Garmin Zumo 220 3.5" Sat Nav for Motorcycles with UK and Full Europe Maps and Bluetooth

I can't say I'm happy to be writing this as I shelled out a lot of money for my Garmin but it is without doubt the worst satnav I've ever used. I used it over the last 3 weeks touring round Europe and it's given so many wierd routes and incorrect directions that I was seriously wondering if it was broken in some way.

There is nothing more infuriating than being told to keep left only to then be told that you should have went right. This happened a number of times and always when it was most inconvenient such as on the autostradas when you couldn't turn around for 20K.

The bluetooth connected fine to my headset but the volume was pathetically low. So much so that I disabled it as I couldn't hear the instructions anyway. This was using an Interphone F4 in a Shoei Multitec. The Interphone's a superb bit of kit that I used 'bike to bike' with my wife on the same trip. The issue seems to be the Garmin's volume, not the Interphone's. Of course you can't adjust the Garmins volume when synced with Bluetooth. You can only use your headsets control. It won't let you turn the Garmin's volume up seperately. Terrific!

If that wasn't bad enough it also decided to route me through loads of A and B roads about France instead of using the freeway even though I told it I wanted the fastest route and NOT to avoid tolls. The end result of this was that I didn't make my planned destination and had to book into a rural hotel well away from where I wanted to be. Checking maps later confirmed that it's routing choice was terrible. On most occasions I'd say it chose a poor route and sometimes gave me different routes coming back from a location as the one it gave going. As a computer programmer that particular gem is beyond my understanding.

The next annoyance is POIs. There's no way to overlay them over the map view. If you need fuel for instance it only brings up a list with some arrows showing the rough compass direction of petrol stations. Not exactly helpful believe me. Especially when you can't tell if it'll involve a major detour off a motorway for instance. Why can't I just choose to overlay them on the map view?

Then there's the routing again. I plotted an arrow onto a road in Italy (the E35) to tell the system that I wanted to go to Lugano via the E35 as it always tried to take me over a very slow mountain pass otherwise. The only way is to point a little arrow to a via point on the map. When zoomed in you only see one solid line representing the entire road the system decided my via point was on the opposite side of the road from the direction I was going in and directed me off the E35 onto some side roads and then right back down the E35 back the way I came to reach the via point. Yes there's an element of stupidity on my part as I suspected something was up but, in a foreign country, you sometimes have to trust it. Of course when I realised what it was doing it was too late and I had to waste another 24km before I could turn round on the motorway.

Oh, and one more one the routing. Almost every turn tells you street names such as 'turn left onto Whatever Boulevard'. That'd be fine except that the signs by road turns never ever give street names. How about 'take the next left heading for Reims'? That'd actually be useful! The map view also never tells you the town names as you pass through so it's a pain trying to guage where you are when you're forced to dig out the maps.

Finally, there's the support. I accidentally dropped the unit and broke the silver trim on the front. This is a flimsy plastic cover and is purely a cosmetic item that clips on the front. I called Garmin who told me they don't sell spares but for £90 they would replace the whole unit. When I pointed out I only wanted the little cover which must be worth a couple of quid I was told too bad and that it wasn't Garmin's fault that they don't sell spares or do repairs. So who's fault is it??? I'm now left with a unit I can't sell that doesn't actually work worth a damn.

My wife has also told me she's never going to go a run with me again if I use the Garmin. So well done Garmin for making me waste over £300 on your useless product which will now lie in a drawer unused. I only hope I can deter others from making the same mistake. I'd read that the TomTom Rider's had reliability issues. Stupidly I chose the Garmin instead. I'm now off to investigate the new TomTom Urban Rider. It can't possibly be worse. Or maybe I'll just buy some maps instead.

* UPDATE: Garmin have restored my faith in their customer services. After writing a letter to them about my broken trim they have sent out a replacement trim for free. It does mean that their call centre's claim that they don't carry spares was complete nonsense but at least they've sorted this out for me. I can't fault the subsequent service I received which has been superb. If you find an issue I'd advise writing a good old fashioned letter.

Very Good gps for motorcycle. It comes with everything to pulg-and-play: RAM mount for car and motorcycle,lighter cable for 12 v plug, eléctric wire for permanent conections, and all its is necessary to conect to Your computer. Easy to use, clear instructions, and Good batery autonomy. Nice response to the touch of a finger with motorcycle gloves. Resistent to rain. It is a best buy.

The Zumo 220 is my third Garmin. I had a Zumo 550 which I sold with my Honda and still have a Nuvi 250, which although has a limited performance does at least work 100%. The 220 came with outdated maps but with a free update (only by internet) The new maps took around 2hrs on a 50MBit/sec connection to load onto my laptop.

Once I got it working, I found the following faults:
1. The maps would not transfer onto the 220.
2. I could not transfer routes from the computer onto the Zumo.
3. At some zoom levels, the roads and towns disappeared, only to reappear at the next zoom-out.

I have had none of these problems with the Zumo550. That had other problems whioch is why I sold it with the bike. As far as support from Garmin is concerned, the least said, the better.

To sum up, my device was junk, so I sent it back. Some users seem to be happy, so it seems to be the luck of the draw. All Garmin devices can now only be updated by internet. If you don't have the fastest connection, forget it.