This Case is Sucki

For the most part, I’ve been pretty darn thrilled with my Garmin purchases. The unit itself (a Nuvi 650) works very well and has an attractive, sleek design; the dashboard friction mount is practical and unobtrusive, and easy to use once you figure it out. So it was even more disappointing that the official Garmin case for my model was such a piece of junk.

The first disappointment was that it wasn’t thrown in with the Garmin to begin with. Seriously, we’re paying hundreds of dollars for these gadgets – would it kill them to include a protective case for it? The ironic thing is that the 660 (and other higher-end models) already DOES include a carrying case in the box, so you wouldn’t need to buy this 660 case if you indeed had a 660. However, the packaging says that this also fits the 650 and other products in the 600-line, which are all the same size, so I took their word for it when ordering online.

The case itself is nothing fancy, but it’s okay. It’s leather, albeit not particularly thick or sturdy, but the stitching seems strong and it’s attractive enough. The biggest problem I immediately noticed was that it’s an open-ended case with no fastening flap – you just slide the unit in, leaving one side exposed. So even the maximum amount of protection it offers isn’t enough to cover your entire Garmin from inclement weather or scratching of the case. Cheesy! Again, how much extra would it have cost them to add in a flap that folded over and protected the entire unit?

But that was nothing compared to the difficulty I had in actually using it. Despite being supposedly made for the 650 model, this case is BARELY big enough to fit the Garmin. Inserting it in the case requires lots of stuffing and pushing, while the side seams are visibly straining to their limit to accommodate the unit. It takes physical effort to stuff the entire Garmin all the way into the case, and once it’s in, good luck getting it out! I finally succeeded by enlisting an assistant – one of us braced the sides of the case and pushed the sides out while the other pulled hard on the Garmin. I can’t imagine trying to do this out on the street with any subtlety, let alone running the risk of it shooting out and flying onto the ground.

I’m surprised and disappointed at what a poorly designed, cheapo item this is. No convenient side-zip, no protective elastic bands to restrain it inside the case – it doesn’t even cover the entire GPS unit! I can’t imagine why Garmin thinks that, having spent hundreds of bucks on the unit itself, people would want to pay another $13 for this sorry scrap that doesn’t even do the job. I returned mine the day after I got it, and am looking for a case from a third-party maker, since Garmin has obviously dropped the ball when it comes to cases. What a shame – I guess you can’t judge a cover by its book.