Garmin Maps Discounted Price

I can't imagine this being acceptable in any legal sense. I'd avoid it like the plague.

He doesn't say who supplies the map. It could be legal but I wouldn't bet on it. If the map is from Garmin then you might be putting yourself at risk of a major lawsuit.

I agree, your most likely paying $15 for a "can't authorize maps" message when you attempt to use them on your GPS. As the old saying goes, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

Possibly some guy charging you $15 to install OpenStreetMap, which you can do yourself for free. Nowhere does it say it is Garmin's City Navigator.

Ah, good point. And for folks unable/unwilling to do Open Street Maps on their own, the price isn't outrageous. The image in the listing is from City Navigator and that made me worry.

I will contact the poster and see what he is installing and post back when he replies.

CraigW, you might be giving him too much credit. I suspect he isn't actually installing the map for you, just giving you the instructions for doing it.

The CL post says that it takes 20 - 60 minutes. Hope it wouldn't take that much time to give instructions.

Just seem strange that the map includes US, Canada, and Mexico, sounds like a City Navigator map to me.

Another point is the seller states for 15.00 he will update all models from 2007 and up.
How can he do that when the City Navigator map for all North America and Mexico is larger than 2GB.
An SD card would be needed. Surely he wouldn't provide an SD card also for 15.00.

If it is an Open Street map, those maps are even larger than the City Navigator Maps, again an SD card would be needed for many older models that only have 2GB memory.

I'm guessing it's a pirated map and would avoid that seller.

You can buy an SD card off the net for under a dollar. Even if the guy has to supply a card he's still making a good buck on each transaction he completes. I suspect he's using a pirated map but even if he isn't and he paid retail for the map and then starts selling copies he'll probably recover his investment in short order. There's always a market for that kind of stuff otherwise the knock off business from China wouldn't be as lucrative as it is.

If Garmin and Tom Tom charged say $20 for map updates instead of $80, guys like that wouldn't even be in business.

Well I gotta go, it's time for supper according to the my new Rolacks watch.

I Google the phone number and came up with hit:
http://mrn-api-external-prod-176407564.us-west-2.elb.amazona....
The area code is different but the rest of the number is the same. FWIW.

Phil

Just received a text from the CL lister. After asking a couple of questions ...

me:Are these official Garmin Maps?
him:There's no other provider for Garmin maps, you get official maps from Garmin.

me:So this is the 2014.40 map set? I think this is what I need to update.
him:Yes

I don't think that I would take a chance on a hacked set of maps.

Is it possible to just copy the map file from a GPS and load, paste it to another unit? I wouldn't think so, but maybe something here that Garmin has overlooked. If anyone has a contact in Garmin, may want to pass this on. Still no email reply from my concern.

No it is not possible. The maps are locked to a specific GPS. So if this clown is able to sell genuine Garmin maps for $15 I think it's pretty clear that it's being done through sources not authorized by Garmin.

Hacked, pirated, you pick a word.

All the comments thus far for this post sound similar in nature. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!

I would say BUYER AVOID!

Take heed!