Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
Features
- Ultra-slim GPS navigator with a 4.7-inch touchscreen display
- Preloaded maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico with six million points of interest
- OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches
- Bluetooth hands-free calling lets you make or receive calls thru your compatible cell phone
- Voice command allows you to handle navigation tasks by simply speaking a variety of commands
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 1 x 3 x 5 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
Portable GPS NavigatorsMagellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
Arguing with Maestro
The Magellan Maestro 4250 appears to be a cool product from the specifications and consumer report BUT it has a few quirks that are disappointing. The routing algorithm is….quirky! For example, in the Bay Area, highway 101 and 280 will get you from the south bay to San Francisco. 280 is faster and less congested than 101 but Maestro will not route to 280 using any preference. Even when I am on 280 headed north, Ms. Maestro is nagging me to reroute to 101.
The reviews said the bluetooth operations was mediocre. Compared to a headset yes it is but compared to other speaker-phone type hands-free devices, it is a good as it gets. However the supported bluetooth phones are very limited. Naturally the phone I have is not in the support list, so I have to rebuild the link every time I want to use the maestro with my phone. The Maestro has only one (1) Motorola phone in it’s support list. Go figure.
Maestro has a voice command mode. I thought this would be awesome! The key word to activate voice command mode is, “Magellan”. There must be thousands of words that sound similar to Magellan because when the voice command mode is activated, Ms. Maestro frequently interrupts conversations with her, “say a command” demand. She just wants to be included. Furthermore when I do want to give a voice command, the command list is disappointingly weak. The only one that is useful is “Go home” which will reroute from where you are to home.
The real problem is not so much Maestro but the company Magellan itself. I bought what I think was Magellan’s first GPS in 1985, the Tracker. Back then Magellan was a small company. Their customer support processes were responsive and their personal were knowledgeable. Today it is just the opposite. I noticed that the mapping information in my newly purchased Magellan was unaware of moderately new roads. I check the Magellan website and found that there was a “summer 2009″ update available…I had purchased the Maestro refurbished by Magellan in March 2010. The update was not installed. I called tech support and was told I had to give them my credit card number now and send them proof of purchase to another department. If I was eligible for the FREE upgrade my credit card would be billed just $10 for shipping and handling. It comes on a memory device versus a download. Go figure. If I was not eligible for the FREE upgrade the charge would not be made to my card. Why does Tech Support need my credit card info before verifying my eligibility? Even the Tech had no explanation for that..just procedure. I went along with it and sent in my receipt of purchase and in a couple of days was notified that I was eligible and that the update would be shipped FedEx surface. It’s now been over a month since that news. I have not received the upgrade.
Furthermore, unlike the old days with the Tracker when I called with user interface suggestions that were thankfully received, I have attempted to give suggestions with the Maestro, like making the bluetooth interface work between a headset and the GPS so the passengers in the car don’t have to hear Ms. Maestro nag me and me argue with her. Or use the touch screen to select desired routing. I can just see it forcing one to take I5 from San Jose to Santa Barbara when there is 101 and even the coast highway 1 available. And I’ve attempted to give them some ideas regarding how to improve the voice command range by a combination of key words and spelling. But I am met with uninterested voices who are not empowered to do anything more than placate the customer and move on.
Magellan is a has been company. Even though they may still build a few acceptable products, I would not buy another one from them.
refurbished Magellan 4250 gps unit
It has worked perfectly thus far and was delivered like it was new. I am pleased with its performance.
EXCELLENT GPS!
I had several other GPS units before getting this one and now I can’t leave home without it. Its been very accurate for me and POIs have served me well during my travels. It doesn’t have some of the cool features that other GPS unit have but its very reliable.
Not a good investment
I owned 3 refurbished maggellan 4250 units and one is unusable. Screen freezed and warranty is out after 30 or 90 days. For any future purchase, i would not get the refurbished GPS. It is Not a good investment.
Poor
I had this item for about 30 days and it quit charging. Worked 4 times before started giving wrong directions. Not updated with current roads when I received it so had to pay extra to update. Not happy at all and don’t know what to get now.
Good product
Good product. I bought refurbished piece and when I tried to update software it locked up. Magellan replaced it in a record time.
Almost but not quite worthwhile
This is my first GPS so I have very little to compare with other than my grandmother’s several year old bottom of the line Tom Tom. I do know, however, that I would take that Tom Tom any day over the Magellan 4250.
First off we’ll start with starting the unit up. Even with direct sight of the sky on a bright clear day the unit still takes nearly 2 minutes to acquire a signal. Not a huge deal for me, as in most cases by the time I’m ready to pull out it’s just about ready to use. However, upon several power ups it decides that no matter where I am, I am at my home address, which essentially makes it worthless until I enter my current location in the options screen.
My next big complaint is with the routing. Honestly, under most situations so far the routing has actually been pretty accurate, but for some reason the unit refuses to route down I-80 through Nebraska. Even with entering detours, trying to re-route over and over, it refuses to use the interstate and opts instead for small state highways or routing through Kansas which would add at least 45 minutes to an hour over the interstate. My first thought was that I had some option selected to avoid interstates, but that is not the case. I have not yet actually tried using it while driving on I-80 to see if it re-routes accurately, but that will be my next test for the unit.
Lastly, and honestly the most disappointing thing for me is the voice recognition. This is the feature that sold me on the Magellan over a similarly priced Tom Tom or Garmin, but the feature is essentially unusable. Even in a perfectly quiet environment I must repeat voice commands multiple times before it recognizes, if it even recognizes at all. If there is any noise at all I essentially have to shout at the unit, which probably looks pretty funny to other drivers on the road. I’ve given up on trying to use this feature.
To sum up, you’d probably be better off with a low end Tom Tom with 2005 maps. I’d try to talk my grandmother into trading with me, but I would feel too bad!
I own 3 of them. Great buy for the money.
I purchased my first Magellan upon the recommendation of a family member who had one. After buying one for myself, I purchased one for my daughter. My third one is for my wife’s car. All three were Magellan 4250 4.3 screen refurbished units. We have been well-pleased with the product and more pleased with Amazon’s price and service! Ron Wilcox
Dissapointed with product
I was dissapointed with the Magellan Maestro 4250 that I purchased. It was a refurbished item, such that the sale was final and I took up my problems directly with Magellan rather than with Amazon. I have never had a bad experience with Amazon, and will gladly continue to do business with them. Magellan, after some run-around, exchanged the first defective unit (it cost me $9 in shipping). The second unit worked less than the first, freezing regularly, not finding satelites, etc. so I purchased a new unit (from Garmin – it is great!). I will never again purchase or recommend a Magellan product.
Resold, Not Refurbished
Bought two of these units as Xmas presents. One worked fine, the other wouldn’t pick up satellites (even sitting next to the working one). No problem — Amazon provided their usual great service and exchanged it. Long story short: I just returned the FOURTH exchange unit for a refund. Magellan’s lack of QC on these units finally bested my stubbornness. The working unit is fantastic, and this is the last model with the best (IMHO) version of their operating system; but do yourself a favor and find a new one. No fault of Amazon or the product, but Magellan’s attention to detail is subpar in this department (and their customer service was no help, only advice offered was “send it back to Amazon” when I asked for an exchange with a *tested* unit).
Lousy product!
I had high hopes for this GPS, but it doesn’t deliver at all.
My first issue with this product: This is a 4.3″ widescreen, so you would think that would be great, right? Unfortunately, they have the addresses on the top and bottom of the screen, so you can only see very little of what’s straight ahead of you. You can see plenty off to the sides, but who really needs to see that, right? If they had thought to put the info on the left and right, the usable screen would have been much larger. Unfortunately, they didn’t think to do that.
My second issue: The timing is off. The street comes up at the usable part of the top of the screen generally right after you have passed it. I cannot tell you how many times I had to make U turns because of that!
Third issue: The text to speech stinks! Sometimes she says “s.t.” instead of “street”, sometimes she says “a.v.e” instead of ave. There are lots of other abbreviations that are spelled out as well. And the words are not seperated well, so it may sound like “Merreeee mackestee” instead of “Merrimack street”. It can get very confusing.
I haven’t even bothered with any of the bells and whistles. As far as I’m concerned, if a product doesn’t deliver on what it is SUPPOSED to do, does it really matter if can do any tricks as well?
About the only plus I can think of is that it looked like new when I got it. It probably was “like new”. The last buyer probably returned it after a test run because they hated it.
Love it
I love this GPS…I caller her Shelia. My wife says I show her too much attention. This thing really has saved me a couple times. I have had a Megellan for a while couldnt get updates for it so I bought this one. I like this one a lot better.
It’s a Time Saver
I gave this product to my son for Christmas; here’s what he had to say. ” I love it. In my type of work the GPS is a time saver and a life saver. It’s portable, easy to use, screen good view of route, etc. I don’t waste time trying to get there.” It was well worth the price.
Talk to your GPS and it talks back.
Love my Magellan. Wish it had free updates. Got it stolen from my truck and bought another just like it. Only one you can talk to hands free.
Poor Quality Device
I ordered this once. It broke in a week. Returned and got a replacement. Amazon service was actually great in that respect. But the device wasn’t good enough. It broke completely in a year. First, the satellite fix stopped. I was hoping it would wake up suddenly like the last few times. However, the following day, it went completely dead and blank screen. By the way, the device’s bluetooth function stopped working in less than 6 months.
Compare to that my Garmin Street Pilot is running for more than 5 years and not a single problem on that device. I also had short and bad experience with Tomtom which I had to return promptly.
Thus far, the Garmin devices have been most dependable in my experience. Additionally, the Magellan device was extremely slow performing. It took forever to find and route to some POI. Even the old model Garmin is way faster than that. To it’s credit, the Magellan device could acquire satellite fix quicker than the Garmin. That was the only plus. However, Garmin must have fixed that problem in the newer models by now. Therefore, I have finally decided to stay with Garmin.
BAD GPS
I bought this product from AMAZON even after reading few bad reviews, thinking Magellan is a big company and could be trusted….turns out to be a nightmare.
I suspected few problems in my GPS “OBVIOUSLY AFTER THEIR 30-DAY MAP GURENTEE AND 30 DAY RETURN POLICY” cause practically you can not find problems really soon, i did not use the GPS so much at that time. So they said they will not be able to help me out.
Problems:
1) When you are driving on the freeway 70 Miles an hour (its a straight Highway and you know you will have to go at least 40-50 miles on it) it directs you to take exit and redirect you to the Freeway again. This happens on one of those exits which separates from freeway then one part of it goes to ramp and that lane merges back to freeway. I thought this was not good cause sometimes by panicking you may get involved in an accident. Same thing happens to my friend’s Maestro 3250 also.
2) Did not find the address…. I had a doctor’s appointment at a Hospital, and i obviously got late because my trusted GPS could not find the address. What if similar thing happens when you are in an emergency…then what’s the use of it.. The excuse i was given from Magellan is to upgrade my maps with 80 BUCKS…ridiculous. I bought the GPS in 2009 and i expect i would at least get any address built before 2008. They say The map we use for this model is a older version, i bet if this information was given to me before i purchased i would not have bought it.
3) Limited Points of interests…most of the times it did not find many of the POIs. and Lot of time when i go to the suggested POI address there would not be such thing existing there. We understand that places keep changing but you gotta have some credibility. I also tested it by standing in front of a Wal-Mart which is at least there since 4 years as per my knowledge, but it did not find it. Now what i do is i double check with Google Maps or by calling them if i have theor phone numbers. What an advance machine.
4) Limited Voice command: Voice command is only good for going home and few things..you cannot find addresses by voice command. When i upgraded my software…my voice command stopped working. Magellan could not fix it.
5) Slow response sometimes.
6) When i try to use blue tooth for phone, the listner on the other end always complain that your voice is not clear and its not loud enough to hear.
Pros: Good and Sleek Looks, Faster than average GPSs, Brighter LCD, Bluetooth phone connectivity
Cons: Old Maps, Limited POIs, Confusing Directing System, Mic for Bluetooth Phone is very low.
Overall nice looking equipment, i would say functions are good except Limited Voice command but BAD Customer service, They use a different MAP SYSTEM than other companies which are very mediocre, at least in my opinion.
I just wished they had better maps, better Point of Interests.
Verdict: Be sure when you are planning to purchase and If you purchase test it in every way possible within the 30 day. I am happy that I purchased this from AMAZON, they are currently helping me (Even after 30 days)to see if they can help me for my issues. I will keep it posted. I will never do business with Magellan again.
The problems indicated here are related to my GPS unit it may not be in all GPSs, so read other review also to make your judgment.
Mother’s Day gift
She loved it. No more asking dad where to go. Huge help when traveling.
Bad touchscreen
Like most “factory refurbished” items I’ve bought over the years, the only thing “refurbished” is the box. Still has glare problems. The only way you can enter anything in the upper left quadrant is to use the tip of a hard pen and punch away until the right character appears. Don’t even think of programming this unit while driving.
Michael C.
This item was a refurbished item and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It looks brand new, feels brand new, and works brand new. I am very thankful I bought it.
A good deal
I’ve purchased many of these GPS units over the past few years, and it’s a good deal for the money. I will say that sometimes they come in with slight blemishes on the screen, but other than that they work perfectly.