Zumo - confused!

[ChrisSheepy]

Right, I had a Rider last year when the prices came down the first time, but sold it pretty quickly because it just didn't feel properly developed; and various mount issues have borne that out.

So - now I see the Zumo is on the market, and it looks on the face of it like the thing for me; I don't have a car, my bike is my main transport, so as well as recreational riding I want a satnav for business travel and would like to be able to use my phone. (I do sometimes have hire cars, so I need car use as well).

But I'm confused between the 500 and 550, as the information on Garmin's site isn't that clear and I'm not seeing a consistent picture anywhere else.

Can anyone confirm that the things the 550 has over the 500 are:

European Maps (don't need them)
Text-to-speech (not bothered about that)
Car mount provided (absolutely essential).

If true, does anyone sell the car mount on its own and how much is it?

Alternatively, as I already have a bluetooth speaker for the car (Jabra SP500) I don't need the speaker in the car mount, so wondered if I could manage with a bean bag and 12v lead?

Finally - for a similar price to the zumo 550 there's the 2820 - apart from the 'power user' features is there any big benefit of the 2820 over the zumo?

Thanks!

[Courierman]

this mite help soz its not on here
http://www.yournav.com/content/review/250/Garmin_zumo__Riders_Bigger_Brother.html

[ChrisSheepy]

Thanks for that - basically, if you need a car mount (which most people do) it's not worth getting the 500 because the list price of the mount (never mind the 12v cable) is ninety quid!

As that makes the price over five hundred quid I decided instead to keep my phone and satnav separate, and I've ordered a 2610 from gpsw (I won't register it until I see V9 updates come out )

It'll be a pain not having sound on the bike, but it'll do the job for now - I can then look at a zumo in maybe a couple of years.

Cheers

[desd]

I'm sure i have read somewhere the internal memory on the 500 is smaller and that is why it only comes with UK and Ireland.
Anyone know if this is true because if the memory size is the same then you can just load the rest of the maps with the full European DVD that comes with it.??
Des

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