Buying secondhand GPS Units

Onwalkabout

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Just thought I would share a little tip to help save a few people some time when buying second hand GPS units. My comments are largely Garmin orientated as this was the unit I bought secondhand (Zumo 550).

Firstly, no problems buying the unit - thanks again Burge, it's a brilliant piece of kit. However, registration and map updates were a bit of a challenge as the unit was registered with Garmin to Burge. So after several emails to Garmin, this is what I learnt.

1. Without the unit being registered in your name you can use it, but that is it. Getting updates, support and the like is difficult at the least.
2. The previous owner should de-register the unit with Garmin, preferably by contacting Garmin via their website. This will allow the new user to register the unit and obtain updates and map products.
3. If you have already bought the unit, and need to have the GPS unlocked, email Garmin through help and support. They were a little bureaucratic (obviously screening for hot items), but very helpful. Ensure you have something that looks like an official receipt - they will want a copy. I paid with a bank transfer, so this was easy. They also contacted the seller to ensure the sale was genuine
4. The map products on the unit do not need to be de-registered. These are locked to the unit. You can happily upgrade these and add more maps without re-registration. Just ensure that the GPS is properly registered to you or you're are effectively buying them for the previous owner.

This is for Garmin units, but I can only assume TomTom and others would be the same as some sort of tacit theft protection.

One other note to sellers. Before you ship off your pre-loved items ensure that you wipe the data from the system. Like all modern gadgets these little beasts store all kinds of useful data. When mine arrived, it contained a host of tasteful music (thanks for that), but also - route logs, home telephone numbers, personal addresses (in favourites and way points), last places visited, etc. Please ensure that at a minimum you do a hard reset on the unit (in the manual) to reset all data and wipe any SD memory cards (or better still, swap it over for a clean one). Don't worry Bruge, your data has gone to digital heaven.
 
good post , many thanks been looking at some used Garmin stuff myself :thumb.

Rawly
 
Garmin

Hi, Thank you for advice about deregistering. Bought a Navigator 3 and seller de-registered for me and no problems with registering online. It did take a few hours to update maps though,
 
Existing users can de-register via their on-line myGarmin account. Ensure that any seller pledges to do this.

Lifetime map updates are not transferable. I'm not sure what happens to a unit with a current lifetime subscription. I assume that the mapping at the time of sale will be transferred but if the new user wants to continue with updates they will need to start another subscription. Also you will probably need to subscribe to get mapping onto your PC anyway. Lifetime updates are available from Handtec and Pentagon GPS for around £50 in the form of a gift card, this costs £75 direct from Garmin for essentially the same thing.
 
For 2nd hand Garmins an alternative to the Garmin mapping is OpenStreetMap . Full routable, loads of POIs and, in the main, better coverage and more current. Works in Mapsource/Basecamp (Mac and PC versions available) as well as on your GPS. Routing on A to B routes occasionally tends to differ from Garmin data but not in a bad way.

Additionally; no unlock shenanigans and it's open source. Free to download though donations are welcome. You can contribute to keeping it current and accurate.

Have used it in a car in the US but I have a Lifetime subscription to the European Garmin data but my well give it a go here anyway as you can easily run it alongside on an SD card and disable the Garmin mapping.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks Bumpkin. I was intending to buy the new 5 inch Garmin sumo 590 LM from a source in the USA. ($750 approx).
Your tip will mean I don't have to pay for the uk map - so I'm really chuffed.
 
Your tip will mean I don't have to pay for the uk map - so I'm really chuffed.

There a few downsides to OSM mapping that I've discovered since making that post.

  • There are no speed ratings on the roads so the speed limit display won't appear.
  • As the mapping is in the older Garmin format file size will be greater for a given area (usually the detail level is higher and there are more POIs as well which adds even more 'girth', does vary area to area). This means that you'll fit less mapping onto your device. Probably not an issue on the 590 though.
  • The mapping downloaded from OSM is limited to, ISTR, 2GB of data. This means that full Europe, or even half of it, is not possible as one file. There are workarounds to this; either have multiple cards and swap as required or use GMapTool to combine multiple files into one. Installing into Basecamp will mean using JaVaWa to rename the last installed OSM mapset before installing the next. All a bit of faff.

Unfortunately I don't think you can't just buy a £50 Garmin Lifetime Update for Europe from Handtec, you need to buy the full European mapping product first.
 
I was intending to buy the new 5 inch Garmin sumo 590 LM from a source in the USA. ($750 approx).
Your tip will mean I don't have to pay for the uk map - so I'm really chuffed.

Is it not odd to spend about £450 on a GPS, then quibble over buying an easy to load and reliable whole of Europe map?
 
Is it not odd to spend about £450 on a GPS, then quibble over buying an easy to load and reliable whole of Europe map?

Well contrary to what I thought it's not too expensive to go down the official Garmin route. Maps for region not already on the device brings up a price of £75 direct from Garmin as a download. Though I think that this is a one off update. Not sure if you can apply a Lifetime subscription to that at a later juncture or you have to update as a one off every time you want to do so.

Years ago I bought an imported StreetPilot 2720, it came with City Navigator Europe, the guy who brought it over from the States had bought and registered that. This was the days before LM. Garmin insisted that it was impossible to replace the pre-installed mapping effectively converting it into a European version, with the assistance of a Dutchman who was in the 'same boat' we figured out a way to do this. Bear in mind that that model didn't have file access to the internal memory that later Garmins have. From then on it worked as a European model and on-line updates worked without a hitch. In other words never say never.
 


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