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 - Great ValueI had experience with another Maestro product and good performance brought me back to the line. Size and price were major decision points. This is compact and great price point. Fast shipping and delivery by Amazon. First unit arrived with defect, after quick trouble shooing call to Maestro tech support on Saturday! the instruction was to return the new unit. Simple and fast Amazon return process had another unit in route to me immediately via on line return system. New unit was fine and has been AOK. Simple user interface and a nice deep list of menu options with AAA listings etc. Best out of this was recommendation by Corvette user forum for simple mounting solution. " Stick suction cup mount on top if a nice smooth black spray paint can lid, then place lid down into a cup holder on dash!!" Instant mount convenient to cigarette lighter power point too. Easy to select a matching spray paint can lid to match your car's interior color. Great price, good product, compact size, easy install. I would recommend this product. Rating:  - Affordable GPS, With Some FlawsWhen my Garmin StreetPilot's hard drive failed, I panicked. I had become used to having a GPS device in my car. Since I had recently purchased a Garmin nüvi 650 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator for our other car, I couldn't justify getting one of the more full featured models. Because the Magellan Maestro's price was right and because it had the basic features I needed, I bought it. The Maestro picks up satellites much faster than the Garmin Nuvi does, even if you unplug it and transport it across the country. There's never any waiting to acquire satellites. This is especially important when you're driving in an unfamiliar area or need a quick recalculation. It has a largely useless but cool feature of showing how many satellites are tracking you and the strength of the signal. However, the map navigation software, the heart and soul of a GPS unit, is quirkier than the Garmin's, with an occasional outrageous route plotted. For example, it plotted a 90 minute route for a trip that I can make in 65 minutes, even though I had selected the fastest route on the touch screen; every time I disregarded the GPS directions, it would subtract another few minutes - odd, since it supposedly chose the fastest route to begin with. Most of the time, however, it selects the logical route, allowing users to program it for the fastest, shortest, most- and least-use of highways. Although I did have one problem with the GPS not getting me to my point-of-interest, I haven't had an issue since. The lack of trust that one miss creates is phenomenal. You shouldn't have to question your GPS. Still, it always gets me home. (Both brands may get the side of the street incorrect; for example, both list my address as being on the opposite side of the street.) The Magellan uses different chimes to indicate the exact moment to turn, and it gives enough warning of approaching actions. The points of interest are adequate for most uses, although typing in, say, a school (for those traveling to see high school sports!) works better than trying to figure out which category it might belong to. I really like the feature that shows small gas station and restaurant icons on the map. The keyboard for entering addresses is easy to view and use. Recalculation is quick, and it doesn't hang or keep recalculating absurd ways to get back to the original route as our Nuvi can since it recognizes much faster when I want to pick an alternate route. The 3-D view is accurate and visible, even with the smaller 3.5 inch screen. The battery life lasts about 90 minutes, not enough to make it practical to double as a hand-held or to use without the car charger. The unit comes with an auto charger, a cable to connect to your PC (Windows only, not Mac), and a suction disc/long-neck cradle to attach, more or less permanently, to your dashboard. Its size makes it easy to tuck out of sight. All in all, this is a good choice for a budget GPS unit since all brands have their issues, especially at this price range. Those who depend heavily on GPS directions may want to invest in a better model, but infrequent users and those on a tight budget may find that the Magellan Maestro is their best bet. This unit would get two or three stars compared to the pricier Garmin units, but, in its price range, it is a sure four star product. Rating: - Magellan Maestro 3210 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator The magellan Maestro 3210 GPS is great! We really enjoy it! The only thing we don't like is that when it rains, the volume isn't loud enough. Rating: - This is a great unit!Thinking of buying this GPS? Well, more reasons here from me. I bought after reviewing others and have to tell you it's an excellent unit at a very fair price. SO easy to use it's silly. Especially love the color display and the night-time mode is smart. I only hesitated to buy this only because I thought you might have to spend more on these things. Not so! This is fun and our whole family has used it already. Rating:  - Getting where you weren't going--the slow way!I was super excited to use this GPS after getting my parents a Magellan Maestro 3140 with great results months before. To it's credit, the unit was packed with more than 6 million Points of Interest, a ton of AAA hotel information, and camp site locations and info for the US and Canada! Amazing! I truly will miss access to that, but even that couldn't make me put up with this units major faults. With trust built from my experience getting around San Francisco with the earlier Magellan model, I set out on a trip to Carson in Los Angeles. Not only did the Magellan Maestro 3210 lead me off the freeway extremely early, it claimed I had arrived 15 minutes away from my destination in Carson! After that, we left it on for comedy sake only and used a map to navigate to various places in LA. I tested it closer to my hometown and it told me to turn in the opposite direction from my destination once I got off the freeway. I could have driven for hours in the wrong direction had I not wrote directions prior to leaving. Beyond the fact that this unit led me astray many times, (which could be because that specific unit was defective), I found typing in addresses difficult. Depending on what zip follows the city and state you enter, you may not be able to enter the correct street number, regardless of everything else being correct. Quite annoying when you just want to program it and hit the road. I would not recommend this model. My experience makes me want to try another brand altogether--though I may be tempted back to Magellan by all the camping and hotel info listed in it.
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