Garmin Drive 52 GPS Navigator: 5" Display for Easy Navigation

William N Perehinec: I recently purchased this GPS, and while it serves its purpose as a basic navigation device, there are a few aspects I'd like to highlight in my review.

On the positive side, this GPS is functional for providing directions, and it initially gets you to your destination without much trouble. It's a reliable tool for straightforward routes and serves as a decent alternative to traditional paper maps.

However, where this GPS falls short is in its ability to re-calculate routes effectively, especially in areas with ongoing road construction and frequent detours. Living in a region with a lot of construction on the roads, I found that straying off the planned path can confuse the unit. It attempts to re-calculate at times, but there are instances when it provides inaccurate directions after encountering a detour. This can be quite frustrating, as it defeats the purpose of having a GPS to guide you through unexpected road changes.

In comparison, I've found that the recalculation feature in Android Auto is much more accurate and quick, making it a preferable option for navigating through dynamic road conditions.

One minor inconvenience worth mentioning is the...

Canada on Nov 16, 2023

Farouk: I have been using Garmin for years. The earlier version did not have traffic. I purchased Garmin Smart 66 a year ago but sold it after 8 months. It had too many features which were useless to me. They were also confusing.

Garmin Drive 55 & Traffic has just the right amount of features. When going out I do a search on Garmin Drive App on my mobile phone in my home. When I get into the car I send the directions to the Garmin Drive.

I love my Garmin drive 55 for these features. 1) Lovely uncluttered screen. 2) Excellent directions when driving on highway. It gives ample warning on what lane to be in. Speed limits is clearly visible and when I exceed it there is a beep. This alone will prevent me from accidentally speeding with all the traffic cameras in Toronto.

The traffic information is fair. When driving to a specific location in the busy city like Toronto I use GoogleMaps which is much more accurate and detailed.

Voice recognition is poor. I only use it for "Go Home"

Canada on Nov 08, 2023

W. Franklin: I bought this Garmin 010-02038-02 DriveSmart 65, Built-In Voice-Controlled GPS Navigator with 6.95” screen to replace a smaller Garmin DriveSmart that was about 6 years old.

All the features look and work similar to the old one so there wasn't much of a learning curve for me. The bigger screen makes this unit much more pleasant and easy to use. It is faster than the older one. It's also more intuitive and narrows down the possible choices and presents more options for the address or places as you are entering the information. It has a lot of choices for map layout so you can customize to your preference. Voice command is also better than the older unit, but not perfect. With the old one the more I used the voice feature the better it got, to a point. This one is better out of the box and it may get even better with use. It is easy to update the maps and firmware through wifi sitting in the driveway, and quicker at it than the older unit. I have found these dedicated GPS units to be much better than the factory entertainment/GPS systems when it comes to directing you, and giving you options for routes. You can also link it with the cell phone app and have instant traffic...

United States on Nov 06, 2023

Davidwebber: User friendly .
battery weak after overnight charging.

Canada on Nov 03, 2023

William Stewart: Our old GPS was having trouble so we decided to replace it before a long trip. The screen on this GPS unit is great. Very clear, very large. It doesn't always respond to voice commands, but is fairly reliable. Great for long distances, but it gives weird directions when in local areas (ie. rather than turning left across a street, it would take us to the next light, make a left turn, then turn around and come back to the destination). Overall, a good GPS device.

Canada on Nov 02, 2023

M L.: This improved GARMIN GPS is awesome! the screen is nice and large with great features. I love that it will synch and save our favorite places too.
What I didn’t like but we finally found how to turn it off, it will communicate with your cell phone in blue tooth and tell you if you have someone at the door or a phone call coming in to your phone. I think that’s not a good for a GPS and I think it’d be distracting for driver. It kept popping up and we finally solved how to stop that. I also thought it’s not good for privacy if someone is riding with us.
It’s different from our previous GARMIN —clearer, larger screen with more features. It communicates well with the backup camera on license tag (sold separately) but the backup camera doesn’t come on when backing up, have to touch something on screen. I liked it better to automatically come on when backing up, for safety purposes. It does come on for a few moments when first turning on the GPS though.
Now the voice recognition, it depends on where you are from and if you have an accent. If you are from the Northern or Midwestern states it recognizes your voice better. If you have an accent from the South,...

United States on Oct 19, 2023

EdEd: The purpose of this detailed novel is to help others make an educated decision before considering a Garmin.

Received my Garmin close to the date promised.

Plan A: Turn on and follow the instructions for setting it up. Failed. The device could not connect to the newer Wi-Fi hardware at any level using the industry standard WPA2 protocol. 6 attempts, all failed.

Plan B: Locate and older wireless router (if you have one). This router is over 10 years old and I just had it sitting around. Presto, it connected through WPA2. Device made it passed this point in the setup. Device states that there are updates available. OK, that makes sense let’s get them. Ran for 10 minutes and then it failed, it stated it was retrying. The only option to exit after countless retries was to CANCEL (keep this in mind). Your device is now a brick.

Plan C: Go to a PC and plug device into USB port using supplied cable, launch Garmin Express that was already installed from my previous Garmin device. Attempt to find device by searching… Failed. Try another 6 times, presto the software finally finds the device without doing anything but selecting search repeatedly, for 6 times....

United States on Sep 18, 2023

Amazon Customer: I was very excited when Garmin announced this product, including such features as 3D maps, speed warnings, and rerouting due to traffic, among many new bells and whistles. Unfortunately, the 3D maps are not yet available for my city (Calgary), and the other features are hit and miss.

I had previously purchased the Go 600 from TomTom because it provided speed warnings. Specifically, I want to be sure I don't accidentally speed in playground zones, which are unavoidable in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, neither product works as advertised. The speed limits for the playground zones are not included for my neighborhood. I tried informing TomTom about the missing playgrounds two years ago, but they still haven't been added to the map. I recently tried to inform Garmin about the same thing, giving them very detailed information, but was told their map vendor doesn't accept residential street updates.

As for the maps, both devices have some errors, but I know enough about my city to generally ignore it when it happens. Sometimes I'm forced to turn around once or twice to figure out which road to take. The DriveSmart 55 doesn't give enough information to get me through some...

Canada on Apr 15, 2019