Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wrote a very heated review a few weeks ago... after playing around with the GPS for a full 24 hours. After a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided to keep the GPS because it served its purpose: provide directions for me while I drove around in LA/OC. I'm sure there's probably a better one out there but I paid $360 for this unit from CarToys. The following review is my original one including more opinions on this unit: I'm officially a GPS newbie. I never owned a unit before so fellow newbies - this is for you too. So far, I've had this unit for up to 3 weeks now and here are some pros & cons. Also, this is a matter of my opinion, if you have any tips - PLEASE let me know. PROS: 1) The GPS made my drive very convenient... it gave accurate information even though their traffic data wasn't precise. In one instance they wanted us to hop off the 5 freeway, drive down a regular street, and do it again. 2) Garmin's NuLink service is very helpful as there were several occasions where I needed to find some information and I was able to look through Google Local for it. 3) There are a lot of handy features. I like their points of interest. I never knew there were so many events in the area. It's handy when you want to see an art exhibit (doesn't list all), comedy show, or something. Looking for food has never been so easy for me. I don't have to drive around in circles to look for it. 4) The bluetooth is very handy. I found it very easy to use. Too bad I can't have an "address book" on there. Favorites seem to be sufficient, however when I look under call history -- the number that I entered as a favorite registers as UNKNOWN CALLER. This might be problematic because... what if you don't want to pick up? :) CONS: 1) Traffic data stopped working and it's slightly unreliable. The first week it worked for me. However, for some UNKNOWN reason, it stopped working when I tried to look up traffic data a week after I got the unit. I was getting incomplete data. Some freeways showed up as black (which the route used to show up green for good traffic) and it'll show yellow and red. However, these colors didn't align to the freeway (when it used to). 2) The Google search helped a lot BUT it's slightly slow and the response isn't perfect. I live in Orange County and drove to Los Angeles w/ the device so it should be able to retrieve data well enough. However, I kept running to the "server is busy" messages. 3) THIS DEVICE RESTARTS AT VERY RANDOM TIMES (even though it's fully charged or plugged into the car). I used this device all day and it restarted on me while I was driving, using it in pedestrian mode, and just entering data. I noticed that it happens quite a bit when it can't connect to the satellites EVEN THOUGH I'm in an open area. That led to manually restarting the device several times. If I clicked too fast, it restarts too! This is getting slightly irritating. Also, in a place like LA, you can't have this thing randomly restart! 4) There have been a few times when the device registered incorrect dates. Earlier, I was looking for comedy events that were playing TODAY. However, when I click on TODAY, it gave me the times/events for TOMORROW'S DATE versus TODAY. When I click on TOMORROW'S date, I get the next day's events. What happened to TODAY and not tomorrow? That is buggy. 5) Marking your car's parking spot is slightly unreliable. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe this is due to user error but I got it to work the first time... however, afterwards, it didn't work. 6) ADVERTISEMENTS ARE ANNOYING - It obstructs your route. So far, the only way I can get around this is by clicking on it. Then it brings to a list of where all the stores are in the area, and I have to click back. This is a problem because it's a distraction that's frustrating and problematic when you're trying to pay attention to the road. In California, you can't mount your GPS on the center of the windshield. As a test of the law, I had it mounted on far right side of the passenger's side and realized how hard it is to get out of the screen. I had to pull over, pull it off, and place it on the passenger seat just to have it next to me so I can click on the ads to make them go away. 7) The battery life is very short. It states that it lasts for 4 hours but it seems to last only a couple hours for me while I'm using it in pedestrian mode. ---------- Depending on things go with this device, I might even consider returning it. Luckily Car Toys has a wonderful return policy on Garmin products. I may call Garmin's customer support to find how I can get around these problems. If not... I'm going to put it back in the box and do a return!