Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Magellan
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List Price: Our Price: $62.97 You Save: $537.02 (90%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Magellan Maestro 4040 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: Major issues with the 4040
Summary: 1 Stars
My wife and I like to "road trip" on our vacations. For us this means picking a general outbound route, a turnaround destination, and a return route. We particularly enjoy using "blue highway" routes and avoiding Interstates as much as possible. We also like to take side trips off our our main route when something looks interesting.
We bought the 4040 thinking it would be an ideal replacement for mapping our trips by hand and navigating by a paper map. Our first (and last) experience with the 4040 was a disaster. This puppy's on the way home to Amazon!
Deal-breaker complaints:
1. A "destination" to this unit is a numbered street address and city. Not possible if you are "exploring" and don't know that speicific information at the destination (we usually only know the turnaround city).
2. The "multiple destination" feature is a joke. It's really multiple final destinations in sequence. There is no way to design a complete route "via" specific intermediate points. The unit forces you to go to the first destination then calculate the route to the second, etc. Royal PITA.
3. There is no "look ahead" feature for a route, other than zoom-out. All you can see on the unit is where you are, but you cannot see where you are going. While this may be OK on a freeway (with signs and markers) it is not helpful while navigating rural secondary roads.
Bottom line: IF you always know precisely what your destination is, and that's the only place you're going, the 4040 is probably as good as any other GPS system.
However, if you're in to exploring and spontaneous side trips, this thing is useless! Look for a unit with better features for "multiple destinations" and "multiple via's."
Customer Review: Superb performance right out of the box
Summary: 4 Stars
UPDATE: after using for 2 years, this is still a great GPS and I highly recommend Magellan for anyone contemplating a new unit. I have recently purchased a 2nd cheaper GPS -- a TomTom -- for my frequent business travels, and it's not nearly as good as the much older Magellan.
After reading several reviews and shopping around, I purchased this unit (my first GPS) from Costco for $[...] in the summer of 2007. The very next day I embarked on a cross-country drive from Seattle to DC. What a godsend! It made the trip so easy -- I just cannot imagine life without it now. It was easy to find hotels, restaurants, gas stations, banks, and anything else I needed no matter where I was on the map. I was never once on a road that didnt register on the screen, and I think I only had to reboot 1 time. The AAA tourbook has some excellent information that came in handy every single day.
While the user manual doesnt seem to do a thorough job of explaining the numerous features, the design is intuitive enough that owners with at least modest skills with modern electronics will figure it out in a snap, and it works perfectly right out of the box. I have dabbled a little with the blue tooth for cell phone use, and it seems to work flawlessly with my motorola phone.
There are now newer models coming out and the price of this one has come down $[...] even at Costco, but nearly 6 months afer my purchase I'm still very satisfied and glad I bought the Maestro 4040. If I have 1 gripe outside of the so-so user guide, it's that there doesnt seem to be an online update for firmware or maps. If it's out there, 3 or 4 clicks on the Magellan site didnt uncover it. Overall superb product.
Customer Review: Bluetooth did not work
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this just before we left on a trip on Feb 1,2008. Found the device easy to use, although I did observe some of the issues that have been documented in other reviews. The most annoying to me was its notifying you that you are at your exit AS YOU ARE PASSING IT.
The real issue for me, however, was learned the hard way. When I attempted to call for assistance, I found that the bluetooth did not work correctly with my Motorola V3m. All of the POI phone numbers are entered in the format NNN-NNN-NNNN. While this is acceptable for reading, the 4040 also transmitted the '-' to my phone, and the phone had no idea what to do with this informaiton. While investigating, I entered a contact into the device, omitting the dashes, and that number worked fine.
Tech support indicated that they were aware of the issue and that a fix would be comming. It was after the 4th weekly call that I was also informed that this fixes were generally available on 12-18 month cycles, and that they could not tell me when the next fix would be available. I believe that 2.36 (the version on this unit) was available Oct-Nov 2007. Their "workaround" was to dial the number myself.
There are some very good reviews on what this unit does well, all correct. When something does not work correctly, however, they need to respond promptly...they are not giving these away.
I was hoping that I would never have to experience their "documented" poor tech support...I was wrong. I hope they realize the downside of this to their business.
I returned the unit.
Customer Review: Beware Magellan support and extended warranty
Summary: 1 Stars
I am not reviewing this product but Magellan service and the Magellan extended warranty. I purchased a Magellan Roadmate 760 1 1/2 years ago and an extended warranty 11 months ago. This expires in January of 2009. The Magellan 760 has worked fairly well though some of the routes selected made little sense when looking for the shortest, quickest, most use of highways, etc. I recently purchased on line their newly released software and map update. I had much difficulty installing this because Magellan supplied an incorrect unlock code. I spent literally hours on the phone waiting for an outsourced support person and should add that their email support which stated that the matter "has been escalated to the appropriate department" was no better. The correct unlock code was finally posted to my account on their website. During the installation process, the program suddenly terminated after it had erased the database in my unit but before the new database could be entered into it. Once again, hours on the phone with the following revelation, "the Roadmate 760 is no longer manufactured, supported or repaired but we will sell you a newer model at a reduced cost." When I inquired as to what value the still in effect warranty had, they were unable to answer but promised to "look into the matter" and call me back. They have not done so. I now have a useless and "mapless" Magellan Roadmate 760. When purchasing a product, be very aware that it is only as good as the support and company honesty behind it. I would strongly discourage anyone purchasing a Magellan product.Customer Review: Magellan Maestro 4040 just OK
Summary: 2 Stars
Magellan Maestro 4040 just OK
We recently purchased this unit for a trip across the country for a family reunion. I have a built in GPS in my 2002 Acura CL so I had some experience with navigation units. This unit did a good job at times but some of the things I've gotten use to with the one in my Acura were not in this unit. One big thing was the ability to zoom in and out. The portability was nice, but it was hard to see in the car sometimes also you cant zoom out just enough to see what city are coming up that is a big plus in my built in unit. When you zoomed out that far on this unit the city names would all disappear it was really a drag.
On this unit you had to hit the + or - each time to zoom in or out and wait fpr for a "refrest" where on the older unit in my Acura there is a graduated ability so if you want to zoom out 3 times you hit the graduated line at 3 and presto 3times zoom. Also the Magellan says it allows for multiple destinations (trip planning) which it does kind of but you can't choose a starting point other than your current location to see how far ect from one place to another will be on your trip. The last thing that I was disappointed in was "exit POI" function. The sales person told me it would show you where the next "roadside rest" was on the interstate, but it will not do that another bummer. So I returned the unit and will try again in a year or so to see if I can find one with these little features that I would like.
GaryO
Union City, CA