map. It's not terribly cumbersome to select the detail from MapSource and transfer it to the unit but it does take time and advance planning.
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br /4. The unit, as a baseline, provides me with constant 18 ft. accuracy which is fine for what I need.
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br /5. When I consider the detail maps are quite a bit out of date (imagine your frustration when attempting to find Starbucks on the interstate with data that's more than 2 years old) and the fact I'll purchase the updated set as soon as it's available, the total cost to own price increases by $125.
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br /6. I know I said it earlier, but be prepared for frustration when using the unit for the first few weeks.
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br /7. With all that said, I find it invaluable to have a portable GPS device in the car or on my person. It's small enough to travel with (for use in rental cars) and can save you lots of time when detoured or just running about. Purchase the Garmin case (not included) to protect the screen.

Before buy my Quest I had had another handheld GPS from Magellan. That one was a terrible and didn't live up to anything I expected from it.

The Quest is the exact opposite. The maps are easy to read and very complete, the battery life is long enough (up 20 hours on low backlight setting), and controls are easy to use. Be sure to read the manual to adjust the settings to your needs. You can select to have 'shortest route', 'highway, or no highway', 'toll roads', etc. In the mapping software you can also block out certain areas (bad neighborhoods), so when it is building your directions it won't route you through that area.

Maps

The maps are very complete and can have as much or as little data on them as you select. I have mine set for gas stations, ATMS, etc. You do need to load on detailed maps of the area you are traveling. The Quest has a 115mb internal memory card for detailed maps. You can NOT upgrade to a larger memory without buying the Quest II. The 115mb map is plently large enough for almost all traveling needs. My 'base map', for daily use inlcudes the whole state of Texas and half of New Mexico to give you an idea of how much 115mb can hold. If you are traveling to two different cities in one trip (ie Seattle and Salt Lake) you can load maps for the Seattle area and maps Salt Lake. You will need to go into the GPS map setup and switch from map to map depending on what city you are in. The mapping software is great in letting you select just the areas of a state that you want detail. For example if you were driving from Chicago to Denver you can hightlight just I-80 and a note get stuck with the whole state of Nebraska and Iowa. You can always scroll across the screen with the pointer and see distance and name of any location you highlight. Also if you are not 'routing' to any where the name of the next up coming street is displayed on the lower portion of the screen.

Routing

Once you have set the Quest up for you routing parameters getting directions is very easy. From the 'find' menu you can enter an address, select from recent finds, airports, attractions, etc. While entering an address, for the first time, isn't as easy as a touch screen you can still do it pretty quickly. The software narrows your list of possible street names the more letters you enter. Example if you were going to Mississippi Ave, it would pop up with Mississippi when you had entered 'Missi'. The processor for selecting a route takes just seconds as does re-routing when you miss a turn, and refreshing the screen as you move along. The dircetions have been 'on' for me 99% of the time. You can set up the screen to display any number of information points on the side. Current speed, elevation, time to next turn, ETA, etc. In routing mode there is a screen available with 'turn by turn' information for your trip. Another cool feature allows you to turn 'off GPS' for indoor use. This saves battery power and allows you to enter trip information before you ever get in the car. After entering the address of where you are going, it will ask if you want to simulate the route. The Quest will give you voice commands if it is plugged into the car adapter and that is plugged in to the power port. The directions are on the order of 'turn right in 400'. It does NOT give commands like 'turn left on to Main Street, then right on Santa Fe' like more expensive units. When it is not plugged in it makes beeps to let you know a turn is approaching, when to make the turn, etc. Finally when you are looking up destination the information for the store, harbor, etc appears on the screen with phone number!

General Information

Battery life is great. I have not run the battery completely down while on high or low backlight settings. But I always have the backlight on full and have never an issue (approx. 8 hours). It links with your computer through USB connection so loading maps is quick. However, the map software building the map to send to the unit take about 5 minutes. The portability of the unit makes if very useful to take with even when you aren't driving. I have taken mine biking, skiing, and even out on the boat. The Quest can also run BlueChart maps, so it can be used out on the water (seperate purchase). I would order the carrying case when ordering one. It is fits snug on the unit and is stiff enough to allow you to safely pack it.

Cons? The Quest doesn't have 3-D or bird's eye zoom in for details on turns. The car mount suction cup is real hit or miss. Sometime is locks on first time and it stuck there like glue. Other times it takes a few times to get it to hold on. I can't seem to figure out the 'trick' to getting to hold the first time every time. Once it is one, it will stay. I used it windshield mounting our boat before our Garmin 92c arrived and it stayed stuck in position for 90 miles of 3-4' at speed. That's really about it.

A great product that works as advertised.

The perfect motorcycle companion. I bought my Quest a few months ago and then purchased the RAM mounting hardware for both my Honda Interceptor and Yamaha Royal Star. I used to take rides in the country and get lost. No more. Now I take rides and when I'm ready to come home, I push a button. The feature I like best is the ability to avoid specific kinds of roads. For example, I'll take a ride out west on the highway and then when returning, I'll program the unit to avoid highways. It will then take me home on back roads. This was also useful when in traffic. I just avoid the highway and it takes me on back roads until I bypass the traffic.
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br /Other pros - it's so small I can easily remove it from the bike and slip it into my pocket. It's water resistant, so don't worry about if it rains. The lithium battery lasts 20 hours. The color screen is vivid even in direct sunlight. The 115MB of memory offers beyond plenty of ground to cover - far more than I'll need. Software is super easy to use. Why buy the Tom Tom Rider for so much more???

Practical and Affordable

I purchased this unit after lengthy research.

I took it with me while driving across 6 states and loaded the maps of my route spanning 5 states.

This unit showed me all that am required for someone unknown to the area. I could trust it with all my heart after my trip across the country driving through Indiana, Ohio, NJ, and New York.

I was able to easily switch it to my friend' car and then carry it with me in side my house.

You could buy this unit if:

1> you do not mind loading maps of area as and when you need it.
2> Like to have portability compared to full scale features.

I can't live without this GPS navigator. It's great not having to print out maps from yahoo every time I have to travel to a new destination. I love the "route home" option because I can find my place from anywhere with just a push of a button. There have been a few quirks such as steering me off into nonexistent roads and slower routes, but for the most part, this product is indispensable. Also, when you are stuck in traffic, there is a detour option I use, which is great since I live in Los Angeles. I didn't realize there were so many back-roads I could take to avoid being stuck on the freeway. One gripe I do have is that I wish it would tell me the street I need to turn onto instead of calculating the distance by feet (i.e. "make a right in four hundred feet").

I'm new to GPS and after some research I bought this unit and I must say this little unit is tops for the price, you just cannot beat it.

I live in New Jersey outside of Philadelphia which allows me to test it in rural areas and a major metropolitan city. This handles both well but the rural better then the city (for obvious reasons). The detailed maps that came with it are really great. The finds all kinds of restaurants, bars, theaters, gas, ATMs, etc that are not even well known. For example it knew of a place inside of a gas Hess station that I did not know existed but found out about it via the GPS and my friend who corroborated that it was indeed where it said it was. You can read more about the pro reviews else where on this page and I cannot cover it as eloquently as others have so I'm just going to skip down to the few gripes I have about it.

The first two cons are basically niggles I have about the device and could just be my inexperience with GPS.
1. In down town Philly in the midst of tall buildings it lost signal and could not get it back very easily.

2. Sometimes it will tell you to make a left then a right and another right instead of saying going straight. Even though that was perfectly acceptable. I cannot figure out why it does this and need to research further.

The third isn't necessarily a huge drawback but its certainly annoying.
3. After turning it on for about a 1/2 a day of non use it takes a little too long to acquire the satellites. I have not timed it exactly but I would estimate 2-3 minuets.

The fourth is a rather big draw back but its expected considering the price of the model.
4. 115mb is small especially if you are considering a very long road trip. My girlfriend and I are planning and cross country road trip and I would have liked to load in the maps for all of our stops both ways. However due to the 115mb limit I cannot do this and load the area I live in on to the unit at the same time. The related problem to this is the fact that the memory isn't expandable. On the other hand I do not know of any unit in any price range that has this ability. The current work around I have figured out is bring the software with me and loading the next map to the unit the night before we reach that leg of our journey. This would be fine except that it leads me to my final gripe about this product...

5. NO MAC supported software supplied with the Quest. Granted you can get a software solution from Route 66 (http://www.66.com) but it apparently does not download to a GPS very well (I have not tested this myself but reviews on the Amazon product page say that this is the case). This is a big draw back because my girlfriend and I are both Mac users and thus we need to buy Virtual PC simply to use the GPS to its full capacity. In this day and age it seems senseless not to have this option especially because, according to Garmin support, enough people have asked for it.

In conclusion this gadget for the $350 price range is tops. There are some problems but there are work-arounds for all of the cons that I raised above. So if you are looking for a cheap entry into GPS devices this is the one for you.

PS Even if you do not buy the Quest consider other Garmin products. The company is extremely helpful, nice and has tons information about GPS on its website. Overall they seem to be a very helpful and open company. Which is refreshing in this world of screw the end user mentality.

Even though I may seem critical of the Garmin Quest, this is the best overall street GPS on the market. This product outshines most of the high dollar factory installed in the high dollar cars. I can not think of anything else I wish this product would do except call out traffic conflicts like an aircraft with TCAS. (one day I'm sure it will).

After one day without reading the instruction manual, my wife and I were operating the GPS comfortably and confidently.

Considering hard wiring and external antenna and power for her SUV and my truck. The plastic window mount is some what to "wirey". Wish the voice commands would broadcast over the AM / FM radio.

Disappointed in the mapping software (sort of). After locating a Target in the data base, it took me to one that had been closed for over a year and could not find the new one built over 2 years ago. Also, located the nearest Maria Calendars in Dallas when I knew of one just about two miles away in San Antonio. Yes, I did an update.

These were some of the "very few" grips I had. If I were to write the pros of the unit I would be here for days!!!!
Will buy one for my wife and would recommend the Garmin Quest to all my friends and recommend the one I have on my iPAQ to all my enemies.

I recently purchesed the Garmin Quest and after using it for a month I have mixed feelings about it. First the hardware is excellent It has a great design, easy to see screen and performs well. The biggest drawback is the Mapsource software that is included with it. First of all you get the older version 6 rather than the newer version 7. I had to download a patch to bring it up to version 6.9.1 I won't being paying the big price to update to version 7 unless I'm assured of a major database update.

It will do the usual mapping quirks like wanting to drag you through the middle of large cities rather than going around on beltways. It can be very useful to have street names pop up before you get to them. The road system seems to be fairly accurate in my neighborhood except for the exit numbers on Interstate 70. Now I understand that if you somehow managed to get a perfect map of the country today then by tomorrow it would be out of date. And yes Pennsylvania was probably the last state to replace sequential exit numbers with mileage numbers but this was done a couple years ago but the included maps still use the old sequential numbering system on I70. A relative lives in a housing plan in Troy, VA that has been around for many years but none of the streets appear on the map. But to be fair MapQuest or MapsOnUs are not aware of it either. A nice feature is that when you use the computer version to map out a route you can automatically select the maps along this route to load into the Garmin.

The biggest fault in the mapping is in finding commercial places. Montgomery Wards has been out of business for quite a while yet MapSouce still displays their store locations. You'd think that the many updates to version 6 that have occurred at least one of them would have addressed this and other errors. The shear number of inconsistencies within 20 miles of my home, from a including a post office that hasn't been in operation in years to not including a Sunoco station that has been in business for 30 years, leads me to believe that I can't put much trust in the places given by MapSource. If someone is supposed to be updating the database they should be canned because they are fairly incompetent.

The usefulness of the "find places" is limited in that there is no filtering. For example if I am seeking lodging I can only find one at a time and only get to the map by closing off the "Find Nearest Places" menu. I then see only the motel I asked for along with auto parts dealers and other unrelated places. Why not filter things so I only see motels on the map? Did anybody in charge not see how useful this would be?

In conclusion since I'm sort of a techno-geek I do enjoy having a GPS device. But I'm not throwing away my paper maps or AAA tour books when we take our trip across the country this summer.

I have used this GPS receiver around town and on a few long trips and it fits my needs very well. The screen is a little small and isn't touch-sensitive, but the price is definitely right. The memory is limited, but I can store most of California (Sacramento to San Diego) plus Reno and Las Vegas, which is enough for me. Rout re/calculation time is slower than my Toyota OEM system, but again, it was almost an order of magnitude cheaper. Loading maps and using the software is very easy and straightforward (although the process for upgrading to the current version is anything but straightforward).

Likes:
- Battery powered, so I can take it when I am walking/biking
- Compact size (see above)
- Auto-zoom and next cross street (my built-in Toyota system doesn't do this)
- Logs total travel time/distance/etc. (Toyota system doesn't do this either)
- Screen is easily readable in all lighting conditions
- Antenna is very sensitive

Dislikes:
- A little slow on recalculations
- Tedious to search for places/POIs far from your current location (best to do your trip planning on the PC)
- Limited memory (although good enough for my uses)
- Directional pad is hard to manipulate

Overall, this fit my needs perfectly for an inexpensive GPS system that I can take anywhere I go.

My sense of direction is horrible. I still remember the first couple months when i drove without a GPS, I spent 4 hours on the highway having no idea where I'm heading to. But now, with this machine I can get anywhere. Also I'm a real estate broker and have to do a lot of showings every week. Thanks to this GPS, I am able to make all my appointments without wasting any time on driving around getting lost.
br /This GPS is working great and the price is affordable. I didn't see any point of spending $1500 on a fancy build-in GPS which serves the same functions besides a larger screen. (The screen of this item is quite small. Probabaly it's not a good choice for people with poor vision.)
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br /It takes a while to get used to the way it works. Make sure you know how to identify different instructions like "turn left", "keep left" or "bear left". And pay attentions when you hear the machine saying you are only several hundred feet from your next turn. So you can follow the big arrow shown in the monitor. Otherwise you might miss those turns. However, if you did fail to follow the instructions sometimes, the machine will catch it right away and automatically recalculate in seconds. Then you will be given a new route base on your mistake. It's so quick and accurate. This is its advantage over Google Map Quest.The GPS will eventually take you to your destination. I've been sticking with this product for a year. And I've never encountered an address that the machine couldn't identify.
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br /There are several downsides of this product. Firstly, it might not be able to always provide you the short-cuts. Secondly,it tends to lead you to highway and turnpikes more. On and off I don't feel like spending a dollar on the turnpike even though it's faster. That way I will have to change the setting to "Avoid highway". Thirdly, since the GPS uses satellite, there won't be reception when you are under tunel. That's why I still have trouble driving to the airport.
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br /The last thing is once you get used to your GPS, you will develop dependence on it. We couldn't be multi-tasking especcially when driving. We have to concerntrate on driving as well as following GPS instructions. We might not distract to remember the routes at the same time. Yesterday when my GPS first time broke down, my heart was broken. I just felt I couldn't get anywhere without it. Fortunately it survived after I pressed the reset button.
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br /If you are not comfortable with you sense of direction but still have to do a lot of driving, the machine is stronly recommended.
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I purchased this GPS for use on my motorcycle. I have now used this GPS for approximately 3,000 miles and it has never failed me. Battery life is adequate for a full days ride (300-500 miles) if the backlight is left off or at a low setting. Although this unit is WAAS enabled, I find it used more battery power and is usually not necessary.
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br /I recently used this GPS while hiking and looking for morel mushrooms and it was accurate in the woods up to about 10 feet. Good enough for my uses. This type of use requires you to turn off the road-lock feature. Although this GPS is not designed to be used for hiking, it works fairly well for the occasional hiker. More serious hikers may want to look at other units.
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br /This is the only GPS that I have experience with, so I unfortunately I can't offer a comparison. However, I have never gotten lost when using it and I absolutely love it for my regular uses.

I had a Quest for about a year, and loved it. I gave it to my daughter because she was traveling alot. Before I bought another Quest, I thought I would try a different GPS for a change. I bought the Navigator, because I remember I liked it when I rented a hertz vehicle some time ago that had it in it. The Navigator was horrible, the maps were so infantile looking compared to what I had been used to with the Garmin Quest. I returned the Navigator and bought the Quest again. I love it, it is the best in my opinion.

Prior to purchasing the Garmin Quest, I used the Garmin V Deluxe extensively for over two years. Although it is not fair to compare the former to the latter, I will say that the Quest is significantly superior to the V in virtually all aspects.

Short Answer:
Unless you intend to go hiking, the Quest is well worth the extra money.

Long Answer:
Pros: The Quest has a high resolution display that is easy to read both during day and night conditions. The auto change from day mode to night mode is a very handy feature! The large storage capacity ensures you will rarely, if ever, go off-map (unlike the Garmin V). The initial acquisition time is good. The route calculation and re-calculation time is very good. The user interface is very friendly and easy to navigate. The battery life is very good. The Route Display does a good job of indicating your upcoming turns. Washington, DC is a great testing ground. Streets merge, run parallel and diverge...All within 50 yards. Quest handles this challenge fairly well. The USB connection works very well, and loads the map data very fast.

Cons: Like most GPS units, there is a slight lag in the position reporting, and by extension, route guidance. This accuracy lag is a function of signal strength. Signal strength is affected by the number of satellites available, obstructions (i.e. buildings) and antenna placement. On occasion, the Quest's turn guidance came too late. Fortunately, the route re-calculation helps you get back on track.
Unlike the Garmin V, when you set the Quest to display all the data (heading, etc...), you end up with a lot less map view than I would like or expect. When I disabled this, I got a lot better map view. But when I use it to navigate, I miss having the key information displayed on the main map.
I think Garmin can address this with by tweaking the display scheme. Unless you are significantly far-sighted, in which case you would be hard pressed to read the dashboard display, I think Garmin can tighten things up. This is, in a way, a good news/bad news story for Garmin. This is a minor detail, but the high quality of the Garmin's unit has led me to the point where I must get picky.

The Way Things Ought To Be versus The Way Things Really Are:
There are two ways to get the most out of a feature rich piece of technology like the Garmin Quest. Find someone to show you the cool features, or read the manual. I've found the manuals have gotten better, and if you invest the time at the front end, before your really need to depend on the device, you'll be far more satisfied.

GPS navigation units are only as good as the mapping data and the strength of the signal. Like other reviewers, I find it annoying that the mapping software doesn't have current information about stores and restaurants that have come and gone. I actually find it humorous when Quest tries to send me down a one-way street - the wrong way. Fortunately, it's only happened a couple of times, and I already knew the area.

Speaking of knowing the area, I've confirmed that if you know the area, you can navigate a better route. If you're going somewhere unfamiliar, you might not get there as fast, but you'll come fairly close. I suppose I take it as a measure of pride that technology has not yet supplanted the human brain and local area knowledge.

But let's be reasonable...You can always find a work-around. Even if GPS doesn't display the actual store, you can find it. If I know the general location of a store, I pick a location in the immediate vicinity. That typically does the trick.

Now you know...

I have owned this Garmin Quest unit for a year now and feel confident writing a review.

I have not gotten misdirected once by the unit in 14,000 miles of driving. I was able to download all by tracks as proof of my mileage for income taxes this year. I am able to use the unit to keep track of billing and mileage for work as well. I am often given obscure addresses that I must find for my job and the unit is amazing it that regard.

The screen is a little small, but adequate. The voice prompts are limited, but once you begin to understand how they work things are very easy.

With the software on a laptop, I am able to change maps and routes in 10 minutes time. Since I use the unit in more than one vehicle I do not use an external antenna. It can take a while to locate itself on start-up with an icy windshield. The route planning software that came with the unit is on my laptop. If you use this software for planning you greatly enhance the flexibility and functionality of the unit

I have traveled from Michigan to Florida and all around both states with the unit. I have been in all the neighboring states of Michigan and it has proved itself. It has saved time and money by finding lodging, fuel and time-saving route options. It has enhanced our vacations and travel by finding places nearby to travel routes that were the highlights of some of our trips.

My life is much better because I own this unit. A lot of the stresses of my day have disappeared.

I will be purchasing another unit for my parents.

Bought this unit for my wife because she travels. Once you initiially set it up with your home location and download the specific map areas from the CD, this unit works fantastic. We practice with the unit often and we purposely go off route to see how it notifies us of going off route and as well as recalculating the route to the location we specified. It does an excellent job of doing that. The route it calculates for you to your destination is right on. The time it tells you you will arrive at your destintaion has been right on all the time we used it. Some of the routes it calculated for us were even quicker / shorter than what I thought the route should be. Impressive. I thought I was good at finding routes, this unit beats me sometimes. Ohhh, the male ego.....

One of the things we finally had to get over was to not second guess the unit. It worked so well we were amazed. If you are lost, trust the unit, you will arrive there and this has been seen over and over again with our unit.

The only down side I see to this unit is that the windshield mount is not quite as sturdy as it should be, meaning, the unit does bounce up and down while in the bracket over bumps. And that is because the center of the windshield bracket needs some type of locking mechanism. By the way, previous comments about the windshield bracket coming loose from the windshield has never happened to us. Before you mount it the windshield, moisten the rubber suction pad, then attach it the windshield and lock it. It has never fallen off for us.

All in all, we love it very much and it definitely is worth the purchase. We intend to find some other type of portable mounting bracket, but other than that, we love it. We recommend it whole heartedly.

I am a legally blind consumer who cannot drive. When I saw a bus driver's talking GPS, I immediately went searching and found this beauty. My only complaint, and this has been the case for several products I've ordered, is that the description doesn't tell you everything you need to know to make a complete decision. The audible directions come from a speaker integrated into the cigarette lighter charger, NOT the unit itself. There appears to be no accessory to fix the problem. So, when I'm walking to and from places, I'll just have to glance down from time to time.
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br /On the other hand, even in direct sunlight, the display was easy to read, the routes were easy to see and navigate and the overall ease of use was superb. A definite tool in my geek gadget bag.

I've had my Quest for 3 months now and it works exactly as it says. My problem is that it is difficult for an old, computer-illiterate person like me to figure out exactly how to work it. My husband refuses to touch it saying it's impossible to figure out. I have to pull out the book every time I use it. It's probably unfair to give it a 4 -The user should get a 1...therefore if anyone is sitting in their rocking chair on the porch, getting ready to take their 1965 Malibou Convertible out of the garage for a drive...Know you will need to get the instruction book and the computer (to load the particular State's maps); it doesn't hold much and you have to delete and re-put..and I forget how to do it each time...but it works great once you get it set up for your trip..

I travel a great deal for work and the directions you pull online often are not very accurate. As a result I decided to invest in GPS. I did alot of research and settled on this unit based on the price and the reviews. Overall I am happy with the purchase. This unit is small enough that I can bring it on a plane and use it in rental cars. The maps are easy to lose and pretty accurate. The storage is sufficient for what I need it for. It is easy to set up and program. There are units out there with more "bells and whistles"- but for the price this unit does the job well.

I do have to say that this navigator did it's job perfectly. I took it into Chicago, and it found my hotel with no problems. I also took it with me to Michigan, and also had no problems. I should say that this navigator was the ONLY directions I used on both trips.
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br /BUT I can only give it 4 stars, and here's why. It's very hard to understand what she wants you to do. She'd say "keep left" and I'd take the left ramp, and all of a sudden I was on the wrong route. It does recalculate, so I really had no problems getting back on track. My advice-keep an eye on the screen when she gives directions. "Keep left" could mean stay in the left lane, but take the right ramp.
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br /In Chicago, we were hidden by buildings, so it had trouble getting a signal. This is with the optional external antenna. I had to get myself into an open area (totally in the wrong direction because I had no clue where I was) to get it a signal. Also, if I missed a turn in the city, it didn't recalculate fast enough before it told me to turn again, and I had already missed that one.
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br /I still give this two thumbs up for getting me two places, when I had no clue where I was going. I'd definitely recommend, and repurchase!

It took me a little time to get the little gadget figured out, but once I did it was amazing! I love the voice feature so that I don't have to look at it while trying to drive. It shows every little road coming up. It also shows golf courses, bridges, water, parks EVERYTHING! I really like my new GPS.

The only thing I would like for it to have is a compass. Maybe it has one and I haven't found it yet - I will keep looking!

Thanks so much,
Karen - Poco Risco Lakefront Log Home Rentals, Lake Ozark, MO

Purchased Garmin Quest on the advice of Fred Langa (LangaList)....was not disappointed....for a relatively low price, the Garmin Quest fills all my GPS needs....software install was flawless....learning to program and use the device took about an hour....have used it on several trips two months after purchase with no mapping errors noted....solid product!

I'm going into my 18th month of owning this device. I use it to help out when traveling away from home. It has gotten lots of use across the US and has performed flawlessly. I really like the compact size that easily slips into my briefcase, and the battery life remains great at this point. Other than having to find a PC (Mac owner) to update the maps for the locations I am traveling to, there are no issues with it. And at the price it is being offered now, it is a great device for the cost.

February 25, 2006

The Quest GPS unit does everything well. I used it in CA and it found the way to a gated community by a better route than I had used before, took me to the entrance gate, then down several curlicue streets to the house and announced "arriving at destination". Its directory is better than a phone book. I needed to find a Target store and it listed all the Target stores within 10 miles and directed me to the nearest one flawlessly. I got off an Interstate road to drop off some people and the Quest directed me to the nearest entrance ramp. When driving in the suburbs at night where street signs are not visible or nonexistent the Quest tells you the name of the street you are approaching. In short it does everything a traveler needs. This model uses flash memory instead of a hard drive so it may be more durable. The on-screen keyboard is easy to use. Learning to use it requires six or more hours of study, at least for me. You need a computer to transfer the maps from the CD to the Quest. There are a few wrinkles. It is hard to remove it from the mount but I found my own way to do it. The manual uses small print with poor contrast. Apart from these minor items it is a great device. I love it.

I read other reviews that said the GPS navigators with more memory take longer to calculate destinations. This unit calculates very fast, and recalculates after missing a turn within 10 seconds. It can store two or more states worth of information which is plenty for me. I will update the maps if I go to another region, but this is not a major problem. The unit attaches to my windshield quickly enough that I don't mind taking it off to prevent theft. It is everything I like in a GPS unit, including portable if I want to move it out of the car. For the price, it is fantastic. I didn't have to pay nearly $600 for the top of the line, and I don't feel I am missing anything. My girlfriend was following a mapquest map and got lost in an unfamiliar section of town. As much as it pained her to admit it, she turned the unit on, punched in the address and made it to her destination quickly. She had a 5 min description of how it worked and was able to use it without help when she needed it. The controls are very intuitive. I recommend this to anyone, especially if you can get it at half the price of the Quest II.

My first ever GPS system just arrived today, it was very impressive at first look. Then I was worried about its quality and installation. It took 15 minutes to read all the guide breifly, transfer city select maps, and mounting on the wind sheild glass. There is no word to describe its accuracy or off route recalculation. I would write more if I find any pros or cons.. One think I want to know (learn) is how to avoid particular (specified) highway, it has the ability to choose (mark) on the map (starting point and end point to avoid). But I like to see as an option where just choose the highway I want avoid from the listed highway. Overall, if you want to buy one with compact then don't delay..


Good Luck !
-Muthu.

This is an excellent product and meets the expectations set by Garmin's advertising. The only glitch that I noted was that the "add-on" North American city map and POI information was furnished in DVD and not CD format. Former units were shipped with a three-disc CD (which most computers are equipped to handle). I had a problem with not being able to find a computer that could read the DVD that was sent with the unit. Garmin's tech support was very helpful and furnished me with codes that allowed me to download city maps from a friends CD set. You will almost surely be satisfied with this product. It is a lot of fun and a real help in unfamiliar locations. Just beware that you will need access to a computer with the capacity to read DVD discs.

I bought the Garmin quest because it was small, relatively inexpensive and had many accessories available for it. Research on Amazon revealed that others found it useful as well. I just used the Quest for the first time to navigate to Hyannis Ma. form my home in Nashua, NH. Here's what I found. After some initial confusion I managed to set my destination address into the unit. Leaving my home the Quest successfully brought me to the Hyannis area. Along the way, while on the same stretch of road, the Quest announced I was "OFF ROUTE", recalculated my route, and then never said another word. Strange...It did however, as mentioned above, get me to Hyannis. Once there, it announced I was at my destination (the hotel) when in fact I was nowhere near it... It stopped navigating at that time and I was left to my own devices to find the hotel. I eventually did. It was about 2 miles away from where the Quest thought it was...The trip home revealed another glitch. I entered the command for "Home" and followed the directions. It looked like it was taking me back to where it thought the hotel was. I fumbled thru the menus and eventually got it to sending me home, which it did flawlessly. Overall I found the unit to be worth the money even with the aforementioned glitches. Once I get more accustomed to the operator interface, it should be more usable. The problem with not finding the hotel correctly might be attributed to using the street address instead of picking a point on the map. Seems like the Quest does not map street addresses accurately. It determined my address to be no. 82 when in fact its no. 26. That might account for the error described above. I will use the map to determine the destination next time to see if the results are better. I am entirely satisfied with the Quest and would recommend it to anybody needing a small, inexpensive GPS. I will be mounting the Quest on my motorcycle soon, and using it for a long bike ride. I'll update this review with the results.

My first GPSr's where Garmin V's, which were a little dated with slower processor, black screen, small storage capacity etc. I did like the horizontal format though, so was attracted to the Quest. I have had this unit for 2 years, and it has performed flawlessly. The screen is superb, and the controls are easy to use. The unit is so small it is easy to pocket. The only negative I can think of is the built in rechargable battery, which can't be swapped out on a hike. The battery has good life, but on multi-day back packs this unit stays home. A 60C is better for multi-day treks and has the same great screen. The quest mounts better in a car though, and can talk to you in that sexy Garmin lady voice. It is a nice little navigator, and comes with the full North America road maps.

The Garmin Quest is a great GPS, I use it on my motorcycle and in my car without any problems. The only disadvantage it has is difficulty in entering addresses while driving. Which isn't really a big deal if you're patient. Excellent product.

Garmin has a real winner with the Quest. It is the perfect unit in terms of price and operation. It is easy to use and the fact that it is portable makes it very nice to work with. Performance should be on a par with any other units on the market, but at a fraction of the price. If you are looking for a reasonably priced Vehicle GPS unit this is the one for you.

Well, I enjoyed this unit while it lasted. Now it works for a few minutes before it eternally says "Lost Satellite Reception". Since Garmin charges $150 to repair it, I'll be getting a new one. This shouldn't have happened. I only use it a few times per month!
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br /Shoulda gotten the extended warranty!
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This a good GPS, but only good. It is fairly inexpensive and very portable. However, my father has the Garmin i3 Street Pilot and I feel that it is a better option. Even though the Quest has more option than the i3, it is so hard to navigate through that most people will not even use those options. The i3 is simple to use, quick and does the job.

I have a problem with mine, and I have tried to call their CS line 6 times, and all 6 times I was put on hold for over 45 minutes. I finally gave up. In fact, once I left the room, and came back 90 minutes later, and I was still on hold.
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br /I also e-mailed them and got zero response.

If you have problem to boot your Garmin Quest recently, don't panic, your system is fine. The only problem is that Garmin's technical support sucks, they should have let us know what have happened.
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br /I was trying to use my GPS system this morning and it cannot boot up. After hours searching on internet and i found nothing. I finally found my manual and read it through again. There is a reset keys combination -- hold power key and In key at the same time. It will reset the unit and it can boot up. However, if you turn it off, it won't come back. You still have to reset it next time.
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br /I got some feeling this has to do with the day light savings time. You know, this year's day light savings time started on March 11th. I went to Garmin's website try to find if they have software updates for the unit. Unfortunately their Webupdater software always got an error when I tried to install it(sucks). I then found out their latest software for the unit is 4.0 and was released on Aug 07, 2006 and I already have it on my unit.
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br /Now I realized I might need change something in my unit. I went to Menu - Time Setup and found out the time is still not changed to day light savings
br /time. After some thoughts, I finally figured out the problem. I had the
br /Daylight Saving as auto. Since the unit's software still keep the old rules
br /about the Daylight Savings time, the time on the unit is 1 hour late than the time on satellite. I guess this actually cause some confusions and the unit got locked up everytime you use it.
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br /The good news is after I changed the Daylight Saving to "Yes", the time become current and i don't have problem to boot it up anymore.
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br /If you have the same problem, today is your lucky day. I spent couple hours and finally figured out the problem and I am really happy about it. I almost went ahead to buy a new one and hope this information will help you as well.
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I bought this item for more than a year already. It was and still is a good GPS that 90% of the time directs you to the right place. You just need sometime to get used to the command. The best thing to do is to first find a familiar place with this GPS and see how it directs you to the destination. However, I give it a three star because it is losing reception after one year of use for whatever reason. It used to only lose signal when I travel inside cities that have a lot of tall buildings. Now it just lose signal randowly and more frequently. Although I fix this problem by buying the external antenna, but I can only give a three star.

Now I'm a bit of a GPS nut and a Garmin fan - I have the nuvi 360 in my commuter car, and gave the i3 to my directionally-challenged college student son. I recently bought a motorcycle, and mounted the nuvi on it - was disappointed in the readability of the display in bright sunlight, and nervous about getting caught in the rain.
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br /Got the Quest after some research, and think it's perfect for motorcycling. The display is nice and bright even in full sun, and it's waterproof! Got a Garmin motorcycle mount that can be wired to the bike and to a helmet headset, although haven't gotten around to doing all that yet; for now just running it on the internal battery (great battery life) and visual commands.
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br /Each of my nav units serves well; the nuvi is definitely easiest to use, the i3 is very simple for someone like my son who only uses it occasionally and doesn't want to bother learning all about GPS, and the Quest is awesome for the motorcycle - the ability to pre-program routes with multiple waypoints is great for Sunday morning loop rides to out-of-the-way places.

Don't be fooled, this thing is pretty small, but it is very powerful. I've searched for months before I decided which one to get. And I tell you, you cannot beat this deal on the Garmin Quest. Alot of the GPS's maybe similar to this one and may do some of the same things, but this Garmin comes with 115 MB. If you want to put detailed maps of a couple states on your GPS, you'll need nearly every bit of the 115 MB's space, and NO LESS. I vote this unit to be THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK!!!!!(BY FAR...) Also, this unit does everything (if not more) than the units that are selling over a thousand $$$.

I bought this a year ago and have nothing but praise for it. I did spend about three days playing with it and reading the manual to learn every facet of it, and it has paid off tremendously. My wife and I used to argue badly and since this purchase, it's a thing of the past and now she just sleeps. I've lost track of how many times its bailed me out when I would have had to stop any number of times to ask diretions in major cities.

Once at a remote location, it's nice to find any type of shopping, gas or resturant with just a few presses of the buttons. It's easy to navigate and you can edit any screen information page to give you the type of info you want. My brother bought a quest II and doesn't like it at all, it's very, very slow and likes his original quest much better.

If I were to buy another GPS, I would still stick with Garmin but probably go with a touchscreen with all maps loaded so you don't have to put sections in from the computer. It isn't a problem though because I have most of the Midwest and really haven't left that area with a couple of exceptions. I was going to buy another GPS, but really can't justify it because the Quest works so well.

Pro - fast, easy to navigate, very versitile, powerfull for the price, great advance notice for turns, good contrast and very bright. I recommend a dash mount friction mount - great to move between vehicles.

Cons - fairly small screen, must download areas you need, typing an address with arrow keys is somewhat time consuming.

I Have been using Garmin Quest for the last 2 years. I think I am experienced enough to write a review for the product. This is a small, yet powerful, potential and very nice GPS that never let me down any time. I drive a lot, interstate driving and intercities driving incusive, and use my Questy regularly. It is ultimately portable, bright enough to view at any time of the day even during bright sun shine. The system gets ready in a matter of 4-25 seconds. I mentioned the maximum of 25 seconds since it took this long time twice so far (once in Cape May,NJ and the other time in Niagara falls,NY. Rest of the times, it always started in less than 10 seconds.
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br /Portability is a plus. Reroute is pretty fast and I would say instantaneous. As soon as I miss a turn, it gets ready with new direction very fast in a matter of couple of seconds.
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br /Takes a very small space to mount or store and is a very imporatnat and relaible asset I have ever bought.
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br /I will recomend this product for any one who is seriously thinking of a GPS with full featureqs, great quality, comfortable size yet superbly fast.
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br /Thanks Garmin and this is a studd for your products

this is one of the best gadget I have ever had, very portable, waterproof,very bright sharp screen,very accurate, excellent battery life,
br /the price was excellent for the quality, features.
br /I had this fantastic device for 3 years I am sometimes still learning about how to fully utilize this device, this has a lot of differnt ways to show you the direction. Men are usually good with directions so u may not need voice guidence sometimes u just need to glance a brief map with highlighted path,or u just need typed directions all depend the way needed
br /but nothing is perfect. This device doesnt response quickly in a busy downtown area so you might have to give it a little time to recalculate.
br /when I tried to buy this product I read a lot of amazon's customer reviews
br /they all make their point they about 90 percent right. The reason why I am giving 5 stars are despite of it's shortcomings(128mb builin memory)
br /When u get used to how it works u will learn to love this product. This is the very fist GPS I ever had but I dont think i need any better GPS.
br /This also has all the attractions, parks,restraunt, u practically dont need yellowpages, but like any electronics u can use basic functions but this amazing device is much more than that, don't let this small screen fool you because small screen is good enough for u. I can go on with all the details but I can almost gurantee u that u will not regret it.
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I travel a lot to unfamiliar locations and this product has been a great time saver. It's so much easier to use than directions from programs like Mapquest, etc. It's allowed me to regularly find locations and complete work assignments in half the time workers without a GPS guidance system have taken.

A year later review, this GPS is still going strong, and I finally got a boat and mount it on the Speedometers, it display where I was in the lake and where I heading to, no need a marine map! Also, I got a SUV and had switch between cars, it works well and the battery can hold for a long time. But the new high way new community has expanded, so will wait until the local major highway are done before I order a new map DVD.
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br /I have this GPS for 6 weeks, it's so good exceed my expectations. The con is the limited memory size of 115 MB; I live in NC, can load it with whole NC, SC and WV. If I need to cross country trip, I can either bring my laptop or its based map already included all the inter-state high way and major local roads as well or just re-load those cities along my path. And other is POI - don't expect they are up to date info, treat it as part-time yellow page.
br /The pos are I used it on my car lower left corner of windshield and pretty much hide the core around the steeling column, most passengers won't even notice it including myself. I also used it when hiking in state parks with the antenna closed and in a camera bag hanging on my waist belt. It received signal most of time except under the high tall trees area. With that I don't worry about how to get my way back.
br /I just brought the RAM mount and will use it on my motorcycle soon; the Ram mount itself works so good, can adjust to any direction you wanted just like a joy stick to me and no need to worry the GPS get drop off from the bike, it's so tight by turning the button up. In the future, I might use it on my boat if I got one, will expected it shows me where I am on any lake.
br /Amazon is good and this was my first purchase from them, it had 30 days price guarantee and refund some money to me after I purchased and the price dropped a bit.

I bought this for my wife as a Christmas present and she loves it. She uses it all the time. It has saved us from going out of the way a couple and even when we couldn't see road signs it guided us in the right direction. Another great attraction is it's ability to find points of interest even if you don't have an address. All around it is a great value for the money.

First let me say that this is my first GPS, and was clueless as to which unit to buy. I completely relied on reviews posted on Amazon to help me learn about GPS from other owners. I wanted a unit that would be used more on the trail and kayaking then car use. But I needed a reliable unit for driving, I can only afford one unit. The Quest is small and fits a foward pocket on my backpack. Its waterproof for use on the kayak. Its recgargeable enough for day use. Only drawback appears to be it will not allow you to switch batteries on the trail. The battery is a lithium-ion battery which has a life of 8 hours of continuous use. After that recharge. So you have to concider that on your hike. The price is great, and the "city navigator" DVD I've inputed works fine. I paid only $216 for a factory "reconditioned" unit, and this unit also included the "city navigator" DVD, which is a must. The internal map that come in the unit is too basic, does not show streets, only main highways and interstates.
br / So again the best thing about this Garmin Quest GPS is its compact, accurate, well made, a good value and expandable with 115 MB of memory. Could this be the best multi-tasking gps made? Maybe.

Although the unit's small size was attractive, the routing accuracy and verbal cues were awful. In our tests in the San Jose area, the unit was unable to direct us correctly to our destinations and the verbal instructions and chimes were of little help. It prompted with cues like "Turn north in 1/2 mile" not mentioning whether it was a left or right-hand turn. The chime was no help either.
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br /We returned it and purchased the Magellan Roadmate 800, a more expensive unit but very accurate, with prompts and chimes that are terrific. I highly recommend this unit.

We bought our Quest last Dec and it's only four months old. One day about three weeks ago while in use, it simply went dead. Searched Garmin FAQs with no joy. Tried Technical Support by phone about five times - each time it announced a minimum 30 min wait time. Tried online Technical Support but it was a 5-7 day turn around. After a week and a half, they finally emailed us a RMA for sending our Quest to Garmin for service. No idea how much longer that will take.
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br /Bottom line is that the Quest was wonderful while it was working. If it stops working, don't expect any speedy response from Garmin. My dealing with Garmin over the past three weeks has angered me to the point that I will never buy another Garmin product!

I was looking fo an affordable GPS for my car service, It is a important tool for my job and it is something I really depend on, The Quest has served me well, so far but as I need to move forward, I will leave the Quest behind, here are the reasons.
br /NO TOUCHSCREEN is a problem, especialy when you need to type an adress fast, it is very hard to use the key pad.
br /LOW CAPACITY means if you are making a long trip chances are you wont be able to use it, beacause it won't fit the entire maps on there
br /LOOSES SATTELITE more than normal and sometimes it takes an eternity to recover, by then you maybe lost.
br /MY RECOMMENDATION- something with preloaded maps of at least the US, touchscreen is easier to use, and something with a fast processor for fast re-routing.

Three (small) complaints:
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br /1) The map data is somewhat stale. Some businesses that have been around for a few years still don't appear in its database. Garmin should partner with someone like Google and offer auto-updates to keep this data fresh.
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br /2) The carrying case is not included. Add one to your order. It's worth the extra investment.
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br /3) No Mac software included. I had to dust off a PC to load the maps. (I've heard it works fine in Virtual PC, too.)
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br /Versatile, easy to use, and great value. If you're still comparing devices, add this one to your short list.

I really like this unit. It is fairly easy to use and easy to read. I bought it for two reasons...it is weatherproof which is great for use on the motorcycle, and it was much, much cheaper than the Azuma model which sells for $600.00. I got this as a factory reconditioned unit and it was like new with all the peripherals, window mount, charger, etc. I only had two problems. The setup disc is a DVD, not a CD so my stone age computer wouldn't play it but my friends laptop saved the day. Secondly, there is no inexpensive power cord that I can connect to my RAM motorcycle mount. Garmin makes a cycle mount, but I don't like it as well as the RAM so I have to run it on battery power on the bike which limits its use and range. RAM makes a power cord, but it cost $113.00...a bit steep. In the car...IT WORKS GREAT. The window mount/power cord/speaker is loud and clear with adjustable volume. AND the support from GARMIN is terrific. They responded to numerous email inquiries promptly and were very helpful. All in all, for only $200.00 and change, this was a great bargain, and I recommend it.

Very nice product, but the routing seems to take you on all kinds of side trips no matter what your settings. I've used this in a small aircraft, in a personal vehicle, handheld, and in my work vehicle to track my location and movements.. I would buy it again.

I am using this GPS for last one year and I was never lost anywhere anymore. The announcement is little bit confusing at the begining but after 2-3 months I got used to it and can't move anywhere without it. Only the suction mount falls soon as I forgot to take out it and leave it connected to the windshield for the whole year. It can hold 4-5 state maps completely. So that should be good for one trip. Only thing is wondering me is that this GPS was sold by Amazon with 300$ last year and after one year the price is 366$ !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You really need to do your research before buying a GPS. I've owned the Garmin Quest for almost three years now and I love it. It has features that you just can't find in the touch screen models. First off it's waterproof. I also use this GPS when I go boating and it almost always gets splashed with water. It has a breadcrumb feature that allows you to see where you've been. Great for boating, hiking, or exploring unmarked country dirt roads and you need to find your way back. It has an internal battery that will last 20 hours on a single charge. As with all GPS's there are some downsides to it. The screen is a little on the small side compared to today's models. It takes longer to enter in addresses than with a touch screen model. And you do have to plan your trip carefully and load the maps you'll need before you start your adventures. (The Garmin Quest II Handheld GPS Navigator comes with all the maps preloaded. It didn't exist when I purchased my Quest.) Because of these downsides, I've recently purchased the Garmin nüvi 650 Personal Travel Assistant for North America for my wife. It has a very large touch screen (wide screen version) which makes it easier to input addresses than the standard size touch screen GPS's (such as the Garmin nüvi 350 Pocket Vehicle GPS Navigator with Maps for North America). It has all the maps preloaded so she won't have to think about loading any. It's not waterproof, but she will never have a need to use it outside of a car. It doesn't have the breadcrumb feature that we love, but you just have to learn to accept there are limitations with all GPS's. Just do your research and purchase the one that's best suited for your needs and budget.

This a good GPS with 256 colors display. It has all the features of a most expensive GPS with a small price.

I rate this 5 stars. it is the perfect navigator saved us in DC last year! We would have never found our way out. Anyway my only complaint maps are not preloaded. We have to load them each time we go to a different region. Otherwise Perfect Item!

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my wife. She's not a techno-type, so I was a bit concerned. There's no need - it's easy and intuitive. I don't think she'll ever travel without it, and it seems nearly impossible to get lost if you've plotted a course. The only negative is that when we attempted to install the map software, we were advised that a newer version was available online. This is a HUGE download, so you may have problems if you're not on broadband. However, you can call customer service, and they'll mail you a CD. Don't hesitate to ask them to expedite the order, they're very cooperative.

Wow! Can't believe I got a full-featured GPS system for under $300!. It does everything my wife's more expensive system does (except call out the street names) but that's a fair trade off for the price. In fact, it does many other things that my wife's unit doesn't, such as allow you to enter as many as 50 via points along a route, and then the unit will give you the best order to get to them.

Pros: Fast, accurate, extremely sharp image, street names clearly readable on screen, automatic rerouting if you deviate from the route, small size allows you to put the unit in your pocket when you leave your car and therefore protect it from wily valet attendants and potential thieves, doesn't even need the flip up antenna to get signal on my dashboard.

Cons: None that I've found so far.

I am not a GPS expert, but I really like this little gadget. We have been using it for only a few days now, but it promises to make our lives so much easier in many ways.

The menus are not all that intuitive, but after some use you get used to it and you find what you need rather quickly.

The routing calculations seem pretty good, although not 100%. Sometimes it days "stay left" when the road is really just straight through. I guess it is guessing there is a fork in the road based on the map layout. You always have to be aware of the road and look at the map on the display if you are unsure.

Although even if you make a wrong turn the unit will recalculate your route after about 1/10 of a mile. The turning instructions are clear, and can be repeated at any time with the push of a button.

The main thing I like about this unit is it has full voice-prompted directions, like the expensive car navigators, as well as being a small portable unit. It has the best of both worlds. We have been using it for navigating in the car, as well as for some geo-caching.

We were able to load maps from Washington DC up through much of NYC, including NJ and PA out to Harrisburg. So we won't need to load maps again unless we take a long trip.

It finds many businesses and attractions either near your current location, or near the "pointer", and lets you either save the establishment as a "location" or simply route and navigate to it.

So I would rate this product as an A.

Have been using for about 1 month and I'm very happy with it. I was worried about the small screen, but mounted on my windshield I never have a problem reading it. Easily slips out of the mounting kit so you can take it with you to protect from being stolen. The step by step navigation and mapping is fast and good.

There is no touch screen, so it can be a little cumbersome to enter an address or find a place because you have to use arrow keys and an on screen keyboard. But once you have entered where you're going it works like a charm. Fast recalculation if you go off course. Accuracy is excellent, usually within 15 feet for me. Memory size is adequate. All of Colorado is about 20-25 MB I think, so I could probably have Colorado and every state touching Colorado in it at one time if I wanted. May be less for states with more roads like out east.

Overall, it's a great little GPS for less money than the larger car-only models, plus you can use it outside the car if you want.

I took it to Portland Oregon and the device was worse than worthless. Example: it said I was 500 feet from my destination, then I turned into a parking lot and then it said I was 8 miles from my destination. Another example: I was headed to the airport and following the instructions. It said I was 20 minutes away; then it said, "re-calculating route" and I was 38 minutes away. I had to stop at a gas station and get directions. At least 10 times I was following the instructions and then it says `recalculating route". I have more examples, but you get the idea. I bought it online and realized how bad it was after the return policy expired and so I tried to return it to Garmin, but they wouldn't take it. I didn't want to sell it because it works so badly, so I gave it to goodwill and wrote on the box that it is a `toy'. Do yourself a favor and buy something better.

Great little tool, especially for people who travel within the same region on a regular basis. The memory is pretty small so you won't be able to download all the detailed services (restaurant, lodging, etc). But, for a recent trip it was great, it's also fun to have something that breaks up the boredom of long trips. Our quest did a very good job (it gets confused in traffic circles, or rotaries, and tends to give you bad voice-command-directions trying to get through the circles). You have to be careful when you have many interstate exits close together; it will tell you to bear right but does not state which exit, like exit A or B. Overall, I highly recommend.

This is such a handy thing to have. Extremely accurate maps and details. Its small enough to be portable, and a rechargabel battery, very convenient. Thanks garmin for a great product.

Overall, I like this product. Something I don't care about includes:
1. The first time I used it. The default place on the map is at Taiwan (maybe because the unit is made there). And the unit could not find any satellite. It took me almost a day to figure it out. When the unit report poor GPS signal, you need to select "new location". The it will lock on GPS signals pretty quick.
2. I wish the button is more responsive, especially the On/off button.
3. I used to use a pc for navigation. This unit apparently is slowing in calculating route and rerouting.

I love my Garmin Quest! I travel a lot on business and this always goes with me. My boss was so impressed with the unit's performance that he bought one for his family to use. I've had this unit for over a year now, and I really do take it everywhere. I have both the Street and Topo maps, and use the topo maps on hikes and so forth. Last weekend it helped me find a spot in a state park when I didn't have any other map available. And then we got in the car and had it calculate the road trip home. The only downside is having to remember to load mapsets for the destination area when I travel -- the Quest II solves that problem because it has enough memory for the full set of North America street maps. If you want a portable GPS, this is a great choice.

I've just sent my 2nd Quest back to Amazon for a refund. I don't understand the reason behind the problem, but here's the story:

My original Quest worked great - accurate, reliable directions and consistent steady lock on satellites. Then I made a trip down I-95 in NJ, past Newark airport and a lot of industrial sites. The Quest lost satellite lock at some point on this 5 mile section, then regained a while later. But, in areas where satellite signal strength used to be "full bars", they were now typically half strength & intermittent. The Quest was never able to hold lock on satellites from that moment on.

So Amazon replaced it with an identical unit, with the understanding that I probably just got a "lemon". Well it worked great too - until I had to make the same trip past Newark on I-95. Then the same deal - loss of sensitivity & reliability. Rather than contacting Amazon right away, I ordered an external antenna. Now I once again had very strong signal strengths on numerous satellites most of the time. Then the dreaded trip on I-95. And (I know it seems strange) but now the receiver is so degraded that I can't maintain satellite lock at all w/o the external antenna if I am in motion. With the antenna, satellite lock is tenuous at best, if I'm moving.

I called Garmin and explained the circumstances to them expecting the hear a "Yeah, we seem to be having a problem with those Quests" but it was news to the guy I talked to. So Amazon is refunding my VISA card.

Although I'm getting my money back, my Inner Geek still wonders why this happened. There are 2 radars (Newark Airport) very close to I-95 that I drive past but so do millions of other cars with GPS units... and the radar freqs are nowhere near the GPS freq. I did try an experiment - I made the same drive with my Garmin Foretrex and my GPS-III+ - neither of them suffered any ill effects or even lost satellites at all, and that was with no external antenna.

The Quest seems overly sensitive to strong RF, even if those signals are outside the typical GPS passband & is therefore easily damaged by RFI that it shouldn't even notice.

It was not clear from Garmin's website that their software is Windows only. Since I have a Mac I had to borrow someone else's computer in order to program my GPS. When I contacted Garmin they informed me that there will be Mac compatability later this year; which is fine but it doesn't do me any good. Other than this I am very satisfied with the performance of the product.

Although I am familiar with this product and was quite happy with it, some jerk stole it out of my car. I ordered a new one from Amazon and after a good solid month of trying to get it to work, the help people at Garmin (who were great) and I, finally figured out I had a defective unit. I returned it to Amazon who then gave me some trouble with a full refund etc., even though the unit was defective. Frustrating!! There are newer units out now that have a touch screen interface which makes them easier to use - at an increase in price though. Overall, Amazon eventually was reasonable.

ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS I'VE RECEIVED! -- JUST GOT BACK FROM A TRIP AND WAS REALLY IMPRESSED!

This GPS is absolutely amazing, easy to use, easy to load. I'm extremely impressed with the product!

Automatic routing with turn-by-turn directions and voice guidance to get you where you're going
High-speed processor means fast automatic off-route and detour recalculation
Rechargeable internal lithium-ion battery that provides up to 20 hours of use
USB data connection for fast map downloads from Garmin's entire line of MapSource CDs
256-color, bright, sunlight-readable display makes it easy to view turn-by-turn instructions and map detail
Smaller than a standard television remote, the Quest provides an ample screen viewing area, but it won’t demand a lot of room on the dashboard or in the briefcase. The unique antenna folds flush with the unit when not in use and users can connect an optional external antenna as well.

I received the GPS from a friend a couple of years ago. I would get lost if I travelled more than 1/2 hour. A three (3) hour drive within Ohio took me eight (8) hours. I would always call my two (2) friends up (phil & Alex). They would ask me where I was at and I didn'teven know. Since, I received my GPS I haven't been lost. I've become very dependent on it1

The Nuvi 350 is extremely valuable whether traveling in a familiar or unfamiliar city. It recently successfully guided me out of town during post-football traffic at night when I was sure I was lost. My only complaint is that the device sometimes has difficulty acquiring the satelite, which is frustrating.

This is nice, but a little fussy. I bought this for my husband's Hummer. He spent the day just reading the book. It works but is more difficult than I would want. Go for the c330.

The Garmin Quest Navigator Works Great My Son Loves It,Never Has A Problem Getting From Point A To B.I Would Recommend This GPS Unit Highly. Thanks A+++

I have had a quest for about 6 months now and find this a very frustrating unit to work with.
br /Recently went on a trip to California from Arizona and all went well until I got to California. Although I had maps loaded for the location I went to (Sacramento) the maps were outdate by as much as 2 yrs.
br /Here in Arizona where I live south of Phoenix there have been a lot of new developments and there's a loop that's been completed and in existence for about a year and a half and it doesn't show on the map.
br /Garmin will go to great lenghts to ask you to report the issue but will not do anything to resolve it.
br /This is pretty much useless as the area I drive around has been much developed but there are no street or road displays anywhere on the most current version of the map.
br /FORGET GARMIN!
br /RUN AWAY from this product unless you want to be frustrated out of your mind.

I bought this GPS. Had to return it the same day. It won't let you enter a destination!!