9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Works surprisingly well, even on hills
Date of Review: Jan 21, 2008
The Bottom Line: A good solution for GPS if you live in California, or don't want a GPS windshield mount
I decided to try the Garmin Portable Friction Mount to hold my Nuvi because I live in California, where it is illegal to mount the GPS unit direction on the windshield. The portable friction mount supports both the smaller size and widescreen-sized Nuvi. Connecting the GPS to the mount is easy enough as the mount snaps into the place of the GPS holder, similar to the windshield mount.
I tested the friction mount on 2 different vehicles and through various driving conditions. At first I was slightly skeptical at it's ability to do the job (i.e., hold the GPS in place), but I came away fairly impressed.
How well it will work for you probably depend on the shape of your dashboard and your typical driving conditions.
On one vehicle I tested the mount using, the dashboard was a smooth surface and had a slightly slanted shape. Here I didn't expect the best performance, but it worked fine for the most part. It wasn't perfect though because when I hit some bumpy sections of road or went through a pothole, the mount jumped around slightly. It was only a few millimeters at a time, but I could see how this could add up if you are not careful. It would also be wise to place the mount slightly towards the back of your dashboard in this situation to avoid the risk of your expensive GPS device falling off the dashboard.
My second vehicle had a completely flat dashboard with a sporty grip on the top. In this situation the friction mount worked synergistically. It stayed in place without a hitch even when driving up and down fairly sloped hill. (I live around the San Francisco Area)
The other advantage of the friction mount is how easy it is to remove when you are parked. Just unclip your GPS from the holder and then you can pick up the friction mount and place it under your car seat. It's light enough to pick up easily, and small enough where it can be placed under your seat without being visible, which defers GPS theft.
The only real problem I had with the friction mount was it costs a lot ($40) for what seems like nothing more than a glorified paper weight with some grip on the bottom. But then again, the components and design must have really been well thought out because it really does do the job it sets out to do and maybe that make it worth what you pay for it.
