Customer Reviews

Garmin NuLink! 2340 4.3" Sat Nav with UK and Western Europe Maps, Live Services and Traffic, and Bluetooth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been a sat nav user since about the year 2000 when I had a Clarion hard disc system, then in about 2004/5 I upgraded to a Garmin street pilot 2610 with 2GB flash card and all European road maps. This system took us safely all the way to Kharkov in the east of Ukraine and many other west / east European adventures.

Recently when I was looking to update again I naturally looked at Garmin and Tom Tom as they are the 2 market leaders, I thought about changing to Tom Tom but was immediately put off by the very high level of unfavourable comments about the on line back up service.

Upon researching the Garmin range and picking out the NuLink 2340 as being the most suitable for my needs, I was even more surprised to read the amount negative comments from other people who had bought this system, looking at their comments a 2nd time it seemed as though quite a few of these commentors were new to sat navs.

Based upon my past extremely good experience of Garmin I decided to buy this unit, in the past few weeks I have been using the 2340 mainly for business use and I have to say it is a superb sat nav system, I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone else.

My only niggle is unlike my old system where I could choose between 1) fastest route, 2) shortest distance, 3) off road - which I use frequently and 4) can't remember this one, each time I planned a new route, on the 2340 it remains in the main menu, I would have preferred to choose this option for each new route.

Best feature for me is the overall ease of use.

Very useful feature for me is the Google search option.

Rating: 9/10

Took ages reading reviews of Garmin and TomTom before buying this sat nav a couple of months ago and it has been invaluable. I am hopeless at reading maps and this has transformed my journeys! The detour feature is helpful when there is a big queue on the motorway or a junction is closed and you have to find a new route. Took it to France for a week where it performed admirably. Very useful for finding a supermarket, restaurant, petrol etc. You still need to check on the map - once or twice the Garmin was confused by roads with hairpin bends in the mountains or took us on a silly route.

Some of the features are only available if you pay a subscription eg traffic cameras, petrol prices, but you need to check all that first on the Garmin website.

Overall a wonderful purchase that I wouldnt be without.

Since this review we have driven to Austria in 2012 through France, Germany, Luxembourg and we have never got lost or not arrived when and where we were supposed to. I think this is a fantastic sat nav.

I bought this satnav(actually it was the 2320 model but for the purpose of the review the difference between the two do not matter) as my current one's batter goes flat in no time and can hardly charge as I use it.
I got hooked up on the NuLink/Live features and it had good reviews, so I went for it.
I used it 1 day and returned it!
Why:
Main Problem: the spoken commands, will very, very often not announce that you need to make a turn at very last moment before the turn.
So the Sat nav will tell you: "In 300 yards turn left on Oxford rd". Then you drive and you expect some 10 yards before the turn to hear: "Turn Left", but that does not happen. To me this is a very fundamental flaw with how the spoken commands are designed. Basically if there is no other cross street before your next, it will announce the turn only once and way too early, so when the street comes you feel unsure if you should turn.

Problem 2: The computer generated voices/commands would sometimes split a command in 2 parts with large pause in the middle:
"Turn left on A5 and at the roundabout" + separate command 30 seconds later: "...take the second exit"

Problem 3: Route simulation is only at actual speed. Imagine trying to watch a simulation of a 2.5 hour journey!!!
Problem 4: Adjusting volume while driving (active navigation running) requires that you re-enter your destination. Annoying if a passenger does it for you, and really unsafe to require all those extra actions from the driver.

Problem 5: While driving on the M1, it told me to take an exit, just to make me rejoin the same M1 200 yards further down (It was one of those exits where it splits and one lane just stays parallel to the motorway and rejoins it.)

As you can see none of my complaints are linked to the unit's top features - appearing in the advertising brochures. However, using the satnav for a day only I realised that the Lane Guidance/Junction view are quite useless features. Being shown to take the left lane when you are about exit the motorway is hardly necessary. All the exits in the UK are via the left lane. What I was hoping for is a lane guidance in large multilane roundabouts, but the lane guidance is for motorways only.
Junction view, will show you a realistic image of the slip road, but this is only available for a handful of motorways, and it is really no help to know how the sliproad looks as they are all quite similar.

Did not get to experience the quality of the live traffic info, there were no traffic jams that day.
In general, I found just the Google services useful feature and the large clear indications of distance/time left was great.
The built quality also felt very good, solid.

Bought this for a few reasons as I already have a TomTom Go Live 1005 . First it gives me another sat nav for using on another vehicle . Secondly I read it uses google maps and is a lot better than TomTom for finding actual addresses plus has business addresses . Only just got it and set it up but it located my sister's address with no problem whereas on my TomTom it says number not found and you have to go by nearest number . Like many people looking more for bargains nowadays and not latest technology but still wanted Live services . This was a warehouse deal on an older model but looking good , I might go for the latest Garmin some time in the future if this proves better than my TomTom . Found touch screen a little bit hit and miss as sometimes you need to press harder/softer on screen to get a reaction and on screen keyboard the same . After having the TomTom 1005 I find the screen very small , that said I can remember 3.5 inch sat navs when they first came out . Every Tuesday I do deliveries in London and my TomTom gets utterly confused when you have to change route for any reason or there is traffic congestion . It will be interesting to see how the Garmin reacts to London traffic . Sorry it is not more detailed but only just got it . Definitely look at a Garmin or similar if your job etc. entails looking for addresses or business addresses . Had seen horror stories of how long this took to download maps etc. on first set up but I got through it in about 3 hours . Vaguely remember TomTom takes a time as well . This comes with Western European maps but when downloading it says unless I use SD card etc. it cannot do all the maps so I just went for UK and Ireland maps which it could handle without SD card .

I'd bought this product garmin nulink 2320 2 months ago the same features as 2340. This product will be worth of money if it function as it is meant to but unfortunately it doesn't function. The first problem is for the distance 120 miles it takes around 1 to 3 minutes to calculate. When driving, the lane assist keep disappeared until force shut down and restart ). Sometimes it recalculate takes about 1 munute especially when in junctions. Sometimes the whole map disappeared blank screen, seems like processor too slow to load the map while navigating and it happens frequently. Live service signal got 5 bars max but live services live traffic, fuel prices, flight are not functioning properly emailed garmin support how to fix but no reply ). False info on delays of traffic 30 mins delay displayed as 5 mins delay, 15 mins delay displayed as 3 mins delay ).
Can add various POIs from offsite but most users will find it difficult to upload into Sat Nav. Basecamp pc software takes alot of time over 50 hours to get used to. Can not update the software version, text versions and voice versions within the garmin website my dashboard and garmin webupdater updated from the pc but not updated from satnav ).

Only buy this product if you have spare satnav running or you will have problems when in junctions when u most need it's assist ). This product faults are the same as TomTom Go Live 1000 premature release ).

Garmin doesn't really advertise the fact that their Photo Live technolgy only covers England making that part of the product unusuable to the rest of the UK. Sad but True.

I actually brought the 2320 from Halfords, as I only needed maps for England. Traffic alerts are good and have twice taken me off the motorway before a road closure, which has saved me loads of time. Map is clear and easy to read, although a little too colourful IMO. Until last week, I hadn't used the photolive camera service as it was extra but I bite the bullet and what a revolution. I now can double check the traffic alert by actually looking at the motorway ahead and see if the traffic! I had no idea this was possible and cant believe Garmin don't advertise this more!?!

The Garmin unit itself is excellent - despite being supplied with the wrong car adapter.
Garmin appear to be shipping this with the old-type mini USB plug - which won't fit the new type on the unit itself.
Amazon's solution to this was to send me a whole new replacement unit - complete with the wrong adapter once again!!
I now have to return this and still don't have the correct adapter.
I contacted Garmin direct - but received no solution/offer to sort out my problem so I suppose I'll have to go out and buy an adapter!!
Great service guys!

JV

I purchased this for my grandson's birthday as he was always borrowing my sat nav (also a Garmin) obviously his is the latest model and while I am still happy with the quality of my Garmin his has the latest technology. I think I might be borrowing his !!! Excellent value for money and quality.

ASIN:B004WMT69S Garmin nüvi 2340 LMT CE] Not impressed. Would not recommend. The in-car charger supplied (The only type supplied) was to big to go into the device. Sent it back and the second one was exactly the same.