vehicle gps units

This product is great but has a few shortfalls:

PROS:

* Clear precise voice prompts
* Large, clear display
* Excelent mapping and on-screen drawing of maps
* Quick routing and re-routing
* Night display mode is great

CONS:

* No EXIT numbers for Freeway exits
* No sub-categorization - say if you select a restaurant, it doesn't sub-categorize into types of restaurants, which the GARMIN does very well. Same goes for other categories.
* Couldn't find shopping centers like Best Buy or Home Depot
* The auto-contrast and auto-brightness doesn't seem to work too well, at night the display is too bright for comfort and you need to manually dim it
* Couldn't even find Showcase Cinema using POI
* Map is backdated - even my 2 yr old GARMIN seemed to have a more updated POI

Customer Support is awefull by the way!

This product was excellant. I have used it for 4 months now and find very little at fault with it. I use the 500 for work and usully put in over 20 addresses a day, it always gets me there! It takes a little time to learn but it is like any other electronic device; to use it properly you must READ THE MANUAL. don't listen to the negative reviews of people who couldn't get it to work right because they were to impatient to read the manual.

*****(btw, the person above who posted "don't listen to the negative reviews of people who couldn't get it to work right because they were to impatient to read the manual" has no idea what he is talking about. I am a computer geek, and my problems had NOTHING to do with impatience or not reading the manual!!!! My software simply "stopped responding" while trying to load up the maps!!!! I spent 2 days trying to get this thing to work!!! The software is buggy beyond belief! BE WARNED!)*****

I bought this item the other day, because I thought "What a good deal! you get the windshield mount and a 256MB card!!" Then 1 day letter I returned it! There are MANY positives...but they dont matter in the least bit if your machine DOESNT WORK!

NEGATIVES:
1) BUGGY SOFTWARE FREEZES: The software that comes with the Roadmate 500 to load on the maps is BUGGY to say the least! Everytime I tried to load the maps in my region, It would get about half way done, then just freeze up. Then Id have to restore the corrupt card, and start again. I NEVER sucessfully downloaded the maps, and therfor I had to return the item. And this is on a BRAND NEW Pentium 4 Dell Desktop that WELL exceeds all of the system specs.
2) LIMITED AMOUNT OF MAP DATA: It is VERY decieving in that they tell you "You get 4 CD-ROMS with ALL maps from the US an and CANADA!! Just upload your maps and you're ready to go!!!" But what they DONT tell you is that you have 45 days to decide which regions you want, and then after 45 days your card locks up and THATS IT!! You can no longer download maps from the CD-ROMS unless you want to shell out more cash. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I live in NJ and I was UNABLE to fir all of NJ, NY, CT, and PA on the 256MB cards...and I travle to ALL of these states from time to time. This is NOT fair! I spend almost $900 and I cant even transfer additional maps after 45 days??? This is GREEDY to say the least!!!
3) CARD NOT BIG ENOUGH: The 256MB card DOES NOT hold that much data! Dont expect to hold more then 2-4 states on the card. But since the map of the US is broken down into "regions" you might be able to fit only 1/2 of one particular state and not the rest because it is in a different region and your card is full. YES...THATS RIGHT...Some states are split between 2 or more regions!!
4) LOOSE AC ADAPTOR: The AC adaptor is VERY loose and may slip out and cause it to shut off randomly.
5) NO PLASTIC COVOR ON SCREEN: Ok, not to be petty...but when I buy an electronic device with a nice color screen, I LOVE to peel off that nice sheet of adhesive plastic that protects the screen from scratches. The Magellin Roadmate 500 DOES NOT have that on its screen, and I mean, without it...it just doesn't feel NEW!

POSITIVES:
1) NICE SCREEN: The screen looks great...nice and bright!
2) GREAT SATILLITE RECEPTION: This machine will locate a satillite in as little as 1 minute and no more then 4 minutes. Thats not too bad. And once it finds it it LOCKS on!
3) GOOD VOICE PROMPT: Both the woman and the man sound very pleasent.

In conclusion, DO NOT BUY THE MAGELLAN 500 PLUS! If you are springing for this item, go the extra $150 and Buy the MAGELLAN 700! It has a 10 gigabyte hard drive in it with ALL of the maps from the US and CANADA already in there. It is "plug and play" which means you take it out of the bos, stick it to your car's windshield, turn it on, and DRIVE! No computer needed, no hassles, no computer crashes!

DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!!! PERIOD! GET THE MAGELLAN 700!!!

Have a nice day :)

-BRAD