Garmin 2610, is it out dated??

[PRC]

Hello folks,

 

I'm still on my quest for a good gps and came across this . I know that I should just STHU and get a Zumo, however...$600 bones is still alot of green for this humble public servant. I notice alot of the 2610's in most of the ride tales I see, and I know it's been discontinued.....but am I gonna regret buying this unit??

 

 

[Rocket_Cowboy]

The 2610 is still a fine unit, and many riders in the IBR will be using one (or more, in some cases) on their rides. While it's not sold as new any more, City Navigator 8 still supports the unit, so mapping is still current.

 

If you don't need XM (music, weather, traffic) or any of the other music features, I still prefer it over the 27x0 or 28x0 models.

[tallman]

Pete,'loan me the work bike and ticket book for the morning.

We'll both get new units.

 

 

Jes kiddden.

 

The 2610 should work for years.

Cheap price.

Did notice they had 2730's for less than the Zumo if you ever think music/traffic/weather in your future.

If not, buy the 2610 and enjoy it.

[PRC]

Pete,'loan me the work bike and ticket book for the morning.

We'll both get new units.

 

Tim, I wish I had a "work" bike, alas I was re-organized some 7 months ago.....I will also ponder the other unit.

 

Charlie, the unit they have is supposed to be "brand new." Thanks for letting me know about being able to update the system. Man this is getting tough.

 

Keep the opinions rollin in....at the rate I'm making my decision, the Zumo's will be obsolete!

[John Ranalletta]

Hello folks,

 

I'm still on my quest for a good gps and came across this . I know that I should just STHU and get a Zumo, however...$600 bones is still alot of green for this humble public servant. I notice alot of the 2610's in most of the ride tales I see, and I know it's been discontinued.....but am I gonna regret buying this unit??

Unless I missed it, I do not see City Navigator or a memory card included in the bundle. I'd call and ask which version is included if any. If not, those will cost you more.

[Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs]

I should really go back and research this a little more. I'm about to sell my V1 and get a GPS unit. Is the 2610 waterproof or resistant?

[PRC]

 

Well I called them and it comes with V8 but they couldn't tell me what size card . I think if memory serves, it should come with a 128MB card, but I could be mistaken. Don't know if it's waterproof, but I think it is.

[smiller]

The 2610 is waterproof, and with a 2gb Compactflash card (about $25 online) will hold the entire City Navigator database with room to spare for maps from another product (if desired.) It is definitely 'outdated', as is any GPS product 6 months after introduction. What you are giving up with the 2610 vs. the current units is some screen resolution and some software farkles like XM radio, 3D map display, etc. (depending on what you are comparing to.) The 2610 is definitely a prior generation unit but is still quite serviceable as it uses the same map info as the new units, etc. The price tradeoff between all this is as usual up to the buyer.

[Matts_12GS]

I just bought a 2610 off ebay for about $200 and stuck a 2GB card in it. Works just fine!

[Rocket_Cowboy]

I should really go back and research this a little more. I'm about to sell my V1 and get a GPS unit. Is the 2610 waterproof or resistant?

 

IPX7 waterproof. IIRC, that means it can be submerged down to 10 meters for 30 minutes or some sort. I've not had any problems with my 2730 on either of the past two bikes ... and I've been through some frog stranglers.

[St0nkingByte]

Shoot I'm still using a StreetPilot III

 

It's only told me to go left on an off-ramp that doesn't exist anymore once, and that was in a snowstorm, in the car thankfully.

 

I had an opportunity recently to play with a Zumo, oh man those are nice.

[Couchrocket]

The 2610 is a great unit. I own one, and a 2720.

 

If you can swing the extra bucks for the 2720, I'd recommend it over the 2610 for three specific reasons:

 

1. It has a 3D track up feature which is nice in some circumstances.

 

2. It has a higher resolution screen.

 

3. "Most important" it has oral dircetions that are "street name specific." So rather than "Turn left in 400 feet." You'll get "Turn left in 400 feet onto Main Street." This feature alone is worth quite a bit to me. When out in the boonies it makes little to zero difference, but in suburban and metro areas where the streets are tightly packed, and traffic speeds sometimes "brisk" it often means the difference between making and missing a turn when navigating to unknown addresses. I also find that because it is giving street names, I hardly ever even look at the screen when zeroing in on an address, I can scan the upcoming street name signs.

 

Also, the 2720 comes preloaded w/ North America on it. So you can deduct whatever the price of a 2 gig CF card is from your net cost in comparing the two units.

 

I don't know what the current "street price" delta is between the 2610 and 2720, but "to me" the 2720 is probably worth a hundred bucks more because of the features mentioned above.

 

Keep an eye out for refurbished units. Can't tell 'em from new, and full warranty.

 

Pretty much all of the succeeding units from the 2720 come with XM radio, mp3 players, and a host of other stuff that I don't need or want in a GPS, until it is all high quality stereo that can be fed into my Autocom. So, for me at least at this time, the 2720 is the "perfect" Nav instrument for my truck and bike.

 

I like the form factor on the new Zumo's but their limited ability to custom configure the information displayed on the map page is a giant step backward IMO, and keeps me from buying one.

[Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs]

Thanks Scott. Good to know. I was just in England and without the voice feature in the Audi I rented, I would have been lost moreso than I already was.

[Jim VonBaden]

Best thing about the 2610, that no other has, is the infinately varioable customization of routing. If you want some no highway, and even splits of local and medium sized roads, you have it, or any combination you like.

 

It is an inexpensive unit that works perfectly for most situations, and costs very little.

 

I have 3 units, and love them.

 

Jim

[tallman]

Best thing about the 2610, that no other has, is the infinately varioable customization of routing. If you want some no highway, and even splits of local and medium sized roads, you have it, or any combination you like.

 

It is an inexpensive unit that works perfectly for most situations, and costs very little.

I have 3 units, and love them.

 

Jim

 

One for the bike.

One for GF's bike.

One to find where you left the bikes?

 

Pete,

Buy a GPS already.

[Kwazimoto]

edgegps.com has the 2610 refurbs for $199.99. Saw it at Advrider.Out of stock but expected to ship more 7/30.No affiliation.

[RichEdwards]

My 2610 has directed me in Alaska, Nova Scotia, the Canadian Rockies, and about 40 states. It still works great. It's a fine GPS and a whole lot cheaper than current models.

[Jim VonBaden]

Best thing about the 2610, that no other has, is the infinately varioable customization of routing. If you want some no highway, and even splits of local and medium sized roads, you have it, or any combination you like.

 

It is an inexpensive unit that works perfectly for most situations, and costs very little.

I have 3 units, and love them.

 

Jim

 

One for the bike.

One for GF's bike.

One to find where you left the bikes?

 

Pete,

Buy a GPS already.

 

Close!

 

One for the cage, since I am too lazy to remove one from a bike for the cage!

 

Jim

[Zippo]

Have you done a side by side comparison? You know, get both units from some friends and play with them a little? Compare the screen size, extra cool and groovey features since as the voice announcing what street to turn on rather than "turn now"...stuff like that. Do you need/prefer the 3D maps? If you buy the cheaper one and it's not what you like, can you sell it? You'll probably be out some $$$ that way though. $600 bones is a lot of green, but you get what you pay for (has always been my experience). I'd rather pay a little more and get what I know to work great, than to settle (IMHO).

 

BTW, I have a ZUMO...love it, works great, wouldn't trade it for the world (and I'm a research junkie...looked high and low for something similar/better/cheaper, but simply could not justify the sacrifice of some of the must have features for me).

 

Of course, I'm not biased or anything

 

Good luck!

[Spidey9534]

I bought a used 2610 awhile ago and love it. It does all I need and was a great deal compared to newer units.

[techammer]

I love my 2610, but when I stuck a high-speed 2GB card in it, it refused to recognize the card and went all dummy on me. I'm now back on the original card, but I won't be satisfied until I have all of North America in the box. What specific 2GB cards have y'all used successfully and where have you found them? (The one I tried was a PhotoFast Super 2.0GB.) And if anyone needs I high speed 2.0 CF card, I can give you a heck of a deal. You can email me at gregwriter@mindspring.com.

 

Thanks.

[smiller]

Hi Greg,

 

First I would make sure that the unit has the latest firmware version loaded (it is available on the Garmin web site) as some early firmware versions reportedly had problems with certain brand compactflash cards. But once that was fixed I'm not aware of any compatibility problems thereafter, and I have used many different brands of cards and never had a problem. Are you sure that the problem is with the card and not the map files on the card? Just to be sure I'd upgrade to the latest version of Mapsource (also downloadable for free from Garmin) and maybe try to create the mapbase again. I guess it's possible that you have a hardware compatibility issue with the CF card but I tend to think that kind of unlikely.

[kcscout]

Great deal here.

 

No affiliation... yada yada

[Jerry Johnston]

I had trouble with Crucial but found Kingston worked for me. Also I read somewhere that you don't want the newer fast chip and the slower chip is much cheaper anyway. I think the faster chip is maybe best left to cameras?

[Yukon]

Great deal here.

 

No affiliation... yada yada

 

I agree. Bought a 2610 from them 2 months ago and it is great!! You just can't beat $189 even though it is a refurbished unit!! Comes in a garmin box with like new packaging with all the extras with it. All I wanted was a nice little GPS without the sat radio. The voice prompts are great and I just can't say enough about how great a deal it is. You will not be sorry you spent $189 instead of $600; it's a no brainer.

[Sidmariner]

I boutght a used 2610 for less than $180 and really enjoyed using it during my trip from Victoria to San Diego and back last month. It is a far more practical unit than my Quest II which I have now relegated to a shoebox.

 

 

The only minor problem I had with it is this: when I connected it to my Autocom all voice reports would disappear, be replaced by a scratchy static buzz. I lived with it for the trip, only because it still served to warn me of a written report coming up. I expect the problem may be caused by a ground loop, so I'll be experimenting with a new hookup with a ground loop isolator. Otherwise, great little unit.

[LGannon]

I use CF cards for a variety of applications in my Job, from playing back MPEG video to file storage, we have experimented with a host of brands and specs, the only card that out performed every other and solved all of those unexplainable problems was Sandisk, the larger sizes ie 8 and 16GB cards can be prone to failure so make sure to create a backup, the other thing to watchout for is never disconect a card whilst reading or writing to it as it will become totally useless.

[Jerry Johnston]

I've heard the same thing from others however I had trouble with two 2gb Sandisk chips I purchased from a GPS dealer. All I can say is make sure you buy from someone who'll let you return the chip if it doesn't work out.

[jfremder]

I'll be experimenting with a new hookup with a ground loop isolator. Otherwise, great little unit.

 

That will solve the problem. I got mine at Radio Shack

[Marty Hill]

Check out mine in the f/s thread.

[JoePress]

Does the 2610 recalculate when you take the road least traveled (ie. I missed my turn).

[Marty Hill]

Yes.

[MattP]

...You just can't beat $189 even though it is a refurbished unit!! Comes in a garmin box with like new packaging with all the extras with it. All I wanted was a nice little GPS without the sat radio. The voice prompts are great and I just can't say enough about how great a deal it is. You will not be sorry you spent $189 instead of $600; it's a no brainer.

 

Lots of great info already posted, but I HAD to chime in and say +1 on the refirb 2610. I paid $180 on eBay, plus another $40 for the M/C kit that gives you the locking Garmin cradle and the hardwire power cable. For $220 when all was said and done I could NOT be happier! This is a rockin' little unit that does everything I want and a lot more. No XM, no radar, no espresso maker, yadda yadda- just a solid no-frills GPS unit. When I was setting it up, every time I thought, 'Gee, I wish it did ____' I promptly found out that it did! There's no 'wish-list' with this one- it really does EVERYTHING I want it to. One thing- mine came with a 128MB card that holds a decent amount of maps for local rides, but appears to be light for longer trips. I dropped a whopping $12 for a 1GB CF card, and was able to get about 80% of all of the U.S. on that. I won't see the majority of it (!), but at least it's there. Outdated? Yeah, I guess. Still a steal and very cool- Absolutely!

[JMR]

I notice alot of the 2610's in most of the ride tales I see, and I know it's been discontinued.....but am I gonna regret buying this unit??

Got my 2610 refurb a few months ago and it's working great and does a good job. For $189 you won't ruin your month if something happens to it and it gets trashed, (things happen you know); plus it's a great unit, has Garmin warranty. Edgegps.com is reputable source.