Drive™ 53 with Traffic, GPS Navigator, High-Resolution Touchscreen, Simple On-Screen Menus and Easy-to-See Map, Driver and Traffic Alerts

Works well, upgrade from previously owned version. Handy to have Traffic capability on long trips. Lifetime map updates is a very desirable feature.

great gps! highly recommend

I previously had a Garmin Nuvi 2577 and this one is very similar except it seems faster. Otherwise, it operates very similarly. Travel ETA works well - provided you're not in an area with heavy traffic on a regular basis. Drove with this en route to LAX on a Saturday and the ETA would update back and forth on a regular basis by as much as 30 minutes. Let's not put too much of that on Garmin though. My passenger was checking similar on google maps at the same time and it was back and forth too. But FYI. Meanwhile, with my Nuvi, I would routinely load 'points of interest' (POI) using Garmin's separate loader for such things. Worked great. Problem with the Drive 53 is though that loading POI only works if you're using a Windows machine to load them. I'm mainly an Apple Mac user though. Didn't work with my macbook pro. Garmin support said try on Windows. I happen to also have an old Windows machine too so I did. That worked. Garmin needs to put the POI loading capability into Garmin Express. Why is it done with a separate app? and now only working for Windows users? My old Nuvi 2577 came with both US and European maps loaded. This one only has US maps. Bummer. To get the EU maps, that'll be another $100. Why so much more?!

I actually had a Garmin and it lasted five years Perfect. I cheaped out and bought a different item. I returned it right away, and then bought a new Garmin, which is what I should’ve done in the first place. It’s bright it’s accurate. It’s extremely functionable. It looks sleek. It does everything it needs to do. Make no mistake about it. Garmin is the best. Even in today’s society where a lot of people use their phones I rather use my phone to make phone calls and my GPS as a map. I use it in my car. I would not recommend any other product, except Garmin. And this is from somebody with years of experience using this product. Before this model, I had the 52. Unfortunately, they discontinued it. It has been five years however, to their defense. So I bought the upgraded 53. I am Very satisfied thank you

Bought this GPS in Nov 2024 and used it once in Jan 2025. It worked well. Pulled it out to see if any map updates are due since I have an upcoming trip. I attempted to do the updates which failed each time I tried. The GPS now shows a message "No detailed maps found on this device" What happened to the maps????? I've had other Garmin devices in the past never had this happen. Can't find a phone number to call for support. Totally disappointed with this device. 5/2/2025 I am retracting the above review and giving 5 stars. After much research and testing I discovered the micro SD card in my device was damaged. Replaced the SD card and it works perfectly. So glad I did additional research.

I had some grumbles with my old TomTom, so when it finally bit the dust, I was open to a new brand. Well, since TomTom and Magellan no longer make car GPSs, Garmin is our only choice now, anyway. The most important function for any GPS is to navigate. This one very frequently loses its satellite connection. The map freezes, and a banner says Lost Satellite Reception or Acquiring Satellites. I've gotten to driving locally with it turned on just so I can monitor this, and it occurs randomly and stays this way for many minutes at a time. Meanwhile, I've passed 50+ potential turnoffs. Because of this problem, this device is worthless. Even while this GPS is working, while driving on an interstate, it will frequently direct me to take an exit, then re-enter the interstate at the same exit. Maybe it was two feet shorter? A Garmin GPS I used in a rental car 20 years ago did this, but I thought that Garmin would have corrected that by now--wrong. Also, this thing occasionally loses its view settings, so the perspective changes drastically, and good luck figuring out how to get it back. Even switching places with my passenger the last time this happened, it took me at least ten frustrating minutes to figure it out. Very unintuitive. So bottom line, I do not recommend this device. However, all the competition is gone. The world wants us to rely on our phones for road navigation. I could live with that if I had a cell signal in all the wilderness areas I frequent, but that doesn't work either. Our technology has gone backwards.

This product has been a mixed experience. The visual and audio directions are clear, and it will get you to where you are going, but there are some quirks. We use it, but also check the route on Google or Apple Maps before starting. The traffic function is nearly useless. We used this on a cross-country trip so that I could avoid using cell phone data, so I specifically looked for a model that had traffic updates via satellite instead of a cell phone BlueTooth connection. Most of the time it said there was no traffic detected on our route as we sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The driver alerts are helpful, but spotty. Sometimes it would alert us to a 40 mph speed limit while on the interstate when passing an exit - it was pulling the 40 mph ramp speed. There were several small towns where it helped me catch speed zones in advance when the actual signs were hard to spot. It doesn't catch all of them, though, so you need to use it as an aid - not depend on it. Most routings (with no traffic) match what I pull up on my phone. There have been some occasions where it directed me to get off at an exit, go through the intersection and immediately get back on the highway for no apparent reason. The ETAs have been hit or miss. There does not appear to be enough time allotted for traffic lights, so if you have several lights on your way you can expect to add 5-10 minutes to your ETA. Overall, this provided generally reliable instructions and I was able to keep my cell phone data usage to a minimum. It's a good backup - especially in spotty cell phone coverage areas - but I wouldn't use it without checking your route with another map service first. I wish it had a feature to provide instant feedback on things like incorrect driver alerts. I expected a higher quality from the Garmin name and have been disappointed. I don't know if this is just this model or representative of stand-alone GPS's in general.

This is a really great tool! Simple to install, simple to set up, and easy to use. Plus this device picks up satellite signals better than both my vehicles’ systems. The software works reliable and I like the user friendly features available on the main screen. Very glad I bought it. Great value for a good price.