Your Garmin, Your Story ...

We're constantly amazed at the positive feedback we get from people who use our products for just about anything you can imagine. Their stories range from geocaching to surviving life-threatening situations.

Scroll below to read about testimonials for this product and don't forget to check out the amazing testimonials and human interest stories on our Garmin Blog!

View testimonials on Garmin Blog

 

"Easyriding GPS V makes the run to Sturgis"

Let me first say how unbelieveably impressed I am with my GPS 5 Deluxe. Sometimes it scares me! :) MY wife and I got much use out of it this August when we went on a road trip for 2 weeks on our motorcycle from Boston to the Sturgis S.D. motorcycle rally. We rode 4,700 miles in two weeks. Our GPS 5 never missed a beat.

Keep up the amazing work!

D. L.

"A little Las Vegas action for this GPS V"

My wife and I used the GARMIN GPS V to drive to Las Vegas, NV, from southern California. I actually knew where the hotel was located, but I wasn't sure how to best approach the entrance and parking lot. The unit worked flawlessly getting us to our destination as well as letting us know the exact time that we would arrive.

We went shopping one afternoon, and my wife wanted to go to a certain beauty supply store. When we arrived at the building, we were greeted by a sign on the door saying that they had moved to another location. The address was printed on the sign, but we didn't have any idea where it was located. By entering the new address into the GPS V, we were quickly on our way. This was the first time that I had to totally trust the GPS V. I was not sure whether or not the unit could actually direct us to our destination. I had no way of double checking it for accuracy. Well, I can tell you now that I trust my GARMIN V! We arrived at the store's new location and also discovered a whole new area of town with new shopping centers. My wife used to think that I had simply bought a "toy", but now she and I both believe in the GPS V's capabilities and in its usefulness.

N. E. J.

"Honda Gold Wing and the GPS V combine on the open road"

My name is M. N., I'm 60, and I ride a Honda Gold Wing 2001. I mounted my GPS V on my bike in April of 2002 and just using the basic nav feature, rode out to Taos, NM from Long Island, NY. I was totally amazed by what I was seeing on my screen. It kept me informed of where I was and what exit was coming up, the speed I was traveling, and a bit of local info. I finally got around to unlocking my MapSource City Select and began doing a lot more with my GPS V, as I have several more long-distance trips planned both here in the U.S. and in Canada.

M.N.

"Italian GPS fan loves his GPS V—and his collection of other Garmin units"

I am the happy owner of 13 (I am not joking) Garmin units:

• GPS 38
• GPS II Plus
• GPS 12XL
• GPS 12MAP (Atlantic)
• eMap (both Americas and Atlantic)
• eTrex Summit
• eTrex Legend (Americas)
• eTrex Vista (Americas)
• GPS III Plus (Americas)
• GPSMAP 76 (Atlantic)
• GPSMAP 76S (Americas)
• GPS V (Europe)

All of them are perfectly working and stored in my room, and I have a Timex/Garmin package I use to record my jogging activity. I just returned from a car travel from Italy to Norway round trip through Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden (a total of 6,300 km, or approx. 3,950 mi) in 2 weeks for my honeymoon. Even when I had a navigator system in my car (an Alfa Romeo 166), I took my GPS V with me just to help while walking in an unknown city. Well, this was the original idea, but I soon realized that the (MapSource) City Select maps of the GPS were far more accurate than the maps in my navigator system! In Sweden I found new highways my navigator system didn't even know existed! And visiting Swedish and Norwegian fjords, I could find—at the highest zoom resolution—unpaved roads to get closer to the "cliffs" I couldn't find (with any other source). Also it worked fine for the original goal: no paper maps of unknown cities. It was no problem to know where me and my wife were at every moment. Only some minutes (were required) every night to connect my laptop to update maps for planned destinations. Well, we didn't have some scary or dangerous adventure with our GPS...or, maybe, because of our GPS. Thank you for the nice product. Tomorrow I'll go to a Garmin reseller here in Italy to take a look and field test the StreetPilot III Deluxe.

Regards,

S. G.

"Auto-routing through the University of Wisconsin"

I originally bought the GPS V® for geocaching, as I had a GPS III® in the past and really liked how that unit worked (as well as Garmin's great repair and customer service — a rare thing these days). I didn't figure the GPS V would be that much of an upgrade besides a better display and WAAS, but that's where I was wrong.

I recently returned to college at the University of Wisconsin. Its campus is, well, virtually all of downtown Madison, Wisconsin. As a new student, I didn't know my way around, even after so-called "orientation." All I had was my class schedule, with the names and addresses of the buildings where my classes were held. The first morning started with panic. From one end of the campus to the other is over 2 miles. There are over 100 buildings and the passing periods are only 10 minutes!

I worried until I remembered mention of an "auto routing" feature in the GPS V, which I happened to have in my backpack from the week before. Might as well give it a try.

Well, what can I say? It worked! I entered the address of the first building where I had class, and it gave me a route through the city streets to walk! After each class, I just entered the next address and was on my way! You guys saved me — I can't think of how many more situations where this little thing will come in handy.

M. T.

"Tricky navigating in British Isles"

This is intended as praise for your customer support. There is no hairy adventure to be recounted.

In 1994, I bought a (competitor's unit) after an especially ugly day lost in hip-deep snow in the Colorado high country. Until last spring, it was fine. After seeing a Garmin® display in a local shop, I bought a GPS 12 as an upgrade of the older unit.

Based on the absolutely outstanding features and service of the GPS 12, I bought a Garmin GPS V for use on a vacation trip to the British Isles. On our previous vacation, we had a challenging experience finding our way around the islands of Lewis and Harris in the Hebrides off the northwest coast of Scotland. I engaged your cartography department extensively to determine which MapSource® product would be best there and in metropolitan Britain. The advice was absolutely on target, and the European City Select® CD-ROM was the perfect recommendation.

I'm in the Information Technology business and have come to recognize the difference between marketing and product performance. My hat is off to you, for the GPS V, your MapSource products, and the best customer service I've ever encountered.

D. E.

"GPS V: not just another 'toy' for this gadget guy"

Congratulations!

First of all, I'm a gadget freak...especially electronic gadgets/toys. A friend of mine was telling me about their GPS V that they recently purchased and it sounded very interesting to me. I thought "I HAVE to get one of these". My wife said "another toy to add to your collection." At first, I was using it to navigate from my home to my office, and then back from my office to my home. My wife thought I was crazy needing a GPS to go to and from work, as work was only 5 miles from my home, and I have been going to the same place for the past 10 years. Yes, "another toy," she kept saying. But actually, I was just learning how to use the GPS V and all of its features.

I go on sales calls every day and there are many parts of my territory that I'm not familiar with, so the GPS V has been a fantastic business tool to get me to and from my clients and help me get to my appointments on time.

I can't commend Garmin and its engineers enough for making such a wonderful product. It is so feature-rich and useful that even my wife is convinced it's not a toy, it's a necessity. Every day that I use it, I'm more and more impressed with how well it works and how easy it is to use.

Thank you very much.
C. W.

"GPS V will be tough to top"

The GPS V is my fourth GPS. When I purchased the eMap®, I wondered how they could possibly improve, but they did! I've had the GPS V for eight months now, and use it for everything: flying, driving, camping, hiking, even ocean kayaking.

My wife and I used it this spring to navigate a drive/camp/kayak trip the length of Vancouver Island in Canada. Never a skip, not once a loss of signal, and accuracy so great that we were able to return to a beach after a day in the boat, and get within sight of the skid marks the keel made entering the water!

This unit is going to be REALLY tough to top, folks!
W. R.

"GPS V helps injured biker get medical attention"

I was mountain biking with two of my friends in a the very large Pinckney Recreation Area in Michigan when one of my friends tumbled over his handlebars and severely injured his shoulder. He was barely able to walk much less ride his bicycle out of there. We were right next to a dirt road that intersected with two others. None of them were marked. We felt lost and near panic. Then I started to think of the features in my new Garmin GPS V unit that I had mounted on the handlebars of my bike. I first used the unit to find the nearest hospital. I used my cell phone to call the number that my GPS V gave me—but I had no idea how to direct the ambulance to where we were. Then I remembered the auto-route feature. I simply entered 'goto the hospital' and in a few moments, I was able to give them turn by turn directions to the very intersection that we were at. What a wonderful product. While my friend was convalescing at home, he got on the Internet and ordered a GPS V for himself.

Thanks for a great product.

Art

"GPS V helps designer to work"

Garmin,

I bought the GPS V system. This is my first GPS unit. I am a design engineer by profession. I design communication and control systems for mission-critical applications for the railroads and 911 dispatch centers. I am usually critical about the electronic stuff that I buy. Most of the time you don't get what you pay for. Engineers use cheap displays and switches, and poorly manufactured cases and plastics. After buying this unit, I cannot pick on anything about it! I don't think it could be made better-in fact, I think it quite perfect! It has a high-quality LCD display that is extremely readable. The adjustable backlight intensity is a great feature, and the buttons are well-designed and laid out. The one thing I like the most is that it is waterproof. I am amazed at all the features this unit can do. It's so small and compact, yet it performs like something 10x its size. To get that many features into such a small package took a lot of hard work. Take it from me: To cram all that into an area that small took a lot of time. This unit is well worth the money!

Now for the real reason I bought it—I am tired of getting lost :) for work. I drive 110 miles a day, round trip. When there is construction or an accident, I have to just sit there in traffic because it is impossible to know all the shortcuts around an area that big. so I never try to go around the problem I just sit there. But today I plotted my route from home to work, mounted it into my truck, and took off. I could not believe the accuracy of this unit! It was to the "T" on every turn and junction. It told me my speed, time to next turn, miles to next turn, and E.T.A.-even outlined my trip on the map. I was really impressed with the E.T.A. In the end, it was only 3 minutes off. Not bad for driving over one hour and ten minutes. I could not be happier with this device! It's simply awesome.

Oh...by the way. This unit (supposedly) has the ability to re-route on the fly. So I tried it. I didn't take a turn when it told me to. I kept on driving, and it beeped and said it was re-routing for me. Then in about 3 seconds, it had my new route all planned out for me and told me to take the next turn up ahead. THAT IS THE BEST FEATURE OF ALL!

Great job Garmin!

J. P.