GPS - Lowrance Iway 350C reliability

Author

Lowrance Iway 350C reliability

Alan Biddle

2007-04-24, 10:33 pm

I have been looking for a GPS which, in addition to doing the basics
well without a lot of extras, has good readability and ease of use.
The Lowrance 350C, especially with the latest software upgrades, seems
to be what I want.

However, in places such as Amazon where you can post reviews, there
seem to be a lot of cases of infant mortality reported. Of course such
reviews need to be taken with a certain element of caution, but there
are very consistent entries well into 2007.

A good friend, technically very astute, bought one which worked fine
for a couple of months until the Lithium battery died. After some
"discussion" with the local dealer, he got a new one, which proved to
be dead out of the box. This one was replaced, only to have the
Lithium battery fail in two weeks. He took that back, and got a
mid-range Garmin. It lacks many features of the original Lowrance, but
it does work reliably.

However many work, it seems that there are some definite reliability
issues here. Manufactures either fix them, or bring out a new unit to
replace the flaky one. Anybody with any insight on whether it is safe
to get one, or should I move on to something else? Recommendations?

--
Alan

Jack Erbes

2007-04-25, 3:33 pm

Alan Biddle wrote:
> I have been looking for a GPS which, in addition to doing the basics
> well without a lot of extras, has good readability and ease of use.
> The Lowrance 350C, especially with the latest software upgrades, seems
> to be what I want. <snip>

I wouldn't buy that model just on the performance history. That is
about a $300 unit at the best Internet prices. I don't know the Iway
line but I assume that comes with preloaded mapping for the U.S. or
North America.

There are Garmins selling around that price range and also with
preloaded mapping. If you want to look at Garmin look at the "i" series
models, those are probably similarly priced to the Iway.

I don't how the Iway compares the various Garmin models, you can see and
compare the features and prices on the various Garmins automobile models
here:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134

Another good buy are the Garmin refurbished models that are generally
older models that are out of production. For example, the StreetPilot
2610 can be bought for around $300 and that comes with current mapping
and all accessories needed except for a CF card for supplemental map
storage. The refurbs come with a same as new one year warranty and
cannot be told from a new unit as far as condition. I've never heard of
anyone getting a refurb that looked like it had been used.

Some of the older Garmins have more of thee classic navigation-related
features like multiple destination routing, route optimization, track
recording, route and waypoints uploads and downloads from and to a PC,
mapping and software for the PC, etc.

But those older ones come up short on the non-navigation features like
MP3 players, photos viewers, Bluetooth phone, XM and TMC traffic
reporting, etc.

Jack

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