Home > Consumer Reviews > Garmin nüvi 5000 5.2-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

First, I would like to say that I really like my Garmin nuvi 5000. It is the first GPS unit I have ever owned. It is very easy to use and the large screen is very visible in all light levels. However, there are three areas where I feel the unit falls short. First, it needs a rechargeable internal battery that would allow it to be used disconnected from the automobile, even if only for a short period of time. The battery life would be extendable by having a way to switch off the screen and allowing the unit continue to operate. Second, the unit needs a better manual that goes more detail about the working of the unit. For example, it tells you how to add favorites locations to your unit's memory, but it does not tell you how many locations you can have, nor does it tell you if an SD card will add space for more. The third and biggest problem with this unit is the lack of a good internal antenna. My experience has shown that the unit is not very good at acquiring satellites as it is designed. I have experienced the following problems using the unit mounted on the beanbag holder (Garmin's Portable Friction Dashboard Mount) on my car's dashboard: When parked in my driveway with a clear overhead view, it can take more then 2-3 minutes to acquire a good signal lock; Pulling out of my garage and driving down suburban roads at less then 40 miles per hour, it has taken more than 10 minutes to get a good lock on the satellites; Once when driving down an Interstate highway with a wide open sky view, the unit lost signal and took several minutes to re-acquire the satellites; and at other times it has showed it poor design of the internal antenna. To try to solve this problem, I purchased the external Garmin antenna. This antenna is designed with a magnet to attache to the car roof and plug into the back of the unit. This works very well and solves the problem of satellite acquisition, but makes for a messy dash. However, I found that if the antenna is just placed horizontally on the dash behind the unit it works just as well. This brought me to conclude that the unit should be designed with an attached flip up antenna, as come commercial unites have, to improve satellite acquisition. I gave it four stars, because with the added antenna, the unit works great and I would not want to give it up.

I am a long time owner of the Garmin StreetPilot 2720 and bought the NUVI 5000 for the larger screen. The larger screen is great but, it's performance is poor. A lot of the time routing is just bad, routing me in circles. Sometimes it tries to route me via an old destination. The POI function, even with the "On current route" feature shows POIs behind me and far off route.

I am a Garmin fan but, I regret this purchase.

Update: After more problems, mostly lockups and failure to draw screen (map display), Garmin replaced the unit. Unfortunately, the problems with poor routing continued. I have had one lock up with the new unit. Also, false alerts about safety camers started to appear.

We are in the middle of a 5,000 mile trip out west and this unit is unreliable and disappointing.



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I have used a Garmin GPS 60c for years and decided it was time to get something easier to see and work with. This sounded ideal as I drive a Freightliner Truck towing my Travel Trailer. But the truck noise made using the FM connection mandatory. (There goes my books on tape). But the worst is the poor navigation. It could not find my mothers address (it did, but it showed her address as the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America and my Mom lives on Cape Cod) and other common places (such as Goodyear Tire Centers, Flying J's, Rest Areas other than ones on major interstates and Camping World) I called Garmin. I just bought this and they wanted me to BUY more maps. Navteq supplies their maps and the maps for MS Streets and Trips (which almost always finds addresses), so it is a Garmin problem. I just bought the Dash Express for about half the price. Lifetime free automatic updates, LIVE traffic and routing, LIVE internet search and user made favorites as well as many awesome features. I'll review it after I actually use it. Sorry, Garmin, get modern and more customer friendly....the world of technology is quickly out-distancing you!

The main reason I purchased this unit was that I really liked our older Nuvi but I wanted a newer unit with a video input for a reverse backup camera.

The problem with this unit is that the very first time it goes to switch to the video input after the unit is powered on, even if you have auto switch on for the video input, the unit is going to stop you with a nagging disclaimer screen that you MUST agree to. You have to touch the screen. It won't go away after a short delay like the first nag screen does. Plus it takes quite some time before you even get there since you have to wait for the unit to "start up". Seems kind of funny that the disclaimer is that you shouldn't watch video while driving. Isn't the whole point of a backup camera to be able to look at it to make sure you don't run into something? There's no way around the nag screen without touching the unit except to just wire the unit to be always on.

Even more confusing is that the video input setting has a mode for reverse camera but if you set it to this mode (instead of dvd), then it will ask you if you want to change EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!

UPDATE 1) Called Garmin Support, after "researching" it, they told me that that was it, and that's how it worked, and there was no way to get rid of the video warning screen.

UPDATE 2) Checked the unit's firmware and was amazed to see a really old version on there. Downloaded the latest firmware and the problem is SOLVED!! Now the backup camera mode works properly and it NEVER prompts you. Not even a delayed warning after power-on. You still need to wait for the unit to boot and it does take a while but as soon as it does, it immediately switches over to the video input. I do wish it could switch over even faster at unit power on. I'd update my rating to 4 stars but this edit page won't let me.

We took a trip this past weekend and overall the unit is very nice. The auto-dimming screen feature works great. This unit also displays the current speed limit and it was amazing at how accurate it was. It would switch within a second or two of passing the speed limit signs.

The 5.2 Inch screen is much easier to read than most GPS units I have seen. Fits easily into my wife's purse, so she doesn't even need a carrying case. Voice is pleasant, and not intrusive. Re-calculations are almost instantaneous.

First thing I did was to update to version 2.80 of the software. Seems like it only took 1, maybe 2 minutes, for the unit to update when plugged back in the car.

Granted at $799 the 5000 is pricey compared to most, but did I mention that the 5.2" will spoil you?