Zumo 550 or 660?

Just today I bought (or thought I had!) a brand new Zumo 660 for the grand sum of £355.00 from a seller on fleabay.

The seller has e-mailed me shortly after to say that he's really sorry but his sales partner had just sold the last one without him knowing. He's offering me a full refund, plus a bit for my trouble or if I wish he has a brand new Zumo 550 that he can offer for £300.

I really don't know what to do as I'd set my heart on the 660 but now I just don't know.

Any opinions?

Second hand 550's are fetching £300, is it a current model with upto date mapping? , just bought a 550 myself , not yet been able to use it much but seems a great peice of kit and always gets good write ups.

FERRET said:

Second hand 550's are fetching £300, is it a current model with upto date mapping? , just bought a 550 myself , not yet been able to use it much but seems a great peice of kit and always gets good write ups.

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It's a brand new unit. Never registered or turned on so it means I get a one time upgrade to the latest maps through Garmin. This is as long as you do it within 60 days of registering it.

My dilemma is I thought I'd bagged a real bargain getting the 660 for £355 including shipping, this just puts me back to the drawing board.

The real question is - is the 660 THAT much better than the 550 given the price difference? Don't know whether to hold out for another new 660 at a similar price or take this guy's offer.

I have both

The 550 is much more rugged, have done 45K miles and it still looks good. Never had any issues with it which is good as it was the first batch out of the factory.
The 660 is more friendly but some of the routing is a bit dubious. Had to do a restart taking out the battery on a dozen times. Done 10k miles with this and it is looking quite shabby. It is a real pain to connect to the PC and to take out the memory card, as you have to take the battery cover off. Good thing about it is when you use it either out of the mount or in the car mount, it is self sufficient with its own speaker so you can route as a pedestrian and get voice directions or listen to music when you are camping.

Both are very good but we will be taking the 660 down South America later in the year, in a Touratech mount!

My vote goes for Zumo 550...have it for three years and no problems at all, used on my old Tenere, and GSA now, as well as in a car.

Very heavy duty unit, much more than Zumo 660.

Also, few friends of mine had problems with 660 "dying" sudenly without reason, and master reset in Garmin dealer's office was only way to fix it.

So, +1 for Zumo 550,

Went for the 660 in the end as got a better deal on it than the 550. Also prefer some of the features of the 660 over the 550 which swung it for me.

Thanks for the points of view in the meantime chaps.

Be aware that Garmin has in the past refused to recognise units brought through eBay for warranty claims, unless the seller is an approved Garmin agent.

Tim Cullis said:

Be aware that Garmin has in the past refused to recognise units brought through eBay for warranty claims, unless the seller is an approved Garmin agent.

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Fortunately they are as it was supplied by Handtec

I bought an old Quest of ebay which was years old, when that went wrong garmin just replaced it for about 67 quid with a 1 year warranty.

Regarding Zumos I just bought a 500 (essentially a 550 without spoken street names) as a white box from satnaveasy for 225 quid (i used to have a 400 but wanted the bluetooth thingy) with a 1 year warranty and the latest mapping. Its un-marked and i would not tell it apart from a new one. You get all the usual stuff you would with a new one..... even spare caps and bases.

Cant understand why anyone would buy a 550 or 500 for more than what you can get one with a warranty for

Are there other significant differences between the 500 and the 550?
The price differences is significant £250 vs £430.

stolzy said:

Are there other significant differences between the 500 and the 550?
The price differences is significant £250 vs £430.

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The 550 comes pre-loaded with European maps (only UK/ROI on the 500) and also comes with a powered car mount. The car mount contains a speaker so you can hear spoken instructions as of course the 400/500/550 don't have an internal speaker like the 660.

You can, however, load the included European maps onto the 500 as Garmin kindly supply the maps with it, however, you will need an SD card to load the maps onto.

Other than the above, the 2 units are basically the same.

go the 550 - the local garmin dealer in sydney talked my out of buying one due it was 1st gene - but also the bracket wasnt as strong or rugged as the 550!

Cheers guys

go the 550 - the local garmin dealer in sydney talked my out of buying one due it was 1st gene - but also the bracket wasnt as strong or rugged as the 550!

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I had a 550 which was very good indeed and used all over Europe. As my wife wanted to dump her totally useless Tomtom Rider, a new Garmin was called for so I got a 660 and gave her the 550 so I have good experience of both.

The first offering of the 660 may have been flawed with dodgy software but that is not the case now. Both 550 and 660 are very good satnav devices so the difference is in the detail.

- The wide screen on the 660 makes little difference as you normally travel from bottom to top and the extra width is used for soft buttons.

- The 3D buildings the 660 claims to have, I have never seen, and the lane warnings on junctions are limited and really just eye candy.

- The 660 locking on the bracket seems a little insecure at first but I have never had a problem with it and have never seen a post on this or any other forum by anyone who has. It is very fast to fit and remove compared with the 550 which can be awkward to line up on the bracket and getting rid of the 550's ludicrously stupid security screw is a must. I used both on Touratech brackets anyway as it gives a little more short term security when refueling etc.

-The 660 has a speaker so does not rely on a speaker in the car mount. This means it can play MP3 or act as a phone hands free without fitting it to a bracket. I have used it as a hands free for a phone by just leaving it on the passenger seat.

- The cabling for the bike mount is a lot neater on the 660. On the 550 you need separate power, mic and speaker cables from the mount (plus USB if you want an external antenna). The 660 uses a composite cable for everything which is long enough to reach the rear of the tank so individual connections are out of sight and out of the weather.

- The 550 is better with older mobile phones as it uses an earlier flavour of Bluetooth. I had problems with my Palm Centro with the 660 but my Blackberry Bold is perfect - even to the point of giving me voice dialling.

- The 550 uses a standard SD card which is easy to get to. The 660 uses a fiddly micro SD card which is a sod to get to. For me its no problem as its a fit and forget item. If you need to keep removing the card to swap MP3s or routes it could be a pain.

- When my 550 locked up on a trip in Italy I needed tools to get the battery off to reset it. The simpler battery on the 660 is the same as removing the battery on a mobile phone. Just unclip the cover and take it out.

- When I bought mine the 660 could be found cheaper than the 550.

- Although the 660 is wider, it is a lot slimmer than the 550 and easier to slide in a pocket when taken off the bike.

My conclusion is that when I bought the 660 there were some software issues that did not prevent it working but were a little annoying. Now it is great and, for my use, I made the right decision but I was also 100% happy with the 550.

Good review Andy, thanks

+1 good review, well done for taking the time, I see a refurbed 550 on pixmania pro for 286 euro ex vat , i think ill take it!

that was just what i needed andy good review plain english thanks

TT Rider!