NUVI 1490T

I am considering upgrading from my old C-340, which I love, to the newer
Nuvi 1490T. It seems to have a lot of the features I want. I have seen a ton
of these units selling as refurbished for $199 just about everywhere.

My question is: This is a fairly new unit. Why are so many refurbs showing
up? Is Garmin getting that many returns on this model? If so, I can't help
but wonder why. I have looked at many reviews, both positive and negative
and I haven't seen a compelling reason NOT to buy one. Can someone out there
give me some insight?

On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:27:54 -0500, PHIL wrote:

Like most sophisticated consumer products, a lot of refurbs are
essentially just open-box returns from retail outlets that can't or
won't handle their own open-box sales. A fair number of them come back
with uncaught maufacturing problems that can be fixed or just because
the new owner can't figure out how to make the new gizmo do what's
expected. (This is not necessarily the same as "do what it was designed
to do"...)

--
86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly
grounded.
        --Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord

ton
g
p
ere

I'm very pleased with the performance and features of my new 1490T -
the big advantage over the StreetPilot 2820 is the much larger screen,
and the speed limit display. I'm less happy about the lack of
'tweakability' and fine-tuning of the display - I can't get it to show
railways at any available magnification, and it displays street names
differently, but I'm a convert to the lane assist and junction display
features. However the manual (which has to be downloaded - there's a
pathetic 'getting started' leaflet in the box) is lamentable -
absolutely no mention about how to send routes from MapSource and
import them to a usuable place. I only knew about the routing
possibility from the general description on the Garmin site and it was
a leap of faith to buy it without being certain - pre-planning routes
is very improtant for me. However it works just as it does on my 710,
where the process *does* get mentioned in the manual (and is the same
- so anyone wanting to load routes onto a 1490 should download the 700-
series manual from Garmin to find out how to do it...)

Don't hesitate - and refurbished is even more likely to work than new,
I suspect!

Thanks to both for the info. I intend to pick one up as soon as my summer
driving season starts (about May).



I'm very pleased with the performance and features of my new 1490T -
the big advantage over the StreetPilot 2820 is the much larger screen,
and the speed limit display. I'm less happy about the lack of
'tweakability' and fine-tuning of the display - I can't get it to show
railways at any available magnification, and it displays street names
differently, but I'm a convert to the lane assist and junction display
features. However the manual (which has to be downloaded - there's a
pathetic 'getting started' leaflet in the box) is lamentable -
absolutely no mention about how to send routes from MapSource and
import them to a usuable place. I only knew about the routing
possibility from the general description on the Garmin site and it was
a leap of faith to buy it without being certain - pre-planning routes
is very improtant for me. However it works just as it does on my 710,
where the process *does* get mentioned in the manual (and is the same
- so anyone wanting to load routes onto a 1490 should download the 700-
series manual from Garmin to find out how to do it...)

Don't hesitate - and refurbished is even more likely to work than new,
I suspect!