Garmin dezl 560 LMT GPS Review

Since I will be traveling solo in the winters I need something to tell me where to go. To do that I bought a Garmin dezl 560 LMT GPS after having read rave reviews about it. Here’s another one.

We had the perfect conditions to test my new GPS friday evening: a drive we do monthly to a friend’s house about an hour from home with a combination of city, freeway, and rural driving.

As we left home the first direction was to turn left at the end of our street to take a valid route but not Dave’s favorite route. So Dave turned right instead. The GPS quickly recalculated without nagging us.

We expected it to then route us onto another freeway that we prefer to cross to get to the next crosstown freeway. We were pleasantly surprised that, this time, it chose to keep going where we wanted to go making us feel validated in our choice of route.

Our next test was of the “lane assist” feature. At one point in our trip we knew our next exit would be a left exit instead of the typical right ramp. Sure enough, the display came up with several arrows showing how many lanes there are with all but the one would need dimmed. Under that was a red icon indicating we were not in the lane we would need. When we moved over, that icon turned green. Yay! Also, the screen split to a half screen closeup clearly showing our route taking the far left lane; the other half of the screen kept a reduced version of the main map.

Many miles later, it routed us off a freeway to an alternate route. Surprised by that, we checked the traffic on that freeway on Google maps and discovered it was marked red meaning it was very slow. My GPS was routing us around that traffic jam!

Another feature is a speed indicator. In the lower right corner of the display you see a speed limit sign telling you what the limit is on this road. Right next to it is a display of your current speed. If the latter one shows you are going faster than the former says, it also turns red. Kind of hard to tell the officer you didn’t realize you were speeding with that data right in front of your face. 🙂

One of the things it did not get right was the Estimated Time of Arrival. It kept changing as we moved along finally telling us we would be late to our destination. Maybe because of trying to keep that speed thing out of the red. 🙂 But, mostly because we were in summer Friday night heading-out-of-town traffic so had some slowdowns we couldn’t avoid.

Later that evening, we headed home again knowing that the “best” route had a section of freeway closed for construction. Imagine how happy we were to learn the GPS took that into consideration and gave us an alternate route. It KNEW that road was closed!

Another feature I am going to like: the ability to define your vehicle. This GPS is designed for truckers and RVers. You can tell it the height and weight of your vehicle and it will route you around low clearances and light-duty bridges.

And it includes information about truck stops along the freeways including what types of restaurants they have. That could help me eat healthier as I travel. It may not but, if not, that’s not the fault of the GPS. 🙂

And I get lifetime map updates so my data will be current each year as I head out.

I am now much more confident of my ability to drive alone through the strange cities I will need to navigate in my winter travels. That, to me, made it worth the extra expense of buying this particular GPS.

Plus this one included the “bean bag” mount you see in the picture above. That means it is easy to place it on the dash when traveling but remove all evidence of it being there when parked in an area where someone might be tempted by evidence that there are electronics on board to break into my home. The ability to move it easily adds to my sense of safety. Not a bad thing to feel as a solo female traveler.

TTYL,

Linda