Magellan RoadMate 2000 GPS Navigation System (Refurbished)

I previously purchased a much older Magellan model which couldn't even figure out where it was and we couldn't figure it out. It seemed so arcane that we finally just gave up. Perhaps it was defective - we'll never know. It was a relatively cheap refurbish and we ultimately tossed it. So I was a little leery of this model, but the excellent reviews encouraged me. I'm so glad I purchased it! The screen is easy to read, even for my old eyes, and gives you 2D and 3D options. There are several color options for both the map and the menus, which are helpful, as my hubby is color blind, so we needed some versatility there. There are turn by turn voice directions, and you can choose chime, ding or beep for when you actually get to the intersection. You can choose for it to warn you of upcoming turns at several intervals of your choice. You also can choose several ways to route - fastest, least distance, avoid toll roads, avoid highways. There are many programmable choices in this little gadget, which was surprising to me, as well as gratifying. The documentation is weak, but if you go to the Magellan site, there is a demo and a lot of information on the unit. It also comes with a CD with more extensive documentation, which answered all the questions I could think of. This unit seems to learn by what you do. It wanted to take me out of my subdivision using a road that seemed inconvenient. I was driving the first time at night since summer, and I became disoriented trying to do it my own way, LOL. I made several screwy turns to get back on track, and it soon started telling me how to get back on track. The next time I routed a way out of here, it used some of the turns I had actually used while I was messed up, LOL. I tricked it on the return route and drove past my house. It accurately kept telling me the next turn I should make to get home, instantly adjusting to my "mistake." I headed towards the mall. It finally stopped suggesting turns, and when I came to a stop light, the screen was asking me if I wanted to re-route and was waiting for my answer. (I don't have it installed on the dash yet and didn't notice.) As I was leaving the mall, I hit "reroute" and as soon as I was on one of the mall's access roads, it started accurately telling me where to go to get home. I used it to go to a school in a town I'm unfamiliar with, whose physical address is on a completely different street from the preferred entrance. In fact, an ordinary map doesn't even show these two areas to be even on the same intersecting block! I was nervous! Since the address to the street the parking lot is on wasn't given by the school, I was a little stymied trying to program it, so I chose the nearest intersection for the route, and even though the directions were slightly different than the school gave, I arrived just fine. It routed me differently to go back home, but it worked out well and in less time than it took me to get there. This was all in the dark in an unfamiliar town, and I was so thankful for the Magellan 2000 telling me every once in a while how soon my next turn was going to be, and what direction I would be going in. For a while, I thought it was lost, but I looked at its map at an intersection, and there was a gas station symbol exactly where a real gas station was, so I was reassured. The Roadmate 2000 has an address book and a special area to record your home address. You just hit the "Home" button after you've programmed it, and it takes you right home. It may use a different route than how you arrived at your point, but nevertheless, is accurate. I was relieved, as I was driving at night in a really unfamiliar area, but it got me home swiftly and accurately. It even knows all the little roads in our 17 year old subdivision, which many real maps don't have. You can program multiple destination routes, as well as save routes for later use. It also allows use of an SD card to store your routes and address book. It also will route you around traffic jams, based on specifications you provide - you can even tell it to reroute you if you are in slow traffic as little as one minute. Of course, near where we live, that thing would come on every minute or so, so, fortunately there are options for longer intervals before suggesting a re-route. The screen tells you how far to your next turn, as well as estimated number of minutes to arrival, which adjust as you travel. You can do a "test run" with it, by choosing "suggest simulate route" in the settings area. If you set it to do so, this will pop up when you ask it to route you to an address or intersection. By doing this, you can check out if the suggested route seems squirrelly to you, and you can tell it to give you other options if so - such as shortest distance or shortest time. The box comes with a cigarette lighter car charger, as well an AC adapter charger, so you can charge it from indoors, which was great, because I was able to charge it from home before my first trip. It also comes with a data cable. As I understand it, that won't help you update maps at the Magellan site, unless you purchase a new map set., but it is supposed to update the firmware, as well as help with optional add ons. All the mounting equipment comes with it, as well as a sticky pad. As soon as I turned it on, it came on and even had a fair charge in it already, so that I was able to immediately program it and make sure it knew where I was, which was reassuring after our first experience. I love this little gadget! It was supposed to be a Christmas present for my hubby. If I can avoid temptation...