Garmin Zumo 660 GPS

10 Reasons the 660 doesn't compare favorably to the Zumo 550, July 16, 2009

I have a Zumo 550 and it was with interest that I helped a friend install his Zumo 660. After taking two road trips in the car and working with the 660 I have some comparisons to make to my 550.

Let me predicate my review as it is based on the 660 Firmware update 3.20 that came out towards the end of July of 2009.

1....read full review I have a Zumo 550 and it was with interest that I helped a friend install his Zumo 660. After taking two road trips in the car and working with the 660 I have some comparisons to make to my 550.

Let me predicate my review as it is based on the 660 Firmware update 3.20 that came out towards the end of July of 2009.

1. The 660 doesn't display all street names when browsing the map. I found my friends house using where to? button and it showed the house but none of the street names (including his street name) surrounding his house. The zoom level didn't matter.

2. Won't follow the route you specify in MapSource custom route download. The 660 will recalculate the route you download so there is no guarantee that the route you enter on your computer will be followed by the 660. You have to really get into the habit of using waypoints.

3. Construction of the 660 is like a nuvi. In fact, I think it is a modified nuvi. The USB connection on the 660 can only be accessed by removing the battery cover (which then causes an annoying message to appear that the battery cover is off) There is no tether for the cover, so if you loose it, guess what? All GPS functions are disabled! The 660 only works in GPS mode with the battery cover attached. The screen feels like soft plastic when you touch it. In comparison, the USB connection on the 550 is behind a hinged door, and it doesn't matter if the door is open or closed. So even if you break the door, the 550 still operates as a GPS. The 550's screen feels more like glass to me. In my opinion - for fit and finish - the 550 is built like a brick house, the 660 - not so much.

4. The 660 doesn't come with a 120v charger adapter like the 550 does. Both the 660 and the 550 will recharge with the USB connection but if you are planning a trip with your 660, you have a limited amount of battery power because if you plug in the USB cable to recharge it - it enters the USB Mass Storage Mode. The 550 will operate as a GPS plugged into a 12v source (cradle in car or bike) or the 120v adapter (like at home or your hotel room.)

5. The 660 utilizes a micro-sd card. Geeze! have you seen how small these are? About the size of your pinky fingernail. The 550 uses a easy-to-handle standard SD card. The SD card in the 550 can be plugged into your pc's card slot and read like a disk drive. Easy and convenient to do. The micro-sd card is so darn small, and inconvenient to get to, (you have to remove the 660's battery to get to it) it's hardly worth the trouble.

6. Never saw the lane change notice feature. Apparently none of the freeway interchanges we went through were programmed into the 660.

7. Even at maximum volume in the car, the 660's internal speaker was barely audible. This is a serious problem. You have to have all other music in the car off in order to hear the 660 through its internal speaker when using the car mounting. The external speaker in the 550's auto mounting gives you plenty of volume and can be heard over other noises in the car.

8. 660 doesn't have the screen change/flip/page button like the 550. You can toggle between screens by hitting the box button on the side of the 550 repeatedly. I find that a very useful way to navigate around the system. I could not find an equivalent key or process on the 660 to do the same thing.

9. On the 550 - touching the turn in xx miles portion of the nav map screen, the unit repeats the last verbal instructions again. I could not find an equivalent key or process on the 660 do do this simple task.

10. It may not matter to you, but the 660 is not integrated to work with XM radio and weather. One of the few things it doesnt support. The 550 will support XM and Weather if you get the GPX 30 antenna receiver and pay the subscription service.

CONCLUSION:
I still feel that after handling both units, the 550 is a true motorcyclists GPS, it does everything I ask of it. The 660 can be, but as stated elsewhere, it got released before all the bugs were worked out of it. It needs work.

It is interesting to me that Garmin is playing the field with the 660, the 550 is still a cataloged product, and is still for sale at most dealers. I don't know if they plan to phase out the 550 if and when more 660's are sold.

I do know that I'm very happy with my 550 for now and will watch Garmin to see what firmware updates they provide to address the shortcomings for the 660.

As of 07-15-2009 Amazon does not have this unit listed for sale as new. There is only one seller of this unit and it is listed as refurbished.

As of 7-31-2009 Amazon has taken this item out of the product catalog. It is not currently available. minimize

Software update makes good, May 16, 2009

Garmin has released software version 2.80 for the Zumo 660. The update states the issues brought up in the previous reviews and corrects them. Kudos to Garmin for acknowledging the previous shortfalls, and concerns, then addressing them in a software update. It is always good to point out shortfalls to a company that responds, otherwise they...read full review Garmin has released software version 2.80 for the Zumo 660. The update states the issues brought up in the previous reviews and corrects them. Kudos to Garmin for acknowledging the previous shortfalls, and concerns, then addressing them in a software update. It is always good to point out shortfalls to a company that responds, otherwise they don't know if there is anything wrong.

I presently own three Garmin's, a street pilot purchased 4 years ago, a Nuvi purchased 6 months ago, and now the Zumo 660 for my motorcycle. The Zumo is obviously one of the most expensive GPS units a consumer can buy. It is by far the fastest screen updating and most accurate GPS I own. Beats the 6 month old Nuvi by a long shot. I recently drove (haven't mounted the 660 to the bike yet, wanted to test drive the unit) from central NJ to Baltimore. If the Garmin display was the windshield, I could have used only that screen, it is that fast and accurate. The lane assist function takes all thought out of figuring which lane one should be in for the interstate lane crossover. It was as if the 660 took a snapshot of the overhead signage in front of me and had it on the screen. In checking the accuracy of the unit, I found that I was looking too much at the Garmin and not the traffic, because I was amazed at the accuracy of the river crossings, the bridge crossings, the parallel service road vs. the interstate, to see if the Garmin picked up the subtle differences, it did 100%.

I will now use the included software to plan a route with POI and see how well it performs. With the software update, I'll let Garmin if there is any shortfall because I know they'll listen.

So far, I would recommend this unit and am thinking of adding the traffic cable for the next road trip.
minimize

A Half-Baked Product Release?, May 6, 2009

I am going on a 10-day motorcycle trip from the Bay Area to Colorado and back. So I decided to get the just released Garmin Zuno 660 to replace my TomTom Easy Rider. I received the unit last week and started using it in my car while I got the wiring done for my 1200GS. The unit is well built, the touch screen very responsive and the user...read full review I am going on a 10-day motorcycle trip from the Bay Area to Colorado and back. So I decided to get the just released Garmin Zuno 660 to replace my TomTom Easy Rider. I received the unit last week and started using it in my car while I got the wiring done for my 1200GS. The unit is well built, the touch screen very responsive and the user interface easy understand to navigate. I also downloaded the latest mapping software, a free, one-time upgrade offered by Garmin.

Set up was straightforward and downloading the updated North America map was fine, other than the fact that it is a 2.7GB file! I use a Mac and the mapping software for the Mac works well, very similar to the PC version. Creating custom routes on the Mac and downloading it to the Zumo is straight forward. So far so good. I spent the weekend exploring the Zumo, including browsing the map. That was when I noticed that the Zumo does not show any city names, no matter what the zoom level. Not the largest cities, and not the smallest ones; just road names. I called Garmin tech support and they confirmed that the Zumo does not support city names on the maps, saying that you can find cities by doing a search by name if you want to find any city. Garmin could not say when or if this feature will be supported! Unfortunately, I like to look at a mapI I like to see where towns/cities are relative to each other and other points of interest and selecting the appropriate routes. So a map without city/town names is not a map!

Garmin Tech Support pointed out that cities can be located by doing the search function. Unfortunately Portland Oregon or Portland Maine, or Portland anything came back "no matches found"! Small towns like Gypsum CO came back "no matches found".

Finally, I tried creating a custom route, which turned out to be straight forward. I created waypoints on my Mac, downloaded it to the Zumo and created a custom route. Again the Zumo let me down; it was not able to complete the route calculation, just hanging at less than 100% calculated.

I do believe the Zumo has the potential to be a very good motorcycle GPS unit. I also believe Garmin did a disservice by releasing the unit before it is fully baked! Hence the one star. Actually I would give it a zero star rating as this unit is not yet ready for commercial release and review.

05/08/09 Update: Must have been "pilot error" on my part; searching by "Cities" works for Portland or any other city/town, contrary to what I first reported (I have no idea why or what I was doing wrong the first time) . Also, Garmin does now acknowledge a problem with maps not displaying city/town names. According to their tech support, they are working on a fix but do not have a release date.

Creating a custom route on the unit works well except for a quirk: I cannot make the unit compute a route that goes over Tioga Pass Road (I route I am planning for an upcoming trip to Colorado), hanging up while calculating the route and never finishing. Another quirk: the unit will not allow me to add Ely Nevada to a custom route via "Cities", only giving me Ely Twp, MI as the option when typing in Ely. Just happens that Ely NV is also on my planned ride to Colorado. minimize

Zumo 660 (Nice), June 2, 2009

This was my first GPS. MapSource was very confusing to get up and running. You receive a CD with what I assumed was Mapsource but no where on the CD did it say that. It also said that you have to enter a 6 digit code from the CD sleeve which I never found. After emailing Garmin tech support several times, I figured out you actually download...read full review This was my first GPS. MapSource was very confusing to get up and running. You receive a CD with what I assumed was Mapsource but no where on the CD did it say that. It also said that you have to enter a 6 digit code from the CD sleeve which I never found. After emailing Garmin tech support several times, I figured out you actually download the latest MapSource and map as a one time freebee and the 6 digit code is given to you at download time. It was a large 2 gigabyte file. Once downloaded, the software was very good. It updates the GPS with the latest map also. I was able to start creating routes and waypoints very quickly. I planned my entire Arkansas trip within a few hours. The GPS itself is great. Very user friendly. It installed beautifully on my ElectraGlide.

Update- I went on my Arkansas trip and Custom Routes did not work at all. I talked with Garmin several times before they admitted there was an issue with Custom Routes. Basically, this feature was useless on my trip. I had to resort to taping direction on my windshield. As far as traveling to a city/state or address/city/state, it worked great. I cannot believe Garmin did not field test this unit before putting it on the market.

Update 7/14/09 - Garmin released a firmware update (3.10) for the 660. It appears it fixed all the issues with routes. I don't know of any issues I have left. It is a very good unit. One note, the USB ports on both the auto and cycle cradle is not for downloading to the unit. You can only use the USB port inside the battery compartment for interfacting with a PC and MapSource. minimize

Good GPS But Not Perfect, September 19, 2009

I just got back from a 7 day motorcycle trip, so I have enough useage of the Zumo 660 to give a fair review.
-The screen is bright enough to be read under almost all conditions, even when wearing sunglasses on a sunny day. The only time I could not see the screen properly was in direct sunlight with the sun shining straight onto the unit...read full review I just got back from a 7 day motorcycle trip, so I have enough useage of the Zumo 660 to give a fair review.
-The screen is bright enough to be read under almost all conditions, even when wearing sunglasses on a sunny day. The only time I could not see the screen properly was in direct sunlight with the sun shining straight onto the unit from over my shoulder. This was seldon an issuee. Screen=5 stars.
-The MP3 player was generally good, but lacked an equalizer. This is especially an issue on a motorcycle where wind noise drowns out bass. An equalizer is surely just a software issue, so there is no excuse for it not being on an $800 unit. MP3 player=3 stars
-The mapping software that comes with the unit is generally easy to use, and routes are easily loaded into the Zumo. Mapping software=4 stars
-The automotive mount that comes with it works well. I have used the unit in cars almost as much as on my motorcycle. Automotive mount=5 stars
-Routing, directions, etc. are good. It will occasionally direct you down a goat path, or tell you to go right, then make a u-turn a half mile later. I can only imagine the complexity of writing this software, so I won't ding the score too hard. It is as good as any unit I have used (which isn't that many), but not perfect when the roads are a bit tricky. Routing=4 stars
-Lane assist doesn't seem to do anything. In all the miles I have covered with this unit, it never once told me which lane to be in, and I could have used assistance on more than one occasion. Maybe it only works in certain large cities. As far as I can tell, it is a totally useless feature, if you can even call something that doesn't exist a feature. Lane assist=1 star, zero stars if zero is a legal rating.
-I really like the fact that there are two user-selectable fields that show up on the main map screen. This is one of the features that prompted me to buy this GPS. For example, when I am driving in the mountains, I like to know the elevation, so I can set one to continuously show elevation. All told, there are perhaps 20 different items to choose from, such as speed, time to next turn, arrival time, etc. User-selectable fields=5 stars
-One thing that REALLY annoys me is the fact that cities do not show up on the GPS. You can be rolling down the road, and all of a sudden you are in a town, without even knowing you were approaching one. A GPS is a moving map, and when people look at maps they look for basically two things: roads and cities. How can you not have cities show up? This is truly amazing how Garmin could have made such a basic blunder. Didn't any of the software engineers, technicians, marketing people, etc ever just get in car and try it? Heads need to roll over this. There is no excuse for this kind of defect on an $800 GPS. I have used a $100 el cheapo GPS from Nexstar that shows towns. If you touch the screen, then zoom in or out to just the right zoom level, towns will show up, so with some effort you can find the information, but you should not have to do this. Hopefully this will be corrected with a future firmware upgrade. Lack of Cities=0 stars, even if 0 stars is not allowed.
-I did not use the bluetooth feature, so I cannot comment on any of those features.
-I purchased this through Amazon and, as usual, they did an excellent job.

Overall, I am quite happy with this unit, but Garmin really needs to fix that city problem. minimize