Clarion EZ58TMCPK Bluetooth Interface with NAVRDS

• Easy-to-use navigation unit with 4.3" TFT Touch Screen display and rechargeable battery
• Simple destination input, turn-by-turn voice prompts, text-to-speech operation and selectable route guidance with 12 million Points of Interest preloaded
• Built-in Bluetooth Hands-free (HFP) and Audio Streaming (A2DP & AVRCP) support
• Play back MP3/WMA files and view JPEG/BMP images from SD/MMC cards up to 4GB
• One-year limited warranty

I picked up one of these EZD580s about a week ago. In the box are the unit, car-mounting hardware, a USB-to-mini USB cable and some instructions sheets. I would think that it will be great and A-OK because it seems to work well. It came out of the box with the battery at 81% charged. But this is where I get stuck. It comes with a directions sheet for mounting the unit in your car, and a Quick Start guide for routing and street directions. But nothing in any of the included reference material tells one how long to charge, or recharge, the battery, or if there is an AC Charger available for this unit. I konw that the USB-to-mini USB cable is for charging the unit on your computer, but how long do you charge it? On the Clarion website, there is a "Product Manual" available for download. I downloaded and printed the "Product Manual" and guess what in the entire 71 pages, there is not one word regarding the charging and recharging of the battery, and also nothing about an AC Cahrger. The Product Manual does go into precise detail on how to select route guidance and street directions, the device's settings, etc. But nothing on step number 1 charging the battery! The battery charging issue aside, though, this is a real good unit. It has a big screen with easy to read text and numbers. You can use the included stylus or use your fingers to access the various menu items. When I initially turned it on, it took about a minute or two (which is normal for GPS devices) to locate the GPS signal. Once it locked in on the signal, it was easy rollin'. Entering your destinations, referencing the Points Of Interest, etc., are fairly intuitive, making this GPS unit fairly easy to use without getting an advanced scientific degree. On the negative side, support from Clarion is absolutely NON-EXISTANT. Calling the telephone numbers on the Clarion website results in a literal circle of recorded messages.

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good piece. money was ok, harder to use compared to a garmin. and later on, it broke. it would freeze, then finally stopped turning on. when it did work, it was ok. i had this unit replaced once already from clarion itself. buy a garmin.

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FYI, I operated this unit in Seattle, Washington and some in L.A.

Well I decided to be nice and give this unit a review of 2 Stars (I don't like it) when I was tempted to give it a 1 Star (I hate it) due to it's complete uselessness after about a month. After a while, this unit proved itself to be a lemon and completely worthless for getting anywhere (detailed explanation below). It worked fine for a month and I was excited that I had gotten a winning product.

Then the "out of memory" errors started. After about the first 2 maybe 3 of these errors, I thought it would just go away or just be a small nuisance. I was dead wrong.

OUT OF MEMORY

It got so bad in the weeks following that first month that it would freeze up and display critical "out of memory" errors every 30 seconds to 2 minutes while I was on a route. What's worse is it would slow WAY down before the error happened so I had to wait until the error happened before it would reboot itself so I could use the 20 or so seconds of directions before it slowed WAY down again until the imminent "out of memory" error reoccurred. Also, I needn't fail to mention that the reboot took a solid 2 minutes before I could get my directions back again.

FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY DRAWBACKS

Besides the short battery life mentioned above and the maps being incomplete (both mentioned above in "Cons" section), another frustration with this unit is that it doesn't support SD cards larger than 4GB? Are you serious, Clarion? Did you design this unit to be used 9 years ago (when SD cards were invented, in 2001)?

What's worse about the memory situation is that, according to a rep at Clarion, the unit doesn't even store maps and other important and functional history on a SD card; it uses the memory that came with the unit which is 2GB. I have to visit clients all over the Seattle area and revisit them, so it would be nice to have a nice long history of all the places I've been without worrying about using up the 2GB.

Oh, by the way, before I even called Clarion I thoroughly went through every function and feature in the settings of the unit to figure out if the "out of memory" was warranted or maybe something I could adjust; and I tried resetting the device along with CLEARING THE MEMORY and of course nothing solved it.

So, buying a SD card (not much of an upgrade though being you can only add 4GB to 2GB) only makes it so you can put pictures and music on your GPS device. It would be much better to be able to use the SD card to store all the other critical mapping things since this is, after all, a GPS unit first and a multimedia player second.

CONCLUSION AND FURTHER NOTES ABOUT CLARION'S AFTER SALE SUPPORT

I didn't even delve into the super short battery life of 15-30 minutes (note also that this battery is only a few months old with minimal use) or talk much about the maps not having updated information. I will add, however, that it was on multiple occasions and not just an isolated experience or two that I got those messages about not finding an address or street (even though in most cases the streets and addresses had been in existence for more than 3 years). I even contacted TeleAtlas, the mapping software company who sold Clarion the software for this unit, and they will not produce updates for this unit. Everyone who buys this unit is apparently stuck with outdated maps indefinitely, and thus plumb out of luck.

Needless to say, I will be buying a unit with NAVTEQ mapping software (which provides free updates for life for many of the GPS units they are on) and will only recommend a unit with TeleAtlas maps if they ever decide to be more helpful to their paying customers.

So, I'm currently waiting through my second 2-week time-frame for my unit to be "fixed" by Clarion. The first time I sent it back I had high hopes that it would come back and work. Again, I was dead wrong. Not only did they not address the other issues I told them about; they didn't even fix the main "out of memory" issue that had rendered this unit usable. This 2nd time, I pleaded with the Clarion rep to replace this obvious lemon with a working unit and he insisted on doing it "by the book" and said that I would be getting the same unit back after they try to "fix" it again.

I can't risk going through yet another 2 weeks without the use of my GPS unit (since I use it everyday for my business), so I officially give up on Clarion and I'm getting a NAVTEQ unit, probably the Garmin Nuvi 265WT if it doesn't do the shutting down thing during inclement weather some people have had issues with. I can't in good conscience resell a lemon on eBay, so I'll probably just trash the Clarion and cut my losses.

Don't necessarily decide not to buy the Clarion EZD580 based on my experiences since it's possible that you could get a unit that doesn't go "out of memory" on ya and works fine for years. You could also have the same experience I did. Kind of a toss up.