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Comment by fbnlsr | Hacker News Reader

I used to sell Garmin car GPS back when I worked in a retail shop. They were really good devices. But yeah I'm with you I thought most of their money came from aviation (it seems like everyone uses Garmin products), but their sports watches sell like crazy.

Actually, I realized their network was down because this morning my watch would not sync after a run. :)

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Honestly, they're still really good devices. I have one from last year that's a solid alternative to an in-dash navigation screen, and for what I use it for, just as good as Google Maps, and in many ways better (way more convenient and customizable, completely offline except traffic, bigger screen, auto-on...).

Their latest motorcycle units are dog slow because some dumb product manager decided to build it on their old hardware platform using newer firmware which isn't a good mix. I have a 10 year old auto unit that is better then the junk they have now.

I've found even the absolute cheapest Garmin car GPS to be better than other brands 3x the price. I got some clearance-bin obsolete-model $99 Garmin GPS for my camping/roadtrip beater car and it's infinitely better than most the others I tried that were 3-4x the price (returned 2 other more expensive ones before giving up and buying the cheap Garmin).

Yeah I noticed this morning too, Garmin Connect says "maintenance" but of course HN has the real story.

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