Customer Reviews
Proceed to route.... 
2007-05-28
I travel alot and many of my colleagues have GPS units. I've used theirs many times on business trips or Neverlost in Hertz. Finally last December, I broke down and bought the Magellan Roadmate 2000. I should have gone on the advice of my colleague and bought one of their models.
The unit acquires satellite signals well and doesn't loose them very often but for some reason does not calibrate very well.
I reset the unit constantly and have to enter in addresses of where I am in order to recalibrate the unit. This is kinda tough when you're traveling someplace and you've never been there in your life. I've taken off the highway to drive through small towns. In the small towns, I'll find a street name and a house address then enter that in just to recalibrate the unit. It can take a lot of time.
When it loses it's calibration, you can tell because it will constantly say, "Proceed to route" even though the arrow on the screen says you are on the route.
When I fly to another city and use it, it takes about 5 minutes after it acquires a satellite signal to recognize it's in a new city. It'll show hundreds of miles to destination even though there might be only 8 miles.
I have a couple other pet peeves with the system.
The locations entered in the unit aren't current even though the help desk says they are. I've driven through older parts of Kansas City which are completely missing. It shows a small percentage of gas stations, hotels, etc. So I don't know why the "points of interests" is much good in most situations. I have to make sure to add in the address of where I want to go. It does seem to accurately show the gas stations located near highways.
The last is that it's directions on the highway won't give the total mileage before you have to make a road change. On the course of traveling 20 miles on a highway that's not out in the middle of nowhere, it might give you "in 0.1 miles, stay on the current route, followed by a stay on the current route". It might split the 20 miles into 4 segments.
Of all the technology in my home, this unit is unanimously voted most likely in my family to be thrown across the room to be smashed in a moment of frustration.
Editing to add to this review on August 17, 2008: The unit quit working back in January. For a device which was so expensive and for which I bought a travel case for...it didn't last very long. I've only had one other electronic device which I bring on trips not last at least 3 years...or at least the period of time in which it becomes obsolete. I will never buy a Magellan again!
