DO NOT BUY LOWRANCE PRODUCTS

[Mr. Shamrock]

I try to praise companies that give me decent support and rarely will go out of my way to bad mouth a company unless they really do me wrong. Well here is one of those situations - I bought a Lowrance GPS unit about a year ago and have updated the maps once on it. A couple months ago I grabbed the GPS on my way out of the door to go down to Atlanta to pick up some bikes. I stopped about 1/2 way to grab a bite and since I knew my way up until I got off the intersate tried to input the address and it could not find it. It is a fairly new building so I luckily have GPS on my Blackberry and punched it in there and it took me right to it. It kind of slipped my mind until yesterday and I contacted Lowrance via e-mail and they e-mailed me back saying they dropped their automotive line and will not be offering any updated maps any longer for those units. So I just called them and spoke to the most unhelpful & rude customer service rep I have ever spoke with. He was very "matter of fact" and basically told me too bad I was beat.

DO NOT BUY ANY LOWRANCE PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!

 

[KennyV]

I think if you have been following consumer GPS products at all, you would have noticed that no stand alone GPS device is going to be supported...
Almost any decent phone has a far better app based system... most of them are google map linked and update almost fully automatically...
I think it is more of a progression of technology rather than any individual distributor...

Stick with your phone app GPS... It will be around until something better comes along... :smile:KennyV

 

[Mr. Shamrock]

Yeah the phone one works great - you hust have to make sure you have the phone charger handy b/c it will eat up a battery quick. Beyond that I am going to update soon to a phone with a larger screen and use that in the car. I see a Garmin in my future to use on the boat - my Lowrance system will be sold just because of this crap.

 

[jenkinsph]

I bought both an LCX26hd and an LCX25 pair for my boat in Feb of 2005 and have had good service from Lowrance customer service and the product too. BUT I have heard some horror stories too from other users with less than stellar results. I think I will consider Furuno and Garmin next go round for the boat electronics.

 

[RobertBrown]

Thank you for the advice, I'll make a
note of it....

 

[txzrider]

Lowrance makes fine fishfinders, I would never consider them for an automotive gps solution. Kenny is correct, free map sw on your smartphone killed that market. Lowrance failed in 2 areas. Obviously customer support as well as choosing to market a product in an consumer environment it could not compete in. Garmin is competing and might be holding their own... but after 2 attempts were made to steal my portable gps because they saw the empty dash mount still in the vehicle... I was cured of using anything but my phone... and it works better than any system I have ever used. (google maps via android)

 

[exotion]

We have a tom tom xl for road trips. Its really nice but not practical for work use takes to long to load. My phone is google navigation its free instantly loads give great directions and when I'm on the same block as my target is shows me the house street view

 

[Carscw]

I have a Tom Tom works good until you want to find the right house. I use a app on my phone.

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

 

[exotion]

I have a Tom Tom works good until you want to find the right house. I use a app on my phone.

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

Ya mine makes roads up. One place says the road goes straight through a house :/

 

[Carscw]

Ya mine makes roads up. One place says the road goes straight through a house :/

Ok so it's not just mine.

And it loves dead end roads

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))