Garmin 3790T – Smart underperformer

Garmin Nuvi 3790T Buffoon in smart clothing?

Garmin 3790T

I bought one of these from Amazon UK last year based mainly on the superb screen quality as well as the addition of 3D terrain data to the basemap views. All seemed fine for a while. After a seeming inability to pronounce directions without stuttering (it uses a synthesised voice) and after the third firmware update I began wondering whether Garmin had established a completely new development team and Q&A process. Previous units I’d had were more capable out of the box – certainly for core functions. Next was the odd lock-up, generally when you needed the unit most – at or before a junction. JCT 20 on the M25 heading for Saffron Walden – froze solid.

On the M4 at Bristol it takes me off the motorway slip-road and straight back on again – I thought we’d sorted that issue out years ago? Accurate data and a quality fix plus the odd “IF I’m about to inconvenience the driver for no good reason THEN consider another option ELSE, don’t do it” statement in the code.

I contact Garmin UK – I give them the M4 route details and they cannot replicate it in their office 😉 I say well perhaps you need to be in a car on the day with the exact traffic conditions. Not my issue – I say I really want a refund – they say they’ll send me a replacement, I say OK but if the same happens I need a commitment from someone at Garmin that I will get a refund. I get a name and a commitment.

My replacement unit comes – I patch it and load my POIs using Garmin Basecamp. Not wishing to underwhelm my replacement unit I head off to the Dordogne from Northampton. It takes us off the motorway and back on again – this is not looking good. Dartford toll is backed up at Easter but no sign of any traffic info on the unit. Into France and we’re fretting about how to circumvent Paris. Western Peripherique it is. We feed onto it by a busy street market. The unit seems OK so far. Oh no, its telling us to feed right off every slip-road (6 in total) and then back onto the Peripherique. So its not a problem with UK vector data then; or is it a problem with both UK and French data? Unlikely.

On the way back the unit locks solid on the A20 out of Dover, it briefly gave me a french character set for UK destinations – nice, swapped the ETA with Direction and a couple of other totally random changes to cap it off. I make contact with Garmin UK. They authorise a refund via Amazon UK. Amazon ask me why I’m returning the unit – they seem interested. They jot things down on their CRM system.

A great pity. the 3790T is a beautiful device spoiled needlessly by a poor software implementation, virtually non-existent testing and questionable vector data for Europe. Surely this day and age Garmin could have asked me for the unit’s error log? If it had connectivity they would have been able to go one step further by telling me the unit had reported an issue itself…

Its now a super competitive field – just look at the sheer number of iPhone satnav apps at <£30 each. As opposed to the £277. That's complacency for you. Perhaps they should stick to glass cockpits.