• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

Dead GPS

ind1mrg

New member
My five year old ZUMO 550 has died and will need sent in for x-change $150.00 so says Garmin. All the mounts i have for the 550 will not work with any other Garmin if i want to look at any other units i bet. Are there any units that show weather with the road. I like the 550 but five years seems a little short to me.:violin
 
I had a couple of 550 refurbs (I owned two GPSes), they were fine, but five years is a century when it comes to GPS model runs. The 550 is slow as molasses, the newest map sets will not fit, and it does not do weather. You need a 665 for that.

I always sell my old units for good money when new models come out and that way the upgrade is relatively cheap.

It's a few years ago now, but my first 550 sold for $450 and I bought the 660 for $625. When the 665 came out, the second 550 went for $400 and I paid about $700 for the 665.

No regrets about doing things this way. I tear up 50k miles a year and consider the GPS essential and a business expense. It also beats the hell out of a GPS laptop like I used in 1995, although admittedly, that was in the cage.
 
I got a refurb unit to replace my dead 550 last year. I too was about five years old when it died. Seems to be the typical lifespan. Refurb one is working well so far. I considered upgrading to the 660, but in the end the price tag was more than I wanted to spend.

I did end up getting a Garmin Montana this year to use on my GS and for handheld use. The 550 now stays just on the GT.
 
Take a look back at some fairly recent posts of mine & related threads per my Garmin 550 experience. They will do the thing for 1/2 price if you have what seems to be persistence. I only needed the rubber replaced that seals the on/off rt side but got a new /er unit back for $75. Looks brand new to me as opposed to refurbed. One guy got his replaced for nothing so consistency is not their thing @ Garmin, so it seems.
 
There are loads of weather sources on phones, pc's, roadside joints,etc so I don't consider that by itself a reason to upgrade. The 550 is long in the tooth and way too little built in memory as is true for virtually everything Garmin makes- chips are cheap but Garmin is even cheaper.
But the refurbs work. My original 550 died quickly from a bad screen and the refurb sent has been fine eve since.
However, a much cheaper 2640 bought from Costco for my car is way superior in terms of its functionality as a gps- its about a 2 yr old model now. Some local users are going to the Montana, epecially the GS bunch.
 
You can expand a 550 via the SD memory card slot. I now have the latest entire NA map on the card with room to spare.
 
The phone reps have a lot of latitude on what they can do for you. Be nice to them.
Mine WAS! nice but she could not make the call on price change & had to leave the conversation to spin the wheel or consult with her supervisor. It bothers me when a company is inconsistent like they obviously seem to be. When I complained about $150 repair just because they will not sell the rubber parts she went away and came back with less. Others have paid more than me, some got a freebie . Yes I know how to be nice but my point is well made, they are lacking in consistency & we throw lots of money their way so can expect better. Invite them to the big rally & then we can sweet talk them in person?
 
wow 5 year life span on a 400-600$ gps. Think ill stick with my givi bag and a typical gps. That is just nuts. how do you guys justify only 5 years out of a 500$ dollar device? i build computers for the last 20 years i have never seen unless it was some cheap hardware only have a life span of 5 years. i mean when you can say run a mechanical harddrive for 8-12 years and they cant figure out how to keep a 500$ gps over 5. this makes me not want to touch garmin. this is a pure result in making a device with cheap parts. i'm really happy i read this i was thinking about ordering a 660LM. now garmin going to be lucky if i buy a cheap gps from them. my tomtom is about 8 years old in my truck it has no issues. and let me tell ya my truck dont travel on flat ground much. heck 100$ a year for a gps i can afford to drop one per year and get a updated one.
 
Back
Top