Lowrance, I did look around in this and another forum before I spent my money to buy a Magellan. I looked for features and compared. Some people are having problems with their GPS units. There is no popular brand that stands out as clearly more reliable or less reliable than any other brand. Like computers, TVs, cars, etc. everyone has a brand they like and some, like you, have a brand they hate. Unless you can substantiate your claim with hard facts, your opinion is just that, an opinion.
Unless you have some special insight not available to the rest of us, I personaly think it is irresponsible of you to classify an entire product line as "junk". One of my HP Officejets had to be sent back to the factory and HP sent me a replacement. That doesn't make Hewlitt Packard printers "junk".
I ordered my Platinum with a large memory card. The Platinum would not format the card. I called tech support. They were aware that SanDisk had made some changes to their cards made in China. While I was on the phone, they e-mailed me the 5.12 update and helped me install it. Works like a charm ever since.