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Pros: Easy to use, sharp screen, clear voice instructions and less expensive than other GPS units with comparable features
Cons: Needs more dynamic search capabilities for POI (its a little too simple which is good and bad)
The Garmin C340 is a wonderful unit, I’ve tested several other units such as the Navmans & Magellans, but the Garmin was the hands down winner.
It has built in street level maps for both US and Canada – so there is no need to download detailed maps from your computer. In addition, the interface is a breeze to use – w/o even reading the manual I was able to get it up and running. The screen is razor sharp and the navigation controls are intuitive. Another bonus is that it has a built in rechargable battery, so you can walk around with it for a while or even program your next destination while you’re away from the car.
I recommend this unit very highly – especially after reviewing the alternatives at this price point.
———Update————–
Just an update because I’ve taken my Garmin C340 to: 1) Toronto, Canada 2) Omaha, NE 3) Salt Lake City, UT 4) Denver, CO and 5) Seattle, WA. I have to say it worked wonderfully. It NEVER led me astray and got me to my destinations without any problems. This is a definite must have because it’s so compact and easy to program that it makes exploring new cities a breeze. Who needs to rent an expensive GPS unit from a rental car agency when you have the Garmin C340 with you!
First of all, I’m an electronics junkie. My house looks like the Star Ship Enterprise, and I’m extremely picky concerning the function of everything that I purchase. Probably too picky. So, after being more than impressed with the Garmin StreetPilot c340, I decided to write this review. I purchased this unit due to an upcoming road trip to Florida, and I’m HORRIBLE with directions. It seemed like the logical thing to do. After much research on the latest GPS units, the c340 seemed to be best suited for my needs, financially and functionally.
PROS:
As stated time and time again, the c340 is extremely user-friendly straight from the box. No bulky manual is included (although one can be downloaded on-line), most likely due to the fact that it is not needed. There’s a brief start-up guide which is more than sufficient to get this thing up and running. Simply let the satellite locate your home location, which takes a few minutes and only has to be done once, and you’re ready to input your next destination. Hit “Where to?” on the touchscreen and everything is made perfectly clear. It could not be any simpler. You’ll then have options to enter addresses, food locations, lodging, your saved favorite locations and recent browsed selections, fuel, intersections, attractions, shopping, parking, entertainment, recreation, community, near-by cities, hospitals, transit, and auto service locations. There’s no guess-work involved: just touch the type of place you wish to find and go; you’ll get plenty of options. You can also touch the “Near…” option, type in a city of destination, and it’ll pull up businesses in that city for your convenience. Again, this unit is extremely easy to navigate. Pick your destination, hit “Go”, and you’re all set. Just follow the highlighted path and you’re sure to get there with ease. I’ve had no problems or long-term satellite loss in my area so far. Phone numbers are also shown which would be especially convenient when making hotel reservations on the road.
The suction mount is also very nice. I was skeptical about it at first: What if it falls off? Will I be able to see the road? No worries; it’s great. Like the unit itself, the mount is high-quality and very sturdy. Just attach the c340, place the mount into position (I have it right under my rear view mirror), and pull the lever down. I don’t see any way that this mount could fall off, and it’s not a distraction while driving. I hear that it’s illegal in California, but I really don’t see why. It provides the perfect location for the unit and is no more distracting than the rear view mirror. A dash-mount disc is included also for CA residents or in case you’d prefer a lower location, but it’s a permanent mount, so I’d advise caution if going with this option. I won’t use it myself.
As far as power goes, a 12V adapter is included for the car, but don’t worry about buying the AC adapter. The c340 includes a USB cable that allows it to be powered and charged via any computer with a USB port. Very convenient when planning out trips at home to save battery life. The USB cable also allows you to download male voices from the Garmin site such as American English Jack, Australian English Lee, and British English Daniel which is very cool.
CONS:
Not much to say here. The only ‘major’ thing I’ve noticed so far is that some local businesses are not in the database, and a few businesses are present which no longer exist. It’s kind of strange: local mom and pop stores can be pulled up, but NO Walmarts in my area. I have three Walmarts within 25 miles of my home, and none are in the database. I didn’t subtract any points since all Garmin GPS units seem to utilize the same database (nearly 6 million points of interest) and it does have the potential to be updated. Also, keep your eye on the road during exits as it may not detect recent route changes. It will recalculate a new route if you simply go past the road that has changed; you won’t get lost, but it can be an inconvenience. It’s happened only once to me so far and I’ve been doing a lot of traveling. It was a familiar area and I didn’t even realize that the road had changed. Again, this is a Garmin database problem which hopefully will be addressed in a future update.
The voices for the most part are spot on. They can pronounce streets that I’ve been mispronouncing for years. However, every now and then it’s hard to decipher what they’re saying as they can sound overly-digitized. This is just a minor inconvenience since most of the time they’re flawless, but keep your eye on the screen just in case you don’t understand the street name. No big deal really. I use American English Jill, and she is usually very accurate with pronunciations. British English Daniel is also easy to understand, although he must be downloaded.
CONCLUSION:
All-in-all, I’m very, VERY impressed with the performance of the Garmin c340. This is my first GPS, and I can’t imagine needing anything more. I’m not sure what these $1000+ units do, but unless they drive me to my destination and pump my gas, I don’t need them. I’ve heard people complain that the touch screen collects finger prints. Hmmm…unless you have jelly, paint, or motor oil on your fingers, it does not detract from the display. Hello, it’s a TOUCHscreen. Of course it’s going to get finger prints on it. Wipe it off now and then and you’re good to go. I’ve also heard complaints that sometimes the unit doesn’t give you ample time to turn via text-to-speech. Well, I’ve been driving everywhere with this thing for the past three days, and it verbally tells you TWICE when to turn, by street name and in which direction to turn. It tells you once within a 1/4 mile or so and once again right before the turn. If you miss your turn after two verbal prompts, a big white arrow on the GPS screen, and the name of the street at the top of the screen, you may want to reconsider this whole driving thing. The turn alert is almost overkill; if you’re awake and free from severe brain damage, you can’t possibly miss it. Maybe this was a problem with some of the older units, but mine is perfect. Perhaps these people didn’t hear the first prompt and of course the voice prompt times will be shorter with city driving, but that’s to be expected. As far as satellite loss, I’ve only experienced a couple seconds of it while driving so far which is no inconvenience at all. There is an optional generic antenna that can be purchased for around $20 if this is a problem in some areas. The actual Garmin antenna costs more, but I’ve had no need for it so far.
After three days of taking the c340 everywhere, I absolutely love it; I have no regrets whatsoever. It’s one of the top 3 electronic purchases I’ve ever made in my life. I can’t wait to take it to Florida and find all the local attractions that I would never have been able to locate otherwise. This thing is great. I’ve already had two friends order the c340 after seeing how well mine works. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!
UPDATE:
I just returned from Florida, and I love this thing even more. We never had any need for a map: I simply typed in each destination and we got there with no problems whatsoever. When we got a craving for some baby back ribs on the interstate, I simply hit food, barbecue, got a nice little list of local restaurants, picked one and hit GO. It takes you right there! It then took us right back to the interstate. I’m still amazed that this type of technology can be purchased at a reasonable price.
I was originally going to get the C320 but the text-to-speech feature made me decide to get the C340 instead. Overall, after having owned this unit for approx. 2 years, I am pleased with it. When I first got it, to build my faith in the product, I used it for a week just entering the places I normally go to see how the unit performed.
First I tried to enter a restuarant I have been going to for years. Route planning was very fast – the only problem is that the route took me 6 miles away from the restuarant into a residential neighborhood. The destination was someone’s house in this neighborhood! To retest, I chose the restuarant address from the built in POI listing instead of typing it in…and the result was the same. It had me going into a subdivision and to someone’s house. My second test was entering my work address. This worked fairly well except that a 2-year old change in the road was not registered on the map. So the unit got really confused when I was driving through what looked like a lake on the screen. Recalculation can be irritating as the unit repeatedly tries to force you to do U-Turns to get back on what it thinks is the best route. I’m sure this is region specific.
Bottom line here…don’t rely on the restuarant listings.
My next test was a little longer – it was a 25 mile drive to my mother’s house. Again, route planning was very fast (3-4 seconds). The route was very accurate to her house but the route seemed to favor toll roads and highways. The result was the same when I modified the preferences to prefer “back roads” and avoid highways. About 7 miles into the trip to mom’s house, the C340 locked up completely. I reset it and reprogrammed the route (you have to stop the car to do this safely). Then, 5 miles down the road it locked up again. I checked for later firmware when I got home and there was none, but an email to customer support was all it took to get a firmware update that resolved this issue.
So with various other tests, I give it a ~90% chance of picking the correct route to wherever you are going (at least in my area)…but often times it does get you where you intend to go but takes you far out of the way. A few major highways are missing from the basemap in my area, which were corrected when I paid $75 for the 2006 map update. Common sense and a backup map are sometimes necessary.
Ok, about the unit itself…the text to speech is worth the extra money of you are considering buying it for that reason. Text to Speech pronunciation has been corrected with several firmware revisions. I have not had any major issues with the text-to-speech pronunciation since these firmware updates were applied.
The screen is bright and the whole thing is smaller than I expected – but there really is no excuse for being upset about the size when you can go to Best Buy or Circuit City and see it for yourself.
So:
Pros – bright screen, doesn’t wash out too bad (I have deeply tinted windows) and speech volume is appropriate. Planning is quick.
It is very accurate on where to turn, giving ample time for braking or lane changing.
Cons – with earlier firm revisions it used to lock up frequently, power cable goes to mounting base, routing not accurate in many cases, and some POI are incorrect. Searching an address is glacially slow. Shows many obscure restuarants but overlooks the mainstream ones. Some of the cardinal directions are reversed. I was going to get on an expressway going east and the directions said to go west. (The drawn map was correct, just the speech was wrong)
Bottom line is that after using this for routine trips around town as well as jaunts into unfamiliar areas, I recommend it.
Update: 11/25/05: On Thanksgiving day I took a longer trip of about 50 miles. Set to use WAAS, the C340 locked up at exactly tyhe same point as in my previous review, about 7 miles from my home on a major highway. The unit definitely locks up at this point consistently and I will be informing Garmin. I did find that turning off WAAS reduces the amount of lockups but I can still get it to lock up with WAAS turned off. When it does work, the C340 is impressive in its accuracy and display. The automatic daylight to dark screen contrast is nice. But I still can’t recommend the product because of the instability. I’ll post an update here if I can get a response from Garmin.
12/30/05 Update: Several weeks ago, Garmin released updated firmware for the C340. I downloaded and installed the firmware update. Address entry appears to be improved and I have not encountered the lockups previously mentioned since applying this firmware patch. That said, I still have a hard time recommending the c340 for the price and other minor to moderate issues, but I am happier now that the lockups are gone.
5/22/07 Update: Changed my recommendation and rating of this product. I have gone many places with my Garmin and it is still a solid performer. Just recently, I went from Orlando to Hampton Roads, VA and the Garmin was very accurate. One thing I do want to add is that the Garmin likes to use major highways. Unchecking this feature is not advised as the Garmin will go “bonkers” using back roads and even dirt roads to get you to your destination. You must update the firmware frequently as Garmin continually irons out the bugs in the product. I still don’t think this thing was ready for prime time when it was first sold…too many bugs! But now, with the latest firmwares and maps, I solidly recommend the Garmin to my friends, family and anyone. I now give it 4 stars, not three, though Amazon won’t let me edit that part.
