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Magellan RoadMate Portable GPS
$89.99 + $5 Standard Shipping
Condition: New

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

C|net review.

Is Magellan still in business?

I had one of these, and exchanged it the next day. This just wasn't the unit for me, so I got a Garmin instead.

best written product description?

I have said GPS, and I like it a lot. If you need a cheap reliable and good gps, I highly recommend this one.

If it was a Garmin I would do this in a minute. If I read a whole lot of posts here saying that Magellan is as fast, as accurate, and does routes that make as much sense as Garmins, then I might pop for one.

tough sell for a dedicated GPS with so many features in smartphones today. Google Navigator's turn by turn is excellent and better than the GPS I used to have (although that was an older unit).

Great if you haven't bought a mobile phone in the last 5 years!

Have one of these and it is horrible. First battery last about 20 minutes if you unplug it, second annoying touch screen and hard to get back to map, constantly tells you about closed roads that are not on your route, Have two Garmins for rest of family and they blow this away.

Here is an introduction video that looks like it was made in the year 2000

Last thing I can do (really behind at work):
One 1-star and 5 star review at Consumer Reports (the magazine did NOT review this):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/tires-auto-parts/gps/gps-ratings/models/overview/magellan-roadmate-3065t-lm-d62404.htm
but did review the 3065 (subscriber only) and below average review score, but not the worst (with 1 reader rating 4 stars for the model):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/tires-auto-parts/gps/gps-ratings/models/overview/magellan-roadmate-3065-commuter-99031718.htm

Product webpage:
http://www.magellangps.com/Products/RoadMate/Magellan-RoadMate-3065T-LM

with manual:
http://support.magellangps.com/support/assets/manuals/OM_RM_3065_Rev_D.pdf

QVC 3.6/5 stars for 23 reviews:
http://reviews.qvc.com/1689/E167168/magellan-e167168-magellan-3065t-lmt-4-7-gps-w-lifetime-traffic-maps-reviews/reviews.htm

good night, y'all.

ThunderThighs wrote:I just bought a new GPS last week to replace my 7 yr old one. Compared to my iPhone or iPad GPS, I love the lane guidance, traffic info, and posted speed limit display. I don't know if this one has all that but there are a lot of features that a dedicated GPS has that a phone won't.

For driving around town, your phone might be find. For vacations and travel, I'll go with a GPS.

The best reason I know to buy a dedicated GPS is simple- you don't need a data service to get your route (as the maps are built in). Nothing worse than needing to reroute when I'm somewhere where I don't have a data signal.

Lifetime maps are great, provided the company stays in business. I have a very nice Navigon GPS that is often useless since Navigon stopped proving map updates for it (useless around the new local bypass routes).

I went with a Tomtom via 1530 from Costco about a year ago for something like $120. The biggest selling point for me on the unit was the voice recognition- I can simply speak the address where I want to go as opposed to fingering it in, and it will take me there. I'd say it is about 90% accurate, but certainly there are times where it does not recognize the street name, but more likely it will give me multiple options with the correct one being one of them.

Besides the fact that it is pretty bad in direct daylight (all are, this might be a little worse than normal), and it does need to be reset from time to time (holding the power button for 20 seconds), I couldn't be happier.

There are tons of nonsense claims on the unit on the interwebs, but when it works properly which is about 90+% of the time, the TomTom is pretty hard to replace for me at this point.

I've been thinking about getting a GPS, tho not yet convinced of this unit yet.

I am not sure if I will actually need it considering my options, but I know my mom can definitely use one. Need to do a bit more research on the ease of use of this unit among other features/performance ...

mvsopen wrote:I had one of these, and exchanged it the next day. This just wasn't the unit for me, so I got a Garmin instead.

Hint: This is where you tell us why you made your choice, in hopes that it might help us also choose wisely.

Altazi wrote:Hint: This is where you tell us why you made your choice, in hopes that it might help us also choose wisely.

Oh come now. Half the fun of woot comments is reading the cryptic, unhelpful tips that end up talking you out of your purchase. Asking him to expand upon his reply would be like asking Picasso to paint something that doesn't require an imagination.

I have a Magellan. I purchased it a few years ago either from here or 1sale a day. I've only used it a dozen times and I don't love it. When entering in requested information (e.g., city), the system doesn't keep up with the typing. Sometimes, I'll push the "m" key (or some other key), I'll see it light up and the system will think I pushed the key next to it. It's strange. I guess the touch screen may be going out. For as little as it's used, it should last longer.

If this were anything but a Magellan, I'd be all over it. I prefer to have a GPS in addition to my iPhone, but I refuse to give another dime to Magellan because their customer service is so horrible. I had to file a report with the BBB to get a response from customer service and while I did get what I needed, it's crazy that it had to go that far.

Still undecided....my trusty 1972 Rand McNally (although a bit tattered on the edges) works just fine.

We are on our second Magellan and prefer them. We had a Garmin as well in one of our two vehicles and didnt think it was nearly as easy to use as the Magellan. One of the best things about this unit is the lane selection feature, which lets you know if you need to be to the right or the left for an upcoming junction. In heavy traffic with 6 lanes to choose from, in an unfamiliar large city this feature is so great! This is a great price when you consider the lifetime map updates - some of the cheaper places you will find it may not have that option and you have to pay extra for the downloads. If we didnt already have this unit I'd buy another one (almost did anyway!).

I do not like my Magellan. It is slow to recalculate is my biggest complaint. I also just don't like the way it operates. That is just my own humble opinion. Loved my tom tom until it died which is why I am using the Magellan.

I'm in!

Been waiting for a Magellan with lifetime maps to buy one to go in my FR-S. Using my phone the last couple of months just reinforced how poor of an an option that is.

I like the Magellan because it:

1. uses a USB charging port
2. has free lifetime maps and traffic
3. has the AAA database which can be updated if you are a AAA member or know someone who is.
4. Doesn't depend on either Google or Apple.

This will be the 4th Magellan I've bought from Woot over the years, all still in service in some family members car. No issues with any of them.

I think it is important to link you to the four Magellan songs featured here on woot. There was also a Columbus song. While a good enough navigator to merit a woot song, nobody has named a GPS navigator unit after old Chris, though.

woot blog post

snosbig wrote:Still undecided....my trusty 1972 Rand McNally (although a bit tattered on the edges) works just fine.

Roads may have changed since then...

I don't like the timing on Magellan. I don't know why, but it doesn't feel intuitive. There is a lag? Is that just me?

Must pass on this. I also prefer Garmin.

$170 at Amazon, with primarily 4-star reviews. And my CC reward points offer a "Magellan RoadMate 3065" for the point equivalent of $173. I think I'm in...hubby and I are taking a road trip next month (of the "get in the car and pick a direction" variety) and it would definitely be nice to feel confident that we can find our way home.

Last Mcgellian we had...major POS.

I bought a Magellan RoadMate 1470 two years ago. CNET rated it highly with two issues: non-QWERTY keyboard and the placement of power plug. Both of those were taken care of with my unit.
Once I bought LM updates, $95, after an initial update it took a year and three phone calls to get another update because the website and support was so bad. The people helping were nice but when a solution works one day and then not the next it is tough to not yell. Even with it's most current updates, there are five places I drive where the mapper does not know that two roads are connected; roads that have existed for decades and are the same street. There is absolutely no battery life, it won't last two minutes unplugged. The PC application is very bad, I uninstalled from laptop because it was a hog.
Girlfriend has a Garmin. There are features that mine have that her's doesn't, like phone numbers, you need to switch states before searching, and Canada is non-existent. But I like the Garmin better for driving. The information seems quicker, presented at the right time. I've missed turns because the Magellan told me too late about quick double turns; never had this issue with Garmin. And the Garmin can be unplugged to walk around with, though that does not work great.
Still, if I needed a GPS I would get this deal. I am temped.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've never had trouble with the 2 Magellan we have owned. When I looked different models at the store, I liked the onetouch (favorites) menu right there on the map and the quick entry of addresses (no mucking around with states, zip code, etc.), just city then street.

Personally, I think the traffic feature is useless so I disable it but the rest of the features are good.

Loved my Magellen before it was stolen out of my glove box. Have a Garmin now...meh
However, this unit can be purchased at my local WalMart for the same price - and no shipping.

Help...in dire need of a GPS as we are driving from PA to FL next month! Is this a good one to choose for a 1st timer? We'll only use it 3-4 times per year!

Terrible unit. Can't find my own house and it's 20 years old. Returned and bought a Garmin Nuvi.

williams1andrew wrote:Terrible unit. Can't find my own house and it's 20 years old. Returned and bought a Garmin Nuvi.

You have a 20 year old Magellan GPS unit?? Vintage!!!

We (especially my wife) find the Magellan user interface particularly easy to use. Our Magellan (model 2120LMT; similar to this one but fewer features) occasionally suggests weird routes, but even those will get us where we need to go.

The complaints about "can't find the house/road that's been there for 20 years" apply to the maps. Only two companies provide maps for pretty much all GPSs, and both companies have some errors in their maps. (Same applies to paper maps, too.) The fact that one GPS knows about a particular location while another does not evens out across all locations; it doesn't mean that one brand is junk and the other is great.

If you have a Toyota hybrid (Camry, Prius, etc.), be aware that the electronics interfere with GPS untis. Garmins pretty much won't work at all; Magellans do work if placed properly.

Magellan customer service used to be truly awful. Over the past two years, it has improved considerably. Also, the PC software (used to back up the GPS and download updates), which was pretty bad, now works fine -- not elegant, but does what it is supposed to do.

Overall we're pretty happy with our Magellan. I'm debating whether we need yet another GPS; this is a pretty good deal.