Magellan Maestro 4250 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

Reviews

1. One of the best gps units

   by Michael Thomas

   This is a great gps unit. Fast calculations, great features. I have a new garmin also and it doesn’t even come close to the Magellan ,as a matter of fact I don’t even bother to use the garmin.

2. Great Unit Overall

   by Kid Rico

   I have owned a Maestro 4250 for a few years now. I bought it refurbished for $130, and I think it is great overall… I love the features and it is very easy to use… easy to understand voice, routes me very well overall..

   Once in a while, but not often, it will choose a strange route, but as I said, this is not common, and from what I have read, pretty much all GPS’s will do this from time to time.. I like that it will warn you of turns a couple times in advance and then make a ‘ding’ when it is time to turn to remind you. You can also choose to reroute when you are stuck in traffic… There are tons of points of interest, although admittedly some of them are outdated. I always call first to make sure the point of interest still exists if it is not a big box recognizable name store.

   It has other features like voice recognition/bluetooth but I have never really used them… Once in a while it will ask me out of the blue to “say a command” which can be annoying, but I have never really bothered to try to figure that out, so I can’t comment as to whether the feature works properly or whether maybe I accidentally did/said something to prompt that.

   I bought one of these units for my parents as gift for some occasion, since I like it so much. They have used it many times, and have not complained of problems doing so, which is a testament to how easy it is to use, since they are technological illiterates of the highest degree! If mine ever gives out, I will gladly look to Magellan for their most recent version, but it is still going strong for me after around 3 years now.

   I’ve found that on more than one occasion it has routed me all the way to an address when I was told that GPS’s can’t find their way there for some reason (per my host). And it has routed me the best way (per my host) to other locations, when I was told GPS’s always choose the wrong route to the destination, so I think it must be better than a lot of other GPS’s out there…

   I plan to buy a GPS for my father-in-law for fathers day (I better get moving!), and will likely buy a 4700, but I am tempted to get him a 4250 like I have since I am so familiar with it and happy with it!

3. USB Voltage bug will occur and render unit useless

   by J. Ferrara

   The unit is fine at first until you are lost and are relying on it for your life. Then when you are 700 miles away from home lost in a strange place in the middle of nowhere and really need it the electronics fails and it thinks the battery charger usb connection is a computer connection because of a voltage detection bug. Of course you at first think it is your lighter or the cable and probably waste more money. There are many posts for the problem. There are no posts for the solution. If you can even return it it gets “refurbished” for the next victim. In my case I bought it online and am stuck.
   
   f

4. a piece of junque

   by quagmire56

   I hardly ever review items on Amazon, or any other website. Usually, I am a satisfied customer, and writing a 4 or 5 star review is not worth my time. However, I feel compelled to let any potential buyers know that they are WASTING their money on this item. I bought it over a year ago because I travel extensively for a big company. Initially, the only problem was with slow boot times and satellite hook ups. I could live with that. Occasionally, I would be driving by a big empty corn field, and the device would tell me that “You have arrived” with no building in sight. I could live with that, too, because it wasn’t very frequent. The final straw was when I downloaded the latest firmware update and purchased new maps. After the installation of both, the unit became TOTALLY unreliable, and is now worth only marginally more than the box it came in. Boot times are upwards of 5 minutes. It frequently either freezes or reboots in the middle of programming. I have to pull off the road to push reset, and then reprogram the thing. I haven’t been taken to any more corn fields yet, so the maps may be better, but the overall function is atrocious. The graphics are good, and when it works, the features are good. I have never owned another GPS, so I don’t have any basis for comparison.

5. If I could only get my money back….save yours & RUN from this junk!

   by Daffeyo Tubman

   I purchased the Magellan Maestro 4350 through AAA Mid-atlantic last July. It worked fine for the first few weeks, then I noticed that it started freezing, sometimes when starting up, at other times, it would freeze in the middle of directions and leave me hanging in the middle of nowhere (of course with a GPS unit, why would I bother to print out directions from Bing Maps, Yahoo or anywhere else??).

   The only way to unfreeze the blasted unit was to reset it. I logged on to Magellan’s site to see if perhaps there was a map or other software update, but there were none available. So I dealt with the constant freezing and fighting in traffic with it, etc.

   Then (and I really should have seen this one coming from a mile away and been prepared), I jumped into the car on Wednesday mounted the GPS into the holder and alas!! The bloody little thing absolutely refused to even turn on. I’ve practically drained the battery in the car hoping perhaps the unit had run out of juice, but after almost 24 hours hooked up to the laptop and a direct outlet power source, the horrid little thing still won’t start!! I’ve called AAA – Mid-atlantic…and of course, I am still waiting for a callback to resolve the problem (this of course after the gentleman started out with his disclaimer that AAA is a reseller like Best Buy and they are not responsible for the product’s manufacturing (exactly what I want to hear after I spent $250 for the thing less than a year ago).

   I also called Magellan and their response was to call AAA since I purchased it from them…hmmm, their rep forgot to take the Customer Service training course (I hope) Magellan offered. So, it looks as though I will be going back to Garmin (which was stolen hence the reason I bought this clunker).

   A few other issues to point out with this little delight:
   
   1 – the 3D rendering of the maps (even in the cities) looks NOTHING like they do on the commercials

   2 – the Bluetooth capability is very good…as long as you are prepared to re-sync your phone to it each time you enter the car

   3 – unlike Garmin, you have to enter in the entire city name before it returns a list of the most likely cities (with my previous Garmin, you only had to enter the first few characters before it recognized the city name)

   4 – without any available map updates, the unit was essentially useless the moment I purchased it, I live in Loudoun County, VA and with all of the construction over the last few years, there are MANY new roads which this unit never picked up

   5 – if the highways/roadways in your areas have exits which if you stay on the exit road will take you back to the highway, the Magellan Maestro 4350 will tell you to take the exit road, then get back on the highway until the next exit…it is best to read the Turn-by-Turn directions all the way through before you start moving so you can alleviate these types of issues. The first time it happened I was on the Capital Beltway and felt like an absolute idiot the second time I exited the road only to get back on it. I could never find any settings to change which affected this issues. Magellan is also aware of the issue since when I called them about it several months ago, they said that yes, it could be annoying (once again, that agent also forgot to take the Customer Service training)

   Bottomline, please save yourself the grief and buy a Garmin or anything other than this horrid device. For the money you pay, it is too bloody unreliable and useless, not to mention frustrating to work with.

6. Works pretty well

   by David Walker

   I’ve had this for awhile now and it works fine. It doesn’t always take you the best route, but it does get you there.

7. Does the job

   by S. Sampat

   This is probably the cheapest deal i could find online for a refurbed for $88 WITH voice command (really the only feature i care about besides spoken street names).

   PROs:
   
   - nice touch screen; seemed better (more responsive) than my tomtom

   - the mount is AWESOME – stick the the windshield very well + dash mount works well (i dont park my car in the sun so i dont know if it would fail with heat)

   - wide range of POIs (not too upto-date but i rarely use them anyway)

   - nice bright screen

   - good bluetooth audio quality

   - Everytime you have to change your current direction or anything, it makes a bell/chime sound which i really like – alarm kinda dealie

   CONs:
   
   - it seems to freeze up for about 10 seconds or so either while typing in an address or on the Where Am I? feature. It froze up once trying to look up ‘nearest restaurant’ but this hasnt happened again. The freezing other wise is about 1/10 times – never required a restart, seemed to catch up eventually.

   - first time i used it, it was pretty slow but a firmware update fixed that really well.

   - speed: this is just silly but it doesnt show your actual/speed limit unlike the tomtoms..not really a con..dont even know why im typing this

   - no QWERTY!!! wtf?!

   Overall:
   
   I am quite satisfied with a 88$ voice command gps! the street names n all are right on, no corrections in maps needed so far (dallas,tx)
   
   I have used a garmin 265 and tomtom one xl – i would say, for the price, magellan is a winner for the features it offers. I usually dont look at the screen much when im driving anyway – its pretty reliable and accurate with vocal directions – including the “stay in the right lane” stuff.

   I really wish it had a QWERTY keyboard

8. Great GPS.

   by Californian

   I bought this from Costco long ago. It was a great GPS. Expensive. Never had a trouble in reaching a location. Also it powers on fast and shows the direction fast. I realized this is one of the best portable GPS I ever used only after trying some other brands. This is a real good product. Price is a little high though. Wish this was available under $250.

9. Excellent Navigation manueverability!

   by D. Lambert

   By far the best GPS on the market, in my opinion. This GPS is much easier to use and navigate than others in its class. My mom bought the newest Tom Tom and what a nightmare that gizmo was to figure out. This GPS is easy to use, and great for handfree bluetooth operation of your cell phone!

10. GPS

    by SJB

    Procedures a little complicated. Although I was given a method to extend my warranty through AAA – it was impossible to contact either Magellan or AAA to have that supposed guarantee offered. Should not promise any promotions and then keep a customer waiting so long for a reply that the offer expires. Would be reluctant to do business with such offers again as an incentive.

11. Purchased Three 4250’s

    by Marlin R. Smith

    In June I purchased my referbished unit. It performed so well, I purchased one for my Grand Daughter a few months later. She is very happy with it, so I recently purchased one for my Son.

    I particulary like the bluetooth, being able to speak commands to it, anouncing the street names and the chime when I reach my next turn.

    I have found new and better routs to places that I have been going to for years. I travel around the Blue ridge mountains some. It sometimes takes me on up, down and crooked roads. It evedently does not know if a road is good or bad. I have learned not to rely on it in the mountains.

    I just updated the map (Spring 2009 version), in mine with no problems. It was duck soup. Simply insert the card, turn the unit on and push the reset button. The new map has more and updated points of interest. I have not gone on a long trip, so can’t comment on road changes. Just purchased an update for my Son, and will install it this weekend. I will probably get one for my Grand Daughter. I foung great prices on them at Amazon. Saved about $30.00 each.

    I had some problems with my Son’s unit, and Magellan was punctual and very good to work with.
    

12. Working good so far ?

    by D. Smith

    Magellan replaced a faulty Roadmate 6000T with this model after numerous phone calls to their extremely poor customer service, but that’s another story. Anyway, the unit came with updated firmware and maps, so that was nice. The 4250 is not bad at all, it acquires a signal pretty quickly and recalculates very swiftly if you make a wrong move. I like the amount of warning signals the unit provides before your turn and the split screen as you get close. So far it is pretty accurate and I am quite impressed with it. The voice recognition is not that good as the unit has trouble recognizing certain words, but the “magellan go home” feature is nice when you just want to get out of somewhere quickly. Overall the 4250 is a capable “get you to where you need to go” type of device, the only bells and whistles feature is the rather sketchy voice recognition, which can be disabled. A qwerty keyboard would have been nice, and you only get one female voice. The AAA guide is also quite handy.

13. Register IMMEDIATELY and keep it updated!

    by Edmund D. COHEN

    I’ve had my Model 4250 for about eight months. Lacking experience with competing products for comparison, I have been more than satisfied with it. I never got around to registering or updating the unit until the screen froze a few days ago. The software update went smoothly. The improvement in the unit’s operation was profound. By not registering immediately upon purchase, I may have cheated myself out of the `09 map update. (There is no way to tell which generation of maps it has.) Instances of the unit’s having wrong or outdated map information have been very few and minor.

    Thankfully, I have had no occasion to find out if customer service is as bad as others have said. My gripe list includes: (1) Do something about the weakness of the audio. An external jack for an earphone would be welcome. I cannot imagine using this device as a Bluetooth speaker phone. But it would be great if the unit’s audio could be patched through my Bluetooth earpiece. (2) I cannot get it to respond consistently to voice commands. Also, it often mistakes something said on the radio for a voice command, and has to be brought back to the previous mode manually.

    After reading customer reviews for many GPS products, the AAA tie-in was what got me to go for this one. When AAA touted a slightly higher-end one to me as a bargain at $250, I sprang for my new one from Amazon for $170. Now, when there are plenty of refurbished ones much cheaper than that, this model is well worth recommending. But be sure you know where you will stand regarding warranty: Magellan will not register units bought on auction sites!

14. Very good!

    by Valeriy Mirchev

    Very good in all! I bought the refurbished one. And VERY worth the price. Drove from washington to california and never lost service. Its very accurate, everything works perfectly! Thank you very much.

15. Wander no more

    by Lola

    I purchased the Magellan Maestro last year and have been very pleased. The turn-by-turn spoken directions are clear and there is plenty of warning for your next turn.
    
    Some highway addresses are tricky to put in a GPS, probably any GPS. In my area Routes or Highways often have street names along portions of the road.
    
    Businesses should note GPS directions in their ads.

16. Nice. It does what I need it to and I can trust the results.

    by Rachel M. Johnson

    It does as it advertises. So far, the maps have been extremely accurate. The only variances have been very recently opened routes that were just under construction (like the 694 unweave the weave in Mpls and the new four lane through Staples, MN) I haven’t mounted it yet as I live in MN where it’s illegal to mount it on the windshield. What I do is wedge it between the dash and the windshield with a piece of rubber. One nice feature I wasn’t expecting is the elevation measurement. It’s interesting to me to know how many feet above sea level various parts of the state are, like, for example, my office is 1237 feet above sea level!

    The one thing I haven’t been able to work around is the car charging. When I plugged in the car charger it went to an instructional screen and just stayed there rendering it inoperable as long as the charger was plugged in. There might be a setting I’m missing. This is my first GPS and there is still novelty in it for me.

17. A Plumbers Review

    by Ryan C.

    I’m a plumber do a lot of driving around the Dallas Fort Worth area and have used it a few time on road trips and it gets me where I want to be 99.9% of the time, there is one road in Arlington that is being moved and confuses the unit when I drive the new one. The thing I like the most is that it works ALL THE TIME; any weather any time. It does have a few quirks but from what I understand they all do. It will think I’m on an access road sometimes when I’m still on the highway or vice versa and it does not always give the most direct route but it will no deviate too far and is tolerable. I would recommend reviewing the written directions before your trip. Also the traffic subscription in my opinion is a waste. If you ask it to reroute around traffic it will give you a 10 minute detour around a 2 minute traffic problem, however; I do know the area and traffic patterns well and have my own shortcuts during rush hour that are proven so this might just be a personal opinion. Over all I cant believe I didn’t get one before because of skepticism.

18. would buy again

    by Tammy K. Orr

    I love this product, except for its slowness with points of interest, I have no complaints and can’t imagine being without it again

19. Will not repair when outside warranty period

    by S. Olivieri

    Our GPS is just 18 months old. It suddenly stopped tracking and wasn’t picking up any satellites. I called Magellan, and the woman told me my unit was “defective”. However, their policy is not to repair units that were outside of the 1 year warranty period. I could however trade it in and purchase a refurbished unit at the discounted price of $109. All I had to do was mail in my current unit (which I am sure they WILL repair and sell to someone else…they just won’t repair it and send it back to me). This is the biggest money making scheme by a product corporation I have ever encountered. I told her I didn’t want another unit, I wanted mine repaired…even if that meant I had some upfront costs. Nope, they don’t do it.

    I am replacing my GPS, but will never buy another Magellan product again.

20. Kicked the bucket after a year

    by S. Maher

    Worked OK for a year – although the on-screen keyboard is terrible and the address entry is strange and not well labeled (street before number). After a year it refuses to boot. It’s stuck on the startup/logo screen and will not reset with reset switch or connect over USB.