New Garmin Upgrades

Using a certificate, I forecast that the price effect would be much smaller than mkahn suggests. Think mail-in rebates. Think lost socks. Think expiration date.

I had a mentor who lamented that all he ever wanted was one hour a year for people to do exactly as he said....

Cheers.

I never said garmin policies weren't fair. But if you had a choice of buying a GPS unit in January or waiting to May to ensure you would have the latest maps most people would. This could effect gps units sales during the 1st quarter each year.

Remember previous policy was if you waited to register until after the release date of the new map you were given a free map update. I don't believe this raised the cost of the GPS units $40 to $50. Neither do I belive that any cost drop was related to the change in map update policy.

Map update are important for some customers depending on the changes. Example Boston has finished the big dig and some names of road has changed. If you travel to boston one would want the latest maps.

If I were to travel to Boston in March or April and needed to purchase a GPSr, I surly wouldn't want to wait until May to get it. ????

I think your missing my point

Map updates are important for some people depending on the area they travel.

Some people may hold off buying a new GPS unit 3 months to ensure they have an updated map

I got an offical marketing memo from my supplier of my Navi 660.

The 2008 updates are free to those who purchased their units after May 1, 2007.

I have emailed Garmin. They have sent me my unlock codes. Waiting for the CD. I heard they are on Backorder.
It also says the website will support the feature beginning on Aug 22, 2007

....may hold off another 3 months waiting for the price to go down.

Really, if one wants to buy a gpsr they will. I don't think many first time buyers are concerned with or know what's involved with the map updating system. Some of the subsequent buyers are the ones that "expect" that they are owed a current map at all times.

Neither V8 or v2008 are totally current, nor will v2009 when it comes out next year. Columbus, Lewis and Clark among countless others have navigated without a gpsr. Shoot, I used to use a paper thing when I really needed one. I've traveled from Northern Maine to California and in between, dozens of times with just a paper map. I got along just fine without knowing where the nearest Starbucks was. We, as a society have become one of convenience and want nothing less than immediate gratification.

If I live in an area with road construction going on, (not that Dallas/Fort Worth area ever does road construction), then I'm probably more than likely to be aware of the changes and don't necessarily need the most updated map. Although it would be nice. If I'm traveling through an unfamiliar area my better sense tells me I can't rely on only one source(gpsr map) of information. I'm smart enough to realize not every map, not even a paper one will be 100% current all of the time.

The price of the update:

.20 X 365 = 73.00 (.20 a day for a year)
2.70 X 26 = 70.20 (2.70 twice a month)
5.84 X 12 = 70.08 (5.84 a month)
17.50 X 4 = 70.00 (17.50 a quarter)
35.00 X 2 = 70.00 (35.00 every six months)

only time will tell who is correct
But people who I spoken with would wait 90 days to buy ANOTHER/BETTER GPS unit if it meant getting the most recent maps included. $73 is still $73 no matter how you divde it by the number of days you use the unit

There is a mapping error that has existed for a few years on Navteq/Garmin maps. I've e-mailed and asked them to update the info for quite some time. Is there any way to check ahead of time whether the update was made in the 2008 map? I'd hate to buy the update only to find out that the correction was again ignored.
Thanks.
Paul

Yes, there is, do a search on this site, this has been covered many times by others. I don't have the exact place on Garmin's site, but it is there. Hope this helps...

http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/ontheRoad/

On the upper right corner of that page, there's a box "MapSource Map Viewer" - use the drop-deown bix to select the 2008-NT version, and you'll get a map in a pop-up that you can zoom in and pan around to your heart's content and see what's there and what's not.

“Map updates are important for some people depending on the area they travel. Some people may hold off buying a new GPS unit 3 months to ensure they have an updated map.”

Cyber you are entirely correct in this regard and if I knew waiting three month would ENSURE my new GPSr maps would be updated in the specific areas I need, I’d wait too. But then, too, I’d fold an Aces high full house. (That is if I knew my opponent was holding four deuces.) The fun part is we don’t know.
Should someone have a need for a GPSr now I believe they’d buy it. If they don’t really have a need but absolutely have to have accurate maps for any given area, they’d wait until the area is published (even though it might be five years or more, or even never because as everyone knows, “The shortest distance between any two points......is under construction.”) But then they stand to miss out on all the fun happenings at POI-Factory because they don't have a GPSr to play with while waiting. And they can get lost on the millions of miles that are published. That is, if they actually do any traveling in unfamiliar areas.

Those people would wait to buy ANOTHER/BETTER gps unit.
These are the people that KNOW what's going on.
If they didn't know any better, would they wait?...for what? They wouldn't know what they were waiting for. I think all gpsr manufacturers have good year round sales.

I agree and admit I would probably wait to buy a second or third unit, knowing what I know now. But it wasn't the reason I bought mine in December. I bought what I wanted when I wanted and I'm not complaining about having to buy a map update. Although I could just buy another/better gps unit with current maps now, so next year I could go through this conversation again..lol

Anyway, people are people, they are going to do what they want regardless. I really don't think Garmin is hurting from weak 1st quarter earnings (or any other qtr).

In the long run....
...I agree with golfnm8.

I sure would have hated to miss out on all the fun I've had with or without outdated maps. Not to mention my first 90 days (13.85 weeks) here.

Thanks that is my point that knowledgeable consumers that know garmin's map update and already have a gps unit may not buy or upgrade their gps units from Jan thru April because they would not want to pay for a map update.

1st let me thank you for responding and I must say I have been a long time Garmin customer, with the Nuvi being my 5 Garmin unit. It's also my 1st unit for the road... All others have been for marine use.

Going from memory, I think this is my only customer service issue where I contact Garmin. I had a Garmin unit go bad on my boat after about a 1 1/2 years of ownership, but I just replaced it with a Lowerance GPS/Fish finder unit. I liked the bigger screen, but I must say, the Garmin's bottom mapping was much better. On another boat, I put in a Raymarine C80 setup because of Garmin's price for the Radar, at the time was sky high, and the Fish finder on the Ray unit was much more sensitive/detailed. I'm looking into adding a 2nd Garmin unit to use as my primary chart plotter and as a backup fishfinder.

Regardless... that's a little off topic but I wanted to let you know I'm still a Garmin customer because your products fit my needs and I did not abandon Garmin because I had a unit go bad on my. A major reason I didn't contact Garmin on the bad unit or just completely switch to a different company was because of the Service my fellow fishermen have gotten from Garmin. Everyone I know what has had a problem with their Garmin have always raved about Garmin's service.

Back to topic... As for make $$$, that's the goal of all businesses. Garmin should have factored in the costs of doing business. All companies have loses and those costs are factored in the price of their items. If Garmin didn't do such, shame on them.

As for the email option on Garmin's site, I truly don't think anyone was trying to hide. I feel, the problem is a coding error. The site put me in a loop. Every time I clicked on the link for product support's email, it put be back on the page where you select Support or Contact. If this hasn't been fixed, please have someone in your IT dept fix the link.

I'd also like to report I got a reply back from Scott S (ProductSupport@garmin.com). He has notified me that he has placed an order for my map upgrade and changes will happen on your site for getting the upgrade.

BTW, thanks for your support. It's alway nice to know a company rep is monitoring a forum like this for service issues and I see this often on the fishing forums I frequent. And I must say, I tend to do more business with business that will support their customers in an open forum because it tells me they will be fair to all their customers and not just the squeaky wheel.

Thanks for you products.
Thanks for the great support.
Thanks for the free maps.

Two years ago I borrowed a friends new GPS to try out on a 2 week, 3000 mile road trip. 300 miles into the trip, I just tossed the unit back in the box and I was done with that thing. Junk. It was NOT a Garmin product.

I bought a SP2720 and was in awe. Excellent. Now, a Nuvi 680. Excellent again. I will likely buy your next gen GPS too, when it come out.

No quibble from me on the map upgrade. I knew I would get v8 when I ordered the Nuvi. A pleasant surprise to get the update for free.

Thanks, and tell your friends at Garmin I appreciate their products and the Garmin Support team as well.

E-mailed Garmin support, got a confirmation that I was eligible for the free update (bought my C340 the end of June), got the DVD last week and the update went very well. All things should go so smoothly.