Review on 🗺️ Exploring the Road: Garmin Zumo 595LM GPS Navigation System by Clint Mcloven

I currently have a Garmin Zumo 550, Garmin Zumo 660/BMW Navigator IV and Garmin Nuvi and I have them all used for a world tour. I am a very experienced GPS and Navigation user and I can confirm that there are many bugs in this GPS that need to be fixed. Its current performance is unacceptable to the point where it can no longer be used for serious long-distance motorcycle or vehicular traffic. Since this device costs between $800 and $900, it should at least work for navigation purposes. It's not like this. I recently purchased this Zumo 595LM and used it for the ride pictured below. The GPS just didn't work. On this trip I called Garmin several times and tried to fix the problems but nothing worked. I also bought a new SD card at the recommendation of Garmin customer service and again encountered many of the horrific issues described below. This Garmin GPS just isn't ready to go. I returned the GPS to the seller and would buy it again if I had a bad unit. Oddly the buyback price went up $100 so I decided not to buy another and will use my working 550 or 660. Problems with Garmin Zumo 595LMNavigation1.) Terrible "route cannot be calculated" error. By far the biggest problem with GPS is that it keeps throwing the "Unable to calculate route" error and freezing. This error happened randomly and mostly at the most inopportune moment; if you need a route. Obviously route calculation is really the only thing a GPS needs to get right and this one doesn't. At least 3 times a day I checked the GPS and saw the error "The route could not be calculated" on the big screen. When I tried to clear the error and look at the map, the screen froze and data entry was not possible. This required holding down the power button for 12 seconds (remember this is a motorcycle GPS so this happens when you ride the motorcycle at high speed) and restart the GPS. When the GPS restarts for the first time after this error, it will not find any satellites. The second try causes it to go back to standard work, NOT the route you followed. To get back to the route you were following, you need to press the power button once and then turn it back on. Then it detects the satellites and gives you the option to restart the route. AGAIN, when you're traveling at high speed on a motorcycle and you're doing all of this at a time when you most need to know the direction, or because of the upcoming change of direction, you're going to miss a lot of corners. I missed at least 10 turns in 10 days on the trip pictured below. This is a terribly unacceptable problem. After this happened at least 10 times I stopped and called Garmin Support. The solution suggested by the first Garmin customer service engineer was to disable the trip tracking or breadcrumb feature as the GPS appears to use the same memory for route/trip tracking and calculation as it does for trip tracking. I like to save my tracks and download them every day so this was a big problem for me, but I reluctantly turned it off and two hours later the same error came up again. This solution didn't work and I lost the boot traces. The next day I called Garmin customer service again. On the second call I was told that some SD cards were not working well with the Garmin 595. I was using a 64GB Class 10 PNY card. I was told to remove the SD card and reformat it, then reload all my data and try again. I backed up my data and then reformatted and then reloaded all my data and tried again. When trying to navigate traffic from San Francisco to the Golden Gate for an hour, the GPS showed a "cannot calculate route" error and froze again. Later that day I bought a new SD card, a smaller 32GB Sandisk Class 10, formatted the drive, and then reloaded all my data. Two hours later the same "route cannot be calculated" error appeared when I wasn't even on the trip/route and froze. Screen quality 2.) This is a motorcycle sat nav and should be bright and clear. This screen is not bright and the fonts used are very small. In short, it is very difficult to see and read in sunlight. Even if you're wearing brightly colored clothing like a motorcycle safety vest, the reflection practically wipes out the display. Sunlight and light-colored clothing dominate when riding a motorcycle, so this display issue is a concern. Audio3.) With a PNY class 10 64GB SD card, the GPS cannot find any MP3 files on the card. To push it to its limit I had to restart by holding the power button for 12 seconds. When the GPS restarted I had to go into the media player, switch sources to something other than MP3, then save, then switch back to MP3, save again, and then the GPS sees and displays the MP3 BUT doesn't play it. It showed them on screen but the play button didn't work. The next step was to change the source again, save, go back to MP3 and save again. Then and only then will the MP3 play. When I stopped to refuel and the GPS lost power and turned itself off, I had to do all the above steps again. 4.) The Bluetooth audio connection was problematic with three different audio devices. When pairing and audio begin, the audio quality is mono, not stereo, and is very fuzzy and scratchy. I found that by going back into the Bluetooth settings, disabling (disabling) which headphones I was using, and then checking (reconnecting) the box, the sound quality switched to stereo and was crisp. Again, this procedure must be performed each time the GPS is disabled, e.g. B. at gas stations.