As a personal GPS and especially at walking or sailing speeds the GPS V is fine. The display is OK for casual use and the unit is able to hold the maps for more land or water than you can sail or ride over in a day. If you aren't in a hurry or especially demanding then you should be delighted with this unit. I have it as my primary GPS and it isn't sufficiently problematic that I intend to replace it, I'll soldier on and hope for some software updates for now.
br /
br /For use in cars and for more demanding users there are some significant drawbacks.
br /
br /During configuration it takes around an hour to load a full set of maps, 115kbps is not sufficient for loading 19Mb of data in reasonable time. This discourages modifying the map set, which reduces usability if you live round a big city.
br /
br /The processor performance is borderline. For normal use the low power consumption of a relatively slow processor allows good battery life. For car use the power consumption is not an issue but the time taken to redraw the screen, which can be many seconds, becomes extremely significant. The menus are slow, it can take a couple of seconds to go between two entries in a list and I'm not even using WAAS. Routing also takes some time, mostly this isn't too important because once you are on a route it shouldn't recalculate often.
br /
br /There are some bugs, which may have been fixed recently. When I upgraded the firmware the unit started dropping out during route calculation. I wrote to Garmin about this but got absolutely no response. That's a mark down for customer support too.
br /
br /The address entry is cumbersome. In addition, if you don't cancel any other route that was in operation the unit will interrupt and discard your tedious entry if it completes the calculation. If it doesn't then it will start on the new route.
br /
br /Directions can be slow to paint, the wrong directions are sometimes shown until the unit catches up and swaps over to the correct picture. If one turn follows another fairly rapidly it may not tell you about the second turn until after the turn has passed, this is associated with the slow repaint.
br /
br /When routing information is shown the native menus of the interrupted screen are not available, so if you have a sequence of directions to follow and wish to do something else the unit keeps interrupting and refusing your menu selections... there are no menu entries in the routing screen.
br /
br /Perhaps I should have bought a more expensive model, but what could I get that is reasonably portable?
br /
br /Finally, some of the routes would best be described as 'entertaining' or on a less charitable day 'indirect'. For example, when the route from Via Del Oro via Bernal Road to US 101 is being followed in San Jose CA the directions will sometimes tell you to cross Bernal Road (ignoring the left turn) and then to take three right turns. On other occasions it will indicate the left turn. Routing seems dependant on precise location.
br /
br /Finally, customer support at Garmin did not respond. I'd be happy to help them make this a better product, but they'd need to be interested.
br /
br /12/21/2004
br /
br /Last time I checked there were no further software updates, so it looks like Garmin aren't interested in their legacy customers. That means my next GPS will have to be from someone else.
br /
br /I found another routing amusement. Returning from the far north of California I didn't include the Marin county maps but I had included Sacramento because I had intended to return on I-5. When I got well down US101 (a mountain range and probably 70 miles off I-5) I was getting crazy arrival times. Eventually I found that at Ukiah it wanted me to turn east and cross to I-5 because I didn't have the detailed map for the next hundred miles of US101 to Richmond where the bay area maps resumed. It should not favor the downloaded maps to this extent.
br /
br /On the bright side this and my old GPS III+ continue to function almost as advertised. Years of faithful, if slightly eccentric, service.
br /
br /12/17/05
br /
br /I now have a Tomtom Navigator 5 and their Bluetooth GPS receiver and iGuidance 2.1.3 for Europe. The newer software and receiver puts this old machine in a better light than you might think. True the SIRF III receiver is significantly better than this old Garmin. It may be old and slow and hard to use compared to the newer machines, but it does have an almost clairvoyant ability to correctly estimate trip times. If you are looking for an instrument that can record tracks and will show you a lot of current data (course, eta, time to destination, altitude, track, bearing to destination, time to next waypoint, distance to next waypoint, altitude, speed, time of day, date, trip distance, trip time, ...) then this will be a lot more use to you than the late 2005 Tomtom and iGuidance software. But for them my PDA has the high detail maps for the entire US, Canada and UK and it took less time to install than it takes to copy half the bay area to this unit.
br /
br /If I'm heading for the woods or the water this is still the best GPS for me.

As a personal GPS and especially at walking or sailing speeds the GPS V is fine. The display is OK for casual use and the unit is able to hold the maps for more land or water than you can sail or ride over in a day. If you aren't in a hurry or especially demanding then you should be delighted with this unit. I have it as my primary GPS and it isn't sufficiently problematic that I intend to replace it, I'll soldier on and hope for some software updates for now.

For use in cars and for more demanding users there are some significant drawbacks.

During configuration it takes around an hour to load a full set of maps, 115kbps is not sufficient for loading 19Mb of data in reasonable time. This discourages modifying the map set, which reduces usability if you live round a big city.

The processor performance is borderline. For normal use the low power consumption of a relatively slow processor allows good battery life. For car use the power consumption is not an issue but the time taken to redraw the screen, which can be many seconds, becomes extremely significant. The menus are slow, it can take a couple of seconds to go between two entries in a list and I'm not even using WAAS. Routing also takes some time, mostly this isn't too important because once you are on a route it shouldn't recalculate often.

There are some bugs, which may have been fixed recently. When I upgraded the firmware the unit started dropping out during route calculation. I wrote to Garmin about this but got absolutely no response. That's a mark down for customer support too.

The address entry is cumbersome. In addition, if you don't cancel any other route that was in operation the unit will interrupt and discard your tedious entry if it completes the calculation. If it doesn't then it will start on the new route.

Directions can be slow to paint, the wrong directions are sometimes shown until the unit catches up and swaps over to the correct picture. If one turn follows another fairly rapidly it may not tell you about the second turn until after the turn has passed, this is associated with the slow repaint.

When routing information is shown the native menus of the interrupted screen are not available, so if you have a sequence of directions to follow and wish to do something else the unit keeps interrupting and refusing your menu selections... there are no menu entries in the routing screen.

Perhaps I should have bought a more expensive model, but what could I get that is reasonably portable?

Finally, some of the routes would best be described as 'entertaining' or on a less charitable day 'indirect'. For example, when the route from Via Del Oro via Bernal Road to US 101 is being followed in San Jose CA the directions will sometimes tell you to cross Bernal Road (ignoring the left turn) and then to take three right turns. On other occasions it will indicate the left turn. Routing seems dependant on precise location.

Finally, customer support at Garmin did not respond. I'd be happy to help them make this a better product, but they'd need to be interested.

12/21/2004

Last time I checked there were no further software updates, so it looks like Garmin aren't interested in their legacy customers. That means my next GPS will have to be from someone else.

I found another routing amusement. Returning from the far north of California I didn't include the Marin county maps but I had included Sacramento because I had intended to return on I-5. When I got well down US101 (a mountain range and probably 70 miles off I-5) I was getting crazy arrival times. Eventually I found that at Ukiah it wanted me to turn east and cross to I-5 because I didn't have the detailed map for the next hundred miles of US101 to Richmond where the bay area maps resumed. It should not favor the downloaded maps to this extent.

On the bright side this and my old GPS III+ continue to function almost as advertised. Years of faithful, if slightly eccentric, service.

12/17/05

I now have a Tomtom Navigator 5 and their Bluetooth GPS receiver and iGuidance 2.1.3 for Europe. The newer software and receiver puts this old machine in a better light than you might think. True the SIRF III receiver is significantly better than this old Garmin. It may be old and slow and hard to use compared to the newer machines, but it does have an almost clairvoyant ability to correctly estimate trip times. If you are looking for an instrument that can record tracks and will show you a lot of current data (course, eta, time to destination, altitude, track, bearing to destination, time to next waypoint, distance to next waypoint, altitude, speed, time of day, date, trip distance, trip time, ...) then this will be a lot more use to you than the late 2005 Tomtom and iGuidance software. But for them my PDA has the high detail maps for the entire US, Canada and UK and it took less time to install than it takes to copy half the bay area to this unit.

If I'm heading for the woods or the water this is still the best GPS for me.

This is my 4th GPS unit and the most capable of the 4. Initially the GPS V is very similar to the GPS III Plus (I have a eTrex Legend and GPS 38 as well), the screen pages include satellite, map and position, the GPS III+ has a couple more. The thing that sets the GPS V apart is the City Select Map CD (included), which was designed for the GPS V. The GPS V has 19MB of user loadable map memory, be aware that the map loading is NOT a quick process. I selected about 18MB worth of maps and loading that to the GPS V took approx. 45 minutes; don't start this on low batteries. Once maps are loaded the GPS V will display at the top the upcoming streets. If you ask the GPS V to "FIND" a waypoint it can give you turn by turn instructions. When a "FIND" is active you also get a 4th page that is just the next few "upcoming turns". While the V has the look and feel of the III+ the internal software is more like the eTrex Legend I own, i.e. more icons and a few more features than the III+. The GPS V includes a car lighter adapter and PC Interface cable. In Summary I am VERY HAPPY with the V Deluxe, the only downside is the long map load time. I have loaded maps for the following areas; Cincinnat OH, Dayton OH, Columbus OH and Lexington KY so if I stay within that area I shouldn't need to load maps often. My III+ now rides on my motorcycle and my Legend is my GeoCaching device. Things have come a long way since the GPS 38.

The Garmin V's strong feature set and ease of use make this my first choice of first generation GPS units. Although the single four-way directional pad is way more frustrating to use than would be four separate buttons, it is very compact while sporting a large 320 x 240 screen. Color would be nice, but it truly is not necessary.
br /
br /It is very good for using on streets as well as the back country. Finding your destination is easy with its comprehensive searchable database of addresses and points of interest, and with its fine turn-by-turn navigation assistance. But park your vehicle at a trail head and the unit becomes a terrific tool for exploring and enjoying the great outdoors.
br /
br /However, first generation GPS's such as the Garmin V have their serious drawbacks. Managing and downloading detailed map sets is cumbersome due to its limited 19MB of writable memory. In metro areas, such as So. Cal., the map and address data is so cumbersome that you can only fit a very small geographic region into memory at any one time. Also, loading map data via the serial port is painfully slow and further reduces its usefulness for the regular traveler.
br /
br /Current generation GPS units have two advances that greatly improve their usefulness. First, many now feature removable storage cards which allows you to hold address and map data for much, much larger geographic areas. For example, for our Garmin iQue I can fit the entire MapSource North America map set on two SD cards so I always have quick and easy access to all maps and addresses.
br /
br /The second benefit of many new generation GPS units is the USB interface rather than serial. Maps sets can now be loaded into GPS units far more quickly then before making it much more convenient to keep your unit loaded with relevant map and address data.
br /
br /Using MapSource detail maps is important as the default base map contained within the Garmin V is not only sparse but also woefully inaccurate. For example, Elizabeth Lake Road in Leona Valley is mislabeled the California Aqueduct, and many common rural highways are simply not there. This isn't so bad in metro areas, but in rural areas the base map is virtually useless.
br /
br /Although the Garmin V is the best of the fixed memory/serial interface GPS units out there today, I recommend to those looking to purchase a GPS look to the new generation of devices that address the issues of limited memory and slow data transfer rates with expansion card slots and USB capability.

We love this gizmo! We use it both for its navigation capability and we also use it for geocaching - you get both options in one small, easy to use package.We used the navigation on a recent vacation trip. The navigation helped us through several tricky turns and helped us avoid a lot of aggrevation. I found the maps to be accurate and complete and the refresh rates more than adequate.When we are caching, the unit works just like any other portable gps complete with WAAS for precise location finding, and automatic tracking.We found the handheld unit to be high quality, easy to use, with a crisp clear screen. The map software has a lot to be desired. It's harder to search for a location with the PC software than it is on the handheld. Also, the handheld plots different routes than the software, fortunately, the handheld does a better job.Our complaints are minor and similar to what others have noted - we'd like more memory to download additional detailed maps, the map download rate is slow and takes an hour for the full 19MB, the database of points of interest is incomplete and it would be nice to be able for the user to update the database. It would also be nice if the unit informed you when you were navigating outside the range of the detailed maps currently downloaded.All in all, for the price, you can't beat the GPS V.

I have had the GPS V for 6 weeks and have done over 3,000 miles with it covering eleven states. Most of those have been done in a car although 200 were on a motorcycle.
br /
br /If you have never used a GPS then get one, it can revolutionize a road trip. The ability to find 'points of interest' as you are travelling down a road and then drive to the nearest can make a painful and argument inspiring process trivial. This product is one of the best $300 I've ever spent.
br /
br /However, the downsides:
br /
br /1) The map load of 19MB can take 45 minutes
br /2) You can really only fully load enough for 200-250 miles. We travel 600 miles a day which means the morning pre-load has to cleverly pick which pieces will be driving and when we need the extra detail. (Typically we load more maps for the eventual target and the expected lunch stop)
br /3) The map on the CD is getting a little old. If you are travelling through road works or new roads the system often claims you are off-route and tries to recalculate.
br /
br /4) The recalculation time is very slow if your eventual target is hundreds of miles away. Sometimes we would have to stop the car for the unit to catch up. (The trick is to come up with a nearer intermediate target and aim for that before aiming for the eventual destination)
br /
br /All in all, if you want to use this on a motorcycle this unit is the best, for pure in car use one of the more modern systems with more memory, faster cpu and usb link would be better.
br /
br /21,000 mile update:
br /Have now done 16,000 car miles and 5,000 miles on a motorbike with this unit. I still love it, still works perfectly. All the above still apply, but additionally:
br /
br /Motorcycle use: if your motorcycle vibrates a lot (ie you ride a cruiser or ahem a smidgeon fast) then you will find battery life is much, much lower than you expect. This is because you get 'carbon arcing' on the battery connections (translation: dirty black gunge that stops the batteries working). The partial work around is to coat the battery terminals with vaseline. This takes battery life from 60 minutes (sometimes) to a few hours.
br /The real fix is to get the 'data lead' and wire it to your bike battery. My last 2,500 miles on the bike have been wired this way and it is sheer bliss. For anyone that has ever tried the 'map strapped to the tank' approach to riding a bike, believe me the GPS is safer, more accurate and MUCH more relaxing. (Although you do, of course, look like a complete geek)

At the last minute we went to the F1 race in Indianapolis in 2002. After fridays events, we needed to find a Best Buy to get memory for our digital cameras, we wanted to eat at a Mexican restaurant, and go to a movie theater. All these things were easily found using the GPS V. I had loaded all the maps surrounding Indy, and it found the closest Best Buy and movie theater, and we chose a restaurant from the list in the GPS V. They even had phone numbers! When we were ready to turn in for the night, we pulled up the hotel in the V's menu, and it told us how to get there. I was using the power cord, but I had the illumination set to come on only before turns. That would save batteries, and it's less distracing at night. It still gives you plenty of warning. Since we'd never been to the hotel before (it was 30 miles from the track) in the morning, we pulled up the track from the menu, and it directed us there, even recalculating the route when we encountered police roadblocks that redirected traffic. WHAT A GREAT TOOL!

For many years I have run around with a GPS 12 strapped to my dash. It has never failed me and I have come to rely on it. I had seen many people use the Garmin V and knew that someday I would have to take a closer look.pFinally I purchased the Garmin V and was not disappointed. In addition to all of the capabilities of the GPS 12 that I have become so fond, the G-V added several new capabilities to the formula.pThe "FIND" or Auto-Routing has been a terrific bonus. I recently located a piece of property that was listed for sale. It was tucked away in a very obscure part of the area, and would have been nearly impossible to locate with "turn by the blue house; go straight until you reach the tree" kind of "human" directions that it would have required. Instead, we drove confidently to the location, knowing where we were every step of the way.pWe also love looking up Points of Interest (Restaurants, Shopping, etc.) - it has enhanced our travels by encouraging us to take the road less traveled knowing that at least we can find our way in and back out!pAdding the external antenna greatly increased the reception quality of the unit. We routinely get accuracy reported to within 15 feet!pThe unit is compatible with other Garmin accessories I already own, is feature-rich yet intuitive for users like me. I have already been able to convert and use several of the hundreds of tracks I recorded with my GPS 12.pCombine this unit with City Select and Topo and you have a combination that will take you to some of the most interesting (and sometimes well hidden) places on the planet. You will know what time you can expect to arrive, find a place to get a meal, and even get some fishing tips if that's your fancy. Tonight we wanted to check a restaurant for specials and waiting times. I looked it up on the GPS on the way to the location and called ahead for the answer to all my questions!pFor the price of this unit and the map software, you can hardly go wrong. If you want to reach a new level of freedom, take a good look at the Garmin V!

I have used this for five months now. I also use Hertz Never-lost system every now and then. As a comparizon, the GPS-V is very very slow in calculating route etc. If you stay on route then OK, but if you go offroute for some reason, then it takes more than 2 minutes to re-calculate and by that time, you are already crossed two possible route (and you have to be on the same road for it to calculate direction, if you change rods it re-starts the whole calculation). It does not have a alternate-route button, so if you are stuck in traffic and you want to take the exit road it will most of the time will ask you to go back to the original road (cannot avoid this until you travel a lot away. Over all a good unit if you are lookinf for all-in-one GPS.Better price value than the street pilot III

I have owned the GPS V for about a year now, and mostly I have been very happy with it. It might not always take the most direct route, but it will get you where you want to go, and it can always get you home again if you get lost. The main complaint I have about the map setup is that they aren't divided well. The GPS itself has a very limited memory, so you can only load a few map areas at once, and because of the way they're laid out (at least in the Baltimore/DC area) I am not able to get all the local area on the GPS. Some maps are about 40 square miles, while others cover half the state of Maryland. DC itself is divided over 4 different map areas, and you can't get all of them into the GPS at the same time.

This unit is the perfect blend of form and function. If you're looking for a powerful, useful and affordable GPS unit for use on- and off-road, you've found it in the Garmin GPS V!pGive yourself an hour to figure out how to navigate the menus, and then prepare to be amazed. Whether you're measuring your favorite hiking trail, or finding the best way to a Bed and Breakfast 100 miles away, you'll find that this unit is helpful and accurate.pI was worried before I got it that the screen would be too small, or that I would miss having a color screen or voice prompts. But I don't find the unit lacking at all, even without those perks. In fact, units with those features are typically larger, and size is one of the strengths of this unit. It's perfect to stick in your coat pocket and take with you, or to mount unobtrusively on your dash. Any bigger, and I would feel that I had sacrificed one of the key merits of this unit: its portability.pThe firmware has been written impeccably. Straight out of the box, the unit is configured very much to my liking. Maps, text and directions are all clear, and all the fields that are shown (i.e., ETA to destination, distance to next turn, time to next turn, etc.) have been expertly set up by someone who has clearly thought about what actual users would desire to see. But if you have specific preferences, there are a TON of settings that you can customize to your own personal choices.pWhat's more, the device is extremely accurate. It gives good navigation advice, as it generally recommends very efficient routes. The turn-by-turn directions are clear in both text and graphic formats. And the recalculation function is a powerful feature that will give you the confidence that if you get off route, the GPS V will quickly put you back in the right direction.pThe 19 Meg memory could potentially be limiting, but I have loaded all of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as most of Long Island, Massachusetts and Vermont, and it knows every road that I've come across. With a little planning (that's half the fun of traveling anyway!), you can easily have more than enough data in your unit to keep you well informed at your origin and destination. One point not commonly mentioned about this device is the quality of the built in map. Even before I downloaded a MapSource map, I was very impressed with the detail of interstates, state highways, exits and major roads which are pre-programmed into the unit for the entire US.pWell done, Garmin. You've got a new fan!

Overall this is the ideal for factor for me as I use it both on a motorcycle and in cars, , the newer 60c units block my motorcycle dash too much and I really do not care about Color, in fact with the issues of color screens washing out in sunlight I prefer grayscale as they will NEVER wash out, they perform better in direct sunlight. Reason it is 4 vs 5 Stars, EXPANDABLE MEMORY, this unit desperately needs at least 32 MB of ram and honestly they should have allowed for some type of media card (using one of the standard ones not the proprietary stuff). But if this came with 32 standard then I would have probably given it a 5.

I am in the military and this GPS has been a lifesaver I have used it in the United States as well as being abroad. Being in another country can sometimes be diffcult even when it comes to safety. I am able to download from the maps of where I want to go and it has been on point so far. When I travel in the U.S I go to a lot of different locations and the GPS has been so acurate that I do not have to worry about being lost. I have hiked with this piece of equipment and when I get lost I can just trace my trail back to the start point. Some people may not think of it as a safety equipment but instead of asking for directions I depend on my GPS. This way I do not have to stop in an unfamiliar land. Also because it is portable I can take it anywhere with me. SO Garmin you deserve 2 thumbs up thank you.

I have stuck with the Garmin hand-helds through the years because they are easy for me to use and I really enjoy the gps technology. I have owned 4 units now (the 45, the III, the III Plus and now the V).pI realize I have gotten older. However the team that developes these units must have just gotten significantly younger. Garmin...why is the screen writing so so small? This is especially true when you use the pointer to highlight a location on the map. The text box that pops up to describe the object is literally too small for me to read. What happened? Why the quantum leap to dinky letters from the III Plus to the V?pSure the unit works great! The routing capability is wonderful! But I like to play with the garmin along the way...point to things to see what they are...to see how far away they are. Garmin has made that almost impossible with this new unit.pp.s. I have set the text as large as it can be from the setup page. Unfortunately those settings don't change anything for the pop-up text associated with dragging the pointer.

This information is posted on the Garmin web site, but it took a while to find it: if you use a PDA (PocketPC, Palm, etc) and have sync software (Active Sync, HotSync, etc) installed, the MapSource software may not be able to detect the GPS. There are several work arounds, so it's really no big deal, but I was about to send my unit in for repair until I stumbled on to this piece of information. brOther than that, I've had no problems with my unit. I'm very satisfied with the purchase.

This is my first GPS. I needed a GPS to address the needs of road rallies and orienteering. The problem that I found is that most handhelds don't have extensive roadmaps, and most ones oriented for drivers are unwieldy to carry. The GPS V is the perfect combination if you want a capable GPS as a driver AND as a pedestrian. The display is easy to read and backlit for nighttime use. It took us no time at all to get going with it and find our first geocache, as well as have the GPS teach us a faster route to the post office. This is definitely the best GPS on the market for the money if you're wanting a multi-purpose unit that covers all the bases.pThe unit is relatively large compared to most handhelds, but still much smaller than the units intended for cars. It fits easily in a cargo pocket of pants, or in my boyfriend's pants pockets, or in a jacket pocket. The deluxe package is awesome because it includes everything you need to get started. I love the automatic routing feature, too. There's not many in this size/price range that can do routing on the fly (rather than loading a route from your computer).pI have only a few complaints. First, the memory is not enough to hold the area that I'm likely to cover (Chicago suburbs all the way from Indiana border to Wisconsin border). I had to sacrifice some less frequently used areas, and I'm going to have to change my map load whenever I go from typical driving to a road rallye, or if I head up to Milwaukee for an event. Secondly, since it takes a *long* time with the included serial cable to load maps, this lack of storage could become a pain if you think you'll need it. I'm hoping the USB cable accessory (not included in package) will speed things up. But, my map needs are inordinately huge. I think most people will have plenty of memory.pAlso, I should note that the included basemap is more than enough for most road trips. It covers all state highways and interstates. The loaded maps are only needed if you want additional details like smaller streets and points of interest. Still, I wish the Garmin GPS V included an expansion slot. The lack of expansion memory is a problem with almost every GPS unit out there, though...one I hope the industry will soon remedy.pOverall, I'm hugely impressed, and I don't think there's a better GPS for my needs on the market.

I have been shopping around for a gps unit for a while now. I've got friends who have Magellan and Garmin, and I used both. For the sake of saving a buck or two I went ahead and bought the Sportrak pro by Magellan, even though I really wanted the GPS V. The day I got it I started using it. I played with it a while and then decided to download some maps. Whle downloading it fried itself and wouldn't turn on again. So, needless to say I returned it. The same day I returned it Garmin started offering their 75$ rebate for the GPS V, it was still more expensive, but after messing with the Magellan I thought the GPS V was worth the extra cash so I ordered it. It is well worth the extra money. This thing is amazing. Just download the map of the area you're in (or going to) and it has everything stored in it; food, hotels, shopping..anything. Yes, some of the places are out of date, but not many. Also, the mapsource software has many more places of interest than the Magellan Map Send and is just all around more detailed..trust me..I have both on my computer. You will not be sorry, if you are looking for a handheld gps, THIS IS THE ONE TO BUY. For the $ you can't beat it.

The most important features to you should guide your decision in the complex hand held GPS market. Sometimes new technology replaces features that I personally find essential and kick myself when the product is discontinued. My needs for a GPS was portability between two vehicles and sport boats as well as portability off the trail. Being able to replace batteries is critical rather than being out of luck with no charger available. That ruled out the Quest series for me. Color is nice, but consumes power. Waterproof is critical. Design with ergonomics of the GPS V is great in that the screen can be oriented portrait or landscape. Mounting in the vehicle or boat is perfect for my needs and on hikes the belt holder is nice. Living in the Northeast I was able to load detailed maps of the areas I travel 90% of the time and have plenty of additional space for planning road trips. Despite the fact that there are many nice features on the new units, for my personal purposes, there was no other unit than the GPS V that combined the features I desired.

My Garmin GPS V Deluxe has proven to be very useful. After a learning curve of several attempts, I am able to use this with ease for yard sales and short trips to neighboring towns. My wife is usually befuddled by electronics and was even able to use the GPS for a recent trip after I set up a location for her to find, several days before she took her trip.

This is an excellent unit! I had purchased the Garmin V Deluxe package with some trepidation as reviews I had read of it were mixed. But I can honestly recommend it without reservation, having had it and used it for a while now. The quibbles I read about the time recalculating routes once off a planned route don't seem right - given 30 seconds or so, the machine recalibrates and calculates. Battery life is good, and acquisition and lock on to satellites is also excellent. In a battery saving measure, the backlight is turned off by default - I do hate that, but it is a very small problem.pThe unit is smaller than I had thought, and very light. It easily fits in a coat pocket. I like this unit - if you don't require a color unit, talking directions, or a larger screen, this will fit the bill very, very nicely.

Rig was purchased primarily for geocaching, but secondarily for traveling in USA and Europe. Loads great from my desktop, but the package really needs a USB cable termination so you can use it on a laptop. This would allow on the road downloads, since unit only has 19 MB of memory. Incredible accuracy, which is a must in geocaching. Also, if you miss a turn, (difficult, but I did it), the V immediately recomputed a U turn, using side streets. If this had come with a USB cable, I would have rated it a 5.

I've had this for 1 month now and don't know how I made it without it. It has guided us on a few trips very easily and has even shown us better, quicker routes to work, family homes, and other regularly made trips. It mounts easily to your dash with the temporary or perminent adhesive pads. I also got the window suction which I prefer.
br /
br /Pros: mounted or portable. Comes with CitySelect, so you can get all the roads you need. Bright display - but not color. No subscriptions needed, just open and use! Regulary tracks me at less than 10 feet accuracy (very accurate). Very affordable.
br /
br /Cons: to update maps in the years ahead, it can be costly, but not too too bad. No other complaints at all! No voice prompts. No color display.

this is a very good little gps only complaint is that the memory wont let me put all the maps i would like and no way to add memory.

I purchased the GPS V a year and a half ago, worked great, then it quit, could not locate satellites, and now will not even turn on. Called Garmin and was told they would look at it for $150.00 plus shipping. I decided to pass, to rich for my blood, sure am glad I didn't get the Street Pilot!

It has been a very succesful unit for us. We have two cars at home, only extra thing we purchased was a base unit to fix into another car. Every time we need to use this GPS we just manage accordingly in any car.
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br /Some time it gives you different names of routes. I guess it because the data has not been updated properly.
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br /Memory is limited but good enough for daily use, covering all areas where we usualy travel. Keep in mind we always have an option to add or delete maps according to our needs. I would not recomend this unit for any long distance traveler.
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br /For beginers this is the best unit..

I love this thing. It has shown me different routes through and around the crowded LA metropolitan area and I arrive early. I've done one firmware upgrade and there were no problems. My only complaint is that when you get within a couple of blocks (or freeway exits) the system doesn't seem to know which way to turn fast enough. You have to guess, then turn around if you weren'y lucky. It does have an awesome "off-route" auto correction feature! Too bad it can't warn you that you're in a bad area of town!

The Garmin V has all the bells and whistles of the higher end 276C and 376C at a fraction of the cost. The processor is not quite as quick as the higher end units but works great for navigating to an address or locaton. For under $200 I love this unit.

This GPS, in my evaluation, had the best balance between functionality, portability and size. I used to drive more than 2000 miles, in 3 different states on my vacations and it was terrific. Even it is not in color (comparing with other models) this is very convenient to use while you're driving or if you are walking. The only issue (problem) was the connection with my laptop, this GPS comes with a serial port connection (there is no USB connection), I had to buy an adaptor (serial to USB connector) to be able to load the maps (add 30$ to your budget). This is one of the best devices in this category, great to a beginner.

The GPS V is a great bargain, but Garmin's lack of support for the Mac is lame. It's also apparent that Garmin is milking the product without doing a few easy things which would bring it up to date and make it great. It's got an outmoded RS-232 9 pin connector rather than USB, which requires BOTH an expensive adapter AND a PC to load the included maps, (unless you have an obsolete PC.) Mac owners, even with Virtual PC are hosed because the adapter won't work. That said, it's a lot of GPS for PC owners who don't mind loading maps, because the limited and not-expandable memory has relatively limited capacity. (I can only fit about half of Colorado in the 19 meg.) I'd love it if I had a PC, but I don't.

I upgraded from the III+ to the V. I would have liked a Street Pilot, but the cost was more than I could bear at the time. The GPS V is a great compromise. It holds most of the map data I need and doubles as hand-held GPS. If you need a good multi-purpose GPS in a solid, quality package, this is a great little unit.

I got this finally after a week of waiting, and I'm not disappointed. The auto mount installed in less than 2 minutes into my vehicle, and the dual controls for up and down and side to side motion help if I'm driving or in the passenger seat. I took a short trip to the store using a well known route. The automatic routing was close, but forced me to go 1/4 mile up my steet then turn, where I turn a lot sooner. But the automatic rerouting took over, and as soon as I deviated from my original course, a new course for the street I was on was recalculated and displayed. It even told me to veer to the left for an offramp, which was entirely correct. I'm looking forward to eventually navigating the Interstate highway system with this, but in Hawaii, our Interstates are more like urban freeways.

I am very pleased with my GPS V, It replaces an older version and the newer model is great. For the money you can't bet it.

The unit works great. I was looking for a GPS unit that would route and included the map of the USA. I use this unit mostly while out on my bicycle. It makes a great cycle computer and I know where I am at all times. I have been told if anyone will make a wrong turn it is me. I really like this unit.

I bought this primarily to use as a speedometer in my vehicle (my speedo cable is broken). I have found that the unit has many very cool features and has been a lot of fun to use. There are some times when navigating a route over roads that the unit tries to take you off course to save time, but overall I am very impressed with the capability of this GPS for the really low price.
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br /It is versatile and you can customize each "page view" with a number of available fields, i.e. distance to next, avg. speed, ETA at final, etc.
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br /I have been using it for in-town driving mostly but had the chance to go on a 14 hour round-trip this past weekend and it gives lots of information for Interstate exits.
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br /The MapSource software package that comes with it is easy to figure out and the downloads (and uploads) to the GPS are fairly quick through the serial cable. I simply pick my areas to download and then go do something else for 10 or 15 minutes and it's done.
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br /I'm happy with it and I would recommend for an entry-level GPS for use in an automobile. Unless you're willing to spend $600-$1000 for a color talking unit, I would get your feet wet with this first.

Most of the + have already been stated in other reviews. I just wanted to say that we looked at various GPSs and determined this one fit our needs. We use in in the minivan, on the motorcycle, hiking, and biking. It's not perfect in that sometimes the directions are a little fickle (software problems), but that is rare. It's also a bit expensive for a toy (as we consider it). We do like and are glad we bought it.

I've been using Garmin GPS products for about 10 years. My other GPS, a Garmin GPS-III+ is Great. But when they added routing to this III+ look-a-like I had to try it! pI'm in the LA area and have set the GPS V with everything from LA County below Whittier to the ocean, and all of Orange county along the same northern line. This device works GREAT! I went on a driving trip to San Luis Obispo after uploading that area and it took me right to the door! This product is great for travel because it's easy to take with you! And at 20% off I it's a steal!

This product is absolutely amazing. Ive used it for a year now and have used it for traveling over 5,000 miles. Most of the time I use it in the car along with the beanbag mount. The beanbag mount is one of those items that you just need if you plan on using it in more than one vehicle.This unit allows you to download a portion of your state into the GPS unit from the computer. It uses the communication port so it takes a while, but Ive only done this once the entire time Ive owned it. My family and I use it mostly by typing addresses into the unit, then allowing it to find the fastest or shortest route. Its amazing what this little machine can do, and Ive had older models that can do nothing near what this unit can. You can also do a search for Points of Interest in the area you have downloaded into the unit. This is neat if you are looking for a gas station, school, concert location, or something similar where you just have the name of the place.If you get lost it automatically re-calculates the new route, and beeps and shows detail as you go. As you near a turn, the screen shows the turn and also how many miles / feet until you reach the corner. Its very helpful. The backlight is also a great feature, and it looks really good at night.The only problems Ive had was the lack of storage space, I can store about 1/4 of the state of Michigan in the detroit metro area. Also, if you miss a turn, it can take a minute or two to re-calculate the route, so you often mix the next turn or two while it recalculates. Lastly, Ive had it place me on the highway when I was actually on the service street. This has only happened a few times and really wasnt a huge deal.Its definitely worth the price, and since Ive had mine Ive lended it out many times. Its just one of those things that once you have you cant live without.

Previous reviews highlight the many plus and a few minus features, but as a moderately technical, but always lost person, I found the Garmin V to be my salvation. I like the "Find" feature and the ability to find destinations and route to them in a battery-saving "inside mode" before setting off. pBest things - easy to read display (backlit with cigarette adaptor for night) gives several advance warnings of next turns. Going off the suggested route, the unit immediately recalculates to your destination. Waypoints can be easily set to retrace a route. Setting up HOME means I can easily find my way back without wandering as I have in the past. pThe downloadable maps are up to date and Points of Interest as restaurants, banks, gas stations and hotels will be very useful when traveling. The 19 MB of memory is the only downside. I can load all of the SF Bay area, but if I go to another area such as Sacramento or LA, I will have to do some swapping-- I consider that a very minor inconvenience.pI love this unit - it is everything I could ask for at a reasonable price. My husband likes it as well and is amazed the satellite access is free.

It was a very good GPS with sense reception. It is convenient to use 2 AA batteries. You can buy it anywhere and never will lose power. The only down side is the memory is too small that can save map to cover only certain area. Of course compare with today's GPS, this one is very outdated.

I'll be brief... why would ANYBODY buy this antiquated, discontinued piece of crap when, for the same money or less, you can purchase an up-to-date, fast machine with much more memory. Why do you think Garmin discontinued it? And, speaking of Garmin, if you ever need factory technical support, be prepared to wait up to an hour or longer on hold... and they will tell you that in their message!!!

The GPS V is not suitable for automotive use, primarily because it is way, way too slow. Additionally, I would not recommend buying any product from Garmin because their support is notoriously bad.
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br /I bought the GPS V to use in the Washington DC area a few years ago, but it quickly became apparent that it was nearly useless due to the slow speed and the errors in the maps. At the rate that you have to make freeway ramps and lane changes when traveling in a congested metropolitan area, you are already past the next turn before the GPS V has figured out that you have made the prior turn and has updated the screen to show you the next turn. You invariably end up off the route and waiting for it to catch up. When it prompts you for a re-route and you confirm, it spends several minutes trying to calculate the re-route, and if you assumed that you could keep traveling while it does this, you will already be miles beyond the turn off point for the re-route be the time that it is displayed. The thing is a joke. There have been many times that I have noticed while stopped at a traffic light where I am supposed to make a left-hand turn and waiting for the light to change, the message on the display is saying that I am supposed to turn several hundred feet further down the road. I suppose this is probably due to errors in the location assigned to the roads and intersections in the stored maps, but that only underscores the fact that the unit is only as good as the accuracy of the maps, which are very poor. All in all, it works as long as you don't drive above 20 mph, you stay away from major metropolitan areas, and you never assume that it knows your location relative to the stored map with accuracy any better than a half a city block.
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br /The PC application, MapSource, is another source of frustration. Knowing from past experience that you can run out of fuel in the middle of Kansas if you don't plan ahead, I wanted to plan the fuel stops for a trip across on my motorcycle, which has a safe range of about 250 miles. You would think that something this obvious would be easy to do with a tool that is intended primarily for finding road routes. You would think that there would be a way to get it to show you just the gas stations on the map when you have it zoomed in to a suitable scale. Not so. You can select "show services" in the preferences, but it still won't show services unless you are zoomed in really, really close, and unbelievably, you still can't see the fuel stations because the fuel station icons are covered over with the blue grocery cart icon used for stores of every sort and size. Because there are so many stores of various sorts, anytime that service icons are displayed, the area where there is likely to be fuel stations, is literally covered over with a bunch of little blue grocery carts. It simply boggles my mind that this is how MapSource works, now several years after it was first released. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. But one thing that it does well is show you all the dinky little airstrips. But why? It seems unlikely to me that pilots of any sort would use MapSource at all, and certainly not with the CitySelect maps, so why do they show all those little airports? There is no way to get rid of that, either. Even if you turn off services display, the airports still are shown. So you can easily find airstrips, but you can't find fuel stations. Dumb, dumb, dumb. You pay good money for this thing in the expectation that it is going to be a commercial grade product that will allow you to select routes and plan fuel stops, but instead you get airstrips. It is very annoying, and this exemplifies the general attitude of Garmin, which is that they will get around to making it work for the intended purpose, if and when it suits their whim.
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br /This experience has left me with a strong dislike for Garmin. I paid to update the map once, but I couldn't tell any difference. I've been told that the latest version of the CitySelect map is much improved, so I decided to pay them their ransom for the map upgrade. It would not install, giving up at the end and not giving any useful information beyond the fact that the install failed. I removed all the earlier versions and tried a few more times, but without any success. I called their technical support number, which shuts down at 4 PM my time and at 3 PM west coast time, and after waiting on hold for nearly 30 minutes, got connected to someome who led me through the same steps that I had already tried, and after a couple of hours gave up and said that he was going to send me the full install version of the DVD, which he thought should work better than the update DVD. It arrived and I tried it, but it behaved exactly the same, giving every indication that it was copying all the required files from the DVD to the hard drive, but then when it should be finished, it reported that the install was unsuccessful. I managed to get through to their technical support, but then about ten minutes into the call and promptly at 4 PM denver time, he hung up on me with no warning. Just abrupt silence. I called again the next day, and the technical support person informed me that they were aware of a problem with the installation "wizard" when installing on Windows XP Service Pack 2. The solution is to uninstall SP2, then run the installation wizard, and then re-install SP2 after CitySelect V7 has been successfully installed. With no other solution offered, I took this route. The uninstall of SP2 took more than an hour, and after the sucessful install of CitySelect V7, I spent the remainder of the day and well into the evening hours trying to get Windows XP back to its prior state, even with a 3 mbps cable modem connection. Telling people to uninstall SP2 is a horrible solution to this problem, yet that is their standard solution. SP2 was introduced roughly a year ago, so how can it be that after a year, Garmin is unable to write an install script that is compatible with SP2? This boggles my mind, and once again exemplifies Garmin's cavalier attitude for customer needs.
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br /Above all, what I have found to be the most bothersome, is that MapSource is still not integrated with the hand-held GPS V. I have attempted several times to define a route in MapSource and then download it into the GPS V and use it. This works adquately well as long as the route is fully contained in the map set that you load into the GPS V. But because the memory is limited, when you want to plan a single route that will guide you around more than one major city (such as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Louisville), the obvious stratgy is to pick only the maps needed for the tricky parts of those cities. When you define the route in MapSource, there is no effort to check it against the maps that you intend to download, which is okay because you should be able to download routes that are not fully contained within the maps that you download. They know better than to restrict that, because that would mean that it is not possible to define and download a longer, cross-country route at all using MapSource. But given that the GPS V doesn't handle at all intelligently with this situation, what they probably should do is check the routes against the maps when you start the download and then refuse to download the routes if they are not contained with the maps. When you attempt to navigate the defined route using the GPS V, a warning message pops up that tells you that the route doesn't agree with the available maps, and asking if you would like to re-calculate the route. Your intuition is to say "Yes", but if you do, the entire route will be recalculated, including the portion that is within the maps that are in the GPS V! That is just plain stupid. When I first discovered this serious malfunction about three years back, I called their technical support person a couple of times and asked if there were any written notes about this, that might help me to figure out a good strategy for how to deal with this situation when I encounter it. I never got a useful response, and I really think that this just falls under the heading of "It doesn't work that way". Garmin never invested a single minute to figure out what the GPS V ought to do in this sort of entirely reasonable scenario, and certainly never took the time to explain to the customers how to best deal with it. Based on my experience, if you decline the prompt to recalculate the route, the routes are identified to you using a meaningless number, which is presumably a numerical code for the given segment of road, which the GPS V uses to look up the street name when the map is present. This behavior would be understandable when you are out of the region covered by the maps that you have downloaded, but it seems to continue in this mode even when you have entered the region covered by the maps in the GPS V. It seems (although I'm not 100% certain because they never bothered to explain this) that if do not accept the prompt to recalculate the route, it will not again attempt to look up the route segments in the stored maps. What I have observed, most of the time, is that once you are in the area covered by the stored map, if you stop the navigation, and then start it again by selecting the route from the menu (not by re-calculating the route), it will work as expected for a little while. However, at other times, even when well within the region covered by the stored map, it seemed to behave the same as when the map wasn't present.
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br /My real grip about all of this is not so much that it works as it does, but that it is virtually impossible to have a useful understanding of how it works, because Garmin has not bothered to document it, and probably has not bothered to explore how it actually works when you define a route in MapSource with the intention of navigating it in the GPS V. They build capabilities that work fine in a laboratory environment, but they don't seem to make an effort to discover how it works in actual practice, or if they do, they never bother to explain to anyone else what they discovered and what you might want to understand in order to be able to work around the limitations yourself.
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br /I've never used one of their Street Pilot models, but even if they work a lot better than the GPSV as they surely must, you're still going to be stuck with MapSource on the PC, and you're still going to be stuck with Garmin's lousy customer support. There has got to be a better solution.

The unit itself is fairly nice but the battery door on mine failed to latch completely and as a result it woobles when set on its end. The display is very low quality for its price. Difficult to read at night with battery backlighting on. The chief complaint is the mapping software. How about an hour to transfer 19M over a serial cable (assuming your computer even has one!). Then there is the mapping software itself. Shouldn't that be the heart and soul of this device? I have had numerous problems finding locations with the Mapsource software. Talk about frustrating. The maps are incomplete (for San Antonio at least) and sometimes they will give directions that are impossible to follow. I guess thats why there is a legal disclaimer every time you turn it on. Overall, a very disappointing device. Look for mine on Ebay!

I got this finally after a week of waiting, and I'm not disappointed. pThe auto mount installed in less than 2 minutes into my vehicle, and the dual controls for up and down and side to side motion help if I'm driving or in the passenger seat. pI took a short trip to the store using a well known route. The automatic routing was close, but forced me to go 1/4 mile up my steet then turn, where I turn a lot sooner. But the automatic rerouting took over, and as soon as I deviated from my original course, a new course for the street I was on was recalculated and displayed. It even told me to veer to the left for an offramp, which was entirely correct. pI'm looking forward to eventually navigating the Interstate highway system with this, but in Hawaii, our Interstates are more like urban freeways.

I have had my GPS-V for about a year and it has failed me too many time to trust anymore. it does not keep up with you, I have a 28 ft travel trailor and it is not easy to turn around when it tell you you are off route.Sometimes you are going good and the screen just drops out to a blank then you are back to square A, LOST again!! I returned two unites already thinking that it was just a bad unit,save a couple more dollars and buy something that will really work.

I have what is probably a simple tech issue getting my software to talk to my device. Reinstall doesn't work, and the vague suggestions on the websight don't help. They are impossible to get a hold of for help, and I am about 1 day from giving up and attempting a return.
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br /The phone (business hours only) is almost always busy. The two times I got an answer there was a wait of 40 minutes. THe first time I had to go back to work before they got to me. I am still waiting on my second connection. The other 40 tries got busy signals (I have memorize their number though).
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br /Meanwhile the email off the websight won't take my product's serial number. It has no failsafe device, and I don't think they are actually getting my email. If they are, they simply haven't answered.
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19MG of memory barely gets me out of 4 states.pI bought this unit as I am travelling from Vegas to Virginia on my own and wanted the security of being able to find places to stop easily and also stay on the path. I'm not called Dorothy and I have never been to Kansas but I plan to and I don't want to have to use magic shoes to find my way home either - but frankly red shoes would be more useful that this unit for cross country travel. I have spent the last couple of hours trying to prune my map so I can download the maps - no hope. Am really frustrated as the salesman knew my purpose and I guess did not know the product. There's no way you can use this unit "As Is" for any real trips - to and from work would seem to be ok. I am going to return it and try the streetpilot III delux - wish me luck....

My husband and I have several versions of this product, as it has evolved through the years. It is a very good GPS unit. At work, we often have to use a fancy $5000 professional Trimble model. Many times I have not been able to get a good enough signal and have had to use my personal Garmin instead. I don't know why a product that costs less than 1/10th of the price works better, but it often does.

I bought this for my mother who does alot of traveling. Unfortunately, the screen is way to small to make this a useful or SAFE product to use in a vehicle. The product does have nice features, but needs a much larger display to be useful.

I bought this unit a month ago and found out that it was very good quality. With all the features it had you could never stop learning how to use it. But since I really didn't need a GPS (I got it for fun) it wasn't worth the price. brBut if you are a big traveler and looking for a GPS, here are some problems you might have. The screen would be too small to small to see. It is slow turning on because it has to acquire satellites. If you are a big travel I would recommend something else like the Street Pilot III. It has all the appropriate features for a major traveler. pSerious Traveler: br Pros- Accuracybr Cons- Small screen, no talking voice, hard to read.pBut if you are looking for a GPS mostly for fun, I would not recommend this again simply because of the price. Cheaper units still have enough features for one to be more than happy. I would recommend something like the Rhino 120, it has a GPS and a 5 mile radio, but half the price. Or I would suggest one of the ETrex models. br brJust for fun: br Pros- Good quality, lots of featuresbr Cons- TOO Expensive, other cheaper GPS's are just as good.pThe only reason I gave it 3 stars was because of the great quality it had. I did return it and decided that I really didn't need one and didn't feel like going through the process of buying one again.p Over all:brPros- Great quality, loads of features, black light, everything you need to be happy for a long time, A good unit.pCons- Cost, no need for it in any case of use (For fun or A Traveler)pSo all in all I would not recommend this product, even through it is very good. I wouldn't because if you are a major traveler it is too small and if you want it for fun, it is too expensive.

I realize there's a learning curve involved but here are a few thoughts on the Garmin V (my first GPS).pSo far it's a good compass and speedometer, but it thought I was on a parallel road to the freeway for a half-hour during my test trip this morning. Maybe the accuracy level can be set somehow but between the six manuals that come with the system haven't stumbled upon this item yet.pThe 4 street maps I downloaded from the CD disappeared when I changed batteries. Warning! Make sure your unit runs out of juice while you're in your car (while running) and the unit still plugged into the lighter. This is the only way to avoid re-downloading maps. pIt takes forever to punch in letters/numbers under "find." You can't delete elevation numbers (no delete button)pThe backlight goes off, but hopefully stays on when dark.pI'm sure a lot of my complaint is due to my own impatience, but this attribute is what gets me lost in the first place! GPS should be designed for stressed people with a short attention span.

I realize there's a learning curve involved but here are a few thoughts on the Garmin V (my first GPS).So far it's a good compass and speedometer, but it thought I was on a parallel road to the freeway for a half-hour during my test trip this morning. Maybe the accuracy level can be set somehow but between the six manuals that come with the system haven't stumbled upon this item yet.The 4 street maps I downloaded from the CD disappeared when I changed batteries. Warning! Make sure your unit runs out of juice while you're in your car (while running) and the unit still plugged into the lighter. This is the only way to avoid re-downloading maps. It takes forever to punch in letters/numbers under "find." You can't delete elevation numbers (no delete button)The backlight goes off, but hopefully stays on when dark.I'm sure a lot of my complaint is due to my own impatience, but this attribute is what gets me lost in the first place! GPS should be designed for stressed people with a short attention span.

I bought this for my mother who does alot of traveling. Unfortunately, the screen is way to small to make this a useful or SAFE product to use in a vehicle. The product does have nice features, but needs a much larger display to be useful.