I have the pleasure of testing both this unit and the Garmin 370 (basically the Garmin 370 is a bluetooth 360, just with European maps included....and $150 more for me than the 3140).

Comparing both, here are MY experience/conclusions:

1.) 3140 has the brighter/saturated screen (about 2 notches better on a sliding scale--at the expense of battery life, of course) AND *louder/crisper/clearer* (less rattly) speaker (it can be a *BIG* factor if you're hard of hearing or have a noisy car).............However, this brightness/saturation is rather moot as strong direct sunlight will do a good job of markedly washing out the screens of both units (still useable though). At night, both screens do the job just fine as they switch to BLACK in "night mode", so brightness doesn't factor as much.

2.) 3140 is made of sturdier plastic. Definitely more bulletproof, but at the expense of being a little thicker and heavier. Also, antenna is built-in vs. the garmin's flip antenna which could be foreseen breaking off at some point.

3.) TTS is less robotic sounding on the 3140. It has only a female voice option, but it's very natural! Thusly, the pronounciations also are clearer and MORE pleasing (less grating) than the 370.

4.) Touchscreen inputs are easier on the 370 b/c the electronic keyboard is bigger--less input mistakes. Also, the 370 allows you to scroll around the map with your finger (sort of what like Google maps allows you to do) -- *AWESOME* for getting a lay of the land!! The Magellan anchors your map and only allows the typical zoom in/out feature found on most GPS units.

5.) While both use Navteq maps (what Google Maps uses), the 370 has a SLIGHTLY better sense of "intelligently" routing you. This is, of course, on a case-by-case basis of your area (your results will be different than my specific areas)! For instance, going to work in my area of San Jose, the 370 takes you off the highway at the correct exit. The 3140, on the other hand, takes me off the highway an exit early and routes me through the final portion of the expressway to my destination--a good route nonetheless, but it ISN'T "FASTER" than the Garmin's suggestion (i.e the route I choose all the time) due to the insane streetlight clog-ups during the morning commute (i.e. highway is generally always better than expressway in my area). Regardless, both units will get you to your place in one way or the other...

6.) The 3140 gives you *MORE* flexible access/choices for routing (faster, shorter, more hwy, less hwy, avoid toll roads). Also, the "Detours" function is more customizable as to *WHEN* to route you back onto the freeway (3mi, 5mi, 10mi, 12 mi, custom). The 3140 screen also SPLITS telling you when to get off the freeway--better to have this for sure, but not necessarily better as the Garmin picture routing is simplistically very effective.......BTW, Re-routing calculations are CRISP/Fast on both units.

7.) The 3140 map is more detailed and not as simplified the 370. I like this! But again, not instrumental in getting the job done (Garmin's philosophy is: less is more). However, more street detail allows you to use your brain on how to guide yourself when the computer will inevitably put you on a ridiculous route or stumble you onto a clogged streetway (which is bound to eventually happen on any GPS!)

8.) Satellite lock is FAAAST (~10-40sec) on 3140.....markedly faster by minutes (~1-3 minutes) than the 370. This difference can make a BIG difference when coming out of a car park in a strange hustle/bustle city. The antenna sensitivity is also *BETTER* on the 3140 by a GOOD margin--surprising, since it's built-in! In the middle of a huge warehouse store, the 3140 (and other Magellans) had several satellite locks (6-7 sats), while no other unit from any maker aside of the Tomtom (1 sat weak signal) could get a signal. Inside my home, the same is true. The 3140 gets 7-8 satellite locks, the 370 gets about 3 locks. In the car, the Magellan gets more satellite locks as well.

8a.) Satellite *accuracy* is also higher on the 3140. For instance, in my house that's at the "U" of a dead end street, the 3140 will pick up my location from my house. The 370, on the other hand, thinks I'm at the house on the other side of the "U" of the dead end street and plots a route from that location. Of course, the 370 corrects itself when you get in the car and go on your way.....But still, in one case, when getting on the hwy at a critical multifacted juncture, the 370 mistook a parallel road next to the hwy and guided me on that road giving me confusing misdirections (I used my brain to 2nd-guess the computer's advice)--it took over a ~3 minutes driving on the hwy for the 370 to correct itself (my wife found that error unforgiveable due to the separation distance of the parallel road to the hwy.)--this type of error hasn't happened on the 3140 b/c it's proven to me time and again to be more *PINPOINT*! Another great thing of the 3140.....if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere, it's nice to be able to call AAA (for which the Magellan has a handy "all in one" icon with AAA phone #/plot-point data on the screen) and give them EXACT longitude/latitude and not more effy plot points the Garmin gives me.

9.) POIs: I get more hits with the 370 in MY AREA (your results may vary). Not surpisingly, it could be b/c the Garmin has a 6m+ POIs vs. the Magellan's 4.5m POIs (which is huge regardless & very competitive in the marketplace). HOWEVER, the 3140 does have the AAA Guidebooks which is *FANTASTIC* for roadies!!!! BUT!...The AAA POIs do need to be *INTEGRATED* into the 3140 POI database! Both are accessible only by pressing time wasting *separate* buttons/screens--hopefully, in the future Magellan will address this issue with future software upgrade??!! Magellan are you listening??......So again, it depends on what YOU value most from each of these units. One way or the other, it's all about tradeoffs folks! If Magellan brings up the POIs to 6m+ in an update and integrates the AAA databse then that would be fantastic!

10.) Bluetooth is gimmicky on both units. Quality of call from both ends ain't that great--but doable. Battery life takes a good hit when bluetooth is on.

11.) Accessories is better on the 370. The 3140 lacks an AC charger or pleather case, albeit with that $150 price difference you could purchase these things in auction....and then some! BTW, the $30 Garmin dashboard beanbag (portable friction mount) for the Nuvi units is awesome(!)--especially for us Californians who aren't allowed to suction cup things to the windshield--lest we get a ticket!

12.) Maps can always be upgraded with Garmin and customer service is second-to-none among GPS mfgrs. The Magellan? Where are your European maps? How about upgradeability and more readily **accessible**/knowledgeable customer service? The 3140 does have an SD card slot so I'm sure product is coming out for its use, but as of this writing, I'm not aware of any 2008 Europe maps.

Which leads me as to why I'm choosing the Garmin 370 for MY NEEDS. I travel to Europe on a constant basis and the 370 has the Europe maps included, so my choice, BY DEFAULT, is obvious........FWIW, to add Garmin Euro maps to your non-370 unit, it costs $300(!!) from Garmin! So if you ever think of roadtripping Europe more than once, it's *MUCH* better paying the price premium on the 370 over the cheaper 360 (you'll save money in the long run).........If Magellan had Euro maps, then it'd be a different story--also, hopefully much cheaper(!!) than Garmin's ridiculous eye-gouging pricing of its maps (indeed, for $300, it's better then to get a latest technology Europe-specific GPS)!!

If you don't need Europe maps, then it's a TOTAL no-brainer to take the cheaper 3140 over a Garmin 350/360. Aside from Garmin's ~1-2% more sensible routing in certain parts of my area (though LESS satellite accurate leading to errors, as explained above), the basic performance or price premium difference isn't warranted in the least....and even if they were at the same price, then it would become a matter of which gimmicky side-features you value more....To me, a MARKED advantage to the Magellan--if only for those AAA guides! (who here nowadays doesn't already have a much better sounding/more functional MP3 player than the Garmin anyway??!)

I have faith Magellan will come out with Europe maps/updates in the Fall. But until then, if you frazzle easily with electronics or need your Europe fix *NOW* (like me) then Garmin will hold your hand much better as a customer....at least for the time being. It all depends on your specific needs and comfort level with these GPS devices.

All in all, the 3140 is an extremely solid, simple to use unit and isn't shamed in the least by the famed more expensive "Mercedesesque rep" of the Garmin Nuvis.

After having tried the Tom Tom Go 910, Garmin Nuvi 350, I can say this is the best GPS! Why? Well the 3140 just came out in April of 2007 (Look at Magellan homepage for press release) so it's one of the newer versions.

It gets the satellites fast! Re-Routs you fast and even allows you to re-route ahead of the time (if you want to look ahead at the way you'll travel), and is FAST to re-route while on the road if you come across an accident, bridge out, etc. And as I just wrote, the feature of route planning (with multiple stops), you can plan this all out ahead of time, actually look where you're going and plan stops and save them.

The voice prompts are loud enough while driving so that you do not have to keep looking at the screen.

One thing I wish it had was the ability to scan across a map. That is to roll your finger across the screen to go from place to place.

The antenna is built in so that you don't have to worry about it breaking off like Garmins can. And the antenna is STRONG! In the house I get 8-10 satellites signal, and this is away from a window!

And you get 4.5 Million POI. Yes, Garmin has 6 million POI, however a lot of those are churches and such.

What is really great is the exclusive AAA feature. It gives you the ability to look for AAA rated POI, and that give a AAA discount (membership required). AND what's great if you're traveling and have auto problems you hit one button and it gives you the emergency AAA number, and your location both in the cross streets/lane and Latitude and Longitude! Very handy if you're in unknown country!

With the AAA POI feature, you can see the AAA rated hotels, restaurants, etc. so that you don't end up staying at a hotel with has loud parties all night long, or eating at the "greasy spoon" that effects your stomach the next day.

It would be nice for it to of come with a case and AC home adapter. But with the discount here at Amazon, you can purchase them single at "auction" sites online and still be ahead in the price.

IMHO, if you're going to spend the money on one of these, then spend some extra for a carry case, and screen protectors. The case can be purchased here at Amazon as well as the screen protectors (or else both at other online sites or stores). The case will protect it when you take it from the car and/or carry it in a bag. The screen protector is a little piece of plastic you put on the screen so that your nail or such does not scratch the screen. The protectors do not leave the screen sticky or such (when you remove them if the protectors get scratched.

From the research I've done I think the 3140 is better than the 4040 Maestro's as people seem to have problems with the 4000 range. Not sure if it's a firmware problem, but do a search on the Internet or look at the Amazon reviews and you'll see. And look at Magellan homepage, the updates they have for the firmware and maps are stuff that's already inside the 3140! Seems they rushed the 4000's out the door before they were ready. But if you need a large screen and don't mind downloading upgrades, the 4000 range may be best for you.

In the year 2007 there really is no excuse to get lost and waste time and get stressed out over finding your destination! With these GPS, you'll never have to worry! And if you know where you're going ahead of time, you can plan and save the trip on the GPS so when you're in the car you have it saved!

All in all, this is very good GPS!

UPDATE: 10/27/07....IF your area has heavy cloud cover or a storm, give the unit an extra minute or so to lock onto the Satellites and give you full bars. Seems storms and heavy clouds, effect the unit to not be as speedy in locking onto Satellites, but that's common with weather effecting electronics. Weather effects radio waves, TV satellites, etc.

I have had mine for about 3 months now. I chose this model because of the good reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. I have been very disappointed.

The biggest problem is that the POI database is hopelessly out of date. When I purchased it, this was a product that had only been on the market a few months, and yet the POI database was over two years old! We have taken it on several trips now, and we have regularly been taken to places that no longer exist. Some of the places we've been taken I am pretty sure never existed, because there is no building of the type that, say, a Panera would be in at the address. And we will sometimes type in, say "Panera" and be told that there are none in 50 miles, and then we pass one half a mile later. The POI database is not completely useless, but it is a serious problem.

The roads database also appears to be out of date - we have been taken to dead ends on a few occasions, some of which had clearly been changed many years ago, but this has been an infrequent problem compared to the POI database.

The other significant problem, for me, is that one of the reasons I paid for this more-expensive model was the text to speech, and the quality of the TTS is terrible. Much of the time the TTS is incomprehensible. If you know the name of the road already (because you know the area, or because you just saw a freeway exit sign), then you can usually figure out what it was trying to say. If you don't have this prior knowledge, then 75% of the time you have no idea what it is saying, unless it's simply reading numbers. And why is it using TTS for numbers anyway? Recorded voice should have been used for numbers 0-1000. I have used factory GPS units in several vehicles which had considerably better TTS than this unit. Haven't used any other TTS portable units.

The other advanced feature that led me to choose this unit was the traffic capability, and I have not tried that yet.

All in all, it works well as a regular GPS navigator where you enter an address rather than use POIs and where you do not use TTS. But then, devices providing those capabilities are available for much lower cost than this unit.

I would not recommend this product to anyone.

Update, 2/18/08:

As I have used this device more, another problem that I noticed but ignored at first has become more central for me -- the touch-screen scrolling is dysfunctional to the point that I sometimes want to throw the unit down and jump on it. The problem is that the screen tends to jump back to a previous position after scrolling, so there is a tremendous amount of wasted motion, and frustration. I've used many other touch-screen devices over the years and never had consistent problems like this. Sometimes they need more or less pressure, faster or slower motion, etc., but I have found no way of scrolling this one that doesn't fail regularly.

Also, the battery life has dropped off dramatically -- down to 1-1.5 hours per full charge. In the beginning the battery exceeded the specification, going 3-4 hours on a full charge.

There is finally a firmware update available. I will report back in a few months on how that changes things.

To update my overall view of this product, I will probably never buy any other product from Magellan - it's that bad.

I have used other GPS units in the past - so this is not one of those 5 star reviews from someone who is excited about their first GPS unit. Overall the unit does what it is supposed to do but with a few shortcomings.
- the battery doesn't seem to last anywhere near the time quoted. I like running the unit without the power cord connected to the lighter socket in my car, however the battery always seems to run out much sooner than expected. I have given up on cordless and use the power cord all the time now.
- the lack of a hardware volume wheel is annoying. If you want to turn the volume up (or mute the volume) while the unit is navigating, the response time can be very slow as the processor is using cycles for other tasks. I like to keep the volume off and then turn it up if I am dealing with a tricky intersection. Sometimes the unit takes too long to respond to the volume request and I am already through the intersection.
- when I navigate to intersections (e.g. corner of A and B) the green route marking is often a mess, e.g. a dozen crossed green lines all over the screen. The turn by turn directions are accurate but the green route depiction looks like graffiti
- some of the routings can be boneheaded (or even take you to the completely wrong location) but I realize that is likely the licensed map data and not the fault of the unit
- finally (and most annoyingly) I have had this unit for nearly 8 weeks and Magellan have not yet released the traffic kit for 3140. The Amazon description and the features section at the Magellan web site both state that the Traffickit is an option. What they don't tell you is that the option is not available for purchase. This is BS. I have called Magellean and they keep giving me different answers on when the Traffickit will be released. If it's not out by the end of this week (10/15) I am going to send this unit back to Amazon.

There are also positives with this unit. The two features I like most:
- the screen is bright,
- the unit locks onto location very quickly

If you want the Traffickit (or think you might) then check with Magellan on availability before buying.

UPDATE: I sent this unit back to Amazon after endless BS from Magellan about when the TrafficKit was going to be released. How can they market an optional extra that does not exist?

I was looking for a cheap GPS unit for occasional out of town trips. Before this, I had bought Mio c220, but returned it after a week. I decided to put in some more cash and bought Maestro 3140. I am totally impressed with its performance. Here are some things which I liked about it:

Every time you enter a destination, it gives you option to choose Fastest Route, Shortest Route etc. In other GPS, you have to go into settings and change it.

Detour: If there is slow moving traffic on a highway, you can use this feature. It guides you to the next exit, gives directions on the inside roads and later puts you back on the highway. You can specify how long of a detour you would like. you can choose 5 miles, 10 miles and so on. Other GPS would try to put you back on highway at the very next entrance. What's even better is that it automatically senses that you have slowed down and would suggest you to take a detour.

Exit POIs: Need food/gas? Just tap on Exit POIs button and Maestro will find the next exit which has a gas station or a restaurant. It will even give you names for each, so you can choose if you want to eat at Denny's or Taco Bell.

Bluetooth: I used it a couple of times. The sound is clear and loud. Just tap on the green button to answer an incoming call. The only problem I noticed is that I have to 'connect' it to my bluetooth phone it evey time I turn it on. Probably I need to change some setting there.

No folding receiver: I used Garmin 350 before and was always scared of breaking the receiver that needs to be flipped open before you use it. Maestro doesn't have it.

Some things I do not like about Maestro:

Garmins turn off automatically when they are plugged in and you turn off the ignition. This one doesn't. It can turn off automatically only if it is in the same position for 10 minutes and you have not pressed any buttons.

little bigger than Garmin 350 and 200 so it's not really pocket friendly

Pros:
Great Price
2007 maps
bluetooth
4.5 million POI
AAA travel guide
Fast Calculations
Loud
compact
Accurate
Easy to Use

Cons:
Battery life
No AC adapter
Design not as sleek as Garmin
Zoom In/out of map is very slow
can't scroll around the map

I can't say enough good things about this little marvel. I waited for this model and I'm glad I did. It's my first GPS but I think it absolutely ranks in excellence, or even exceeds anything on the market.

I started a courier job delivering documents in a huge metropolitan city and there is no way on earth I could have found the addresses this device guided me to. The accuracy and joy of use was stunning. It is so user friendly and intuitive, it almost anticipates what you want to do before you have a chance to tell it what you want.

The pleasant lady's voice is not robotic or aggravating with too much information. It just gives you precisely what you need as if you were riding with someone who built the roads you are traveling. It will alert you to upcoming freeway divisions in plenty of time to position yourself should you need to exit. It will state to stay left, or bear slightly right, or stay on the current road. You would not possibly be able to mess up.

As you are nearing turns or maneuvers in your route, the display will automatically go to split screen. The right half of the screen will continue showing the large overall view. But the left side will show you a zoomed in closeup of your turn and a large arrow indicating exactly which way you are about to be turning. Just a quick one second glance at the screen and you see instantly what your turn looks like.

This zoomed in closeup comes in so handy because it shows you whether your turn is a right angle or if you are only turning slightly to the right or left. This feature is in addition to the constant voice instruction. This is just one example of what I mean when I say it is so user friendly.

The routing calculations are almost lightning speed. As you are pulling up in front of the door at your destination, the lady will politely say "you have arrived." And you can count on it that you have!

It will even announce which side of the street your destination is on. If your road has a median and you are required to make a U-turn to pull up in front of the building, it will say, "at your first opportunity, make a 'legal' U-turn." Then it will guide you back to the address front door. It just doesn't get any better than this.

If you bought this and didn't like it, I just couldn't imagine why. I am not easy to please but this ranks as one of the most amazing and user friendly gadgets I have ever owned. The peace of mind and sheer ability to relax while driving with this guiding you exactly where you want to go is almost too good to be true.

Street names, freeways and all roads, are announced by name. As you are approaching a required turn, incredibly it will even give you a chime at the precise point you should turn. It's hard to imagine how this can be so accurate. If you happen to not hear a command, you simply touch the bottom left of your screen and the last prompt is repeated as many times as you want. So no worries if you don't hear it the first time.

The maps are the latest and most current of anything on the market. I haven't even used a fraction of the goodies in this thing yet and already I just couldn't be more pleased.

I can also speak highly of the customer service attention I received from Magellan. An AC home charger was not included in the box when I received it from the internet seller I purchased it from. This was not a mistake on the part of Magellan.

The particular seller I bought it from sold the unit without the home charger included. I made a call to the California office of Magellan and told them this. They said they would take care of it and I would not be charged anything. The AC charger was in my mailbox three days later. Their concern for my satisfaction was superb.

If you purchase it, be sure to push the power cord into the unit very firmly. It can fool you. It is a very tight connection. It will not receive the charge otherwise. Also, initially I thought the voice volume was too low. But soon I was hearing everything even over the sound of my radio. It is something you will adapt to very quickly.

Hertz chose Magellan as the company to provide the navigation devices for their cars. I see why. The quality of this unit is outstanding.

The only thing that could be even more amazing than what this GPS can already do to dazzle you, is if it drove the car for you.

I am proud to recommend both this GPS and Magellan without reservation.

This is a great product. It is accurate and very intuitive to use. Considering the price, I should have saved the big bucks we spent for the Toyota installed GPS in our other car. In all necessary ways, this is as good and in some ways better. The touch screen is much easier to use than the scroll and enter system used there. My only complaint is that the screen is small and can be difficult to see in some lighting situations. It tends to bleach out. However, the voice commands are accurate and definitive enough that it's not all that necessary to look at the screen.

For the most part this is a decent GPS. Routing engine seems to be fairly accurate, spoken directions are clear.

Unfortunately the bluetooth implementation is horrible. You have to reconnect your phone each time the unit is turned off (won't automatically connect when phone is in range). You can't access your phones voice dial features like I can from pretty much any other bluetooth handsfree devince. Lastly you can't transfer your contacts from your phone to the unit. This wouldn't be an issue except for my previous point of not being able to access the phones voice dialing features from the unit. Voice quality is also suspect at best. I have had many bluetooth headsets and handsfee units and all work far better than this one.

Forget about dealing with Magellan's customer support. You'd stand a better chance yelling on a street corner.

Accessing POI's while on a route is worthless. Can't access regular poi's and AAA poi's jointly. You have to search each indepentantly.

All in all I would buy something else had I known all the quirks of this unit.

I recently got the 3140 and have used it quite a bit. Overall, the device has really no significant downsides. The most important feature is the text to speech voice guidance. While the screen is small, the voice guidance keeps your eyes on the road and not on the gps unit. The routing engine is robust and has not given me any problems. Satellite lock is very fast and reliable. Obtaining position from a cold start reliably occurs in less than one minute. Route recalculation is very fast for local trips. This makes the device in many ways better than car-based navigation systems at a mere fraction of the price. I have not had problems with the device recommending U-turns when deviating from the recommended route.
Given the excellent performance, it is a close contender with Garmin. With the heavy discount on the price it should be a first choice.

This is by far the best GPS out there (of course within that price range/category). In my personal experience, it is much better than the TomTom and even the Garmin Nuvi 350/360 etc.

I have used the Magellan Maestro 3140 as well as the TomTom One and can definitely tell you that the 3140 is worth the extra money you pay for it.

For beginner's, it has Text-to-Speech which means that it tells you to turn left on Elm Street v/s. saying turn left in 200 yards (TomTom). To TomTom's credit, it makes it almost impossible for you to miss the turn by constantly saying "Turn left in 200 yards", "Turn left in 100 yards", "Turn left NOW"...but I found that a little irritating - instead the 3140 will say turn left on Elm Street and give a chime a few seconds before to let you know that the turn is here.

Second thing is the POI's - it has 4million as opposed to TomTom's 1 million. I know both sound a lot, but the difference is that the 3140 has 4 times as much information on the restaurants, groceries etc. I found Magellan had even the newer places already in their database too. Also, the PlacesOFInterest (POI) dtabase is organized - for example under restaurants, you can then choose cuisine type ie Thai etc.

The final killer is the fact that it has AAA guidebooks incorporated in there - so no more lugging extra books with you.

All in all, this is a great buy.

Before starting this review I have to say I had a Garmin Nuvi 350 before buyin Magellan 3140.Magellan served my purpose far better then Nuvi350 reason is with Magellan I can create a route up to 20 stops and it will sort all your stops from my nearest point to the further distances,I am a customer service engineer and this feature itself woths every single peny I spend on it.Other advantage over nuvi is this thing is really fast when my nuvi took longer to recalculate and reroute Magellan was twice faster and saves you a lot of time especially in traffic.It is sturdy and didn't give me any problems so far(4 Months of ownership)

My sister and I bought this for our mother, who is not very technically savvy but capable and is doing a lot of driving now in unfamiliar neighborhoods (she is the unofficial chauffeur for her friends). We chose it over less-expensive options because of the simplicity of the interface (I've rented Hertz cars with Magellan systems) and the text-to-speech directions which read street names rather than just turn-by-turn. I set it up (basically charging and putting in my mother's, my and my sisters' addresses), attached it to her car windshield, showed her briefly how to use it and she was off. She loves it, and was raving about it to me on the phone this evening. Highly recommended. {Jonathan}

I did a lot of research before buying this GPS system. I wanted one that would talk to me so that I could keep my eyes on the road and also that would be easy to see directions on when I gave it a quick glance. The Magellan Maestro 3140 has done both admirably. I am more than pleased and would recommended it wholeheartedly. I use mine almost every day at work.

I was mainly looking for Text To Speech. I bought this for 149.99 and have had it for about 2 weeks. I am happy with the unit so far. The POIs are sligtly outdated. It did not know about a mall 10 miles away from my home. But its not a big deal. It grabs satellite signal very fast, reroutes quickly and gives efficient routes. The coolest feature is Multiple Destination Routing and how it optimizes where you should go first. (This feature is only available in Garmin's higher end units.) Bluetooth feature was an added bonus (the other side could hear me clearly). I had researched a lot before buying and was aware of the very low battery life (compared to other brands available in the market), but then I use it only in my car, so I don't even need an A/C adapter. The car adapter works good for me. Overall, this unit is very economical, does what its supposed to do very well (give routes), and good value for money.
br /
br /Update 03/21/2008
br /I did a bit of research online. Firstly I updated the firmware to the latest version from Magellan's website. According to people's reviews, its supposed to improve some things, but I haven't had got opportunity to play around with the unit much after upgrade. But most importantly,
br /http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=66threadid=2120938
br /provides a way of updating Magellan 3225's POI database to 6 million. Those instructions work for 3140 too. And after upgrading, it does find the new mall 10 miles from my home, which I had said earlier it couldn't find. I highly recommend Magellan 3140, now that you can easily upgrade it to 6 million POI which is the industry standard now.

I have had my Magellan Maestro 3140 GPS for almost 3 months now. I really like it, although it is not perfect. The unit will get me right to the destination, or close to it. The real problem that I have with it, is that it will get you to the street, but it does not always get you to the exact address correctly. In that case, you still need to look at the address on the house or building. Once there, you can save the location into your address book, so that the next time you visit, you will have the exact location.

One good example of how this unit performs, just days after I bought it, was a business trip to Atlanta, GA. My colleagues and I were caught in rush-hour traffic on I-75, heading to the airport. We were in the far left lane when the airport exit was approaching. We TRIED to get over to the far right lanes to exit, but could not get over in time, and missed it. The unit recalculated a route 2 exits below, onto a local road that ran just north of the airport. We took the local road back over to near the airport exit, and right to the rental car return. I would not have been able to figure that out so quickly, especially when driving. I was impressed!!!

The other things that I like on this unit is:
- Clearity of the voice, although some streets are not pronounced exactly right
- Picks up satellites fairly quickly, and even can detect signals through the roof of my house, when on the 2nd floor!!
- Detour function, which is great in large traffic jams and other unexpected problems on your route
- Fastest, Shortest, Most Freeways routing choices
- Points of Interest and AAA Tourbook information, which are like having yellow page and AAA books with you
- Current Latitude/Longitude/Altitude/Speed
- Next street ahead and last street behind, with distance

What I think needs improved on this unit:
- Greater accuracy of the final destination
- Ability to set way points so that the route is more accurate to the way you want it, instead of the unit calculating the newer route as you miss its suggested turns [on purpose]
- Bread crumb trail to follow back, as on some other GPS units
- Ability to avoid very curvy or hilly routes
- Ability to add new roads instead of it telling you that you are off the road, which is rare though
- Longer battery time, as currently is only 3 hours compared to some other GPS units out there
- Additional points of interest, especially churches, which are not listed

Overall, this unit does what I need it to do, so I recommend it. It comes in really handy, especially for roads that you have never been on. I travelled on such roads at least 5 different times since I have had it, and I never got lost! So why rent Magellan's commerical unit, NeverLost (from Hertz), or any other, when about 10-20 days of rental will buy you a unit that you can fit in your pocket, minus the mount. And you really don't need a mount to use it, although it can be more difficult to just glance at the unit without it. [I highly recommend the Nav-Mat dash mount since the Maestro only comes with a window mount, that doesn't stick when the window is cold.]

I researched and comparison shopped heavily before buying this unit in November 2007. At $219 at Amazon (and I've seen it for $209 elsewhere), this has to be the best value in the auto GPS market. I have had nothing significant to complain about; in fact, I love it. It's easy to use, lightning-fast to pick up signals and to reroute. It's gotten me amazingly accurately everywhere I've wanted to go, at night, on twisty two-lane country roads in places I've never been to before. The combination of Magellan's and AAA's Points of Interest makes the range of choices very rich, as long as you don't expect a hand-held phone book.

The voice can take a little getting used to, as it sometimes sounds like English was the woman's second or third language, but the volume is plenty loud, as long as I don't have the radio cranked up. It gives plenty of advanced warning for turns, and has speed-sensitive chimes that always ring a second or two before you have to make your turn.

I'm impressed with the fact that the unit senses when I'm in slow freeway traffic and flashes a discreet detour symbol I can touch if I want to take it. Unlike some reviewers, I've had no trouble with the mount -- it's sturdy, easy enough to figure out and holds the unit steadily with no vibrations. I've also found that the unit announces whether my destination is on the right or the left.

To show you how good this unit is, it even told me that I needed to cross over from the local to the express, center lanes on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia. Now that's sensitivity!

With holiday season sales, you can get a GPS with Text to Speech for less, but when I read the reviews for the units I always find shortcomings this unit doesn't have. I'm a part-time limo driver, so I've put this baby to a decent test, and confidently recommend it to anybody looking for a great GPS at a great price!

Excellent!!! So much fun to use! We are moving to a new state and recently used our new Magellan Maestro to view houses. First, on our computer, we used John L. Scott "neighborhood wizard" to pull up houses for sale. Then, put the addresses in our Maestro trip planner, "optimized" the addresses (Maestro put them in distance order)and, WOW, we had a personal guide--Maestro. Directions were clear and correct

I ordered this GPS because it was supposed to be so easy that "If you can
figure out an ATM, you can figure out this GPS." They were absolutely
right! We can't imagine driving now without it--especially in Boston.
Our daughter borrowed it for a trip and was raving about it after the first day! The screen is also easy to read and the directions given are well done. For example, fastest and shortest routes aren't necessarily the same. Having all the AAA information at your fingertips is great and
the Bluetooth capability makes it so easy to talk and be hands free. This
is for EVERYONE.

I bought the Magellan 3140 because of a good price. I had been looking at GPS systems but wasn't necessarily in the buying mood until I saw the great price. Two of my daughters borrowed it for a a trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Atlanta, GA. They never used one before so they didn't have any real expectations. They picked it up from me 30 min. before they left on their trip. Before they got out of the Pittsburgh area they called me on the phone telling me how easy it was to set up. To make a long story short, when they returned home all they could say was the GPS knew everything and that they wanted one. At one point they didn't follow the GPS directions for some reason and made a wrong turn. In a matter of seconds the Magellan rerouted them automatically to get back on course. They used it all around the Atlanta area during my daughters hunt for an apartment. The Magellan got them to every destination without a glitch. They said it saved them a lot of time since it took them directly to every apartment without having to hunt around unfamiliar areas. This is a great product! Have fun when you get yours!

I have had this product for a month and I am very happy. I have used on trips to the coast of GA as well as Cape Cod and it has done every thing I have needed it to and more. Entering information is easy, the voice command works well, happy with the POIs, so all the way around I am pleased. I am not sure if there is a better unit for the price.

I have not used the blue tooth.

This unit functions flawlessly. The unit's screen is easy to see and the Bluetooth function works great! The software has been spot on and still amazes me. The touch screen is very nice and the unit's voice is clear and concise. This unit has many of the POI's (Points of Interest) in its memory. Also, with the Bluetooth enabled on my Motorola Razr, it will dial the POI numbers for you at the touch of one button.

I purchased the Magellan 3140 3 weeks ago and it is nearly flawless,.my first GPS was 10 years ago, when they were new on the market and the technological advances are unbelievable !...the AAA travel feature is very handy as is the POI ..they give the user many choices in choosing an itinerary.....out of the box quick set-up,....you don't need a manual
...a must buy for the first time or experienced user

I have used this product now for a month and it has done everything I expected it to do. It is easy to use with it's on screen prompting and voice recognition of choices. The delivery time of the product was as stated. I am very satisfied and would recommend this product to anyone.

The Magellan 3140 is the first GPS system I've purchased and used. Admittedly I was very skeptical at first, but the Amazon price was the best available. After receiving the unit, I have admit that I'm very impressed. It performs EXACTLY as advertised, and unlike so many technical products these days, is exceptionally user-friendly. The unit arrived within 3 working days, and I put it to work immediately. I find the 3.5" screen very practical, the input couldn't be easier, and the accuracy is superb. For anyone seeking to purchase a GPS device, and who doesn't want to refinance one's home to do so, I highly recommend this product. I'll leave all the technical reviews to others....but for myself, I couldn't be more pleased.

I recently purchased this product and used it for a few times and now I can't go out without this. I usually miss the local roads when I travel to a new place and end up roaming to and fro hours together and finally reach the destination with lot of difficulty. But when I started using this I miss the roads very rarely. Even when I miss the roads 3140 automatically calculates the routes very quickly. So now I reach the destination very quickly, without others help and with peace of mind.
3140 catches the satellite signal very quickly even indoors. It calculated the quickest route every time (only once I faced the issue). After reaching the destination it tells on which side on the road the destination is. Text-to-speech functionality is very impressive.
Only thing I don't like is that the AC charger doesn't come with the kit and we need to purchase it seperately.

First of all, you have some people that will complain about everything. Even a thousand dollar gps they will find something to complain about.
I love this gadget, it finds a away for me and it tells me when to turn before i pass the street. Its loud so you can hear it. Its small, and the suction cup holder is great. The bad part about it is the AC adapter. Lucky for me i have a ac to dc adapter in my house so i can charge it. Its a great buy, you wont be dissapointed. i looked at many gps devices. You first have to get a gps that uses Navquest maps, they are the best and most accurate. Then i looked for text to speech, this means the computer will name out the streets, highways that are important to you. for the price its the best.

system was very easy to set up and use. No problem picking up satellites even indoors. Announcing the street name is very helpful allowing you to keep your eyes on the road. The AAA feature is great. I am totally satisfied with the unit.

My wife was skeptical when I bought this for her birthday. The first time she used it, however, that changed dramatically. Now she never leaves home without it. I love Magellan GPS equipment. I use several different brands of GPS on a daily basis in my job, and Magellan's are the easiest to use. This unit is small, and power packed! It is cheaper and better than the comparable Garmin and Tom Tom.

I'm a first time GPS buyer. My friend has a 3100 Megallan Maestro & really likes it. In research of the 3140, it has a few more features such as naming the street turns by name, not just left or right. Also has many more points of interest to choose from. Basically if you have an address, you,ve got it made. Really like this GPS & would recommend it to anyone.

I read many reviews before buying this GPS and have used several in the past for personal and business travel. So far I have been very impressed with this unit. I read that the re-mapping algorithm was not that great but I have not had any problems with the software re-mapping when I missed an exit - Traveling in NJ sometimes even with a GPS can be mind boggling.
My wife and kids use it now and a friend of mine was so impressed when we went on a fishing trip that he is buying one for his wife as a Christmas gift. We were in northern Ohio and was able to do a search that found a wing joint to watch a football game one night.
The ease of searching and touch screen control make searching or changes easy. More expensive units have some cool features like interupting radio etc; and I have had a unit while traveling that was a little faster and sophisticated with its routing algorithm. But I would reccomend this unit to anyone.

The product was easy to use, priced right, and satisfactory in every way, at a fraction of the cost of more expensive portables and built-in systems.

I have had the 3140 for a month now. While the deciding factor for my purchase was price point and features I have to admit that I was a bit nervous because of the Garmin versus Magellan comparisons. I think the other reviews do an excellent job of summing up the fantastic features of this little device. It has already proved its worth to me on a trip to San Francisco and to Monterey. Never worry about directions, where to get gas or even where to find a hotel again and for us lucky AAA members find out where to get your discounts to boot! Absolutely fantastic device highly recommended.

At this price ($149.99 that I paid), this unit is fantastic for the following reasons.
br /1- Very fast lock onto GPS signal
br /2- Very clear crisp display compared to other GPS's
br /3- 4.5 million points of interest which is much more than any other gps at this price.
br /4- Blue tooth which again is rare at this price point as well as text to speech navigation.
br /5- Contrary to other reviews you can pan the map by dragging your finger along the screen and once the circle is over a road it shows the road name to which you can navigate or save.
br /6- Multipoint destinations with optimization. You can put in many destinations and it will calculate the best/shortest route which I do not use but would be very useful to some.
br /
br /Minor cons about the unit are
br /
br /1- You cannot update maps or points of interest on the internet free of charge like with TomTom but this is not a major issue.
br /2- The sound is adequate for the most part but with heavy road noise it can get drowned out at times, but this may be due to the higher than average road noise in my car!!!
br /
br /All in all a great unit which I cannot see anyone being unhappy with. No gps will give you the route you expect when you know the roads real well but this unit gets you there pretty well just like any other would and the features of this unit are fantastic.
br /

I've had this item for a little over a month and it really does the job. Text-to-speach is a real key part to this unit as it keeps me from needing to look at the screen all the time. There are a couple peeves like it thinks my house is a block away and I have found that it likes main roads - even when taking "shortest" route, but if you follow it it brings you to the destination without a problem. The speaker needs to have the ability to be louder, too. I did a lot of research before buying and the Maestro 3140 fit my needs at the lowest price possible. The Bluetooth feature is real cool and to me it was a bonus! I'd recommend this unit to anyone. Not the cheapest available but the features make it a very economical choice.

This GPS does everything it is supposed to do well.

1. The touch screen is very responsive.

2. Setup is a snap and routing is quick and easy.

3. The Bluetooth function works well.

4. AAA tour book adds even more value to this product by giving you more information about SOME of the points of interests.

5. The voice is very accurate when pronouncing street names and other directions.

6. GPS signal strength and accuracy is great with the SIRF Star III chip.

Overall a great product that packs a lot of bang for you buck!!!!

Great unit and does the job. I hope you will never have to deal with their Customer Service. Terrible! Been trying since 10/12/07 to get a new 12/24v cigarette adapter cord , the insulation is dry rotted and peeling and cracking. Called them four times, have confirmation numbers, asked to talked to a supervisor, does no good. I will be calling them again after New Years again to find out what the new excuse will be!

Well as I said I called and the previous order (#4) had to be cancelled again and re-ordered ,ORDER #5. No custumer service rep can tell me why they just can't ship the cord. I was told there are 4,800 in stock, I only want one! Asked for a tracking number, asked to have an email sent to me when it ships (ha,ha) must to complicated for them. I have never seen nothing like this. Tried calling the shopping network were we bought it, no help there either. Didn't have a problem taking the money did ya!

I see there is an update on their page for the 3140, almost afraid to download it after reading some of the reviews on other units after updating.

Don't know how they stay in business. Megellan service is a joke!

I've been using this GPS for about 2 months now. I am a little disappointed in its features and performance. Ironically, its maiden voyage was to the nearest AAA office and the GPS overshot the location by about 1/2 mile. It then told me to make a legal u-turn but then missed the AAA office again by about 100 yards in the opposite direction. It has locked up on me twice and missed a hotel in Orlando by 39 miles. It told me I "had arrived" while in the middle of a Florida swamp between Miami to Orlando. The sound is not very clear but is loud enough if the windows are rolled up. I use it often but miss a lot of the useful features that my previous GPS provided (MIO 269). I almost sent it back for a more recent version of the MIO but decided to go ahead and give it a shot. One feature that I really miss is the ability to find Points of Interest while on the road. The only time you can look for something while a route is programmed is if you are on the interstate or a turnpike, otherwise it doesn't let you search. To find a Point of Interest, the programmed route must be cancelled, then do a search, then put the route back in. Pain in the neck. One reason I bought this GPS was for its for Bluetooth capability but I don't have a phone that is supported by the GPS so can't comment on this feature. I probably will be looking for another GPS during the price wars for Christmas.

The Magellan Maestro 3140 is everything I hoped it would be. Easy to set up, bright screen, and accurate voice directions. I read some of the reviews before I purchased it and saw that some said the volume was too low. I didn't find that to be the case. As a matter of fact, I can listen to the radio while using it. I do wish they had an instruction booklet and not the DVD. Also, there a few streets not in the system I hope will be in the future.

This is an amazing unit, plug and use with no setup needed. It has made my driving anywhere so much easier and I believe everyone shouild have a GPS and of all the units available I like Magellan the best. I have had one for about 4-5 years and it has saved my sanity several times.

I just got the opportunity to operate my 3140 yesterday , going to find a address that I've never went to before. Turned this sucker on and it got me to my location with no problem. There was once or twice , that it gave me some turns that I felt were not the best. I had looked at my maps before I started , just to be sure. Those instructions would have eventually gotten me to my destination, but the choice of turns would have increased the distance to travel. On the return trip, this did not happen and had the correct directions to follow. I'm tickled pink with this device. But, as a backup, I'll never go anywhere without a proper map, (Just in case)!!
Great price thru ShopNBC $299. I also received the AAA 2nd year guarrentee. I'd recommend this device to anyone. Very useful. This programs very easily, BUT!! I agree , the level of loudness is not great. If you've got the windows closed and there is no road noise, then maybe it's ok. But otherwise, you really have to keep your ears opened to hear it. It should be increased in the level of loudness.
But, I believe overall, I'd rate it pretty high. Glad I bought it.

My first Magellan GPS. It is extremely easy to use, almost like "plug and play" turn in on and off you go. My only negative comment is that Magellan should have included a written manual instead of a CD-Rom.

I don't know why Circuit City reviews of Magellan products are so poor, nor why the salespeople seem to discourage the purchase of this unit. I used this, right out of the box, with no need to peruse the directions. It is extremely user friendly, intelligently designed, and with the tech. that provides a strong signal even in a parking garage!
It also shaved a whopping 90 minutes off my time on a recent 5 and a half hour trip. So yes, it will save you money.
Don't get me started on the bluetooth feature or on the AAA built-in connection. I paid $299--the deal of the year!

Excellent GPS, lots of POI's, very intuitive and user friendly, fast rouing and re-routing when you make a wrong turn. It has a easy to read (bright) display, and a eye-friendly night mode, that dims it and uses darker colors for background. It does have some problems though. There are no current map updates for it yet, the one it comes with is August 2006, and a update via download or purchase at their website would be MUCH appreciated. Also, there is a software update (version 2.16) available online from Magellans website (free), and I recommend getting it, it makes some pretty nice improvements. You will need a blank SD card (I would say at least 128MB. but a max of 2GB) and start with a full battery like the update says to. Maybe the other complaint I have relates to the one about the outdated map, it has routed me strange ways, taking longer routes than I needed to. There might be newer streets and freeway exits that it doesn't know about. But it does eventually get you there. I like that it gives you phone numbers for the POI's too, so you can call ahead. Although some of those are outdated too. I live in California where it's illegal to suction it to the windshield, so I also recommend a friction dash pad. It is very east to use. I went to multiple electronics stores, and liked the Magellans best. There are a lot of good GPS units out there, but for the price you won't find one better than this. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is the map being slightly outdated, especially in southern California where the roads change on a daily basis.

I recently bought the 3140 as my first GPS unit. I did about three weeks of research before I bought it and I'm glad I did. There's a lot out there so it's good to do some homework so you don't have any remorse.
I liked the 3140 because it has the basic features of a GPS plus some extras which are neat. Like text-to-speech feature. Instead of just saying "turn right in 300 feet," it says the street or highway name that you should watch out for. It also pronounces the names correctly. I live in Spanish-street-name-heavy San Diego and it pronounces everything as it should.
The screen is easily readable and you can zoom in and out easily to just see freeways or see each little street name as you drive. I just wish it was a little bigger than 3.5 inches so if you mount it further away from your eyes, you can still see it easily. The downsides are that it takes a lot of keystrokes to get back to the map after you've entered an address or used another feature deep in the menus. It also doesn't let you scan around a map like you can in Google Maps... dragging the map. (You know what I mean.) It only does when you've entered an address to go to and asked for a map of that location in reference to where you are at that moment. It lets you drag the map around at that point but not in general when you're just driving along.
I've also had a couple of occasions where it's sent me on another freeway that is unnecessary to get to my destination. I've entered addresses that I already know how to get to and it's told me to get on freeways that only end up putting me on the original freeway I was just on. I don't know why. I think it likes to route people on the most direct route regardless of how many roads you actually need to take. It also needs a couple of minutes to lock into at least three satellites when you first turn it on. Make sure the unit's top has a clear shot of the sky from your car.
If you're interested in getting the traffic option for it, be aware that it costs $150 for the extra equipment plus a $30 fee per month after the first month. Kind of expensive....
But all in all, it's a great unit and I'm happy about my purchase. I definitely recommend it.

This item is exactly what I was looking for and came in perfect working order and all the features where as listed.

I'll keep it brief. Customer service is beyond non-existent!
br /Bought hand held unit, worked fine in US.
br /Bought Direct Route EU, software. Would not load on unit.
br /After 7 months yes 7 MONTHS of emails/letters/ phone calls.
br /Magellan finally agreed to exchange, but they sent wrong software.
br /THEY DO NOT CARE, and just give me a run a round AGAIN.
br /So I have a useless GPS.

Just got this today and have used it around town. The GPS is excellent. I sold my TomTom Go 300 (which basically is obsolete) as the unit is big, very dim and very heavy, after I saw this on Amazon for $150. The GPS is a winner for the price. Not as good as my nuvi 660 but a steal at that price and much better than the Tom Tom. Routes are very good around San Francisco and all the way to Stanford (Palo Alto). Voice is loud, but not as good as the Nuvi. Bluetooth works excellent with my iphone for making calls, although you can't get your address book like on the Nuvi. I've owned TomTom, Magellan, Lowrence, Navman, Navigon, Garmin and Pioneer and this is definately one of the better ones (although the Garmin units trump this but this trumps all the others. Highly recommended. 2 1/2 years ago I bought the TomTom Go 300 for $500 and now I feel like I wasted all that money knowing how cheap they became. The unit is discontinued now from Magellan but is still being sold many places and Amazon has the best deal. Pick one up and you won't be sorry.

Works well, but be carfull on sortest route option. It will take you on the shortest route, not always the best route. It is amazing what cow paths are in this database! For the dollars spent not bad.

This is expellant piece of technology Right on the money with directions and street names, Very easy to use. I have no complained about it.

This is a great product! Does everything it says- no problems. I feel the out loud verbal directions is a must in the navigation system! Very user friendly! Highly Recommend this one!

First I sell Real Estate and drive to approx 20-30 houses a week. I originaly bought the 3140 because it has multi-point mapping which means I can input 20 houses at once and it will map to all of them at one time and in the most efficient order from the starting point. Ok here we go... one day after I bought it I was showing houses and the car charger cord stopped working and the 3140 battery died immediately. It takes several days of driving before it will fully charge by the way. Battery life 3 hours non-charger. I thought oh well that happens. I called Magellan and argued with the rep while I was calm just to get a new cord. No. 2 charger cord....died 1 week later. I'm currently on my third charger cord. 8 out of 10 (I kept track trust me) houses the 3140 said "You have arrived" and I was at the wrong house and sometimes as far away as 2 blocks. I was showing houses 1 week ago and had to figure out how to get to a street that the 3140 mapped to the wrong street. The maps are old and I tried to update the maps but you can't per magellan. Each time I called Magellan I could not understand the rep.(call center in India) I am not happy with the 3140 at all and plan to complain to the highest level at Magellan. I will not purchase another GPS from them ever. I hope this helps anyone considering buying from Magellan.

The Magellam Maestro 3140 is so easy to use, Right out of the box.
This is the best GPS, I have used, for the money

The Maestro 3140 seems much better than old Magellan RoadMate. It generally loads quickly and most directions seem fairly accurate. The Points of Interest is not real complete or accurate but can often be helpful for many things. My unit sometimes gets right and left confused. The map is usually correct but spoken directions are somethings the opposite but I usually look at map to get better feel for location and degree of turn.

Bought magellan maestro 3140 in april 2008. have used it for the past 5 months. The unit has performed flawlessly thus far. The 3140 easily takes me to all included addresses and POI's easily and relatively efficiently. My one and only negative would be that the included maps are current to 3rd quarter 2006. A 2008/2009 map update costs $80. Hard to see that much benefit for the few times a road is inaccurate. Only paid $200 for the unit. Still, have thoroughly enjoyed using the unit. Has a fast lock on satellites, holds the lock even in somewhat tree covered roads. I initially purchased a Garmin of similar level. Returned it. The 3140 outperforms the garmin in both ease of use and features.

Its great one from amazon but drawback is little late to get signal great bluetooth no noise nothing good one from amazon for great price

The item was shipped in a very quick fashion. This item was from Warehouse Deals and had a 30 day trial feature. The item worked like a charm but the battery would not take a charge. I contacted Amazon, they sent me a return label and refunded my money in a very short time.
br /
br /I am extremely well satisfied with the transaction.
br /
br /Wayne Hall

I purchased one of these for my wife and my son liked it so much my mother-in-law bought him one as a graduation gift from college.

Magellan Maestro got us where we wanted to go ... and found accomodations along the way. What more could I ask for?

great product. when multiple stops put in it doesn't arainge it quiet the way i would, that's my only complaint.

After much research, I found this unit to be superior to the TomTom Edition 3, which was my other option. My friend has the TomTom and the Maestro 3140 is a better choice. I especially like the way it automatically re-routes, without having to touch the screen, unlike the TomTom. The text to speech was a big factor in my decision to purchase this unit. I found the GPS especially useful during my travels, and I take it with me on vacation.
br /
br /The 3140 flawlessly navigated me around San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and more recently Miami. The unit seemed confused routing us from the airport to Ocean Boulevard in Miami, but it wasn't anything that the auto re-router couldn't handle.
br /
br /I would definitely recommend this, especially if directions aren't your stronghold, as is the case with me. Before, I was hesitant to venture out past where I was familiar, but the Magellan has totally liberated me! As I said, I was all over San Francisco, L.A. and Miami and felt confident. I'm going to New York next month and will be driving (with the 3140) instead of taking the train.
br /
br /If it can take me around N.Y.C. without me plunging over the G.W.B, I'll know it was money well spent!
br /

I bought this for my 75 year old Grandfather for Christmas. 6 months later and several thousand miles driven he is still raving about it. We bought this unit for him because it had the best reviews with the least amount of "bells and whistles" that can become confusing to a novice electronics operator. He still doesn't know how to use most of the options but likes that it works with little effort and is very accurate.
br /
br /Bad Things:
br /It does not come with a wall charger. He left it on charge in his car overnight and it drained his car battery. Wall chargers are not readily available unless you order direct from Magellan for $20 plus shipping or get an iGO charger which works with any device but you have to keep track of different "tips" for each device.
br /The mount is cumbersome at best and comes with a sticker that you have to permanently stick to your car to make a smooth surface for the mount. Even then, the mount does not always stay stuck. My Grandfather was less than trilled with the idea of a sticker on his car so he rests it on an open compartment door in his center console.
br /
br /I recommend the unit if it fits your needs and your budget. However, I own a Garmin Nuvi and wouldn't trade it for anything.
br /

I have a car with a built in GPS and wanted a portable to use in my other cars and rentals when I travel. I like it okay - wish I had gotten one with a bigger screen, but it is certainly functional for basic needs - and of course, not nearly as nice or as many functions as the one built into my Honda. At least it knows more roads than my built in device does! However, what is really, really frustrating is that the mount (and I like the design of it) will not stay stuck onto the windshield. You can work really hard - clean and use the alcohol and follow instructions - and finally get it to stick on - but then after a few days - well, it just falls off while you are driving and falls onto the floorboard - making it rather difficult to use. And of course, then it takes another 50 attempts to get the darn thing back on the windshield. Wish it came with a better "sticking" device. :(

I purchased the Magellan Maestro 3140 a few months back from Amazon and so far have been mostly pleased for what I was looking for. This is the first GPS product that I have ever purchased. I bought it for about $230, a bargain since it starts somewhere at $500. It has text-to-speech capability which allows the built-in voice to announce the street names, the highways, and the upcoming directions aloud. This alone is the best feature because a lot of the GPS systems don't have this feature unless you pay upwards of $500. This is very helpful when you are in the car alone and don't have anyone to read the next turn or direction.
br /
br /I recently took a trip and used the Trip Planner feature. Since this is my first GPS I'm not sure whether they all have this feature but it is helpful. I was able to enter all the addresses I'd be using on the trip ahead of time and store them for when I would later need to access them. It is easy to delete these trip planners but if you have to edit one of the addresses you have to enter it as a new address.
br /
br /It has many options stored within for points of interest however it wasn't able to locate nearby places that I entered. It couldn't even locate a Wal-Mart when I tested for that. You can preset what POI's you want the GPS to alert you of when you are near and it will show them on the map.
br /
br /One complaint I do have is that if you are trying to go somewhere that is not a built-in POI you will need the physical address. It is unable to search for places by name so make sure you have all the addresses of where you are going ahead of time.
br /
br /It is also very accurate on arrival time and will adjust your arrival time based on traffic or delays. I ended up purchasing some accessories with this product such as an A/C adapter for charging, a dash mount, and a case for the GPS and its accessories. I would recommend this product if you're looking for a few extra features but still don't want to spend a lot on a GPS.

I chose this because it was an Amazon daily bargain, and I was in the market for a GPS (getting lost just too often might be age-related), and I'm not sorry. I like the talk-to-me-directions, and the fact that there are not too many doo-hickeys to make things complicated.
br /
br /Very intuitive operations. Of course, it took my son to show me that it was blue-tooth capable, and how to program it. Once I did so, works great.
br /
br /Holds its charge pretty well - got more than 4 hours on battery alone (without using the car jack).
br /
br /Surprised that it did not come will a wall-jack. You must order that separately (I did, and it makes a difference). The car jack works fine.
br /
br /The screen may be too small for some, but I don't think that the driver should be looking at a screen anyway. A little difficult to mount on the dash - somehow, should be transportable between cars. The AAA listing is a nice feature, too, especially once you have the bluetooth hooked up - we were able to find a pizzeria off the main road, get it's phone number on the GPS (with directions to it), and touch the screen to start the call. Very nice.
br /
br /Friends have much more advanced models, but this works well, and will keep me happy (and located) fior quite some time.

I bought this Magellan Maestro 3140 over 2 months ago from Amazon. I like the product, but I PRAY nothing goes wrong with it so that I would have to send it to Magellan. I bought an accessory for it directly from Magellan, received the wrong accessory, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to return the item to Magellan for any refund. I've been trying for over a month to get a return authorization for it. 20 emails and 5 conversations with a foreign call center (sounds like Saudi Arabia and they obviously have difficulty comprehending) and everything goes in one ear and out the other with them. So, unless you are able to order through Amazon and return to them if anything goes wrong, forget about dealing with Magellan.

Great purchase. I love it and it is worth every penny spent.
br /
br /Magellan Maestro 3140 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
br /

Bought this over a month ago at a great price. Having read through some of the not-so-good reviews, I was slightly worried about how the product would turn out. But so far it has worked great - text-to-speech sound quality is great, POIs have been very useful. I also bought a 2 GB SD card and upgraded to the latest firmware and that completed seamlessly as well. While I have had the unit only for over a month and have not used the Bluetooth feature yet, the experience to date makes me confident that the unit will behave pretty well. All-in-all, a solid GPS.

As a 1st time user of a GPS I was pleasantly suprised when I opened it up turned it on and it started working. Little set-up, learning curve, or jargon to deal with. The software update off of Magellan's website went smoothly as well. I've used the unit on many occations making customer calls and it gets me to where I want to go - everytime. The extra features such as AAA POI are fairly reliable and complete, I have not engaged the Bluetooth feature.
br /
br /Good product - Good price.

I am happy with my Magellan Maestro 3140. It did reach my expectations to get me to places. If you are only looking not to get lost so this is your product. I was not looking for a electronic gadget just for the fun I needed something to get me around and help reach my destination. It give all the POI around your destination which its awesome. Thanks !

I used this for the first time going to a place I was unfamilar with and it took me right there. I can also use this as a phone through my bluetooth so I can be handsfree while driving. Great product would recommend to those that are sick and tired of always getting lost. :)

I paid $149 for this product. It is worth every penny. Thanks Amazon, it was a pleasant transaction.

Unit is great! I wish getting an AC power supply from the Magellan web site was not so difficult.

As my first GPS purchase, this device has everything that I was looking for. It functions well and is easy to use. The screen size is sufficient and the display layout works well. The text-to-speech capability is quite helpful and the voice is clear and easy to understand. As with any GPS device, the routes the device calculates sometimes aren't the most direct, but the routes it has provided me have always get me to my destination accurately. On the downside, one needs to keep in mind that the maps in this device are from late 2006 and are scheduled to be updated later this year (addt'l cost ~$70). The AAA tourbook is also a bit outdated, but can be updated for free if one is a AAA member. Overall, the features and performance of this device can't be beat for the price I paid ($149).

i'm a contractor and i'm always going to new places and jobs. so far magellan has yet to let me down. cheese steaks in philli to boarding in vermont magellan has gotten me there

We like the Magellan GPS very much. It has a lot of things it can tell you. I was almost out of gas, and it showed me a gas station close by today. It has shown us specific restaurants we were looking for.

This is my first GPS only unit(other one was a tablet w/blue tooth
br /stand alone gps receiver)...the maestro works great, like the
br /voice guidance alot, and the screen is bright enough to see during
br /the day. Is very easy to operate, very simple touchscreen layout.
br /For the money(refurbished always my first choice) it can't be beat!

We bought this as a Gold Box special, so the price ($149) was quite low. We had been thinking about a GPS for a while, but the low price grabbed us. This is a cute little thing, easy to stick in a purse (without the window mount, of course). We are wary of theft, so we never leave it in the car. I've sometimes used it without the window mount, just sitting in the seat beside me, relying on the voice directions, and that's worked fine. We put it through a couple good workouts on college road trips to unfamiliar areas, and it got us where we wanted to go. When I tested it locally, it did not always choose the routes I prefer (based on my knowledge of traffic patterns, traffic lights, etc.) but the route choices were reasonable. The one thing I find annoying is that when you are on a major highway, "she" (there's only one voice choice) keeps telling you to stay on the highway by saying "In 2 miles, stay on the current road followed by stay on the current road" which seems redundant and gets tiresome. I don't need to be told over and over NOT to take an exit. I just want to know when I need to get ready to exit. Despite this quirk, when it's time to exit the highway you get plenty of warning to prepare for your exit and you know which side it's on. Sometimes in local roads, when making a lot of sequential turns, I got confused about exactly when to turn. There's a chime when you reach the turning point, but it only chimes when you get to the intersection so you might not be in quite the right place to make the turn. It helps to scroll through the directions ahead of time. Fortunately, if you goof up and take the wrong turn, "she" will start "recalculating" and figure out how to get you to where you want to go. Since this is our first GPS, I can't compare it to others, but it did the job and for what we paid, we felt we got a good deal. We also accessed the AAA info (since we are members) and this helped us in picking restaurants along the way or finding specific restaurants when we were in the mood for a particular spot.

Magellan Maestro 3140 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
br /
br /I love this thing! It's as easy as they say. I picked it up at the post office, took it out of the box, plugged it in, and it was ready to go. The only problem I had, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was that the traffic isn't included (which doesn't matter too much - for the price) and the screen is 3.5". Other than that, get one! Day 2, found a hassle. Taking it off the windshield thing is quite a hassle. Maybe because it's new, idk, but it was hard. No biggie though, still working better than I expected.
br /
br /Okay, I'm adding to my review again. I just returned from a trip to Vegas. We used the gps everywhere we went! As soon as we landed we drove to L.A. then to San Diego, no problems, it was perfect. Came back to Vegas, that's when all the flaws showed, before I get to that, we also drove to the grand canyon in Arizona west and Utah and we also went to Hoover Dam...problems? Yes! Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon don't have addresses so I couldn't put an address, it's also not on the points of interest. I actually had to go old school and make a print out on yahoo maps. Then there was the ever changing Vegas. In this situation, I don't blame the gps. The streets were there, but with all the new freeways, they've moved the streets! She (my gps) pointed us to a dead end street or street that no longer was there, only they were...they were moved about a 1/4 mile down the road!
br /
br /I also found that previous points of interest are kept in the unit after updating. For example, (in Hawaii) Ala Moana shopping center Macy's used to be a Liberty House, she has both as a point of interest, hmmm.
br /
br /All in all, I don't know how anyone can drive in the states without one of these, but expect to be led to a dead end once in awhile...well unless you buy map updates, which could run a little over $100 just to get a few more roads on there. She re-routes you, so I wouldn't worry too much.

This is the first time buying a GPS. I am easy to get lost and thought right now is a good time to buy a GPS that is decent and reasonably
br /priced. At first I was really excited about this Magellan 3140. The fact that it didn't come with an AC adapter didn't bother me too much, after all I'm only using it in the car. I was really excited about AAA and the blue tooth feature. But within a week I had decided this is
br /really not worth my money and time, i'm returning it. Good thing I bought it from Amazon.
br /
br /1. Routing: I tested around my town, and used it to drive to work, into the city, going home, going to friend's house. No matter what routing option I choose it doesn't rout me the shortest distance, or fastest. Knowing most of my way home, I find that this machine keep telling me to circle around the destination rather than a simple street to cut through all that circling, and that cut through street is not a cow road or some little side street but a major, direct street. It does the same thing for all the other destinations i went to. Circle around streets with most traffic lights, college area full of people, and doesn't take the quicker and shorter roads. I live near by Boston, the city and my town are both very old, none of these are new roads. The detour option worked great at first, but once getting into local road it's goes on its circling-going-the-long-way routine.
br /
br /2. Bluetooth- at first I was really excited I can use this unit to make hands-free calls. The first call I was holding the unit, the sound came out loud and clear, and my friends seem to hear me just fine. But I realized that once i install it on my windshield I have to yell for the person to hear me. The bluetooth in this unit does not sync with my cell phone address book, so I thought I'll just enter a few people whom i talk to the most into the address book in this Magellan so i can get to them quickly. I go into the phone feature, choose to select contact from address book. it opens up the address book and i select the person. The next window that comes up is the routing window, and the routing button, there is no button to let me dial the phone. By this point, basically i'm not doing anything with the phone nor bluetooth. I have to use call history. Only the call out history shows up, the calling in history shows nothing even though i just had a friend calling in a couple hours ago.
br /
br /3. I didn't use it long enough to use the AAA Option, but the AAA point of interest is very limited.
br /
br /To me, not getting lost and be most time efficient is the most important, and is the core reason i buy a GPS. I liked this GPS also because it doesn't have MP3 and photo type of thing that are basically useless to me on a GPS system. Although text to speech is helpful, but if it doesn't rout efficiently and accurately I'd rather read a map myself.
br /

Got this about a month ago, and I have to say it seems to be a great GPS for the price I paid ($177). Works well, easy to use, quick satellite acquisition without loss, even in some parking structures or surrounded by the buildings in Vegas. Nice features, including Bluetooth, for the price, plus you get double the warranty if you are a AAA member. Only wishes that I have: that it came with an ac to dc charger/adapter (I bought one on Amazon that appeared to be both, but it doesn't charge, just powers it); and the mount could be a bit easier to use. Otherwise, I love it and would purchase it again.

The product has many good features. It has plenty of POI's and it is simple to use.
br /Cons:
br /- sometimes takes forever to find signal;
br /- outdated map, many roads not entered;
br /- does not differentiate between minor and main roads while routing, it often sends you through a road that is full of stop signs and parallel is a faster road;
br /- unit can be too quite because of the speaker on the back
br /Pros, I will not list, there are many and people usually take interest in bad things.

I have been using the unit for a week now in the LA area. I am pleasantly surprised by it's usefulness and much improved experience over a Garmin unit I was familiar with.
br /
br /Features I liked the most:
br /
br /- Detects when your going really slow in traffic and automatically gives you an indicator on the side to take a detour.
br /
br /- Blue Tooth speakerphone works well although not perfect. Everyone could here me fine but they all said I sounded like I was talking through a pipe.
br /
br /- Very accurate in properly detecting what I'm typing in.
br /
br /- Easy to learn and I've found that after using it for only a week, I can quickly enter an address and be on my way.
br /
br /- Reroutes within 1/2 to a full block after missing a turn.
br /
br /- Screen size is plenty and gets the job done.
br /
br /- Text to Speech works really well. Sure some street names sound robotic...but I found it to be very helpful and eliminated the need to look at the unit as much. The more your eyes stay on the road the better.
br /
br /- Points of Interest seemed to work much better than a Garmin that my parents paid twice as much for.
br /
br /- Allows you to decide traffic rules easily every time you select a new destination. Example: Avoid Freeways, Prefer Freeways...etc.
br /
br /- You can click on any part of the route and choose to exclude it. This is HUGE!!!! for me. Sometimes these devices just pick a freeway or road that you know better than to take...but would still like some help from the device. The Magellan allows you to click on a road or freeway and exclude it and then it will re-route using a different option.
br /
br /

This GPS gets me to and from where I need to go easily. The spoken street names is one of the best features. I also love the POI (points of interest). I was unsure of an area I was in and I looked up shopping. It asked details, like what type of shopping, and type of stores and narrrowed it all down for me easily. I am new in town and I have been able to find my way around without worry. I will be taking a 1300 mile trip soon and I am totally satisfied that this GPS will work great. I will update this after my trip has been taken. The price was also unbeatable! I paid 149.00, from Amazon. I did tons of research and couldn't find a price even close for the exact same GPS or ones with similar features!

This gps system is pretty cool and has lots of features but get ready to start looking for updated maps as the ones that are preloaded are from 2006 I believe. All and all for the money I really do think it is really a great product.

Overall its a great gps for its price and am satisfied with my first gps purchase. It starts up fast and receives a quick signal. Bluetooth is decent. I upgraded my firmware and poi without a problem. One major flaw is when scrolling through the map, it is fairly slow and doesn't respond well compared to a garmin 6xx series.

This has been a great product. It works and it gets you to where you want to go. If you already know how to get there...it will not go the way you want. I would recommend this product.

I'e been doing cost comparisons on these gadgets and have found this model to be the best buy for me. Since I am often traveling at night by myself I needed something to help me get places accurately. It seems to be working well so far. I'm getting one for my 85 year old father for Christmas. It's definately come in handy.

I was initially skeptical to buy a GPS because I thought it would make you not notice the routes you were taking and hence would make you retarded! I have definitely grown out of that ideology after I bought this GPS. Apart from it being sleek and with a clear display, my favorite feature about this GPS is the fact that it announces the street names that you have to turn into, ensuring that you know which roads you took! This is the cheapest GPS that you can find with all the features as competitor products with similar features price at atleast 70$ more! I would highly recommend this GPS to anyone who wants a value-for-money GPS.

I bought both this model and the Garmin nuvi 260 and liked the Magellan much better. The prices were the same but this unit has better menus, better features, more features and is faster in thinking about POIs. For entry level units with text to speach this is the king. I thought the two units would be basically the same but was wrong.

Have only had the Magellan Maestro 3140 GPS for a short time. Have tried it locally a few times and have been extremely pleased. We initially tried a Magellan GPS in a rental car severaly months ago. We were so impressed that we decided to buy one for our vehicle. We like the ease of use, portability, area of coverage and POI's.

Bought this GPS Navigation device as a Christmas gift for my fiance. He absolutely loves it. Easy to use, great directions. Haven't had problems with losing the signal. I would reccommend this device to those in the market to buy one or those that do a lot of driving. Very useful.

I recently got this for my hubby, who travels a lot. In comparing them to other GPS that he has used and see this one is the best.
If you miss a turn it will recalculate the route where others keep telling you to make a
U turn
This GPS is also very easy to use.
I would recommend this GPS to everyone,

We have only had the GPS a couple of days, but as of this moment, we are pleased with this equipment. It was delivered in a timely manner in good condition.

This gps comes about 80$ cheaper than Garmin Nuvi 350, but excels the Nuvi in many respects - multi-destination routing, detour, exit POIs, bluetooth and AAA Tour Book. Apart from lacking picture viewer and mp3 player, this is almost near to a complete auto GPS.

I can not find any thing wrong with routing algorithm which many say is better in Garmin. I think Garmins are over-hyped - Maestros are equally good and lot cheaper. I don't have Garmin unit but I compared with the Google Map and it produces exactly same route as (and sometimes better than) Google. It has more options to optimize the routing (fastest time, shortest distance, etc.). With the multidestination routing, you can also modify your trip. Initial signal reception is also very good and fast.

AAA POIs works like charm. I have discovered many places which I have never thought of in my vicinity. My AAA membership gives me 2 years warranty too (I do hope I won't need to use it)

Quickspell keyboard is amazing. But quickspell keyboard does not come up when you search for POIs. One other thing that bothers me is no panning available to view map in 3-D mode; and switching to 2-D mode is not straightforward, it takes pressing couple of buttons. I have seen in Garmin Nuvi you can switch from 2D to 3D mode by double-clicking on the map area - I is not there in Maestro. Firmware update around the corner?

Overall I am very satisfied with the purchase.

First, ordered on Amazon via 6th Ave Electronics. Package arrived 48hrs later in great condition.

No big complaints so far. The Magellan 3140 is very easy to understand & use. Received an additional 1yr warranty by being a AAA member.

One small issue is that the audio could be a little louder. The vehicle's windows need to be closed & a/c, heater fan turned off.

Had the Magellan for two days & need more experience & time to form an indepth opinon.

We absolutely LOVE this GPS! We are so glad we got it. It makes travel/ day trips a breeze!
It was so simple to use right out of the box!

I received my Maestro 3140 over a month ago which was delivered with a faulty car adapter and a CD with a program on it no one can figure out how to use. I have contacted Magellan's customer service 4 times now. They keep promising to ship out a new adapter in 3-4 days. That was a month ago. I hope people who own these units don't ever have to have help from customer service - they won't get any. My unit is being shipped back asap. Garmin's receive much better reviews.

I bought this product to use with my boat and car since it is advertised as being marine capable. What they don't tell you is that the marine maps do not come with the unit and must be purchased from their website. Here is the problem. I purchased a downloadable version of a marine map online which states it will only take minutes to download. Well, here it is 11 days later and still not able to download. I have been on the phone with their obviously overseas customer support staff over five times, and many hours with them trying to resolve this issue. To make a long story short, the website does not work when trying to download. If you do buy this product and wish to purchase a map, order the SD card version and have it shipped through the mail. Don't fall into the same trap I did.

I've done lot of research online and among my circle of friends before deciding on this nice little gps system. it works great!
It has better maps than most other companies.
I do like to see these GPS companies update new maps directly onto each individual gps systems via satellite on a timely basis so that we, the customers, don't have to pay ridiculous amounts of money every time an updated map comes out!

I gave the 3140 as a gift. For the money it is great. I also wanted the Blue Tooth function. It works OK, could be better. I also think the volume was a bit lacking and the GPS is off by a few hundred feet. But over all it is a good unit. The POI was also lacking as one of the listing is Casinos, in Oklahoma we have around 90+, but only one was listed. Also the POI information was taken from third quarter 2006 information. Since the unit was purchased in the four quarter of 2007 you would think this information would be more up to date or you could download more up to date information.

The set up was effortless, but don't bother trying to use it until you've updated it. Unless you live in a major metropolis, this device will not have your address. My home has been built for over 5 years and my street doesn't exist in this device. In addition, it does not provide the closest routes to major shopping centers or points of interest. I could see on the map provided a shorter route, but the system provided a much longer "fast" route. Enjoy, but use with caution. Compared to other models, this one is the low priced option... for a good reason.

OK,
br /
br /This is an awesome GPS! Definitely buy it if you are on the fence. I haven't used the blue tooth, but I wouldn't buy it for that reason anyway. I echo all the positive statements that have been made about it. I have a few suggestions/tips:
br /
br /a) consider paying $150 for it refurbished and you are getting a huge bang for the buck!
br /
br /b) Go to the Magellan site and make sure the map and software is updated/ update it.
br /
br /c) Update the POI file to 6 million! Many people complain about the small POI file, but you can change it even though Magellan hasn't released one. [...] follow the instructions. It works, I've done it and Its great. I have new categories and subcategories. Not only that but the actual file is SMALLER than the original POI file. There are other tips, tricks, and custom POI databases on this forum.
br /
br /Good luck!

I could not be more pleased. Even the blue tooth function is loud and clear.
The best investment I've made so far.

Thank God I bought this from Amazon .. Bought it for 149...Immediately after opening I noticed you cant charge it in home unless you go and buy an adaptor.. After using My car battery pack to power it I got on the Magellan site to update the firmware...After two hours of starting the download and it kicking me out because the server is SOSOSOSO slow I realized that magellan didnt care if I owned their product... Also I recently gave my son a tom tom 1 3rd edition aand let me tell you even the lowely tom tom one has loads of features the magellan couldnt even start to do.... The TOM TOM has several voices for instance three male and three female to choose from the TOM TOM 1 has dozens of other features that the Magellan dosent have... The only thing the Magellan does better is that in it;'s scratchy voice it names the street instead of saying turn right. But thats the only feature it has... Two year old maps... and the download site at magellan is for the most part DEAD and unresponsive... As for the TOMTOM the maps downloaded within seconds...Dont buy this magellan it is not worth even $99

This was bought as a gift and she seems to be happy with it -I do not recieve any calls looking for directions.

Will never leave home without her. Yes she has a personality. Her name is Ellen Megellan and she is great. Easy to use and flawless in her directions.

I just bought this, and used it on a drive from New Jersey to Lousiana. Here's what I don't like:

This only comes with a car charger.

The unit kept saying low battery and would turn off throughout the ride( a lot!), even though it was plugged in and recieving power. Don't know if this is my car's problem or the units problem, but it never stayed dead during the 24 hours I drove, so it was getting power.

Some of the mapping has been wrong and outdated.

This comes with no user guide! Only a CD. I guess this is normal for GPS but it's annoying. They should include a manual.

Sometimes the text to speech is too slow, and you miss your turn. This didn't happen too much, but it was frustrating.

And one of the worst things is that the maximum volume is not loud at all. I could barely hear it when driving. I really had to pay attention or else I wouldn't hear. This kind of made the text to speech useless so I just watched the map. If you want to listen to music, and hear text to speech, forget about it, because you'll barely be able to hear it over the sound of your car driving.

One of the plastic mount screw cap things doesn't stay on. There's supposed to be a little thing inside it to lock the screw through it, but mine didn't have it.


The good things are that it's fast, and pretty accurate for the most part. It's also very easy to use.

Magellan Maestro 3140 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator
This GPS is fast in picking up a route and/or re-routing if we decide to make a "side-trip". The voice is very clear so that we, both hearing impaired, have no problems understanding her. The directions given have been very accurate. Would we buy this again? Definitely!

Turning 40, my son needed a special gift from his mom. After doing some research I decided on the Magellan. I knew he wanted a GPS but he'd never said which one, so I winged it and came up golden. He loves it!

The GPS works fine, but trying to work with customer service to update the maps has been one very long and expensive nightmare. Think of the very worst customer service experience you have ever had and multiply the badness by 10000%. Yes, it really is that bad. Don't buy Magellan!

Overall is a good GPS and very accurate!!
In my case, it keeps loosing it's signal when driving thru NYC, it died on me twice while driving. Magellan told me to reset it..waiting to see what happens now

You must (not) read and accept warning screen each time unit starts up. Off is not an option for the turn "tone." Where are hackers when you need them? Voice, while not pleasent, is clear. Unlike some brands, she knows the difference between 'oh' and 'zero.' Night view (automatic, based on time of day) is excellant. Daytime colors not as clear, even with screen well shaded. If not shaded-forget it. I don't mean out of direct sun; I mean shaded. Entering locations and going to them first rate. Just showing your location on a map not so good. Card slot is just a card slot; not even mentioned in manual. Hackers? Never got to AAA or Blue Tooth functions.
Then it froze. After reseting insisted on showing green "parks" and their names. Sidebar-any park without a restroom or drinking fountain is not an automotive GPS-POI; it is screen clutter. E-mailed issue to Magellan. Their fix (3-4 days later) was exactly what I told them I had already tried. Couldn't understand 800 number rep. E-mailed follow up citing Case Number. A week later (now two) and no reply. Unit returned.

I don't know how much you have to spend to get a decent GPS. Some inexpensive GPS devices get 5 star reviews while more expensive units get low reviews. In this case, this unit performs horribly for its intended task, since it freezes every time it tries to calculate a route in New York City. For a device that can't do it's basic function I give this a 1 star.

More annoyingly though is the cheapness of MAgellan not to even include an AC adapter to charge the GPS at home, given that the first screen you get at bootup says how dangerous it is to program the GPS in your car while driving!!!!

Customer service is awful, as anyone on this site can attest to.

If anyone has a better suggestion for a GPS please respond. If this is supposed to be one of the better units out there, what can I expect for less money?

Before you make your purchase, pick up the phone and call customer support. You will find it is in India and it is worthless. They will lie to you about shipments you have been promised, know nothing of the products and are completely useless. To test this report, I challenge you to try to find anyone in the USA to speak to. Every phone number is routed to India as if there is no US presence at all. DO NOT waste your money. Buy anything but a Magellan. Call (909)394-500 to verify that what I am telling you is true.

Magellan Maestro 3140 Portable Auto GPS System for U.S./Canada/Puerto Rico

setting this up and attempting to make it work was very difficult
I returned this and bought a Garmin which is much easier and customer friendly

I received this unit from my wife for my birthday and find it to be rather cool. There are all kinds of cool things I think it can probably do. It doesn't come with an owner's manual, so most of the features are not available to me. I called the company and they tried to convince me that owner's manual's are a thing of the past. I have figured out to type in an address and get from point A to point B. I live on the East coast and often have to drive near large cities. For one reason or another this unit thinks that the fastest route is through Time Square. Every time I am near a metropolis it attempts to divert me toward city center. If I had an owner's manual maybe I could figure out how to avoid this.

This is really a hard item to rate. It seems like it has many cool features. I am not a tech geek, but I am not bad with electronics. I fiddle with this thing, but without an owner's manual, there is no way I will ever get a high percentage of this units potential.

Computer programmers, this unit is likely for you. Other people may want to look elsewhere.

this is the only GPS unit i've used so i don't know how to compare it to others, so i gave it a 3 because that's a middle score.

I returned it after giving it several tries and becoming very frustrated each time, shutting it off and tossing it aside.

I have to say that I have been spoiled for GPS apparently because for almost a year, i've been using the GPS navigation feature on my Verizon phone, it's called VZ Navigator.

I never used GPS before i got that phone, but really needed it, i drive for my job and go many places i've never been before, and many times wished i had a GPS when i got lost, thinking about how much time it could save me.

Then i got the Verizon phone, switching from a different carrier, it came with a free trial of the VZ Navigatore. It was one of those things i fell in love with, it was all i wanted and more. The $10 a month it costs seems like a lot, yet i wouldn't want to be without it. It makes me feel secure to know i have it. I had no other experience with GPS. I found VZ Navigator to be intuitive, straightforward, easy to use while driving, very helpful and accurate, i was really happy with it, very well designed, easy to see and hear the instructions.

But recently it gave me some wrong directions, something it never did before, and i started thinking maybe i should get a real GPS.

I shopped around a lot and decided on the Magellan 3140, and was really looking forward to it, but from day one, i was frustrated and disappointed.

Right out of the box, i wanted to learn how to use it, get familiar with it, especially since i was used to a different interface so i needed to learn how to get the same results in a different way.

Unfortunately, the battery was near dead and there was no charger. So how was i supposed to learn how to use it? Was i supposed to drive around in my car aimlessly for an hour while it charged? Was i supposed to try to learn the interface while i was driving? obviously not safe. So, i had to, with great difficulty, find a store that had a charger that would work with it, interrupting my work day; I called several stores before i found one at Radio Shack. Spending $35 on a charger and a adapter for the charger, i went back to my office and began exploring the GPS.

So, off to a bad start.

Also, they provide a suction cup mount and a glue on mount. I certainly didn't want to glue somethnig onto my car, especially before i'd tried it out. Unfortunately in my state, it's illegal to put anything on your windshield. so, i broke the law to use the thing and worried that i would get a ticket and a fine. I found that Garmin has a couple of removable mounts that don't have to be on the windshield, a friction mount and a bean bag mount. Why couldn't magellan have somethnig like this?

As another reviewer said, i discovered on the first day that a crucial piece will unexpectedly fall off of the mount, it fell off without my knowing it, in my car, and when i discovered it was gone, it was upsetting because the suction cup mount will not work with out it, it's one of the tightening things, to adjust it. I was able to find it under my front seat, i was lucky it didn't fall in my lap and then end up outside the car. It would be easy to lose that piece if i had the thing very long.

When i headed for home from the office, the GPS gave strange directions, steering me away from the freeway. Even if i chose "Most Freeways," it insisted on giving me the route with no freeways, apparently because that one was shorter and it is programmed to give the shortest route. When i played with it later at home, i entered in my office address and it absolutely refused to give me any directions using the freeway. The nonfreeway route may be a little shorter but it takes a lot longer--this is not good. I know the way to my office so i knew the Magellan was not giving me the best directions and can choose to go the best way instead, but if i'm in a strange place trying to get the fastest directions and it's going to steer me away from freeways, that is not good. I found that by using Detour, i could force it to give me the freeway route, but it was challenging, not something i'd go through while i'm out in the car, and if i'm in an unfamiliar area, i'm not even going to know if there is a freeway anywhere near where i am, so i could see that i would not be able to trust the GPS to give me the fastest directions, instead guiding me into surface street traffic. What's the point of having this feature if it doesn't work?

By far the thing that I found the most frustrating and the most inferior to the VZ Navigator was that if i didn't hear an instruction, because the speaker just isn't loud enough, or because i was daydreaming and not paying close attention to the GPS on a long drive, or because i'm on a cell phone call, I can't push a talk button and have it repeat the direction. On VZ Navigator, if you want to hear a direction again, you just push Talk and it will repeat it as many times as you want. This seems like such an important function, i would've just assumed all GPS units would have this, but i now know this is not the case--not only the Magellan but almost all models i looked at, all brands, do not have this important ability.

I found it much easier to hear VZ Navigator on my RAZR than to hear the voice on the Magellan. And the Bluetooth stays connected on the cell.

Another important feature on the VZ Navigator that i sorely missed on the Magellan is that on the cell, i can easily intuitively scroll forward to see the next step in clear colorful imagry and words, just using the right button on the phone, or the left, to go back and forth. I can keep pushing on the right button to see each step that's ahead of me individually, to plan in my mind, to conceptualize the route.

On the Magellan, to see the next step of the route, i have to use the touch screen which is not sensitive enough, so that it required me to use my eyes to focus on the screen and to search on the screen for what i needed to press, and to press hard enough to get it to respond, and then, it would go to a screen that had a textual list of all the steps in the trip, which i would then have to read closely. Whereas on the VZ Navigator, all i had to do was simply press the right button on the phone, without having to look down at the phone to go from step to step, and when i look at the phone to see the step, it's in simple bright colors showing one step at a time, that i just have to glance at, or, i can press the middle button on the phone without looking down, which is the Talk button, and i can just hear the step. There is minimal distraction.

Until i got the Magellan, i took these user friendly features on the cell for granted, i just assumed GPS devices had these features and more, and better, because a phone isn't really a GPS device, but as it turns out, the phone GPS is much more advanced and better designed for its function and purpose.

So, i was quite spoiled by the VZ Navigator experience. If i had never had that GPS interface, i may have been happy as a clam with the Magellan 3140, but that's not how it happened.

I consider it a huge flaw that you can't have it repeat a direction. That would seem like a no brainer.

And being able to scroll from step to step is very helpful.

I also had the Magellan have occasional crashes, freezes and bugs, like a couple of times in the two weeks i used it, it completely crashed and shut off, and a few times, it simply wouldn't let me type the address in--like if i wanted to type 99th St, it would give me a list of streets right after i typed the first 9 and wouldn't let me finish the address, that happened at least twice. Very frustrating, my time is short, i don't have time to pull over and struggle with the GPS to get directions.

Another annoying thing was the autofill text. On the VZ Navigator, it quickly learns your frequently used addresses and cities, and even if you've only used an address once before, it quickly offers you the choice if you start typing a couple of letters of the name. I live in Los Angeles. All i have to do on the VZ Navigator is type the letter L and it gives me Los Angeles. On the Magellan, i always had to type L-O-S-A-N before it would give me the choice of Los Angeles. So i have just been spoiled by a better interface that makes everything easier. I would love to find a dedicated unit that had an interface like that.

Finally, i was looking forward to having the Traffickit feature when i got the Magellan. The day i received it, i called their customer support and asked how to sign up for it and how much it cost. I was put on hold for a long long time and then finally told that right now, that model does not have the traffic feature, even though the ad on Amazon says "you can get up to the minute traffic reports," or something like that. The rep told me that in 6 months or so, this model will have the traffic feature.

I decided to add another $4 to my cell phone bill and use Verizon's traffic thing, it works great.

There were a number of positive things about the Magellan unit. My perspective was naturally affected by having so many superior features on my phone GPS.

First, it was very good price, i thought, a little over $300.
I got it through Amazon from 6ave electronics and their customer service was the best, A++++++. Free return shipping and refund within 24 hours of when they received the unit, friendly and helpful. I would do business with them any day, and appreciate the Amazon merchant system. Every time i communicated with 6ave and they noticed that it was an Amazon transaction, they went into a 'no problem' mode. They took good care of me.

I thought the user manual was thorough, clear and well organized. I didn't even get a manual on CD because i have a Mac and their manual is only for Windows on their CD, but the online manual on the Magellan website was helpful in figuring out the interface. I'm sure it would've been easier for me if i wasn't already trained to use a very different interface.

I found the Magellan to be fast in coming up with directions.

I gave a three star rating even though my experience was more negative than that, but i am taking into account that i might have liked it better if i didn't first have the other interface, and from what i could tell in my research, the other GPS brands are similar to the Magellan and not like the VZ Navigator. So compared to the Tom Tom and Garmin, it may be as good or better.

I got this for my boyfriend who just moved to my city and didn't have a clue how to get around. He has to plan every trip outside the neighborhood, to the last detail - which this GPS is GREAT for. IF you have the EXACT address, and already know where you are going in general. This IS NOT a good gps to have if you are lost, or need spontaneous directions from somewhere you are unfamiliar with. It got me lost several times, took me through some crazy winding neighborhoods and ended up spending an extra hour to get home.
br /
br /Like I said, you need to have a clear plan of where you are going before you leave, and know the exact address of where you are going. You cannot be in the middle of the city and decide you want to find the nearest Home Depot or movie theatre. It has a few restaurants and gas stations programmed in and that is it. You cannot see ahead of the map, only what it shows you. Navigating through the menu is the most frustrating thing because you have to enter in every letter and number, go back, figure out how to save it, etc. Not user-friendly or for someone who isn't a gadget freak. Most of all, I totally lost confidence in it because it has gotten me lost on more than one occasion. LOST!
br /
br /**UPDATE 09/12/08**
br /I am still hating this GPS system, in fact I refuse to let my boyfriend even use it when I am in the car because it's so irritatingly WRONG. I know Atlanta like the back of my hand and on NUMEROUS occasions this thing gave wrong directions. It doesn't recognize our exit, which is off of another exit making it a little complicated but HELLO there are signs that point to our road but this GPS can't figure it out. It also stalls right when you need to know where to turn and you end up missing the turn. It has helped my boyfriend out a few times when he needed to get somewhere without me but other than that, this thing is totally worthless. You are better off googling the directions beforehand or getting GPS on your phone. This thing should be recalled.