Garmin Zumo 550

My Garmin Zumo 550 suddenly failed to start up during a rainy trip after having used it quite happily for about 9 months. Due to circumstances I was unable to contact Garmin regarding the problem until after the warranty had expired. I was asked to send just the defective unit back, no other parts. A brand new unit was delivered promptly, including all the extra parts, software and maps. I consider this quite good service from Garmin Europe Ltd.

I still don't know why the unit stopped working initially and I did not receive any information regarding the possible cause from Garmin. Could if have been a connecting pin short circuit due to the rain?

Overall I am very happy with this GPS and would buy it again. There is just this nagging worry that it might fail again... altough I would probably have the same worry with any other brand.

I hummed and hah'd about the Garmin Zumo 550 vs the TomTom Rider2, but when you look at the units, and start to add all the extras that the TomTom needs, but the garmin comes with, such as the car mount, the case, and the computer cable, it quickly became apparent that on cost the Garmin Zumo 550 looked more expensive, but actually was cheaper than the TomTom Rider2.

It is a shame that shops such as Halfords don't put these units out to be played with, I was allowed to look, but not touch a Zumo 400 unit at my local Halfords before I bought one online, but I guess the price makes them worry about them being dropped.

Good points:

The bike mount itself is very sturdy, and different length mounting arms are available for about £10, giving great versitility in where it can be mounted.

The unit itself is very easy to use on the go with gloves on, especially the fuel feature, you enter your fuel tank range, and about 30 miles before the Zumo pops up a warning message, and gives you an icon to find nearby petrol stations. It can be a little out of date (petrol stations close down at a fast rate) but generally is very good at letting you find fuel when you need it.

The text to speech is very good, rarely does it stumble on pronunciation of word.

The 3.5" screen is big enough that you can see clearly, without being so big that it obscures the instruments on the bike.

In the car, the car mount is rugged with an inbuilt speaker, it could do with being a little louder sometimes, but generally does a good job of being heard over road noise, conversations and music.

It's very rugged, in nearly 18 months I've dropped it several times, ridden through howling thunderstorms and generally done my best to break it, and I've failed.

A handy feature, when you take it abroad it starts reading in Km instead of MPH, and the clock automatically changes the time as well.

Bad points: The bike mounts have a known fault where moisture gets in the pins and corrodes the power pin, always park up with he little rubber cover closed over hte pins to avoid this happening.

The 2Gb onboard memory is mostly taken up with the satnav software and maps, though you can clear out all the unused language files to make space for MP3 music files, however, the more MP3's you put on, the longer the unit will take to start, I put an 8gb SD card in recently and watched my Zumo take 5 minutes to start (I took the card straight back out again)

It's just a shame that the 660 has come out now, and the 550 is going to be relegated, based on the last 18 months use I can see me using mine for a long time to come.

Where to start....? In the box is everything you need for the car and bike. Fitting the Garmin Zumo 550 to the bike is a doddle but for tidiness I removed seat and fuel tank to properly route and secure the wiring. (mine is wired into an Intaride intercom). Setting up is a piece of cake and planning long journeys can be done either directly on the unit or on your PC and transferring the data. The route it takes you is very logical and satellite fixing from cold is often in the 20 second region, the best of my last 3 satnavs by a long way. On the bike the spoken instructions are clear in terms of speech (volume depends on your own setup). On a trip over to France, Spain and Andorra it never missed a beat. The only complaint is on roads that separate gradually, it is sometimes hard to work out which lane you should be in! The unit has its own little bag which is quite rugged and protects it when not in use. The icons on the screen really can be used with thick gloves and the Petrol Low feature is very handy. When activated, it can re-route you to the nearest petrol station, but, as in France, it can't warn you that the Petrol Station itself has run out of Petrol !!! The MP3 player is very versatile and it has a reading book function that I've yet to explore. Traffic Camera updates are downloadable for about £35 a year and are a snip to do via the website. Battery life is a good 4 hours if you do take it away from a power source, slightly more if you reduce the brightness. I love the way it reads out road names to you and will read out custom names that you input. There's a ton of additional stuff that it does that I just don't have time to talk about, altitude, trackback, time zones, auto dimming etc.

Seriously, if you're looking for a bike SatNav and are undecided, don't be - these units are pricey but are worth every single penny, if not a bit more. The car mount means it comes with me in the car too ...... did I mention that I bluetooth it to my phone and can use the phone on the bike??? With my current helmet, conversation over 40 is a bit hit and miss, but whiling away the time in traffic chatting to a mate is great - and they can't believe I'm riding the bike!! Go on - Get one, you really, really won't regret it.

Garmin Zumo 550 is the best biek unit out there. TomTom is its closest rival but just does not cut it.