Magellan RoadMate 500/700 GPS Review - Page 2

Hey guys, I've been more of a garmin fan for quite some time. They have a new unit coming out any day now, the Quest. I pre-ordered mine about a month ago. It looks very similar, although I don't believe it is touch screen. I think that Garmin's MapSource line of software beats Magellan's hands down, and their coverage of Canada is well ahead as well. It also might be a few dollars cheaper too. $642.84 U.S.D. versus $1299 for the 700 and $999 for the 500 plus.

Might be worth checking into for you guys.

PS, Garmin's website says that they are now shipping.

OK, here's today's experiences.

Still rattling. I am getting concerned about this. I am going to try to pinpoint the sound to the unit itself or the mount. Maybe we just have bad streets down here. the vibrating/ratting is not nearly as bad on the Interstate.

This morning I tried to enter the address of work. It couldn't find either of the cross streets. That was ... surprising. Even odder, I had it on the position screen as I drove to work, and when I turned on to the streets it couldn't find earlier, it DID correctly identify them. Hmmm...

I haven't noticed the unit itself making any noise when handling it. Going to double-check tonight.

Returning and getting a replacement by the time I leave is is not an option, as I ordered online.

Well, crap.

There is something loose in my RoadMate. It's only evident when it's shaken a certain way, but the bouncing around on the windshield mount is enough to set it off. It sounds like a part that's not completely screwed down, as opposed to something that's totally loose and floating around in there.

I tried to open it, but after removing the four screws on the back the two halves were not easily coming apart, so rather than make things worse, I screwed it back together again.

Not sure what to do. Magellan doesn't appear to have a network of authorized repair centers. I may call them tomorrow and see if they have any ideas - maybe they can walk me through opening the unit.

The thing still works, so it's going on the trip. I guess I'll just turn up the stereo to help drown out the rattles. Luckily it is not nearly as bad on the Interstate, where I'll be doing most of my driving. After the trip, I guess I'll request an RMA and send it back to get them to tighten it up.

How is the roadmate finding personal address' like of your family members. I'm just concerned that I will not be able to find them (not family members) but home addresses that I would like to go to? Has anyone punched in a bunch of house numbers and tried to see if the roadmate can locate it?

Ron - Very nice review & thread on the Magellan nav device.

One reader (Robert, I think.....), who has a nav unit built into his Acura MDX, added an interesting comment "...I love both the voice navigation and the ability to command it with my own voice."

Would a voice command feature be helpful in the Magellan product family? Why?

Reason I am asking is that I do product planning in a small company that designs compact technology for embedded voice dialog.... (based on speech reco, text-to-speech, and other core technologies)... and I'm interested in user thoughts about what future nav units should do/could do.

Peter F

Ron: I guess what I was trying to get at was there isn't a local place for me to try this thing out, so I was just curious if anyone could punch in a couple of address' for me to see if it charts how to get there. I've tried a couple lately that had no idea where pretty much every address was I was trying to get there. The alpine unit for one, and the ford unit that comes in the Lincoln Navigator as well.

Today was my first full day of driving with the RoadMate. My experiences were mixed.

First off all, I really didn't need it for this leg of the trip. All I had to do was get on I-10 and drive 600 miles west to Van Horn, TX. My only stops were gas and food right off the Interstate. But I decided to program it with my destination so I could use the tracking and trip computer features.

Right away there was a problem. I tried to set up a route to my motel (a Super 8) in Van Horn. But the RoadMate's database apparently has NO motels in Van Horn. Now, this is not a big town by any means, but it does have one of each of the major motel chains in a three-mile strip right along the Interstate. I really expected this device to have all the motels from the major chains. Big disappointment.

I finally set up a route to an Exxon in Van Horn (it only showed 2 of the 8-10 gas stations here as well), and headed off. The route had me going straight up I-45 to I-10 and then west. I always take the Sam Houston tollway when heading up to I-10 west to avoid downtown traffic. I went ahead and did this to see how the RM would react. As soon as I turned off I-45 onto the tollway, it recalc'd the route and told me to take the first exit to double back. I ignored this, of course, and after a 2nd recalc it apparently decided I was staying on the tollway and correctly routed me up to I-10 that way. So far, so good.

But something really weird happened about 60 miles out of Houston, near a little town called Columbus. Now, a number of state highways intersect I-10 at this point. It first told me to get off I-10 onto 90. WTF?? Why take me OFF I-10 when it's a straight shot to my destination?? I ignored the guidance, and as I approached each of the other highways it tried to send me to them. Finally, after I had passed all the intersections, it settled back into I-10 to San Antonio.

I've just looked at a map and now realize what it was trying to do. When I set up the route, I chose the "shortest" option. Looking at the map, I-10 makes a little mini-loop (actually a bend) around Columbus. If you get off on 90 going west, it goes straight through town and meets back up with 10. And it is shorter in mileage. So the TM was trying to do what was asked of it - it kept trying to route me onto 90 (sometimes via the other highways) because that was the shortest route. Of course, it wasn't taking into account the many stoplights that I would have no doubt run into. The lesson here is in this case of a long drive, the better option might have been to tell it to do the fastest route, or do the favor freeways option.

As I approached San Antonio, I noticed it wanted me to get off on the 410 loop. I had planned to take I-10 straight through town, but that goes right through downtown and is never a pleasant experience. I decided to let the TM take me where it would. Now, the 410 loop around San Antinio is not a proper loop per se. It has a very sharp NE corner, which adds a lot of miles to the circuit around town. If you want to go through SA from east to west and get back on I-10, and NOT go through downtown, you have to make a series of tricky and quick manuevers from 410 to I-35 south back to I-10. I had done this once before and it was a nightmare trying to follow a map through this.

The TripMate navigated me though this series of manuevers (the shortest route through town as it turns out) FLAWLESSLY. It was SO much easier listening to the voice prompts telling me where to go so I could keep my eyes on the road. It quickly had me past the nightmare and back on I-10. I was very impressed with the way the TM handled this situation.

After that, it was a straight shot to Van Horn. The TM faithfully tracked me through the vast West Texas expanse. One complaint here - the display shows the miles remaining and estimated time to the destination. Unfortunately, it appears to use a static MPH value to compute the time. As soon as you get out of the SA metro area and into the Hill Country, the speed limit on I-10 goes up to 75 MPH. Using the +5 rule, I set the cruise control to 80 and sailed across the state at that speed, arriving at my destination almost one hour before the TM said I would. I have used other trip computers that calculate time remaining based on your actual speed, and the TM definitely did not do this. I don't think it even used the speed limit value, as the time was too great for that as well. I don't understand this - the TM knows how fast you're going (one display shows your current speed), so why not use this instead of some fixed value? The way they do it makes the remaining time estimate completely useless.

I have other thoughts, but I've gone on too long as it is. I'll probably have more tomorrow.

I am very new to this forum, and was quite surprised to see the Magellan Roadmate 700 review on a home theater site. However, I purchased this unit in June of this year, and have had extensive experience with it since then, and therefore wanted to share a few things about it.
As with Ron Epstein, I became familiarized with GPS navigation when I rented a Hertz automobile in Dallas two years ago. I was there for a convention, and it just so happened that the Hertz vehicle that I rented had the Never Lost system. I was so impressed with the unit that I wanted to find out about obtaining one for my own vehicle. I spend a lot of time in my car doing short and long road trips, often to new places. I purchased the Roadmate just before I was getting ready to embark on a trip from Baltimore to Minneapolis. We were also going to be stopping in Cleveland, Chicago, Madison, and whatever other interesting little towns that happened along the way. The Roadmate was invaluable, and with few exceptions was able to find every location that we entered. Since then, I have driven from Baltimore to Manhattan, Philadelphia, North Caroling, and the Florida Keys, relying heavily on the Roadmate. With all of these miles behind me, I can offer the following useful information:


As far as actual problems/malfunctions, I've had two separate occasions when the Roadmate completely froze up. The first occurred on my way to Minneapolis after leaving Madison Wisconsin. The unit was working fine when I noted it no longer was showing movement along the road. None of the controls worked, and I could not even turn it off with the on/off button. I had to disconnect the power cord to get it to turn off. For approximately 15 minutes it would not work at all. The unit was very warm to the touch, and I assumed it may have overheated. When I reached MInneapolis, I returned it to the Sharper Image and was allowed to exchange it for another one. I had the exact same problem occur again on a different trip after many hours of continuous operation. This time I didn't exchange the unit. It has not repeated the problem again,although on many occasions it felt as though it was just as warm as when it did freeze up.

I've noted another problem with the unit that is more of a frustration than anything else. It seems if you use the Roadmate only for times when you need it, it can take quite some time to locate your position. When you turn it on in the same location it was previously operating, the satellite seems to track you immediately. However, if you move the Roadmate to a new location before turning it on, it comes up in your previous location and seems to take up to 10 minutes to relocate.

There are two major limitations with the Roadmate that I would like to see improved upon. The first is that you can't partially direct it. If you want to go use part of a route, you have no way to enter it into the travel plans. Additionally, you cannot include multiple points, or ask the unit to guide you from one location to the next, outside of going from your present location. It would be nice if you could enter a location and get a route to additional locations or points of interest from several places.

One thing that would also be nice for the Roadmate to be able to do is store in memory the last city that you entered. Each time you have to enter a new address, you first have to enter the city or state. It would be more convenient if it could remember your last city/state and default to that, just in case you haven't left it yet.

There are some nuances with the voice commands that you have to simply get to know. You may be commanded to make a move that is confusing, especially on ramps where several choices are possible, although the vast majority of the time the commands are very accurate. I have missed turns because the chime that announces you've gotten to your next "move" comes slightly before or after the actual point.


As far as the mounting goes, I would recommend periodically repositioning the suction cup on the windshield. I've actually had the unit fall on a couple of occasions after being left there for days on end. This usually has happened after I've removed the Roadmate from the cradle and the mount falls off during reattaching or repositioning.

One other minor irritant....the bright blue on/off switch is just too bright and distracting at night. It would be helpful if this could be dimmed, or better yet automatically dim at night.

With all of the above said and done, I find the Roadmate indespensable, and I would purchase it again tomorrow. I've come to rely very heavily on it, and would find myself lost in more ways than one without it. Overally, it is highly accurate and precise.


With respect to one member's question concerning its abilities in large cities, I would say that it does have some problems. I noted this most significantly in NYC, but I've read that this can be largely combatted by using the optional outside antenna. I've noted some places out in the country where the signal is pooor, and the unit apparently loses signal and defaults to the written step by step instruction view. Generally this only lasts for a very brief period of time, and then it defaults back to the map view.


One BIG gripe is with Magellan. If they expect you to fork out 1200.00 for this unit, the least they could do would be to provide a minimum of protection for it in the way of a case. I purchased a sleeve AND protective zipper case for the Roadmate. That would be a very costly mistake if the unit itself were dropped onto a hard surface.


Now...about that home theater stuff.

Oops...I nearly forgot to mention.....


I purchased the Roadmate at Sharper Image because they boast of a 60 day return policy. Apparently if you use it for 59 days and decide to return it, they will refund the full purchase price. Additionally, they will price match if you find a cheaper price for the unit at a local retailer with stock on hand.


Just in case you wanted to play with one for a couple of months before being committed to it.

I just got back from NYC again, and have a little addendum regarding the Roadmate 700. For the most part, it performed very well in Manhattan. The one area I had some difficulty was in lower Manhattan where there are some very narrow streets surrounded by very tall buildings. The signal dropped out several times in this particular part of town, but appeared to be much better in all other areas.

I did have one major problem. When it was time to leave the city Sunday evening, I wanted to avoid the Lincoln and Holland tunnels because of the traffic backups that seem to always occur at that time. I wanted to go across the Brooklyn Bridge and get onto Rt. 278 and cross the Verazano bridge and head to I-95 south. When I put in my destination (home) and tried fastest route or shortest route, the Roadmate kept wanting me to take the Holland Tunnel from where I was. I kept trying to exclude this segment by highlighting it and removing it from the route. All this ended up doing was making the navigation unit re-route me to the tunnel, but it would not let me actually exclude the tunnel itself. Even after I made my way into Brooklyn, the Roadmate kept trying to get me to go back across the Brooklyn bridge and then take the Holland tunnel. This became very aggravating, but fortunately I know my way around well enough to have gotten onto Rt. 278 anyway. I hope this problem can be fixed in future firmware updates.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, do you know how to get around it?

I have a Garmin multi-use GPS (car and outdoor unit, the 60CS). The only issues that I've encountered have been:

1) Some of the maps are incorrect. The GPS unit thinks that you can turn on to some of the roads over the expressway (from the expressway). I've encountered 2 of these intersections over the past 4+ months of constant use. The roads are in the correct positions... it just thinks you can hang a right off certain points on the Hwy.
2) Reception is lost in deep canyons and forests. This is to be expected (you need to see the satellite to use it!).
3) Map updates cost ~%75 of the original map's cost. Not sure if these actually fix problem #1!

Customer service is excellent. I lost a plastic nub that holds the car mount retaining clip in place. Garmin sent me a new one for free with instructions on how to prevent the problem in the future (loc-tite).

*First post here...hopefully, the transmission will be successful.

Hi Ron - First, thank you for the wonderfully written review of the Magellan RoadMate 700. You've probably helped many to make the decision to purchase one

I've read other users' opinions of this unit on quite a few sites. It seems that from when the unit was first introduced there are features that may have been added--a new and improved model, so to speak.

The quote below, copied from your review, leaves me with a question mainly because I'm wondering if this feature was recently added. (My unit arrived a few days ago...more on that in another post.)

You wrote:

"The downside of sitting idle is that I can't show you a picture of how the RoadMate 700 provides detailed information about your selected route."

Were you referring to a picture of the map as it moved along the route, or written, line-by-line details for each turn, (distance, etc.)?

I surmise the scrolling map is what you were referring to. If it wasn't, I just want to add that step-by-step details are shown by pressing VIEW after the map pops up.

Perhaps this info. will be as helpful to others as they are to me.

marlene...w/an inherited, defective navigation gene :-(

I just got the 700 for my parents and we're having a small problem.
We've taken it out on a couple of test drives to simply see if it can get us from A to B. So far so good- but it thinks "home" is actually about a mile away down the street. This can lead to some confusing directions if you're going home. Is their any way to "force" it to believe an address is someplace it isn't? Thanks!

For those stumbling across this thread, Magellan is releasing a follow-on model to the 700, the 760. Availability looks to be within the next couple of weeks. Full details are here:

http://www.magellangps.com/en/produc...sp?PRODID=1091

They've addressed many of the shortcomings of the 700, including my biggest wish, multi-destination routing.

The good news for us 700 owners is that the new features will be made available to us via a version 5 software update (http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/t...TOPIC_ID=31352). The bad news is that it won't be available until December, two month after my road trip this year.

So being the impatient bastard that I am, I may eBay the 700 and buy a 760.