Garmin DriveSmart 51LMT-D 5-Inch Satellite Navigation System with Lifetime Map Updates for the UK, Ireland and Full Europe - Black

I bought this Garmin DriveSmart 51LMT-D Sat Nav to replace my old TomTom One which hasn't worked properly since the WNRO rollover in April - The times wouldn't work anymore and although TomTom said that you could still use it, it kept dropping the satellite signal en route and took forever to get a signal when first switched on.The Garmin finds the satellite signal pretty quickly and so far has been reasonably accurate - I preferred the display on my old TomTom - I find I have to squint to make out the text on the Garmin plus I can't find a way of displaying the total of remaining mileage to my destination although I have now been able to display the estimated arrival time.I am a bit disappointed with the sound - It seems rather tinny and distorted if you increase the volume - The warning sounds for speed cameras, exceeding the speed limit and approaching a change in the speed limit all sound very similar and not particularly loud making it difficult to distinguish the sounds easily - I wish that you could choose different sounds as I could on my old device!Physically attaching the Garmin to the windscreen is slightly more fiddly and the attachment seems rather flimsy - I bought this digital version of the DriveSmart 51 which although more expensive than the standard version, is supposed to be more accurate and reliable - I haven't yet tried out the traffic information option so have nothing to report so far.All in all, it works properly and seems to do the job - My old TomTom lasted for 11 years so I'm hoping the Garmin will be just as reliable!

Great for getting from A to B and gets you there 95% of the time, although in more rural areas can be a little off. Only had Garmin in past so not sure if this is same with all systems. Easy to use and great features

I've been a user of Garmin SatNav's for well over 17 years - so I was hoping that the new generation would be a step change better than smart phone offerings. I bought the DriveSmart 51 LMT-D specifically because it can update over WiFi (I've had previous issues updating Garmin devices with the shockingly poor Express software) and also because it has traffic integration. I was hoping the traffic integration would be a bit like google maps and could re-route me round traffic and show busy stretches of road ahead.Well I was very disappointed:a) the Update over WiFi just doesn't work. Brand new out of the box it downloaded 8Gb of updated maps for a few hours and right at the very end said it had failed. It even recommends on the screen to use Garmin Express in the error message; it's failed a few times already and I'm ready to send this P.O.S. back. Quite why Garmin choose to try and download a single 8Gb map file in one go is beyond me. Why can't it be split up, or use peer-to-peer downloading to make it faster? Why does it always fail at the end? If your broadband is ~20Mb/s, then it will take around 4 hours to update full UK & European mapsAfter some research, the device didn't actually have enough space to download the first map update - this is a brand new out of the box (?!?!) how stupid is that? So you have to use the computer based Garmin Express instead and delete files off the device (which just seems dodgy to me). I even bought a 32Gb SD card to expand it's storage but that didn't seem to work with the Wifi update.b) Traffic. Well it's not what I was expecting. It retrieves traffic through two methods:- via DVB broadcast- via the internet with a paired smartphoneIt doesn't do traffic like google maps; instead it marks "spot" incidents. i.e. rubbish if you are between junctions on the motorway. Also, the DVB broadcast cannot be received unless you are using the special 12V cigarette USB adapter that comes in the box. fair enough? but what if you want to use the satnav in more than one vehicle? well a "special" USB cable (has a built in antenna) costs the best part of £55. It also means you can't wire in a normal USB cable into a normal USB socket in your car. Garmin satnavs used to have a separate socket for an antenna but this seems to have been forgotten now.Another crazy thing is that to use the Smartlink application on a smart phone (to provide traffic information) it has to have it's own GPS turned on. Whhaaa? so basically, you may as well miss out the middle man and just use the phone in a cradle instead. If you are reliant on the smart phone to have coverage (to supply traffic data to the satnav) then you may as well just use Google Maps on it.Also, another downgrade on previous models is that the Satnav power cable no longer plugs into the "holder" - so if you want to remove the satnav to hide it, or put in another vehicle then you've got to fiddle around unplugging the £55 power cable each time.Struggling to find good things to say - especially given that I've been a loyal customer and a real fan of previous Garmin Satnav's.

As I do a lot of driving in my daily work routine I have used sat navs since they first appeared on the scene, I have only bought Garmin. This one is easy to use and does a good job, my only criticism is I would like to be able to tailor my route to a greater degree, I mean my choice of motorway, A roads and B roads, this model only lets me choose by shortest distance or fastest route.

After a horrible experience with a TomTom I changed to a Garmin and years later my original Garmin still works well. When we decided to tour Portugal we splashed out for a new Garmin with European maps. Got the unit quickly from Amazon, updated the maps without issue and used it before we went on holiday and all was well. Got off the plane in Lisbon, picked up our hire car, set up the shiny new Garmin, switched on and the screen came on for a couple of seconds and went off never to work again. After muddling out of Lisbon and trying a reboot it was plain the unit was useless. A change of hire car to one with satnav albeit costly at least saved our holiday. When we contacted Garmin on our return they quickly ascertained the unit was a dud and told me to arrange a replacement with Amazon. Although Garmin and Amazon apologised for the inconvenience and replaced the unit without fuss I'm still left feeling short changed and heavily out of pocket.

works ok as a basic sat nav, but the traffic updates (which was my reasoning in buying this model) are seriously flawed, when connected to my phone for traffic updates it tells me delays ahead and offers the chance to save a number of minutes by diverting, the first time i used this i took notice and added a fair bit of time to my journey, now i ignore them and 80-90% of the delays do not exist! they are probably previous delays that have cleared? if you take notice of all the re-routes you will end up driving around all over the place unnecessarily! just buy the basic model i wish i had!