I bought this for a birthday gift and the man is a salesman and uses it constantly to find new locations, saves time and gas. Also a safety feature is the hands free blue toothe while driving.

Well it's my first time with any Magellan and going by my experience, I am not terribly convinced to purchase another Magellan. First some of my background so readers can assess accordingly. My first GPS was the NavMan it was okay. Next came Garmin Nuvi 650 - VERY expensive but good overall. I had a TomTom 510 - as some of you may know they use the "supposedly" less accurate TeleAtlas maps. I did see sign of that Vs the Garmin (although I can't say the Garmin was impressively accurate). But what I loved about the TomTom was the excellent support for the Mac. The customization options etc. The map data was so, so. But I am hoping this would have improved to an acceptable level by now.

I ordered the Magellan by second day air. I was planning on a long trip. I got the unit, went to get the subscription code (traffic) at the Mag website, got the code, tried to enter it on the GPS. No matter how many times I tried, it kept saying it's incorrect code. I knew (from reading the reviews/support pages etc.) that there was a firmware update available. I like to keep things up to date so went to get the update. Too bad I can't do it on my Mac (even Garmin has data transfer support for the Mac). So I had to find a PC. While installing the update, it says there was a data read/write error. Then the Mag froze at the System Settings. I can select the menus on the System Settings, go forward/next but can't go back to the main screen/home screen. After talking to the customer support (and they ran the system through the same steps I had run it through - force shut down, reset etc.). They tell me "well, we have done everything we can. You can send the unit back to us or you can return it to the place where you bought it from" - all this happened within a matter of two hours! - Now how is that for good customer experience?! The fact that I come from a Macintosh background where things are just expected to work (nothing is perfect but still...) does not make this experience any more bearable... Then I realized it's WindowsCE OS. Had I known this beforehand I would have been more hesitant to purchase this unit.

It's one of the worst experiences I have had and that too failure after failure, not just minor ones mind you!

I have decided to return the unit and get a TomTom (unless I can afford the higher end Garmins). I'll begin to like the map correction feature of the TomTom... but enough of Magellan for me!

Update on 7/23/2008 (approx. 10 days after purchase):

Before returning the unit, I decided to give it one more try and it worked, so with great reluctance I tried to like it (and said to myself, I'll return it if I don't like it soon. I had not bought it directly from Amazon, instead from an Amazon seller who charges restocking fee etc.). So even with my intentions to like it, I find it difficult. Here's the reasons:

1. I realized that one of the features for which I had bought it for does not work the way I thought it did. I had taken for granted that a bluetooth phone connection lets users DIAL from the phone book on the phone. My year old TomTom did this. So yes, you could use this as a hands-free calling device but if you think that it will let you browse/access/dial from the addressbook on your phone, forget it. If you are driving, you'll be forced to take out your phone, dial the number it will then go on the Magellan. (Hello! I might as well use the speaker phone on my phone?!)

2. Support just told me that I have to pair the devices manually EVERY time I get into my car! This is absurd (again I might be spoiled by my prev. experiences with Garmin & TomTom, but the Magellan isn't keeping pace here...)

3. Choosing the "Fastest Time" does not guide you through the highways! instead it makes you get off the exits and takes you through the back roads! Yes, I have ruled out the fact that it is NOT due to traffic congestions on the highways.

4. May be I am used to the routing algorithms of the TomTom and the Garmin but I am not terribly impressed with that of the Magellan. Numerous times it takes me on routes that are not the most efficient. I am checking this in my neighborhood which I am most familiar with. (I would never know this if it did this unfamiliar areas - consequently I don't feel confident that it WOULD route efficiently in unfamiliar areas)

5. Once you calculate a route, there's not much you can do if you want to explore another destination. The TomTom allows you to freely lookup other destinations and then add it to the existing route if you like. Here the only option is to cancel the current route.

6. The TomTom gives exciting free updates and ENHANCEMENTS on their devices, this is infrequent on the Magellan (after exploring the updates/enhancement frequency on their site)

I have been using GPS devices for a few years. I used Mapopolis on my Dell Axim, I own two hand helds for hiking, both by Magellan. My first real automotive GPS was a small Garmin I3, and then I upgraded to a Garmin Nuvi 350.

Recently my Garmin Nuvi stopped acquiring satellites after only 13 months of use, so I decided to switch brands and tried the Maestro 4250.

After using the Maestro for only one week I have decided to return it. The Garmins are just far superior to Magellan in the way the maps look, and more importantly the routing engine in Garmin picks better routes based on my experience of driving routes I am very familiar with.

Luckily I called Garmin and they are going to replace my unit with a refurbished one, even though it is a month outside the warranty.

Two times this week using the Maestro it had locked up on me and I had to reset the unit with a paperclip in a small hole in the unit. Now I don't always carry paperclips around with me, and I would have been screwed had I been on a road trip. Also I did upgrade to the most recent firmware on the Maestro before I began using it.

The Bluetooth function on the Maestro was not very good, I was able to sync with two LG phones. The voice quality wasn't that great, but it was useable. My address book did not sync with the unit, only the phone numbers showed up.

The voice recognition works only if your windows are rolled up and the stereo is off, and there is not a lot of road noise, and even then its functionality is very limited and not ready for prime time.

Traffic updates from what I have noticed are not that accurate and not that useful. Better off turning to a local traffic radio station.

The Magellan does boot up faster than the Garmin, and it also acquires satellites and locks on faster than the Garmin and the build quality even appears to be better on the Magellan, but none of that makes any difference if it doesn't do it's main function well... Navigating.

With the Magellan I went on a road trip up to Bear Mt. in NY state.. A few times a came upon roundabouts on Seven Lakes Drive, which can be very confusing on which exit to take. While I was driving around the roundabout the cursor was lagging behind the map screen so you really couldn't tell which exit to get off. Ok, so I had my stereo on and didn't hear the unit telling me where to get off, the map screen did me no good. The Garmin again performs much better in that respect.

I won't say that I'll never try Magellan units again, but for now I will stick with Garmin because I trust them and am more experienced with them.

No matter what unit you decide to buy, always bring maps, or printouts of your route with you. You never know when your unit will lock up or stop working.

Update 7/18/08: One thing I forgot to mention in my first review. The LCD screen is way too bright at night, even in night mode, and on the lowest setting. I found the brightness too distracting.

I spent 3 months researching GPS units. I had a Garmin C330, and my major issues with this unit were satelite reception/aquisition. Tried Garmin, TomTom and Magellan. It came down to the Magellan Maestro 4250 vs the Garmin Nuvi 680. I only use my GPS once or twice a month, so my purpose was finding an affordable unit that had bluetooth, text to speech and live traffic updates. Was not necessary to spend the extra $100 on the Garmin. This unit is the best around for $250!

Pros: Live traffic works well, although have only used this feature twice. bluetooth works great for me. Others have complained about low speaker volume. I do not have this issue. Phone is loud and clear to me. Satelite acqusition is VERY quick. reception is top notch. Wide, bright screen, intuitive menu. Have found that it is very accurate. Text to speech feature is great. split screen direction feature. And Exit POI is great, WITH PHONE NUMBERS! Free year of traffic updates

Cons: Large, awkward mount. the unit shows that you are located before the raod even when you have passed it. (not a deal breaker, the chime sounds when you need to turn), sometimes need to turn it on twice.

I would definately recommend this unit. I feel it is the best around for a bargain price!

I really like the 4250 so far and I can't figure out a few of the poor reviews. Some of them sound like they never even bought the unit but just want to rip on Magellan. I have not found this GPS "buggy" and mine has never reset on me. I think the unit is solid, well built, and attractive. I also don't have problems turning it on as long as I hold the power on button for a few seconds (manual says 2 seconds but I usually hold it a little longer).

After having it a couple of days I checked the Magellan site and found that there was new firmware available that took mine from version 2.24 to 3.34. Speed and response time was good but I think it got better with the firmware upgrade. The firmware update also supposedly improves routing and fixes some reset issues. I hope it also corrects the the issue several have mentioned where it pronouces "DR" as "doctor", not "drive", haven't tested that yet. Route calculation is fast on this unit, easily as fast as my TomTom.

Besides what I mentioned above here are some of my Pros/cons.

Pros:

- I like the map screen way better than the Garmin's or TomTom's. It is more attractive and easy to see in direct sunlight. My TomTom's screen was almost impossible to see in sunlight. It also has more info than the Garmin's. I like that the 4250 shows the compass direction you are traveling and satellite reception on the map page, the Garmin does not.

- The Current Location screen shows altitude as well as all the typical stuff. None of the other models I considered display altitude.

- Voice Command is really cool. My kids love speaking to it and I have found that it works very well after you learn how to properly address it. The number of commands are limited but it is very handy.

- POI's on map screen are easy to see and the icons let you know what is there. My TomTom had a generic indicator for POI's no matter what kind they were.

- The AAA info is very nice and handy. Descriptions are quite extensive.

- The spoken street names and exits are nice. My previous GPS did not speak street names. Many people think this is a must have feature. Personally I don't think so but I do appreciate it.

- The female voice is fine, easy to understand, and plenty loud. I can't imagine it not being loud enough, as some people mention, unless you were in a convertable.

- The trip planner with multiple destinations is great. The other model I considered (Garmin 260w) only supports a single destination and one way point. It is nice to be able to plan the whole trip in advance and be able to save destinations in the address book.

- Rerouting is very fast and it doesn't just tell you to make a U-turn!

- Interface is easy to use.

- Arrival time is much more accurate than my TomTom.

- Includes AC and Car adapters, case, USB cable, etc...

- I haven't used traffic since it is not available in my area but I do like that it is an option if I travel somewhere were it is available.

- No mp3 or picture support. I bought a GPS, not a PDA so why would I want that stuff?

- Very fast satellite acquisition.

- Included software allows adding customer POI's.

Cons:

- Map data isn't old but it isn't as current as the Garmins. My map data is from Q2 2007. An update is supposed to come in Q3 2008. Several recent POI's are not listed.

- ?? Not a con yet for me since I haven't used it, but I have read from the reviews that support is not very good. The web site is quite helpful though.

- I agree that the night screen is a bit too bright.

- Basic cradle that comes with unit is kind of lame in it's adjustments. I liked the TomTom one better.

My decision came down to a choice between the Garmin 260w and Magellan 4250 because I didn't want to spend more than $300. The Garmin 260w is also a nice unit but for the price the Magellan includes so much more. To get a Garmin with similar features costs over $100 more. Overall I am very happy with the Magellan 4250 and would recommend it.

Update 7/11:

Took first long trip with my 4250 and was very satisfied. My unit did say "Drive", not "Doctor" when announcing directions. Maybe this was fixed in the last firmware. I have not updated to the new 4.60 FW yet. I also found that I kind of like the windshield mount now. It is much more stable (doesn't vibrate as much) as the ball mounts I have used with other GPS units. I cradle the GPS then mount it just like I want it and it works great. I love the trip planning option, I put all the places we wanted to go into the unit before we left. It is also great to save a location in the "where am I" screen so you can return to it later if you wish.

Update 7/25/08:

Installed the latest 4.60 firmware and very happy. The first thing I noticed is that they improved the "night mode" of the 4250. The colors have been changed so that it isn't nearly as bright in night mode and is much easier on the eyes. Unit seems even faster and more responsive. Have had no negative issues.

We have used the Garmin, Tom Tom and the Magellan before deciding which one to purchase. Ultimately we decided on the Maestro 4250. We were a little nervous only because so many reviews commented on how horrible the customer service was. Well, a couple of days after we had been using it, the inital start-up screen with the hour glass froze - and I panicked. However, one call to customer service that lasted all of 4 minutes solved the problem (holding down the power button for 15 seconds, incidentally).

The Magellan's screen is bigger, which is great. The voice command option is cool as heck! The directions are super-accurate and recalculating takes an average amount of time, no matter which GPS system you use.

I have found that some of the issues people complain about with GPS stem from insanely high expectations that NO portable GPS system can meet. After comparing three major brands, we found that Magellan works best for us.

I'd like to start his review by simply saying, this product is not worth the $499 MSRP price tag at all. If I had actually had to pay that much for it I would have sent it back. As usual though, I got a great deal on this by buying it on Amazon and it was worth the just slightly over $200 I paid for it.

There are many features on this I don't use and probably never will or ever intended to use. The Blue Tooth hands free cell phone option I don't use, this thing is just too quiet to make that practical and you can't do text messages with it. I use "Call Wave" free service that converts all my voice mail to text messages so this would have been a handy capability I would have used if possible. I also don't use the voice commands on it. It seems stupid of them to of made this so you can't use voice to enter in a destination address, unbelievable that this isn't a capability for a product that lists at $499. Haven't found any need to use its capable voice commands so its a pointless feature to me.

I've read other reviews that the touch screen seems to delay or not respond at times. I've not seen this to be a problem except when trying to enable blue tooth on it, then it seems to hang up and had to be rebooted by powering off and back on. The power button is not absolute, but this I've noticed is common on all devices running the Windows CE operating system which this uses. Once you get use to it then no big deal, just not as expected. The power cord should have in the least been placed on the left side of this, not sticking out the right. Common sense in the design should have been obvious this would be installed in a vehicle for the driver, so the power cord should have plugged into the other side. I've also noticed the power cord (a USB mini plug) doesn't stay in very well so sometimes it switches over to battery mode unless you slightly move the power cord. All your routing and everything maintains, so its no dramatic deal, but should have been better.

FM traffic reporting is not available in my area, I really wish it was and this was a working concept, it would come in very handy for me in my area where we have mountain roads often closed due to snow. So I don't use and can;t comment on the FM traffic reporting feature.

So far all bad, so why did I keep it?

It does an exceptional job of its core purpose! Many other GPS systems use the same exact maps, however, the actual routing engine that calculates where you should drive to on those maps is not the same. Think of it like 2 different people looking at the same paper map but each person giving you different directions to get to the same place. I'm a service tech, so I spend all day driving to numerous different addresses, day in and out, so this thing gets a lot of use from me. I've already tried everything out there from paper map books, to printing out Google routing maps, to VZNavigator on my cell phone, to the similar priced Garmin and Tom Tom units. None of these other options come even close to how well this 4250's routing engine works. It picks perfect routes and it does an almost deadly accurate estimate of actual trip time. The only other device that came close to routing this well was the Garmin I used, and it didn't always give me the best route, the Garmin also consistently under estimated actual arrival times. Its routing times look shorter and faster, but in actual reality they were not once you drove them.

The routing engine in it does have a weird bug however. When your parked in a parking lot and it initially calculates your route it does so perfectly. However as you work your way out of the parking lot and onto the streets for the route the 4250 gets (consistently reproduced) extremely confused. It jumps into recalculating your route while in the parking lot when you start moving and gives you a new insane and off the wall route that sends you every time in the complete wrong direction if you pay attention to it. Like if it initial determines go onto street "A" and turn left, once you start moving in a parking lot it will recalculate and then tell you to go to street "A" and turn right. It may seem at first this is due to the changing direction the vehicle is pointed, but this bug is not factoring that in, it literally shows you the route recalculated going in the complete wrong direction on the street. As soon as you get onto the actual street though it recalculates again and gets you going the right way. I found it best to enter in all my route information, see where it tells me to go while still parked, then ignore it till I'm on the actual street.

Long freeway off ramps running parallel to the actual freeway seems to confuse it as well if your just listening for the tone on when to turn and not paying attention. Often when its a very long off ramp it doesn't tell you to turn till well after you have passed the actual exit. It tells you the right exit, just doesn't notice the actual location of the off ramp.

Its listed POI's are severely out of date, it lists many business locations that have been gone or changed at least 5 years ago, other new ones that have been around at least 5 years still do not turn up in the default search listing. However, I notice if you use its listing many places aren't there, yet if you type in the actual name to search that way they are in its data base. Its actual map is current though for my areas.

Over all I'm very happy with it, its not perfect, but so far better than the many other options out there I have already tried. Had I actually had to pay the $499 list price for it I would have sent it back by now, for that money I'd expect it to be better than it is, but for just over $200 maybe as much as $300 its great.

I am disappointed that this is a urbanized only system. I like to off road in the desert and mountains here and was hoping this would be useful for off road GPS navigation and trail mapping, its not. If you aren't on an actual street its pretty much useless out in the wilds and instead still need a hand held GPS system for this type of purpose.

I just completed a trip down south and even when I didn't know where I was the Magellan 4250 knew at all times where I was and where I needed to go. No it doesn't know when every road has been closed in advance, neither does any other GPS, BUT it does know how to get you around it and back on track. And with the Mississippi River flooding, I needed to put back on track a couple of times. I would never take a trip without my Magellan again. I like the portable style so I can take it with me in any car. No more trying to read a map with a flashlight! Take the map just as a backup.

The Magellan Maestro GPS is very easy and intuitive to use to get directions. The menu is simple enough and the screen is not cluttered at all, giving you easy access to view the map and/or select whatever functions you need. I find the next-turn arrow in the lower-left corner to be a great feature that cannot be found on some other high-end GPS units - how can such an important feature be overlooked by other companies?

The directions the 4250 provide seem very accurate. The GPS alerts you with voice guidance in the form of "Turn right in 0.5 miles onto Main Street" at intervals of 2 miles, 0.5 miles, and shortly before a turn, giving you plenty of warning prior to the next turn. When you have a turn immediately following another one, it will also add "Turn right onto Main Street, followed by a left turn." It's very good with freeways, giving you plenty of notice which side of the freeway you should be on prior to a split in the freeway or an exit. I find myself rarely having to look at the screen because the voice prompts are so spot-on. As far as accuracy goes, the 4250 seems to direct me to my destination VERY well, sans an occasion where it told me the location was on the wrong side of the road than it truly was (it was a house address though, not a business). For the primary function of a GPS, getting you where you want to go, the Maestro 4250 is stellar!

The 4250 has some cool features, such as the ability to view "Exit POIs" or restaurants and hotels at the next exit while driving on a freeway. This is a great feature that I find very useful while on a long road trip, which allows you to stop off and grab a bite. I really wish the 4250 would let you divert your route to catch dinner at a local restaurant or such when you're not on a freeway. I haven't found any way to do this so far except for cancelling your current route and then selecting the restaurant nearby. As an aside, the GPS has never told me to make a U-Turn, as it seems to route you around a few roads to get you back on track - this can be both a blessing and a pain, depending upon the occasion and the path it takes (once it took me on a 3-mile detour because of this, although it was in a rural area with few roads).

The bluetooth function works decently enough. The nice thing is, if you connect your phone to the GPS via bluetooth, when you find a POI you can just click on the phone number given for said POI to call the restaurant, hotel, event location, etc, and your phone dials it up! There's a bit of a trick to pairing your phone to the GPS and getting it to automatically pair in the future when both are on (how to do this isn't in the manual/reference card that comes in the box), but once you've got the feature enabled you'll never have trouble again. As far as sound quality, I can almost always hear the folks on the other end just fine, although sometimes they seem to have trouble hearing me, in which case I have to speak up over the road noise.

The AAA Tourbook feature is an added bonus that functions well, but could have been better integrated. It's nice to be able to view ratings, descriptions, cost estimates, etc. of restaurants and hotels. My one complaint here is that you cannot locate a point-of-interest with the GPS POI menu and then view the tourbook information on that POI (if available). You have to actually go through the AAA Tourbook menu to view any/all tourbook information on a POI. Unfortunately, not all POIs exist in the tourbook, so if you decide to search solely through the tourbook for POIs, you'll be missing out on a lot of other places to eat/stay/etc. In it's current state, the AAA feature should be viewed as an added bonus rather than need-to-have functionality.

The voice command functionality is pretty limited. You only get a small number of things that you can command, such as telling the GPS to "go home" whereas it will reroute you back to your pre-programmed "home" location, asking the GPS for "distance to destination" whereas it will tell you how far away you are from your destination and when it thinks you'll arrive, asking for the "nearest restaurants" feature in which case the GPS will ask you for a cuisine type and then list all nearby restaurants. I wish the 4250 would allow you to input destinations with the voice prompt, but unfortunately it doesn't allow that and only has a small subset of commands available. Again, like the AAA features, the voice command feature is more of an added bonus rather than a polished feature, although I do find myself using it often.

It seems Magellan has listened to the customers and updated many of the previous problems reported. The 4250 no longer says "Palm Doctor" for Palm Dr, now it says "Palm Drive" just fine (a complaint I've read many times about this model). You can update the AAA Tourbook POI data by visiting the AAA website (if you're an AAA member), however I'm not sure about how often Magellan updates the maps themselves in this device.

I haven't used the RDS-TMC live traffic feature yet, so I cannot comment on that feature.

There's a lot of complaints out there about the power button being quirky. I can confirm this - it is quirky. In fact, the first 4250 I owned wouldn't turn on at all some days. I got tired of this and exchanged it for another, and the new one seems to work just fine. Again, there are still some small quirks with the power button even on the new one - sometimes I have to hold the power button down for 10 seconds before it turns on, but it's always turned on for me. If you get a bad one that doesn't want to work, I highly recommend returning/exchanging it for another.

All in all, even despite the few small complaints, none of them really are deal breakers except if you get one of those bogus 4250s that doesn't want to turn on. In fact, I find the pros far outweigh the cons, and I've been extremely happy with my purchase. I highly recommend this GPS to folks in the market for a budget GPS that doesn't sacrifice on functionality. I even find myself wondering how I ever got along without my Magellan Maestro 4250.

Pros:

-Built-in AAA tourbook.

-AAA POIs

-free AAA POI updates every quarter!!! for AAA members

-double warranty for AAA members

-Ding sound when you should be turning!!! Awesome feature not present in competitors products.

-Multiple POI routing with optimization

-Bluetooth actually works

-FM traffic receiver works, but does not have any traffic info on any back routes. Traffic info on highways only. This seems to be true for all the GPS units from all suppliers.

-Great feature to see what services are available at upcoming exits.

-Ability to view AAA POIs on the map.

Cons:

-Routing is not the best. Really bad for distances over 300 miles. Garmin 750 has better routing.

-Text to speech directions not clear most of the time. Have to look at the screen.

-Voice command not reliable.

Megellan has released a new firmware update and supposedly addressed the weaknesses. How well they did this I can not say, since I already returned the unit due to complete frustration with the routing issues.