Magellan Maestro 3250 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
Features
- Auto Navigation System
- 3.5 inch QVGA Color Touch Screen The Large Touch Screen Shows Your Position o
- Hands-Free Phone Calls Bluetooth Wireless Technology and Built-in Microphone Ena
- LIVE Traffic Capability/ AAA TourBook
- Pre-Loaded North American Maps/ 6 Million Points of Interest
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 0 x 0 x 0 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
Magellan Maestro 3250 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)3.133333333333345
Extremely slow and frequent crashes/hangs
This is the second Magellan GPS unit I’ve owned and I was fairly impressed with the first one. It didn’t have an abundance of bells and whistles but then again I didn’t purchase a top of the line unit. The previous unit, also a Maestro, was both accurate and reliable and generally fairly quick in routing and acquiring location. This unit is also very accurate in terms of routes and when to turn, but that is where it ends. It has crashed/hung on me several times and some of which were in very inopportune times and takes close to 1-2 minutes to reboot, acquire signal, and reroute you which is incredibly annoying when you are in the middle of a route. It is also impressively slow. I’ve had instances where it takes literally 2-3 minutes before it can determine its location to generate a route. Rerouting isn’t that bad but longer than the first one. I do have the map upgrade for this unit but Magellan requires it to run from the SD card instead of permitting you to load it on the device memory. This may be part of the reliability and performance issues but what good is the unit if you can use the latest maps?
All in all I an quite disappointed in this unit and unfortunately would not recommend it unless you are prepared to make the above trade-offs for the price…
Good while it worked. Which wasn’t very long
We had a Magellan 3250, new- not refurbished which was stolen about 2 months after getting it. We loved it and when we went to replace it, we saw the refurb one for 1/2 of what we spent on the stolen unit and figured ‘why not?’
Want to know why not?
Because it doesn’t work for long. It comes in big letters all over the box ‘do not return it to the seller if it doesn’t work’.. they should have put “when” instead of “if” it doesn’t work.
And ours worked for about 20 something days, or approx 3 times before it went blank. The screen flashed a grey and remained that way despite resetting, contacting customer support.
Another annoyance is the maps are old. And as others say Magellan charges $80 to update the maps. While this seems minor, there were several times it tried to route me on a road that was private and gated or didn’t exist. One would think things don’t change that much in 2 years, but I guess they do. Not the Major highways, of course those generally don’t change but if you’re trying to route around traffic it’d be handy to have accurate road maps off the major roads. I hadn’t updated our other Magellan, so who ever managed to buy if off the drug addicts who broke into our cars could update it free, but we couldn’t update the new-refurb one without paying another $80.
So.. while the refurb bargain may seem great to get a Magellan, buyer beware.. because you’ll be spending good money after bad on this refurb unit. Get a new one with map updates included. And if it doesn’t work you can return it and they’ll sell the non-working one to the poor sap (like me) who buys the refurb.
Very non-intuitive
While I’ve found no one who is completely happy w/ his/her GPS, I have to say I am quite disappointed in the Magellan. It it completely non-intuitive in its use. The Voice Control has died in the first month. The battery does not last long enough to do much programming in the house, so an A/C adaptor must be purchased. On trips, the voice direction is so delayed, that on short turns, i.e., a block or less, it does not give a audio command until the turn has already been made (or missed). As for the maps…well in my area, they are a mess. This is a 30+ year old community, so an updated map would not likely help. Coming home last night, it wanted us to drive an extra mile past our entrance, make a U-turn and come back and turn in the entrance to the community, rather than making a simple left-turn at a light. It just seems like a good idea, poorly executed.
Obviously, it wasn’t refurbished.
The unit arrived in a timely manner, but once I used it, it was obvious it hadn’t been refurbished at all. I plugged in an address and it brought up the map, but after about 2 minutes, the GPS started to jump back and forth between the map and the maneuver list. I tried a hard reset, but that didn’t help. Had to send it back. Amazon would not let me order another one, so I’m guessing that they’ve had several returned for this problem. Too bad, because I like the functions and the price, but I suppose you get what you pay for.
john s’ impressions
I was impressed with the speed of delivery. Since I have owned this modei of Magellan before, installation and use was easy. I felt safe in buying the reconditioned model and so far, my faith has been warranted.
John Sullivan
excellent value, full feature and newest maps
I am delighted with this unit. It performs well, is easy to use and the price is UNBEATABLE. My unit arrived with the latest firmware (4.86) already installed, so I did not need the free update. The maps were old (version #29), but I simply called customer service (as outlined on the Magellan website under “30 day map guarantee”), requested the latest maps and they sent the microcard ($10 shipping) and now I have version #37. I couldn’t be more satisfied with Magellan’s customer service.
The verbal command feature is handy and fun to play with, but a little limited in what you can actually do. The bluetooth linked up quickly, but the sound quality is a bit lacking. It will be fine for occasional use. I don’t expect to need or use the traffic update feature.
All this for less than $85. wow.
js
I was skeptical because of the price, but this unit does everything that the unit in my 300C (turn by turn, tells of approaching changes, allows hands free use of cell phone), the maps are very up to date as far as I can tell.
Exceeds my expectations.
Broke after a few months
i bought this for my boyfriend. After a few months of use, the gps broke.
GPS works well
GPS works well. The voice command does not let you enter addresses by voice. It lets you select a few POI’s such as restaurant, ATM, Gas Station, Coffe shop. Blue tooth is not very good.
Refurbished Unit an okay value
Overall I rate the unit a three Star because a key feature, the Bluetooth, doesn’t function with my BB Curve, a very common cellphone. Be sure to review the list of compatable phones before you purchase this unit for it’s Bluetooth feature. The navigation menu requires a little digging to get to a saved address but this isn’t too bad if you use the voice command feature to access your favorites. Voice command works well but is restricted to use of a drop down menu (easy to navigate). You can not enter a new address via voice command. While I am on the subject of “Voice”, the synthetic speech is okay with English but the Spanish voice is too soft to understand easily. I also noticed that using a language other than the natural one (English in English speaking countries) results in a garbled translation! The Voice feature doesn’t work well with strange English words such as an Indian name like “Tualatin” but that is okay because I have a hard time pronouncing them also! (I don’t understand French so I can not comment on that language!)
The unit calculates a new route or a reroute VERY fast! The reroute and detour features are very useful. I found it interesting that if you miss a turn or intentionally change the route without using a “reroute” or “detour” command, the unit automatically calculates a useable route based on your new direction. If the new direction is not usable, the unit gives a “make a legal U-turn” instruction. This could be good or bad depending on how strictly you want to follow the original route!
The unit, when plugged into a power cord, offers to automatically go into a “sleep mode” when you power down the car. It then “wakes up” when you turn the power back on picking up where it left off! Ths is a really nice feature for a coffee stop or potty stop (follows a coffee stop very quickly
Pros: cheap to buy refurbished (Amazon.com!), good features for navigation, Voice Command works well on a fixed menu, fast route calculation and reroute!
Cons: Bluetooth not useable, Voice in Spanish too soft, low volume contol settings (for those hard of hearing)
Excellent Unit
Excellent unit as long as you do two things:
1. Apply the latest firmware from [...] (it is a free download).
2. Get the FREE MAP update within 30 days of purchase (you pay $9 shipping/handling)
Yes its free. I have done it! The following is quoted directly from Magellan’s website:
“Magellan 30-Day Map Guarantee
Customers who have recently purchased a new or refurbished Magellan vehicle navigation device are covered by Magellan’s 30-Day Map Guarantee. This guarantee allows customers who have purchased and registered their new Magellan Maestro(tm) or Magellan RoadMate® device to update their device’s preloaded map free of charge if Magellan releases or makes available a map update within 30 days from the date of customer purchase.”
I used the above quote to get a free SD card with the latest Map for my unit and it is absolutely the most featured, fast & accurate GPS I have used for $89.
Don’t bother…buy a Garmin
I needed a replacement for a Garmin Nuvi 200 that was stolen out of my car. I found this refurb model on Amazon for a great price. I was interested in the Bluetooth feature to use in my car as a speaker phone as well as the traffic feature. The speaker phone option was not good at all. The speaker was difficult to hear and several people reported that they heard an echo effect when talking to me. The navigation worked really well. My difficulty was with the menu structure. I found it difficult to navigate. It has a feature where you can talk to the unit and do certain tasks “hands free”. This is a mostly worthless feature as it doesn’t work well when moving which is the time you need it the most.
Ultimately I ended up selling this unit to a coworker who wanted a cheap GPS. I bought another Garmin unit as I much prefer their menu structure. The bluetooth works far better, and it came with lifetime traffic…free!
Works good enough for me
Has been very reliable as long as the roads and locations are in the database. I need an update. It occasionally will change screens and ask for a command. I just yell “cancel” and it’s back in business.
A usable GPS at a great price
This refurbished GPS unit works pretty well, and for the price it’s a good deal. The unit has all the features you’d want, including a capacious memory for saved addresses. It also has a number of annoying quirks — every so often if you change lanes, it will think you’ve leaped 100 yards to the side of the highway, and will try to nag you into rejoining a highway you’re already on. This is amusing when you know where you are, but could be a problem when you’re using the device to navigate unfamiliar territory. Every so often also, the device will hear a loud voice on the radio and assume it is you, asking it to do something.
I should also warn you that dealing with Magellan is a trial. To get my “free” maps update ($10) required multiple attempts online and over the phone. And they overcharged me by $10, which took weeks to reconcile (I ended up going through VISA rather than returning the umpteen calls from Magellan’s “customer service” operation, which seems designed to wear you out before issuing a refund.
Bad Technical Support, No adequate support
Hi,
after I bought my 3250, I had it replaced twice and every time the problem has not been fixed.
1 – the system will not charge from anything but a wall outlet.
I have two original car chargers and none of them works!!!!!
The technical support says that they do not find my unit at fault and then they ship me a different unit (different serial number)!!!
Will not buy anything made by Magellan again!
Happly With Maestro
I thought I was taking a bit of a chance buying a “refurbed” GPS. However, I am completely satisfied so far. While the unit was received with outdated maps loaded (as they probably would be off the shelf) Magellan shipped me an SD card with the latest map which was a snap to load, free except for shipping. The map update, itself, would have cost me $80 and I only paid $89 for the Maestro. The basic GPS functions are great, and I have used the “voice commands” and the “blue tooth” phone link and looked at the AAA utility, but those features are just icing on the cake. I’m satisfied that I got the best value for the money in buying this unit.
Not upto the mark
I had a Garmin street pilot before and thought of giving this magellan a try as it was on sale.Compared to my Garmin I found it worth less.It failed the first test when it was directing me out of my neighbourhood from a road which never existed.If I miss a road,it takes for ever to recalculate,till then I will miss the other intersection too.Recently I used it on a long trip and it was showing me 1hr more than the normal journey time.I disregarded it’s directions and saved 1hr.This happened even though I selected the option of fastest reaching time in settings.Iam going to return it back to amazon.
No use for Mac users
My wife bought the unit which came with a ‘free’ 3 month trial subscription to the traffic service.
The tech support person told me that we needed to upgrade the software first BUT this can ONLY be done using a PC. We do not run Windows on our Macs and there’s no way we ever will, having given upon the world’s worst OS years ago and reclaimed our lives.
We only use Macs and know nobody who uses a PC.
Thus any Mac user should avoid buying this product as any OS upgrade is impossible.
Clearly the manufacturer has yet to realize that Mac users are growing at the expense of PC users, for obvious reasons, and has chosen to disregard the fastest growing population of computer users.
I have purchased 4 of these
After seeing how much I liked mine, both of my sisters and my niece all had me buy one for them. Yes, the maps are about 2 years old and it does cost to update them, but that is more than made up for by the unit’s purchase price and while I will eventually do so, new and rerouted roads don’t show up so often that I need to do it right away. It automatically back-lights in darkened conditions, the volume and zoom controls are easy to find on the map, and there are several settings that allow you to optimize how it works best for you, such as how it tells you where your turns are. It also says the road names; not all units do. One touch takes you to an overview so that you can see the entire directions. The spoken commands are very cool–the one drawback is that it sometimes misinterprets words and thinks you want to give it a command when you didn’t mean to, but it’s easy to touch one back arrow and cancel it. It has AAA roadside assistance programmed in and if you are a member, AAA adds their own 1-year warranty to the unit (through a link [..]). Even though you have to buy the map updates, the unit’s software updates are free from Magellan’s website. I’ve had to make several out-of-state trips by myself, this is the perfect navigator –it even tells you which side of the road freeway exits and entrances are on, something you can’t tell on a regular map.
WARNING
This is not Amazon’s fault.
Received a 3225 unit rather than a 3250. Check the side (left of the screen) of your unit when you receive it, there should be three major components (as shown in the picture) -a reset button, a headphone/FM receiver port,and a usb B power/data port.
The 3225 only has the usb and reset button, is not capable of bluetooth or receiving traffic info.
Everything else on my unit indicated the 3250 (product label, serial number, firmware, etc.), all the hardware that came with the unit from the power chord to the reference guides were for the 3250, but when the trial traffic subscription wasn’t working, I spent a couple of hours and confusing conversations with broken English-speaking operators. Amazon is rush ordering me a new refurb unit that will hopefully be the right one.
I recommend you check the unit for the port right out the box and avoid the following conversation (which is meaningless to your life, continue shopping, don’t waste your time reading it).
But, in case you’re bored, the conversation with Magellan technical support:
“My traffic isn’t working”
“You are subscribed, sir, it is working OK”
“Still not working”
“Reset traffic to default and resubmit your subscription then calls us back if you have more problems”
2nd call.
“Hi, my traffic isn’t working”
“Make sure your FM transmitter cable is plugged in to the port on the left side of the unit”
“There is no port”
“…uh… yes there is”
“Uh… NO THERE’S NOT”
“Let me get my supervisor”
. . . 30 minutes . . .
“There is a port on the left side of the unit, plug in the second cord from the car adapter”
“No, there really isn’t a port, I promise.”
“Can you describe the reset button to me?”
“It’s really small, it says ‘reset’ above it, and no you can’t plug the second wire form the car adapter to into it”
“Hold for a moment please. . .”
. . . 15 minutes . . .
“Call Amazon and they will send you a replacement unit.”