Garmin Drive Refurb Quality?

I have a refurbished Zumo 550 (motorcycle) that came directly from Garmin, many years ago, because my original had a problem, out of warranty of course, and they gave me the refurbished model. It's an old unit and still works as it should. Newer units are eons ahead of it in features and lag time is apparent, but even new it had lag just didn't realise it until I got a newer unit for the car, but it still works.

So I'm happy with the one I got from Garmin directly. I guess it might make a difference if the refurbs GPSCity has didn't get refurbed by Garmin.

I couldn't find a Drive 55 on GPSCity but did find both new and refurbed DriveSmart 55s which I think may be what you ordered. At GPSCity, the DS 55 refurb is a Factory Refurb with Manufacturers 1 yr warranty. Refurbs don't get better than a Factory Refurb with manufacturer's warranty so you've done well and probably gotten free shipping as well. It's also possible that you received a new DS 55 that was repackaged in a white box and called refurbished.

Keep in mind, too, that compared to used cell phones and other devices with rechargeable batteries, Garmin's On The Road GPS devices depend primarily on your vehicle for power.

I've bought refurbs and never had issues with them and have also done well buying and using used eBay Garmin devices.

If a betting man, I'd say that you've saved nearly $100 and will be extremely happy with the purchase for years.

I've had a dozen or more refurbished Garmins over the years and with the exception of one, performed flawlessly. The exception was a Driveluxe 51 which went into a permanent boot loop. It was promptly replaced with another unit which works perfectly.

As previously stated, the trick is to make sure it is a Garmin factory refurbished unit with 1 year warranty. Beware of some resellers, including a few on eBay, who sell "refurbished" units where the work was done by someone other than Garmin.

Odds are, you'll be fine with your Drive 55.

I have a refurb 2689 and it has been absolutely fine. As far as battery life, I find all too often people complain about the battery life, but fail to take into account the device, at least as we discuss it in this thread, is intended for a car and plugged in. Yes, there is a battery but it is not intended for a 5-hour trip down the highway.

My experience in general with refurbs (Canon cameras, flash units, computers) has been absolutely positive in all respects. Almost everything I’ve purchased can’t be told cosmetically from “new” and also came with a exchange period. Most of what I’ve purchased also comes with a warranty that is pretty much the same as new.

Ok thanks for the feedback. I was worried because in addition to the quality of the unit, I read some bad reviews on their site that they sold used/refurbed units that could not be registered with Garmin since it was still registered with the previous owner. As for GPSCITY, I used to go to their store in Las Vegas when they had a store front years ago and then when they moved, they said internet sales only now but at that time, I had no problem with them so I'm hoping I don't run into an issue where I can't get updates due to a previous owner being registered with the unit. Hoping that was just a one off incident someone had. I'll update the thread when I get the unit though. -Thanks!

PS: Here is the link to the unit I bought.

https://www.gpscity.com/garmin-drivesmart-55lmt-(certified-refurbished)

At your link, I’m not sure I understand a user who commented “The DriveSmart is limited to a route of about 1000 km while the 3597 can process a 5000 km route.” 1000 kn is about 625 miles. When you get your unit perhaps you can shed some light on that.

I have purchased several refurb Garmin Nuvi and they all looked brand new. I would expect the refurb Drive to be similar.

After every map update on my DriveSmart 51 I would ask it to route me from home in CO to a restaurant in Key West. It used to fail, but one day (and since) I would program the route without error. I don't know what changed but there are limits.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/gps-city-las-vegas?hrid=b7MzLIacLOOUC4LrHTy-CA&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

Will do.

I've bought about six Garmin units in refurb form over the years. I've had some arriving looking perfectly factory fresh, and with no misbehavior I ever detected. I've had others arrive with pretty big visible dents in the backside. Those had zero functional impact, but were certainly a cosmetic defect. I had two arrive with clearly substandard batteries. One was so severe that I sent it back promptly as essentially non-functional. The other I lived with (I don't much rely on battery endurance in my usage) but could easily tell it was deficient as compared to the same model in my wife's car.

So if nothing has changed, you probably are taking some risk of getting one either less pretty or less perfect than new build. I think the risk worth it for very substantial saving on a model you actually want. I'd have been too cheap to pay the new price on the two 3597 models we operate now, and am pleased as punch with them.

I have 7 Garmin GPS devices. All of them except the first one were factory refurbs. They are all still in working condition. Like Bdhsfz6, the only failure I had with a refurb was with my newest device, a DriveLuxe 51. It failed the second day I owned it and was promptly replaced by the online store. The replacement has worked perfectly.

I don't know if I will ever buy another GPS device, but if I do, it will most likely be a factory refurb.

I've gotten several refurbs from buydig. No issues registering or obtaining map updates. The DS65 came from them sometime last year. Same for the DS61 the year prior. Driveluxe 50 refurb from ebay some years back.

I think i have enough gps's.

Same here although I have my eye on the new RV1090 with 10" screen. I'm not willing to part with $700 at this point though. Might be a long wait before it shows up as a refurb.

Unit is coming in later today or tomorrow. Let you know how it looks and more importantly, if I can register it with Garmin. If not, it's going back. OK, thanks for all the input!

You will be fine with a Factory refurb from GPS City.

I just got my refurb from GPS City. It had a very low battery, but it seems ok after charging now.

A low battery upon receipt may be normal. There is a recent (2019) regulatory directive on lithium based batteries that the cells, or the battery packs themselves, need to be at a 30% state of charge (SOC) or less when being shipped. At the device manufacturing level this does not apply to the battery packs contained within equipment but most device manufacturers are adhering to the standard just because it is less effort to do that instead of charging. This is one of the reasons why the instructions for most devices say to fully charge upon receipt.

done by Garmin and they were like new.
I don't know if others do refurbs but if it is Garmin you should be good as new.

I did not know that. I always thought that charging to full capacity would help increase future battery life.

I have bought two or three refurbs over the years, all from GPSCity and all came in like new condition, as in they looked brand new. Not original packaging of course but other than that, the unit, the accessories and even the manuals looked factory fresh. And all performed flawlessly and still do to this day.

It's Garmin's policy that Refurbs come in a plain white box, instead of the Graphic boxes New ones come it.

The unit came and the battery was dead. I charged it and it lasted 4 mins until dead again. I then charged it up to full and it lasted about 4 mins again. I went to the diagnostic screen to watch the BATT CAP and it dropped like lightning each time. The unit is no good. I will never ever do this again! Waste of time and money. Guess it's luck of the draw!

You are correct that initially charging to full capacity will help future life. But batteries are to be shipped at a low charge rate to minimize the risk of fire.

Once you got the refurb how did you go about charging it? Did you use the car charger or a wall charger? If car charger, is your accessory outlet always on? And if you used a wall charger I'd suggest you try a different one. I have some old chargers, generally off phones that would not work with my 2689. I never investigated why but a newer phone charger with higher output (amperage) seems to work fine for indoor charging.

You haven't mentioned how and how long it was charged. Don't make a decision until you've given it at least an overnight charge on a wall wart or other low-current charger, or several hours with a high-current charger. If I go to one of my backup nuvis that hasn't been powered up for several months, I see the same results as you reported. The solution is to be patient and really give the new device a long charge before panicking. My experience with several Garmin GPS devices is that a device with very little charge that's put on a charger for a short time, then taken off the charger will show a "battery charge" on the device's home screen that shows a full or nearly full charge and I believe that this is not a true indication on the charge status of the battery. There's no good alternative to patience and a wait for a genuine full charge. Good luck.

In thinking about this, I have an idea that several of the folks giving a 1-star rating on Yelp due to battery performance may have changed their review had they read a message thread like this one.

And in case you new decide to buy a new retail-packaged DriveSmart at nearly twice the price, it may also have a low charge and exhibit the same symptoms as you've seen so be aware of this in case you go this route.

When buying.a product I weigh negative content but I also take a carful look at the positive reviews, then make a judgement. In the case of these “Yelp” negative reviews, they are more than balanced by the very positive reviews at https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.gpscity.com. In addition, you’ve had the reassuring comments of previous buyers here.

I also like to check the date of any reviews; I am aware of one product I own that went through a redesign because of online comments.

I have an RMA # but will try again first. What gets me is they want me to pay for return shipping on a unit that "may have issues".

As for the charger, it's one of those multi (8 port USB chargers). I am using the regular 5V/2.4A output vs. the fast charger at 9V/2A.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY63N2X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

Ok, gonna do another full charge overnight and see. The first charge I gave it from being dead was 4 hours. I will report back tomorrow.

Thanks.

Muell8k Wrote
Over the years I'm purchased several Garmin GPS units from GPS City, all were refurbished and looked like new and Garmin refurbished. None had any issues.

As others as discussed, if I were you I would check out your 8 unit charger multi charger. If you still have your 3490LMT to see if that unit charges properly. You can also try using the USB cable that came with the unit and let it charge over night and see if that fixes the charging issue.

Please let us know the outcome tomorrow.

I have purchased from GPS City, but have never had to do a return with them. I am surprised that they make you pay return postage on a defective unit. I wonder if they do the same on an exchange?

They said to please use the cigarette lighter to charge vs. the USB charger. Umm...ok. I have an old Radio Shack 12V AC-DC cigarette lighter adapter and will charge it over night with that. The USB charger got up to 85% but never any higher so let's see what happens after leaving it on the cigarette charger overnight.

I bought a Nuvi 2797 refurb unit from GPS City to use when I went on vacation in 2016. This was a second 2797 that I wanted to use just for vacations in the UK
It is still working OK and I have had no issues with battery life and would not hesitate to go that route again if I ever need to replace them.

It is important to remember that the spec on the unit is one hour of battery life. In my experience brand new batteries may not quite deliver that but after a few discharge/recharge cycles they will deliver their nominal capacity.

In summary, if you get 45 minutes of life after a good charge, you’re fine.

Thanks for this. Yeah, it wouldn't pass 85% so I decided to take it out for a spin and navigate w/o plugging it in. It only lasted about 15 mins until the Low Batt icon came on but lasted maybe another 5-10 mins after that. Now I am charging it over night with the cigarette lighter adapter (even though the manual said use either). Hoping it needs to be broken in and/or refreshed.

If this was a regular AA/AAA rechargeable, I would put it in my Powerex Maha charger to break in the batt with a discharge, rest, recharge, rest, etc. If it goes higher than 85% tomorrow than we're on the right track and all that is left is if I can register it with Garmin.

Will update later....thanks again.

OK. After doing the above last night, I figured it should at least get to 85% again. It only made it to 80% after being on the cigarette lighter for the past 11 hours.

So what do you think? Keep at this or send it back?

AS A SIDE NOTE: Where is the .System folder on this device?

When changing the 3490 to Mass Storage Mode, I can get to the hidden .System folder but the only option on the Drive 55 is USB Ethernet or USB Ethernet Single Session. Tried both and do not see the .System folder. My OS is showing hidden files and folders not sure what's the deal here.

I would ask GPS City if they will replace it and cover the return shipping. If it has a defective battery or charging circuit, chances are that a replacement wouldn't have the same problem. I had to do that with theGPSStore with my DriveLuxe 51 and the replacement device has worked fine.

This is surprising. I've dealt with GPS City for many years and they have never charged return shipping for a defective item.

The last time was five years ago. I returned a Montana 650 with a defective screen and wasn't charged. The item was new though so maybe their policy is different for refurbished items. It's also possible GPS City has changed their return shipping policy since then.

I emailed them. Waiting for a response.

As for the .System folder, I didn't see the check box for it. Gonna have a look a that now.

If you're not happy, send it back. (I did see you started the process).

That said, I understand wanting the D55 to perform like new and all that goes with it.

I am curious though, do you use your GPS a lot while not plugged in? Other than a hiking type unit or maybe a watch like GPS, I'd assume you'd be in the vehicle and have it plugged. I have never run any of the GPS's I own without being plugged in. I have a couple very OLD Zumo motorcycle units I used to also run in my car, hardwired on the bike, and plugged in while in the car. Unplugged it works for 5 minutes tops, but plugged in it works as expected. I'm guessing never having run it unplugged and draining (cycling) might have killed the battery life, for older batteries anyway.

I'm not downplaying your concern by any means. Just curious.

What is the battery for? The best I can come up with is:

1) Sleep mode for 'quick starting'. Because of my infrequent driving since the virus hit my battery died. (DriveSmart 51) Now I power the GPS to fully off and the battery seems to have recovered. With 'slug starting' I’ve still initialized and synchronized with satellites at the end of my ~300 foot driveway. Quick starting doesn’t seem to have much value.

2) Orderly shutdown. When navigating, before the 15 second shutdown it sends the last lat/long to the phone for when you forgot where you parked. That sounds useful very infrequently.

Have I missed anything or mis-valued anything?

Yeah...normally, I would always leave it plugged in like I do with the 3490. I wanted to use this as a backup unit in another vehicle in a location where it would be tough to get the power cord to so was hoping I could get several hours use out of it but after going through this process, it doesn't seem like that is possible. If I can get this unit up and running like the 3490, I may just use it as a replacement for that unit since I was quite impressed with the newer features and the display. The only question that remains for me now is, my 3490 had LMT for lifetime maps and traffic. There are no trailing letters to this model number so are updates still free going forward or are they paid if you know?

LMT= Lifetime Map and Traffic

I have a Drivesmart 61 LMT. Pretty sure all newer Garmins have lifetime maps, and the T is a little misleading meaning I need an app (Garmin Smartphone Link) on my smartphone to work in concert with it.

Check your invoice, I see a refurb DriveSmart 55LMT for $99 on GPS city's website.

ETA, yes, the newer GPS units are very impressive with features compared to the old ones I have.

Somewhere while researching your issue I did read that Garmin has dropped the LMT designation from the tag affixed to the device. But if you are eligible it will be recognized as such when you connect using Garmin Express.

Also, in my experience every Garmin device I've purchased was eligible for one free map update at time of purchase. That essentially made the device current.

So at the discretion of GPSCITY, they suggest I return the unit since four attempts to bring the BATT to 100% have failed via all charging methods. It was a lesson learned and I got to discover the features of the unit. I may just rebuy it new at this point.

Thanks for all the input everyone!

I also would recommend a refurb by Garmin with the 1 year warranty. My last 2 units (Garmin 2558, Dezl 770) are both refurbs, The Dezl is used 4 days a week for about 2 years and very happy with it.

Did GPS City do the right thing and cover the return shipping?

Yep...after I emailed them stating I should not have to pay for return shipping on a defective unit vs. a unit I didn't like, they did in fact send a pre-paid USPS label. Only thing is, it will be awhile before USPS picks it up being we're in a blizzard here in the North East.

Anyway, yeah, Once received I should get a credit back and then all is good!

... about 5 or 6 years ago from Fry's Electronics in Las Vegas. Shortly after I got it the unit started freezing up intermittently before it finally locked up once and for all. I don't know what the cause of the problem was, but I returned the unit for a full refund and eventually purchased a new Garmin 2689 which I still have to this day.