Garmin Drive 51LM / 61LM
Verified9 reviews
Reliable GPS and only a little disappointed – I’ve only ever had one other GPS unit – a Mio Digiwalker and been impressed with it for about the 7 years I had it. In the end the Mio couldn’t find any satellites. Hence my need for a new GPS. I gave a good report on it on this site when I bought it; other people didn’t like the unit. Based on my experience I would happily have bought another new… Read more
Mio, but they don’t seem to be available in Australian shops anymore. I went for it because Choice gave it a good wrap. I could have bought one on line, but I needed a replacement quickly. I bought a Garmin Drive 61 LM.
I'm still learning to use the Garmin, but I miss my old Mio. But the Garmin works and gets me from A to B. People on Whirlpool suggested not using a GPS unit and advocated phone use. I actually tried this, but the Maps app on the phone was all over the place and continually lost the satellite. Perhaps I have a cheap phone. First experience of the Garmin out of the box: I got the 6 inch model. It’s much bigger than my old Mio. Which is really nice. Only very basic instructions were provided. Normally, buying new electronic stuff the instruction booklet advise putting it on charge for a huge number of hours before use. With no 240v charger that wasn’t possible. Anyway, the instructions didn’t ask for that to be done. The support bracket was in two parts. I pushed one part into the GPS. That was difficult, then clunk it was in place. I don’t think it’ll ever come out. I pushed the swivel into the first part. That was also difficult. I watched the GPS plastic frame bend as I pushed. I thought I was going to break something. Clunk. I didn’t think that was ever coming apart either, but it did when I tried to adjust it on the windscreen one day and it fell apart on me. Perhaps it would have been easier had I assembled the bracket in a different order. Into the car for a quick test. I wondered how I’d go with no instructions to guide me. However, using it was so simple I wonder if I actually needed any instructions. I went to the Garmin web site later and printed off the user manual. Always good to have. The female voice on the GPS is easy to understand. I clicked around with the setup options. All very straightforward. I’m so pleased that I can set it to avoid toll roads. I can also avoid other areas. Though I’m not sure why you’d want that, except maybe to avoid the risk of driving past the ex should they spot you on the way past. Then when I hopped into the car a few hours later it was dusk and it had flicked into night mode, which was nice. It also flicks to night mode in tunnels. I found it a bit slow in responding to my commands. It often takes two or more taps of the same key to acknowledge it. When I slowed down my finger taps a bit it was better. I loved my Mio but hated how you had to enter the suburb or town first, then the street. What if you didn’t know or couldn’t remember the suburb. The Garmin allows suburb or street name to be entered first up, which is a much better arrangement. I found it peculiar to be at an ordinary two-road intersection where my route was straight ahead and on occasion it said “take the second exit.” The Mio in the same situation would say “continue straight” which I think is more intuitive. The map shows roundabouts smaller than I’d prefer but I’m being picky. It switches off by itself after a few seconds when it been unplugged from the cig lighter. A few things the Garmin doesn’t do, that I found very useful with my old Mio, was providing additional display information. The Mio could show the map in full screen, or you could split the screen with the map on the left and a portion to the right displaying other things. The other things you could see included a list of the streets, distances to them, and turn direction that you would navigate to get to your destination, or you could see a list of POIs that you were approaching, distance, direction to them (eg petrol stations etc), current time, destination time, elapsed time etc. It was very useful to know your next couple of turns well ahead so that you could ensure you were in the best lane. This GPS doesn’t seem to do that so well. And you could shift the map from 3D, 2D, or aerial view at any scale you chose with Mio. There are options with the Garmin but not as good as the Mio. The Mio would also allow you to add your own POI as you drove (eg. new speed cameras etc). That was very useful. The First Few Weeks The windscreen mount knuckle joint has less movement than I would like and when pushed to its limit tends to disengage and fall off. It adhered to the windscreen okay the first time I used it. However, the second time it kept falling off. I may have some dust on the rubber. My old Mia mount fell off far less often, even when old. It may be a combination of a dirty rubber mount as noted, an inferior suction clamp, different angle on the windscreen, or the Garmin being heavier (I have the 6” model). It should stick to any windscreen and stay there. I finally worked out how to disconnect the GPS from the mount. I suggest you study the mechanism before you clip it in. To make it easier on yourself later. The touch screen doesn’t respond as well as I’d like. I find myself tapping away at a button and having the thing ignore me. That's annoying. If I keep on tapping it gets it in the end. I’ve yet to work out how to overcome this. Perhaps I’m being too quick for it. I really don't know. In using the map I found that sometimes I’d touch the screen and drag and sure enough the map moves, but sometimes it moved in the opposite direction. It didn’t do this very often, but, hey, enough times for me to note it here. I've also found that when I drag my finger across the screen to shift the view of the map that the display ignores me and increases the level of zoom on the map instead. Annoying. At lest the + or - buttons always behave correctly. I’ve gone and got the map stuck with north on top of the screen and don’t know how to get it back to a 3D image. I know that’s my fault, but the solution isn’t intuitive. It has a warning about ‘bends’ in the road. It would flag some that didn’t need a warning and miss others that were particularly tight and didn’t warn me. I’m not sure this is much of a feature, even if it worked better. There are road signs on the highway to tell you that sort of thing. I like the way it switches off automatically when the power is cut to it. The device notes that when you plug the USB cable into your computer that it isn’t going to charge the battery. Someone else on this site made that comment too. Actually, it does charge the battery from the laptop, but takes ages. Maybe a day and night, but you do get a charge in there. It picks up dirt walking paths in a reserve that's were near where I live, which was a pleasant surprise. Later Use It sometimes doesn’t recognise my screen selection. It doesn’t select the wrong item; it just ignores my touch and I find I’m having to tap the same thing over and over before it recognises the fact that I’m trying to tell it to do something. Maybe I’m not giving it enough time before I lift my finger. I must experiment with that. Falls off the windscreen more than I’d like for a new unit. Must try and clean the glass. It identifies truck parking bays as fuels stops, but that’s been noted by others. Well, it’s still not fixed. It can show the upcoming turns. You click tools, then click turns. (That’s two clicks.) My old Mia could do it in one click. As a road safety feature, the less clicks the better. It’s sometimes a mystery on how to flick back and forward from 3D to 2D. Sometimes there’s a button on the screen other times there’s not. My old Mia could flick it with one click. It displays arrival time, which is good. My old Mia used to show arrival, departure, elapsed time, and time to arrive, as well as the current time. Despite everything else the current time was handy if the car clock was wrong. I like the (female) voice it uses. It’s clear and easy to understand, but she does mispronounce a lot of street names – “William” is pronounced “Willy Am.” I was driving through Cooma. There are not too many places you can go to from there, and there are back streets that are quicker than going through the town centre, but it keeps wanting to take you through the centre of town rather than the shorter, quicker route. Google maps shows the back road at 3.3km and taking 4mins, but through town is 4.4km and 6mins. It’s not that the back road is a billy track, with speed zones of 60 and 80kph it’s a reasonable route to take but it gets ignored as the preferred route. I like the way it flicks its display to night when you go through tunnels and then flicks back when you exit. I used the Trip Planner to check out a block of land I was interested in. Large acreage. I was going to use the Garmin to do a walk around the block, so to speak. You can code in lat and long coordinates, which is nice. I've no idea whether my old Mio could do that. The Garmin probably wouldn’t be as good as a hand held unit a surveyor might use, but with the coordinates entered, like each corner of the block (Six Maps) and it gets you pretty close (two digits less on the GPS than I’d like), but then that's not its primary use. I had an address for a country location (dirt road, rural), and it accepted the address, but when it said I had arrived at the destination it was actually about a half a kilometre or more off target. I know that because a passing car stopped and the driver gave me directions. Whether that was a problem with the GPS or the local council not providing good maps to whoever provides maps to Garmin, I don't know.
The Garmin was a lot cheaper than my old Mio, but that was years ago and prices may have dropped. I think my next GPS will be another Mio. The Garmin does the job. It just doesn't do it as well as I'd like.
Good buy, does the job well! – Out of the box the device is in Spanish (bought it in Australia), but there is a video on YouTube to switch it to English. I bought it for a trip to NZ as it was cheaper than hiring one for 2 weeks ($129 to buy on sale from JBhifi). I didn't bother updating the maps before we left and a couple of intersections on the GPS were roundabouts in real… Read more
life, but apart from that it was great, didn't get lost or lose signal. Super easy to install and use, signal strength was excellent (in the central north island at least).
Only a couple of complaints: the speed on the Garmin was 3-5 km slower than the actual speed the car was doing, so bear that in mind when driving. Also sometimes it would tell you that you were in a different speed zone a few seconds AFTER you had passed the sign, so be aware of that. This feature is pretty good though for those times when you miss the speed sign altogether.
Bought this model as was recommended by choice.com.au (consumer website), it didn't disappoint, very happy with it, especially for $129 AUD.
Not Happy – I purchased this product because I was unhappy with Tom Tom. First, the 12 volt connection does not allow you to use a second USB port when it is in use. A total waste of resources to make one like that. Everyone needs a second USB port today. The USB cord supplied with the Garmin is very short and to use the Garmin attached to the window with… Read more
2 port connection means you have to purchase a longer cord. To attach my Garmin to the window is not suitable because of the slope of the window. I have made a hanger to attach my Garmin via the front vents and fortunately the USB short cord fits. When travelling to Melbourne recently the maps wanted me to turn right on a no right turn to Punt road. On a different trip the map was taking me the wrong way. The English pronunciation for Australian places is bad, often making me laugh. When you stop the vehicle on a long drive the map does not seem to revert to where you were on the route. Why I have to see a safety warning and agree each time I use the Garmin is frustrating.
Six years on and I still rave! – I find it strange that a product that has served me so well - and without fault - for six years has received negative reviews. I realise there are exceptions to every rule, that no matter how good a product might be for some, others will sometimes find fault. All right, that aside, why do I say it's an exceptional product? Because whether I use… Read more
it locally (at home in Tassie) or when on the road interstate, I have yet to be let down by it in any way. I transfer it regularly between my home transport, a 2011 Berlina, and going away vehicle, a 2013 VRX Pajero. Those who're familiar with the Pajero will know that it, too, is Garmin equipped, so why would I use the 51LM in it? Well, mounted straight ahead on the windscreen, just above the bonnet eyeline, I can read it by lowering my eyes less than 5 degrees, whereas the in-dash unit means tilting and bending my head, neither of which is desirable when driving.
I did a lot of research before buying the 51LM ($139 at the time at my local electronics store), but the big selling feature was the sheer clarity of its maps. To my eyes, and those are the ones that are important(!), it wins hands down against anything I saw then and even now.
It's guided me through cities and suburbs and rural areas of all states other than WA so far and next year it's about to do that. I have every confidence in its ability.
A positive 5-star outcome, and obviously with my highest recommendation. Thanks, Garmin.
Technologically improved but with a few issues for Garmin Drive 61 – GARMIN GPS DRIVE 61 LM I bought this unit to replace my Uniden Trax 430 which I have had for nine years. Its internal battery failed and thus I was not able to use it for certain activities. Also, Uniden has exited the GPS market and map updates have not been available for quite some time. A Choice Magazine report on GPS units was published in… Read more
November last year, and it seemed as though the Garmin 61LM would suit my purposes. I have been using it for a few weeks now and it is performing as expected. Out of the box, it was disappointing to see that no accessory charger was inside. This was the same as the Uniden and is something that annoys me a bit. There was a USB cable but as I have found out, you cannot charge the unit with it, you can only connect it to a computer for certain activities or use an external power source to operate the unit. The mounting system is a ball joint / suction cup one and I have found that it seems to work quite well. However attaching / detaching the unit from it is a bit tricky until you get used to it, especially if you mount the GPS in the car in the position where it won’t interfere with your driving vision i.e. the lower right corner of the windscreen where it won’t attract the attention of the police. It seems to require the use of two hands to remove the unit from the mount and often I find that I end up removing the ball socket as well. I have a universal mount that I used on the Uniden, as its supplied mounting system was not very good at all. The universal mount will take the Garmin. Another disappointment was the lack of an instruction manual in the box. Garmin say that it is an environmentally friendly move on their part, but more likely it is a cost saving one. The operation manual can be downloaded and printed, which is what I have done. So the nett saving in paper is zero. The operation manual is also loaded onto the unit, but you have to have a powered up unit to use it and the only way to do that is to charge it in the car or use the supplied USB cable to use mains power (which won’t charge the battery while you are doing it). This GPS has a much bigger screen than the Uniden, which is a good thing. It is also slimmer. Connection to the power outlet in the car is by the usual arrangement, while the connection to the GPS is via a USB. Operating the unit is fairly straight forward. But it is a good idea to read the manual as soon as you can to get the best out of the available features built into the unit. My experience to date seems to indicate the following:
1. Satellite signal acquisition seems to be a lot quicker than the Uniden Trax 430. 2. It is very annoying to have to press an ‘agree’ box on the display every time the Garmin activates. Not an issue with the Uniden. 3. Only one voice is available (female) while the Uniden had two (male & female), this probably frees up some computer space for other things. 4. Free map upgrades are available, but you have to register via the Garmin website. The process was quite easy. 5. Some addresses which should have existed with my Uniden but didn’t, are present in the Garmin 6. Spoken directions in the Garmin are much better and more detailed than the Uniden, but that’s probably to be expected given the age of the Uniden. 7. Guidance directions with the Garmin are much better than the Uniden. Plenty of warning is given, indicated path is clear and names of streets are given as well as stop signs and traffic lights, whereas the Uniden just told you to take a turn with direction and sometimes gave a street name. 8. The Garmin is much better at the end of a journey. It will tell you when you have reached your destination and on what side of the road your destination is. The Uniden only informed you that you have reached your destination and you had to have a bit of a look about to see exactly where your destination was. However once you have reached your destination, the marker disappears from the screen if you accidently overshoot the mark. This did not happen with the Uniden. 9. I used to have a good laugh at the way some words came out from the Uniden. The Garmin isn’t as bad, but some of the names of towns and streets that come out of it are still not quite right and can be hilarious. 10. The Uniden had three modes of GPS operation being vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian. The Garmin doesn’t appear to have this feature. 11. While the Garmin does have a route tracking feature of some sort, it doesn’t appear to be as good as the Uniden. I used this feature to measure time, speed and distance for walking tracks and calibrating pedometers. I have yet to try it with the Garmin. With the Uniden, you could assign a different colour to each route. This doesn’t appear to be the case for the Garmin. 12. The Uniden had the capability for changing the background display and mapping colour options. While the Garmin has map colour options, they are under silly names and I wonder if they have a function that I am yet to discover. 13. The Uniden had a route preview function via simulation of a route. I have yet to find or have need of this function with the Garmin. I’d be surprised if it’s not there. 14. Both units have ways of defining a selected route i.e. fastest, shortest, sealed & unsealed roads, toll roads and areas to avoid. I think that the Garmin is more sophisticated in this area, and so it should be. 15. Both units have speed / traffic light camera warnings. The Garmin wins here as new cameras should be made available with each update. However the Uniden enabled the user to manually input the location and type of camera as well as its direction of operation. I found this feature particularly useful for mobile speed cameras. I have certain roads plotted with speed camera warnings where I know that they are favourite positions for unmarked police cars. 16. Both units have warning tones which are sound adjustable. The Uniden has a dynamic warning option which increases the alarm and speech volume with increasing vehicle speed. This doesn’t appear to be the case with the Garmin. The Garmin tone can be set to single or repeated though. 17. The Garmin has an alert for animal crossings. The Uniden didn’t. Both have school zone warnings but I have noticed that the Garmin doesn’t appear to have some school zones in my area. 18. If using the GPS as a speedometer, both units performed well, but the Garmin display is probably better and easier to see. However the Uniden had more adjustable features for speed warnings. 19. The Uniden has an adjustable horizon, the Garmin doesn’t. However the use of various map overlays is a feature of the Garmin whereas the Uniden had what it called ‘Points of interest’ that could be looked at around your current position of destination. 20. Both units had a ‘favourites’ listing function. The Uniden allowed for 20 favourites and I think that there is a limit on the Garmin. In the Uniden, the favourites could be seen in a separate part of the operating menu. In the Garmin, you have to start typing the name of your favourite and it is selected by a predictive text box. Points of interest in the Garmin are via a series of selectable map overlays. This is better and easier than the Uniden. 21. Unfortunately, in the ‘points of interest’ with the Garmin, I have noticed that in my immediate area, multiple businesses are listed at the same address. It seems as though this information not updated very well. Businesses that I know have closed or otherwise moved addresses are still listed at their previous address. So this function is not entirely reliable. 22. While the display area of the Garmin screen is bigger than the Uniden, it seems to me that more information is available on the Uniden screen. It seems that the Garmin screen has a lot of empty space, even though it uses a larger font than the Uniden. I feel that Garmin could have used more of the available screen space more effectively. 23. Both units have a ‘trip computer’ function. The Uniden has three that operated independently and supplied lots of information. The Garmin seems to only have two and I have yet to work out how to use this function properly. The worst of the Garmin is that the trip computer information is spread out over three pages. There is a lot of empty screen space and it contains less information than the Uniden, but it does contain information common to both systems. 24. While the compass function on the Uniden was a bit hard to read while on the move, the operation of the compass in the Garmin is a bit of a mystery to me at the moment. It shows your heading direction in text (which is good) but the compass icon seems to be very odd and I’m not sure exactly what it is supposed to be displaying. 25. Garmin has a homing function, which is great. This had to be done via favourites in the Uniden. It can also display directions as to how another person can find you. Uniden did not do this. 26. Garmin has a great function for input of favourites when you are at a destination. Simply pressing the vehicle icon allows you to store the current location as a favourite. It displays co-ordinates initially and you just have to type in whatever you want to call that location. It works a treat. 27. Getting an accessory AC power adaptor for the Garmin was a pain. I had no problems with the Uniden. The Garmin website is complicated and when I did find an AC power adaptor I noticed that it was supplied with socket adaptors for different power outlets. I didn’t notice that none of the adaptors were suitable for Australian power sockets. I’ll have to check it again. However it seems that I have wasted nearly $50 for something that cannot be used in Australia. I would have thought that this would be a breach of the Australian Consumer Law, but Garmin have basically told me to suck it up princess and that I could buy another adaptor from their website to allow me to use the AC adaptor in Australian power outlets. Not going to happen. I already have an international socket adaptor. But Garmin’s attitude is quite disappointing to say the least. My next purchase, should I need to make one, may well be a TomTom instead. 28. Garmin seem to like to tie you into other products that they make i.e. the Garmin watch. It has some interesting features, but you’d have to be a directionally challenged tech nerd to be interested in them too much.
Unreliable – Initially everything was fine. We were on a 3 month holiday to W.A. and N.T. Got to Wave Rock from Adelaide and when we got back in the car it wouldnt turn on. The next day it turned on. This happened twice more. So took it back to retailer when we got back. So then I exchanged it for another one, and have only used it a few times and it worked.… Read more
Yesterday morning I plugged it in and put in an address, turned it off for half hour while I got ready to go out, tried to turn it back on and nothing. I left it plugged in yesterday and today thinking the battery was dead, but still nothing. I plugged it into my husbands car and still nothing. Very upset as my original old Garmin was fantastic, but it wasnt one that I could update. NOT HAPPY.
Don't buy this lemon – I've had a few Garmins in the last couple of years. First of all there was an issue with the software so that no speeding alert sounded. They fixed that, so I bought another one but the maps that come loaded with this model don't show every street & it's speed limit. I'm not just talking about remote areas- a lot of streets in Sydney & Newcastle… Read more
don't show up. Sometimes it will take me on a much longer route than necessary (I have it set right). This has happened in Sydney a few times and also central coast. I shouldn't have to turn it off & use the street directory or google, but I do. Also when you exceed the speed limit it will only give alerts at random times. Usually when you drop below the speed limit the next time you go over it should alert you but this doesn't always do it. Signal strength is fine. Turning alerts are good and the display is very clear. I like the split screen for spaghetti junctions. It would be nice to have different sounds for speeding, red light cameras, school zones as you have to look at it all the time to see what the alert was for. I've rung several times Garmin to try to sort out the map problem but after they got me to reload maps, reset device, reload software, they then told me that's the map system that comes with it bad luck you're stuck with it. Which I am, unfortunately.
Please do not ever buy this garmin 61 lm gps – Preparation took nearly 1 hour. Also, not showing trip data on screen, only one thing you can see at a time. I am disappointed as I have spent $229 for this. I had an old Tom Tom which shows all data on the screen as an example, distance to destination, time to destination, arrival time etc but this does show only one item on screen. If you want to see those you need to press and go in to see them.
Not quite perfect – Bought the Garmin 61LM using my BankWest rewards points after receiving a notification that my trusty TomTom was no longer being supported. I would have bought another TomTom but Garmin was the only brand being offered and I have not been disappointed with it's performance. As I live in suburban Perth I have not had a chance to use it to navigate… Read more
in the countryside yet and can only comment on city use where it's ease of use and wealth of information on Points Of Interest, road layouts with split screen pictorial close-ups display, superior pronunciation of street names and reference to landmarks coming up eg "Turn right at the BP garage" give it an edge on my previous TomTom.
Another thing it has is automatic advertising of the services and facilities in your home area and a Trivago app. ( A nice little touch) plus indication of where vehicle parking is available at your destination and in some cases, if the carpark is full.
Two things the TomTom did that the Garmin 61 DOES NOT DO, is to allow individual map icons of POI eg "Public toilets Australia" placed permanently on the map around and ahead of you, although the use of Garmin shortcuts is a partial help to get that information.
The second thing is driver alert tones. The Garmin does not allow you to have separate tones like the TomTom for it's multiple alerts, e.g. If exceeding the speed limit using the TomTom I used the sound of a Police siren and knew immediately what the alert was, but with the one tone fits all of the Garmin you have look at the display to know what it is alerting you to. That single momentary tone is barely audible, unreliable and it's volume is not separately adjustable.
Other than that, it loads and locates the satellites quickly, gets frequent updates which must be done via my PC and is just as easy to install as any other dash device. The more costly Garmin machines may have those features I miss from the TomTom but accepting that, overall it is a terrific little machine worthwhile considering.
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