Strengths: The unit is handy, easy to operate and has a ton if information loaded.

Weaknesses: The maps were outdated and on a trip to Charlottesville, VA would have had us off target by 50 miles. It also did not recognize I795 in North Carolina on the next leg of our trip.

Summary: I wrote to MagellanGPS.com customer service and received the absolute worst customer service I have ever encountered. First they asked for more specific information regarding routes I had trouble with. This led me to believe they might work with me. The next person wrote back to essentially tell me the maps preloaded on my unit were a year old and I'd have to pay $79.00 for upgrade. I asked for my case to be forwarded to a supervisor because I could not understand why I was asked for specific route info only to be given the answer as stated above. I NEVER heard from them again. I waited two weeks and wrote again; still no reply. I waited three weeks and wrote to them again saying I would be posting online reviews and have yet to hear from them. As far as customer service is concerned I will never buy another Magellan product.

Strengths: Good price for the capability, text to speech

Weaknesses: so far, only weakness might be voice command is too sensitive

Summary: This GPS does the job it's supposed to do without getting too fancy and expensive. The text to speech is a nice feature that should be considered when buying a GPS, and this one has it. Overall, a good gadget for the price and it gets you to where you need to be.

Strengths: great AAA details and help, and very faststart up

Weaknesses: somewhat slower on advance directions andcould not tell what side of road to go to.

Summary: nice and very good price for all the features,hasvery quick startup but is not as good with directionsas more expensive units. bluetooth will not always activatepromptly nor understand all commands. for price theAAA feature makes it worthwhile

Strengths: Bluetooth, text to speech, and voice command

Weaknesses: Lack of options to customize

Summary: This GPS works very well and pretty easy to use. I use this unti on a daily basis with my job and it saves me alot of time and head aches when needing to find an address. I purchased this unit mainly for a trip to florida. Its nice knowing you have a visual guidance and audible guidance to your destination. I found it very useful that when I had to travel off course for gas or food it would guide me back on course. Having a huge selection of points of interest is nice; We were able to find specific food types and even search by restaurant names and magellan would route us there. Another thing I found great about having this GPS is we saved our friends address in florida to magellan and could run around all day and no matter where we were at we could guidance back to their house( in a town we have never been to before ). The voice command feature is nice but I don't use hardly at all. The bluetooth is nice being a can pair my phone to it and use the built in speaker and microphone to do handsfree calling and the display shows the number called or received.

Strengths: Thin, lightweight design; AAA Tourbook very useful and helpful; takes voice commands

Weaknesses: Battery life is adequate, but not as good as some; volume for Bluetooth hands-free could be a bit louder

Summary: I had used another brand of GPS in a recent rental car and had a very good experience with it. What I liked better about the Magellan unit was (1) Size and thinness made it well suited to packing for business travel, and (2) the AAA Tourbook. The unit from the rental car had an MP3 player which was not of any value to me. Battery life is about 3 hours for the Maestro 3250, which is fine for me considering the unit will be used in my car 90+% of the time (connected to the power outlet). This unit gets traffic updates, which is very useful here in Southern California. As soon as I got the unit I went on the Auto Club's website and downloaded the latest update to the AAA Tourbook, which was indeed newer than the one that came preloaded on the unit. The file was over 72MB. I would recommend checking the AAA website periodically for updates. This unit fit well within my budget and delivers a bit more than I actually needed. Magellan did a nice job with this unit in terms of the value for the money.

Strengths: Decent Unit, Price

Weaknesses: Customer Support is horrible, Commands are not very user friendly and well thought

Summary: I did my research before I bought a GPS Unit and figured I could save a hundred bucks and get more features by buying a Magellan. Well, it is true, you do get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong, the unit is not a piece of trash, but it doesn't give me the warm and fuzzy feeling that I got a good GPS Unit.The unit is not very user friendly, I have had numerous problems with it. Various functions do not work, the unit will not start up at times, and it resets itself during routing.The worst part of all thus far, is the MAgellan Customer Service. I have sent two emails and just got off the phone with some Technical person I could not understand from the Phillipines. The two emails were also difficult to read likely for the same reason.Do yourself a favor, if you have the extra $100, but a Garmin Nuvi.

Strengths: unsure yet

Weaknesses: difficulty turning on at times, voice command comes on at times when you did not say "Magellan" . battery life is short, Poor customer service!!!!

Summary: Not having used any gps units before I don't have much to compare this one to but I bought one for my daughter and my husband for Christmas and still have very mixed emotions about this unit and Magellan. Both units are difficult to turn on 4 out of 6 times and my daughters unit freezes frequently. I know that there will always be glitches in eltronic products but Magellans support has been terrible. I have been trying to get them to replace the cradle that was missing from one of the boxes for 4 weeks now and each time I have called the call has lasted 45 to 60 minutes and they just pass you off to at least 3 people before you get help and none of them seem to know what is going on and they just keep telling me they will send it soon. I have also sent 2 e-mails and have yet to receive a response. I decided to write this review tonight after my daughter called to tell me her unit was not receiving a signal and she was trying to go somewhere she had never been. Mine also was not receiving a signal and my friends "Garmin" was working perfectly. Again yet another flaw with Magellan. If you are planning on purchasing do a lot of research, I thought I did but I guess not. Customer service is sooooo important. Hope this helps

Strengths: Many POI's, can change, reroute, and resume destinations, night vision screen, gives address and telephone numbers of locations, responds to voice commands, blue tooth, gets you back on course!

Weaknesses: Small screen, slow start up, short life of 4 hours means more charging, few case selections, does not come with wall charger, needs studying before you can master it!

Summary: Before I bought the Magellan Maestro 3250 I did some research on other product brands. I played around with a few and compared prices pertaining to certain features. I wanted blue tooth, thousands of POI's and voice commands. I found this GPS to be the most accurate and helpful. The woman's voice that gives directions does not require you to take your eyes off the road. She let's you know when you are approaching a turn, merge, exit, etc. before you even reach it. Then as you hit the point she lets you know how far until the next turn, merge or exit. Another feature I like was by saying the magic word "Magellan" the voice command turns on where you are allowed to reroute, call assistance, or even request where you are. The screen is very easy to navigate. You can zoom in and out with the plus and minus buttons or control the navigators voice with the volume square. If necessary there are icons on the screen around the area you are in and approaching that signal gas, food, car repairs, shopping centers, etc. You can touch the area of icons and it will list them all for you. If any of these seem applicable to reroute simply touch the name of the place and touch reroute. Also, if you are unsure of a destination location and only know the city or street it's on, the Magellan allows you type in pieces of information in order to find it. The bluetooth feature is also easy to use. Turn the blue tooth on via your cell phone and the Magellan. Request them to link up and you can call out, accept, and dial straight from the touch screen. The automatic night vision screen is easy on the eyes so as not to blind or distract you from your journey on the road. The easy apply suction cup attachment for the windshield is so simple to apply. Push against glass and snap on. This GPS comes with a dash mat too in case your state does not allow windshield GPS obstruction. I would say the only draw backs to this model are: 1. There are very few cases to protect the system. 2. Must be very close to the Magellan in order to utilize voice command, can be further away for blue tooth though. 3. Only comes with a car charger which means you probably need to charge it every other day by cigarette lighter. In conclusion, there are far more positives than negatives to the model that the Magellan 3250 is hands down the easiest and most affordable GPS with numerous options. I bought mine at Radio Shack which allowed me a 30 day trial or exchange with full money back if I did not like it. Also, by signing up with the card you get 10% off all purchases with no interest for a year! You can't beat that kind of value!!!

Strengths: Text-to speech is very clear and give next turn info much earlier than Garmin.The 3250 does say which side of the street your destination is on. Route exclusion. Shows next turn's direction on screen.

Weaknesses: Bluetooth is not as good as Garmin's as it can not pull your phonebook info. I could not use my cellphone's voice dial.'where am i?" can not tell you the correct cross street.Battery life is short.

Summary: I tested a Garmin Nuvi 360,a magellan 3225 and a Tomtom 720. Now I finally decide to keep this magellan 3250. It is cheaper than the Garmin. I do not really need to listen to mp3 on my GPS. Garmin does not have route exclusion. Magellan gives me more and earlier reminders when i am approaching a turn or exit.Magellan 3225 does not tell me which side of the street my destination is. but this 3250 does. I think this is very good.

Strengths: Almost instant satellite fix, great features, AAA tourbook, Voice command, shows direction of next turn on map screen, "where am I?" locator, bluetooth, traffic receiver, relatively cheaper price

Weaknesses: When approaching desination does not say whether desination is on the right or left. This is really frustrating.

Summary: Overall a great unit, with lots of features at a price point which is much cheaper than comparable Garmin units. Voice command works well and is really useful. The unit gets a sattelite fix immediately (even on a cold start) which is much faster than Garmin units. The Where am i locator and AAA support are very useful features. The one important weakness is that it won't tell you if the destination is on left or right of the road. That i find a little frustrating. Garmin units tell you this.